We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article.
From a Mediterranean-inspired garden to tiny plots...
There are 29 inspiring gardens at this year's Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, with take-home ideas on budget friendly gardening, resilient planting and sustainable practices.
Previously known as the Hampton Court Flower Show, the famous gardening event is back (2nd - 7th July 2024) offering a number of garden exhibits big and small. This year there are eight Show Gardens, five Get Started Gardens, four Feature Gardens, nine Pocket Planting gardens and three Show Features – so there's lots of inspiration to be had!
Minus the Feature Gardens and Show Features, the gardens undergo a rigorous judging process, in the same way as the Chelsea Flower Show, to determine who will be awarded either a Gold, Silver-Gilt, Silver or Bronze medal, as well as Best in Show.
Juliet Sargeant's Lion King Anniversary Garden, and the Mediterraneo Garden designed by Katerina Kantalis, are among the most successful at this year's show, having scooped two awards.
Recap the Best In Show winners:
And there's more: voting for the People's Choice Award is now open, so head to rhs.org.uk to vote for your favourite gardens.
Explore all the garden designs and winners below...
SHOW GARDEN
• Silver-gilt medal | Best in Show | RHS Environmental Innovation Award
Created to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Disney’s The Lion King in London's West End, this garden is inspired by the African landscapes where the story is set. The circle motif promotes balance and harmony, while a dry hedge offers a protected sanctuary for visitors to sit and reflect on their own journey through the 'Circle of Life'.
SHOW GARDEN
• Silver-Gilt medal | Best Construction Award
Designed to engage all senses, a central building levitates above this garden with pollinator-friendly planting, while a watercourse streams throughout, supporting biodiversity.
SHOW GARDEN
• Silver medal
Celebrating the naturally biodiverse wild wetland areas of Charleston and traditional pocket gardens, this design features manicured hedges and symmetrical patterns, alongside the free-flowing beauty of Lowcountry grasses and flora.
SHOW GARDEN
• Silver medal
With meandering pathways and secluded seating areas, this garden displays a vibrant tapestry of colours and textures, carefully arranged to evoke a sense of tranquillity and wonder. Biodiversity, sustainability and healing are key themes here.
SHOW GARDEN
• Bronze medal
With a nautical theme, this colourful garden features planting and hard landscaping to stimulate the senses. It's been created for its forever home at The Lighthouse Child Development Centre in Essex, a facility that offers services for children and young people who have neurodevelopmental and neurodisability disorders.
SHOW GARDEN
This design explores how a tennis court and clubhouse can be a subtle addition to a garden without compromising the landscape’s flora and fauna.
SHOW GARDEN
This garden depicts the natural beauty of the state of Oregon, with wildflower planting, natural crisp clear waterfalls and forest planting. A central water feature is surrounded by huge boulders, and stepping stones lead through and across the water.
SHOW GARDEN
• Silver medal
This garden draws inspiration from St. James, the patron saint of Spain, and pilgrims’ journey to Santiago de Compostela. Central to this design is a pilgrim statue, water fountain and woodland planting.
GET STARTED GARDEN
• Gold medal | Best Get Started Garden | Best Construction Award
Inspired by the Mediterranean and the warmth and vibrancy of Greek landscapes, this garden is full of rustic charm, from terracotta pots and natural limestone features, to the practicality of permeable landscaping and gravel pathways.
GET STARTED GARDEN
• Silver-Gilt medal
Biodiversity is central to this garden, which combines modern design with traditional materials and naturalistic planting (including swathes of meadow grasses).
GET STARTED GARDEN
• Silver medal
Harnessing the power of moss in an urban garden, a moss lawn encourages eco-friendly gardening, while sunken seating allows visitors to be immersed in the woodland-inspired planting.
GET STARTED GARDEN
• Silver-Gilt medal
Influenced by how Australian garden design has evolved to cope with the demands of harsh climate conditions like drought and flooding rains, this garden shows how to reduce water use and add more reclaimed materials within a beautiful space.
GET STARTED GARDEN
• Silver medal
With a sensory theme (designed specifically for people with smell and taste disorders in mind), this garden is divided into two levels, with multi-stemmed trees and a secluded sunken area.
FEATURE GARDEN
Designed by father and son duo, Jon and James Wheatley, this garden celebrates the positive impacts of community gardening, encapsulating the last 60 years of Bloom, from its inception in the 1960s, to the current day.
FEATURE GARDEN
Showing how to grow plants for free (from propagation to repurposing), this budget-friendly garden also demonstrates how nurturing plants is good for your health and wellbeing, and the planet.
FEATURE GARDEN
Full of colour and texture, naturalistic planting mimics an untouched peatland before transitioning into a domestic garden with shaded and sun-loving borders and beds. There's also a greenhouse with upcycled windows and two large water butts collecting rainwater.
FEATURE GARDEN
Encouraging adventure, exploration and curiosity through two different zones, contrasting scales and atmosphere, the objects found in this garden gently play with a sense of scale, encouraging a shift in perceptions of the surrounding environment.
POCKET PLANTING
• Gold medal
Bursting with wildflowers and ornamentals, this pollinator patch promotes ‘B-Lines’, a network of ‘insect pathways’ stretching across the UK that, in time, will provide corridors of nectar-rich habitat for bees and other pollinators.
POCKET PLANTING
• Silver medal
Inspired by Berkeley Castle in South Gloucestershire, this plot features a gravel herb garden, with various edible plants and trees. The gravel feature is made from crushed brick and whelk shells – a sustainable alternative to quarried gravel.
POCKET PLANTING
• Silver-Gilt medal
This garden plot explores the theme of resilience with a day-to-night garden that supports and celebrates the unsung nocturnal heroes of pollination: moths.
All the RHS flower show changes
Princess of Wales plants new Catherine's Rose
7 top garden trends at RHS Hampton Court
14 interesting facts about RHS Hampton
