UK Chelsea Flower Show Announces 2025 Garden of the Year… Climate and Regeneration Design Take Center Stage
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As the judging results were revealed at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025, which opened over the past week, gardens emphasizing climate response and the use of renewable resources garnered attention. As this event is considered a benchmark for the global garden industry, the direction of this year's winners sends significant signals to public green spaces and urban landscaping.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 put forward climate-adaptive planting and regenerative design as key themes. (Source: Royal Horticultural Society)
As the Chelsea Flower Show 2025, hosted by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), opened in London in May, the results of this year's major awards have been announced. Chelsea is one of the most watched events by garden designers, planting experts, and plant producers worldwide, and the design language and planting trends of the winning entries tend to spread to public gardens, commercial landscaping, and local festival gardens each year.
The key keywords for this year's judging results released by the RHS are climate resilience, biodiversity, and material reusability. It has been confirmed once again that beyond mere aesthetically pleasing exhibition gardens, factors such as water management, soil health, habitat provision, and low-carbon construction have established themselves as key pillars of evaluation. This aligns with the recent situation where many cities must simultaneously address heavy rainfall, drought, and the urban heat island effect.
In particular, the works that garnered attention in the show garden category this year placed greater emphasis on multi-layered planting and long-term ecological functions, rather than short-term displays centered on flowering plants. Along with ornamental value, functions such as attracting pollinating insects, providing shade, and buffering rainwater were given significant weight in the garden design descriptions, reflecting the recent trend of viewing gardens not as mere decorations but as urban environmental infrastructure.
Chelsea's influence extends beyond the venue. The messages of the water gardens and major exhibitions are subsequently cited as references for school gardens, hospital healing gardens, local government greening projects, and private landscaping developments. In years like this, when renewable materials and climate-adapted plantings have come to the forefront, the impact is significant in that both clients and designers review planting maintenance methods and the sustainability of material procurement.
According to the RHS and local reports, while the Chelsea Flower Show remains a trend platform for the horticultural industry, its character is expanding to become a venue that examines the social role of gardens. The direction shown by this year's award results is clear. The point is that gardens that withstand the climate crisis and accumulate ecological functions, rather than flashy, one-time performances, are establishing themselves as the new standard in the international gardening world.
