Sometimes, the secret to a luxe-looking garden isn’t the furniture you buy, but the flowers you plant. At this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026, one bloom stood out for its instant, expensive-looking impact: Paeonia ‘Buckeye Belle’.
Elegant, sophisticated and blooming in a rich scarlet-red hue, this expensive-looking peony was an instant standout in The Boodles Garden — designed by Catherine MacDonald and built by Gadd Brothers Trees and Landscapes — bringing dramatic colour and a sense of timeless luxury to the planting scheme.
Inspired by Historic Royal Palaces, including the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and Kensington Palace, the garden draws on regal influences and richly layered planting to create an elegant, romantic landscape.
Deep crimson tones runs throughout the design, with Paeonia ‘Buckeye Belle’ helping to reinforce the garden’s opulent, sophisticated feel.
'It's such special red – it's like a deep jewel,' Mel Reynard, assistant landscape designer, tells us, which is exactly what makes Paeonia ‘Buckeye Belle’ the perfect plant for bringing a more elevated, luxurious feel to your garden at home.
To make the scarlet-red tones really stand out, Catherine planted 'Buckeye Belle' alongside dainty white flowers and lush green foliage. 'The whites are to draw it all together and keep it nice and soft,' explains Mel.
Generally, the planting scheme leans into deep jewel shades. 'Catherine chose rich jewel colours – reds and the purples – because of their relationships to the historic rural palaces,' says Mel. 'The reds are to match the damask wallpaper at Kensington Palace. The purples are the ravens' wing of the Tower of London, and represent the grapes of the grapevine at Hampton Court Palace.'
Sometimes, the key to creating a sophisticated garden lies in embracing rich, saturated planting — and Paeonia ‘Buckeye Belle’ delivers that in abundance.
