The capital's largest free flower festival blooms again in Chelsea

Chelsea In Bloom, the floral art show that turns shopfronts into dazzling horticultural installations, returned today to SW3 as the Chelsea Flower Show opened at the Royal Hospital. The event, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, is the largest free flower festival in London.

There are 127 participants in competition for the best shopfront including beauty stores (Aesop, Trinny London), jewellers (Monica Vinader, Jessica McCormack), restaurants (Azzurra, La Maison Ani) and hotels (11 Cadogan Gardens, Beaverbrook Townhouse). The general public can vote for their favourite display on the Chelsea In Bloom website.

Many worked late into the night on Sunday to transform the city’s toniest streets in time for the early birds, who flocked to the King’s Road this morning in their thousands. For many without a ticket to the main event, Chelsea In Bloom offers a glimpse of the magic unfurling just down the road — where Country Life have their very own stand for the first time in 25 years.

The King’s Road and Sloane Street have been turned into a pollinator’s playground. There is a noticeable trend for yellow, with buttery delphiniums and golden calla lilies proving popular among this year’s floral designers. Anthuriums, however, were the firm favourites. This hardly came as a surprise: a possible ripple effect of Jonathan Anderson’s Spring/Summer 2023 collection for Loewe, which featured giant, photorealistic anthuriums sprouting from knee-length dresses.

Chelsea In Bloom’s theme for 2025 is, fittingly, Flowers In Fashion: a long time coming for a neighbourhood whose rich sartorial history has made it London’s most iconic shopping destination since the 1960s.

While the King’s Road of yore was better known for punks and hippies (respectively frequenting the shops of Vivienne Westwood and Mary Quant), it has been considered the heart of genteel London since the advent of the Sloane Ranger in the 1980s. The installations currently dotting the streets of SW3 are, for their part, reminiscent of an older era: there are not one but two nods to Regency fashion, fitting for a year that also marks 250 since the birth of Jane Austen.

There is but one notable exception: a replica of Lady Gaga’s notorious meat dress by butcher Provenance (247, Pavilion Road), fashioned not from raw offal but instead from red lace leaves.

Other standouts include the floral display outside Lavender Green (239 King's Road), who were voted best shopfront at Chelsea In Bloom in 2019. The florist is taking part in the event for the first time in six years, with a celebration of the rich and fruitful partnership between couture and floristry.

‘We wanted to take it back to basics,’ explains their store manager, Gemma. The installation pays homage to the craftsmanship that goes into both arts, featuring a floral-dressed Singer-style sewing machine, oversized spools and blooming tape measures.

Lavender Green are also responsible for dressing the London Gate entrance to the Chelsea Flower Show.

Also notable is the life-size ballerina outside Les Néréides (132 King’s Road), crafted from British source metal and embellished with seasonal flowers and Agra Wool — an eco-conscious alternative to foam.

Sustainability has long been a major talking point at Chelsea. Last year, the Royal Horticultural Society introduced a green medal for sustainability, rewarding gardens with the lowest carbon impact. Many participants of Chelsea In Bloom are also taking steps to move in a greener direction, as brands prioritise seasonal and local plants.

Among them is Ralph Lauren (32-33, Sloane Square), whose multicoloured display departs from years past. While the store has long favoured a more demure and neutral palette for its Chelsea In Bloom installation, this year’s is rich in multicoloured oncidiums, bougainvillea and ranunculus to echo the bright-hued polo shirts dressing the mannequins behind the glass. This year’s florals are conceived as an ode to the Hamptons, with the store itself transformed into a flower shop reminiscent of those you might find in Sagaponack. All proceeds from bouquets sold in store will go to The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.

Winding up our shortlist is the ever reliable Cinquecento (1, Cale Street). Besides making arguably the best pizza in London, it's pulled out all the stops for their shopfront this year, designed in partnership with Milanese brand Dolce & Gabbana, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

The installation is built around a sculptural floral gown, crafted on a chicken wire and iron base by local ironmongery students and sat atop a rustic plinth surrounded by terracotta pots and hydrangeas in purples and lilacs. Lilies, violets and roses add to the elaborate mix, with pink wisteria climbing upwards and hanging off the outside walls as a soft soundtrack of Andrea Bocelli’s Con te partirò plays in the background.

La Dolce Vita, indeed.

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.