On the opening day of the 2025 Chelsea Flower Show, the Country Life team at SW3 sat down to discuss the best garden of the year. 'Oh, well, it has to be the Japanese Tea Garden,' were the first words out of the mouth of our garden editor, Tiffany Daneff.
It's not every year that we agree with the judges on our favourite garden at the world's greatest flower show. Quite the opposite, in fact: it's a semi-regular occurrence for our favourite designs to have been overlooked on the official criteria.
LISTEN: Tiffany Daneff on the Country Life Podcast from the Chelsea Flower Show
This time, we're all in agreement. Kazuyuki Ishihara's 'Cha No Niwa – Japanese Tea Garden' is like a slice of imperial Kyoto transplanted to leafy west London. There's a mix of elevations and depths, a mix of plants and trees — acers mingling with irises — and a blend of raked gravel, moss installation and craggy boulders, all framed by a traditional Japanese building at the rear.
Ishihara has created gardens at Chelsea several times in recent years, but so far they have always been among the smaller garden categories. In 2025 his sponsors — Ambius, Calmic Japan, HB-101 and Glion — have backed him to create one of the main show gardens at RHS Chelsea, and he has paid back their confidence in wonderful style with a design which makes use of Acer palmatum, Enkianthus perulatus, Iris, Sedum, Hornbeam and Pachysandra terminalis.
'It's perfect,' added Tiffany. 'Everywhere you stand, there's a perfect vignette; the view is framed.
'No matter which angle you look at it from, it feels as if it was meant to be seen from exactly where you are... If you're a photographer, it must be a complete heaven.'
It's not just the overall view that makes this garden special, though. 'You've still got this amazing attention to detail, the little hillocks of moss for example, and even round the back, there are gate entrances. all covered with vegetation,' Tiffany said.
'There's not a moment in this garden that's not been beautifully thought about. It's got water, it's so peaceful and lush, and still has flashes of colour with the irises.
'And then there's the Zen garden feel with the gravel that has been raked into circles. It's a tour de force. It's beautiful.'
Ishihara himself started his working life as a flower seller before setting up his company in 1995, but his love affair with traditional Japanese gardens goes back further than that. 'Forty-five years ago, when I first practiced Ikebana, I was deeply moved by the world of forms created with just three branches,' he told the RHS.
'Since then, my design style has been about recreating those unforgettable, nostalgic landscapes that people around the world have seen at some point in their lives, within a garden.'
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.
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