Chelsea Flower Show 2024 Will Include Garden Designed By Children

With just two months to go before the Chelsea Flower Show returns to the capital, we’re beginning to get some nuggets of information about what to expect. Sure to be a highlight for 2024 is the No Adults Allowed Garden, the flower show’s first exhibit designed by children.

‘No Adults Allowed Garden’ Coming To Chelsea Flower Show

Pupils from the Sulivan Primary School in Fulham, London have worked alongside designer Harry Holding to create the bright, colourful garden, which will feature lush woodland and a wetland with oversized bog plants.

Despite the name, grown-ups will be allowed to explore the garden, thanks to some ‘tough negotiating’ from Clare Matterson, director-general of the RHS – provided they follow the rules.

To enter the space, adults must either pledge to plant a tree, donate to the RHS Campaign for School Garden, or find a flower that starts with the letter of their name. 

RHS Garden of Royal Reflection and Celebration. Designed by Dave Green. Feature Garden. RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023. Stand no 111. (© RHS/Tim Sandall)

‘The Sulivan School pupils came up with the three activities, which they’d like adults to pledge to do one of, and we’ll be asking visitors what they did, or plan to do, before they enter the garden at the show,’ said Matterson. ‘We know gardeners are a good bunch, so we trust that people will do what they pledge and it’s all in the name of having some fun too.’

Holding said: ‘I have loved working with the children at Sulivan Primary School to design this garden. They have been so creative and have come up with some brilliant – if somewhat challenging in some cases – ideas.

‘With this garden, art, sculpture, and textural clay celebrate the child-like creativity innate in all of us, while sensory planting and natural materials create a nourishing space. Above all, it’s a celebration of the natural world and the joyous wonder children experience within beautiful landscapes.’

After the show has ended, the garden will be relocated to Sulivan Primary School, and other schools in the area will be welcome to come and visit.

Chelsea Flower Show will return to London from 21 – 25 May 2024. Other highlights will include a Bridgerton-inspired garden, plus the All About Plants gardens, which will include an ‘edible skatepark’. rhs.org.uk