Ben Porter
The Wildlife Trusts' British Rainforest Garden
RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025
RHS Chelsea Flower Show
20th - 24th May 2025
The Wildlife Trusts are excited to be exhibiting at RHS Chelsea Flower Show for the first time with a fantastic show garden, designed by award winning Zoe Claymore and sponsored by grant giving charity, Project Giving Back and supported by insurer, Aviva.
Titled The Rainforest Garden, the garden aims to evoke the lush, wet woodland that once swathed the west coast of the British Isles - providing an opportunity for visitors to learn about this precious habitat and be inspired to support its restoration.
The Wildlife Trusts' Show Garden
The British Rainforest Garden will immerse visitors in the verdant greens and dappled sunlight of our rainforests to a soundtrack of bubbling water, as a small waterfall tumbles down mounds of mosses. Planting will include a rare royal fern, with colour provided by the blues, yellows and pinks of bluebells, marsh marigolds and foxgloves.
Zoe Claymore
Other features will include:
- A raised walkway that will snake across the garden, transporting visitors over moss-covered ground past a tumbling waterfall
- A leaning silver birch tree across the wooden walkway - a naturally occuring feature to symbolise nature's resilience in the face of adversity
- A fern and moss wall, which will span the entire eight metres width of the garden, covered in many species of ferns and mosses, and draped in ivy.
The garden will feature in RHS Chelsea Flower Show's All About Plants category, with a key focus and celebration of our native rainforest plants. Two national plant collections will lend plants to the garden - the British Pteridological Society and Stone Lane Gardens, which is home to the national collection of birch and alder.
Why rainforests?
The British Rainforest Garden will tell the story of the precious rainforest habitat that once blanketed a fifth of the British Isles but now covers less than 1% of our land.
The Wildlife Trusts and Aviva have been working together since 2023 on a mission to bring rainforests back, with restoration work already underway down the west coast, from Skiddaw in Cumbria and Bryn Ifan in North Wales, to Bowden Pillars in Devon. The diversity of these habitats is incredible - home to many trees, mosses and lichens, whilst supporting rare birds such as pied flycatchers and redstarts.
Long-term, rainforest restoration is key to tackling the nature and climate crises we currently face, with our 100-year programme with Aviva removing carbon from the atmosphere whilst recovering important wildlife habitat.
How you can help
Visitors to RHS Chelsea Flower Show are encouraged to visit the garden throughout RHS Chelsea week from Tuesday 20th May to Saturday 24th May 2025. As well as providing an opportunity to learn more about temperate rainforests and our work to restore them, we also hope to show how wildlife and climate-friendly gardening can help British wildlife thrive.
Whether or not you plan to visit RHS Chelsea Flower Show, you can find out more about our rainforest restoration project on our website, donate to help us expand this work or be inspired by some of our existing wildlife-friendly gardening hints and tips!
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