RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Chelsea is unlike any other design experience. It’s fast-paced, highly visible, intensely demanding, and the most prestigious and widely recognised flower show in the world.
Every May, it captures global attention, setting the benchmark for horticultural design and innovation.
Even those who never take part look to Chelsea as the place where new ideas, materials, and planting styles emerge, much as Paris defines the future of fashion.
Our Chelsea gardens
Since 2019, we’ve designed three show gardens at RHS Chelsea, each exploring connection, purpose, and impact.
The Facebook Garden: Beyond the Screen celebrated how social media can enrich real-world communities.
The Meta Garden: Growing the Future highlighted woodland ecosystems and sustainable timber, built without concrete and now at the National Forest in Derbyshire.
The King’s Trust: Seeding Success focused on growth and empowerment, created with young people from The King’s Trust and now relocated to Uxbridge College, continuing to inspire and support education and wellbeing.
Designing with the future in mind
For us, it’s a unique opportunity to test ideas, challenge conventions, and deliver at the highest level of creativity and workmanship.
Joe has been involved with the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for nearly two decades, first building and project-managing gardens for other designers, and later designing his own.
Since founding our studio in 2018, he has designed three Chelsea show gardens, earning three Gold Medals, Best Construction, and Best in Category.
Each garden is also a chance to tell a story, to share meaningful messages about nature, people and place with a truly global audience.
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Connection and community
Beyond the competition, Chelsea is about purpose.
Each garden gives us the chance to explore ideas that matter, from connection and community to sustainability and education, and to collaborate with sponsors and partners who share those values.
A powerful platform
The Chelsea Flower Show is also a powerful platform for raising awareness and initiating change.
Many of its gardens are created in partnership with charities or not-for-profit organisations, helping to highlight important social and environmental causes.
We’ve seen how these gardens can open up conversation, encourage people to get involved, and create a positive impact long after the show has finished.
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The challenge
Each Chelsea project demands an extraordinary level of detail, coordination, and resilience.
From design and planning to sourcing materials and managing logistics, the process takes a year, or even years.
Once on site, we have just under three weeks to build a fully finished, show-quality garden within one of the most tightly controlled construction environments imaginable.
Every decision, from plant placement to material finish, must be precise, creative, and delivered under intense pressure.
It’s a challenge that tests leadership, adaptability, and teamwork, and it’s one we thrive on.
Why we return
Chelsea is hard work, but it’s also one of the most inspiring and collaborative experiences we share as a studio.
It brings together designers, craftspeople, collaborators and partners from across the industry, and despite the competition, there’s a remarkable sense of generosity and camaraderie.
Each project pushes us creatively and technically, deepens our collaborations, and strengthens our belief that design can create meaningful, lasting impact.
For us, Chelsea isn’t just a show, it’s a space to challenge ourselves, to innovate, and to contribute to a conversation about the role of gardens in a changing world.
RHS Chelsea stats, reach and impact
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Up to 168,000 live visitors during the show week
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81 % of visitors are from high‑income households
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7.1 million+ website page‑views during show week, including 4.4 million on Chelsea show‑pages
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Coverage audience in excess of 4 billion globally via print, online & broadcast
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BBC television reach of 1.5 million average viewers (with peaks to 2.5 million)
RHS Chelsea FAQs
Joe Perkins Design offers full garden design services as well as project management.
Contact us with any further questions you may have.
How long does it take to prepare a Chelsea garden?
It varies - some gardens are developed over a couple of years, while others are completed in less than twelve months. Every stage, from securing sponsors to sourcing plants and materials, must be carefully managed to meet the demanding schedule.
What makes Chelsea so challenging?
The showground has tight access, limited timeframes, and hundreds of teams working simultaneously. Gardens must be built to the highest standard under intense pressure and scrutiny.
Do all Chelsea gardens have a life after the show?
Since 2021, every garden must include a relocation plan. While some are rebuilt in part, others are fully reimagined in new locations. We’re proud that both our 2022 and 2025 gardens were relocated in full, continuing to support education, sustainability, and wellbeing initiatives.
Why is Chelsea worthwhile despite the challenges?
It pushes us to innovate, strengthens our collaboration as a team, and provides a platform to design gardens with purpose and lasting value - well beyond the showground.
What kind of visibility does Chelsea offer sponsors?
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show attracts around 168,000 visitors in person each year, including press, industry professionals, and the public from around the world. It also reaches millions more through global media coverage and extensive BBC broadcasting - in 2024, over 2.3 million people tuned in to BBC programmes during show week. Social media extends that reach exponentially. Across platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X (Twitter), Chelsea-related content generates tens of millions of views and interactions each year, with posts from designers, sponsors, and the RHS shared globally. For sponsors, this means unparalleled visibility - both on-site and online - and the opportunity to align with one of the most respected design and horticultural events in the world. Our 2025 collaboration with The King’s Trust was among the most widely covered gardens of the year, achieving a media reach second only to the King’s Coronation, and significant engagement across digital and social platforms.