Country Life's entirely unofficial Chelsea Flower Show 2025 awards

The garden we'd most like to have at home

For all the pizzazz of the show gardens, it's often in the serene, wooded space off to one side of the main show, where the Balcony Gardens and Container Gardens are set up, that you find some of the most creative ideas at Chelsea. This year brought several perfect examples. Wonderful, though slightly wacky, was the Room to Breathe Hospital Garden for the TSA, featuring a sort of suspended bed that was something between a swing and a hammock.

Just as nice — and less tricky to squeeze in to — was the armchair at A Space to Read Balcony Garden sponsored by Viking, a Container Garden showing that even in a limited area, you can create a wonderful and usable outdoor space.

Image 1 of 2

Most sumptuous succulents

The Newt's Karoo Succulent Garden sits in a prime spot at the heart of the Chelsea Flower Show, but tucked away in the woodland, among the RHS's houseplant studios, The Victorian Arid House showed a really wonderful mix of plants that we absolutely loved.

Most heartwarming moment

Kazuyuki Ishihara, a man who started his horticultural career selling flowers on the streets, has been coming to the Chelsea Flower Show for two decades, creating smaller gardens around the site. In 2025, for the first time, he had a chance — and ended up winning both a gold medal and the 'RHS Garden of the Year' title. His joy and exhilaration were plain for all to see.

Best handover

The Chelsea Flower Show is full of famous faces, but just as recognisable as the Hollywood stars and sporting legends are Alan Titchmarsh and Dame Mary Berry. The two came together to mark the passing of a baton: Dame Mary is stepping down as president of the National Garden Scheme, and Alan is taking up the mantle.

Best reminder that gardening isn't all glamour

On an unassuming stand (548) in South Ranelagh Way we spotted our favourite organic compost producer, Dalefoot, which has solved the apparently insoluble problem of providing a good alternative to peat. Their secret ingredients? Cumbrian bracken and Herdwick sheep wool, blended with other organic components such as comfrey leaves to make a range of seed and potting composts that don't dry out or cake hard. The mixes are reliably consistent with a healthy smell and texture — almost good enough to eat (well, almost...). They also won a deserved gold medal for their display in the Great Pavilion, produced alongside the Eden Project, explaining exactly why peat-free compost is so important and showing off some of the work they do in peat bog restoration.

Cleverest touch

The London Square Chelsea Pensioners Garden is a charming woodland space with a communal space at its heart — one whose table features a military map, surrounded by seating that is upholstered in recycled Pensioners’ scarlet uniforms, complete with buttons, rank badges and epaulettes.

Image 1 of 2

Best multi-sensory experience

We tend to focus on how beautiful things look at RHS Chelsea, but as any gardener knows the other senses are equally important. David Austin Roses reminded us of this with their 'Fragrance Bar', letting visitors appreciate the spectrum of scents at the show, from fruity 'Gabriel Oak' to the musk of the freshly-launched King Charles III rose.

There was also a display to get your sense of taste going — and we're not talking about the cakes on sale at Colicci (although they were good too). The She Grows Veg exhibit, Grow the Rainbow, literally looked good enough to eat.

Most elegant shopping

The beautifully-rusted garden animals of Dorset-based Beechwood Trinkets caught the eye, as did the rainbow colours of Anya Sushko's leather bags, made at workshops in Kent. But for a shop which could have passed for a show garden all of its own, the Muckboot stand was hard to beat; it was actually fairly tricky picking out the boots from among the foliage and water features.

Image 1 of 4

Biggest surprises

Coming away from Chelsea's Great Pavilion and Main Avenue into the woodland area normally offers a calmer, more serene experience for visitors to the show — as it did again this year, for the most part. That made it all the more surprising to round a corner and come across the Babylon Beats garden, an explosion of plants and primary colours which is like stepping into a 1980s pop video.

That wasn't the only surprise, though: close behind was the Architectural Plants 'Help-o-meter', with a giant crank handle and a spinning wheel lit up by miniature bulbs; the appearance of a grand piano decked with roses, in honour of Harkness Roses' display of The Elton John AIDS Foundation Rose;and Chelsea in Bloom's 12ft hight punk rocker head, created for the neighbourhood event by florist Ricky Paul to celebrate Chelsea’s legacy as the birthplace of the British punk scene.

Image 1 of 3

Most overlooked displays

The sponsored show gardens created by lauded designers catch the headlines, the trade stands show off wares from around the world and the Great Pavilion showcases extraordinary plant life... and amid all this, it's easy to miss the little touches created by the RHS's own team, which dot the grounds and light up the show to little fanfare. We see them, and we love them.

Image 1 of 4

And finally... Country Life's Garden of the Year

Every year without fail, our favourite garden of the Chelsea Flower Show is something that's beautiful, calming, inspiring, restful, intriguing... and overlooked by the judges in favour of something trendier and cleverer.

Not this year, though. Country Life's team at Chelsea all loved Cha No Niwa — Japanese Tea Garden, designed by Kazuyuki Ishihara, and we picked it as our best in show on Monday. The next morning, the RHS published their own awards — and Cha No Niwa had won 'Best in Show'. It's been years coming for Ishihara, and wonderful to see him win the prize for a garden we described as 'just perfect'.

Image 1 of 4

To celebrate Country Life's return to the Chelsea Flower Show, we're offering up to 40% off subscriptions to Country Life Magazine. It's our best offer ever; available until June 30, 2025.