The Smell Hits You First
Not flowers, exactly — or not just flowers. It is soil and crushed grass and something sweet that might be jasmine or might be the Pimm’s tent three rows over. You step through the gates at the Royal Hospital Chelsea on a Tuesday morning in May, and the sheer density of blooming things in an eleven-acre space does something to the air that is hard to describe to anyone who has not been.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show has run since 1913. In 2026, it returns May 19-23 for five days of gardens, plants, and the particular kind of British social performance that involves wearing floral prints in the rain. But underneath the spectacle, Chelsea remains a genuine horticultural event — the place where garden design pushes its boundaries and new plant varieties make their debut.
Three Weeks to Build a Career
The Show Gardens are the headliners. Each one is a full-scale garden design, conceived and built by landscape architects who have spent months — sometimes years — working toward this specific week in May. The build itself happens in just three weeks before opening, with teams working through the night to get every plant into peak condition for press day.
What makes Chelsea gardens interesting is the range. In past years you might see brutalist concrete paired with delicate ferns next to an immersive woodland with mature trees craned into position overnight. The designers are trying to say something — about climate, about mental health, about the relationship between architecture and nature — and sometimes it works brilliantly and sometimes it does not.
The RHS Gold Medal and Best in Show can make a designer’s career. The judging criteria are not published in enormous detail, which adds to the mystique. What constitutes a ‘gold medal garden’ versus a ‘silver-gilt’ involves factors that the RHS describes in general terms — overall design, planting, construction quality — but the actual deliberation happens behind closed doors.
The Smaller Gardens
The Artisan Gardens are where you often find the most interesting craft work — dry stone walls built by hand, ceramics made for the show, metalwork you cannot buy anywhere. These smaller plots prove that a compelling garden does not need vast acreage. Honestly, some of my favourite moments at Chelsea have been in these quieter corners, where you can actually talk to the designer without shouting over a crowd.
The Great Pavilion Is Overwhelming (in a Good Way)
The enormous white tent houses displays from specialist nurseries and plant breeders from around the world. This is where you find orchids you did not know existed, dahlias the size of dinner plates, and plant breeders who have spent decades working on a single variety.
The scent inside the pavilion is genuinely something else. Hundreds of thousands of blooms in an enclosed space — it is intense and slightly disorienting. If you are prone to hay fever, bring medication. This is not a joke.
The Plant of the Year award, announced during Chelsea, tends to set gardening trends for the following seasons. Previous winners have become garden centre bestsellers within weeks. Nurseries plan their stock around it.
The Calendar, and Why It Matters
Tuesday and Wednesday are RHS Members’ Days — quieter, gardens in pristine condition, and the first chance to see everything before the public arrives. If you attend Chelsea regularly, the RHS membership pays for itself. The annual fee is somewhere around £60-70, but check the current rate.
Thursday is the best public day for manageable crowds. Friday gets busier. Saturday is the famous Great Sell-Off — exhibitors sell their plants at end-of-show prices, and people queue from early morning for the chance to take home prize-winning specimens. The queues are long and slightly chaotic, but the deals are real.
Chelsea also hosts Evening Gala events — champagne, live music, the gardens at dusk when the lighting changes everything. These tickets sell out fast and are not cheap. Whether they are worth it probably depends on how much you enjoy drinking champagne while standing on slightly muddy grass.
What to Wear (and Why It Matters More Than You Think)
Chelsea has an unwritten dress code. Floral prints are practically mandatory. Hats — from fascinators to wide-brimmed garden party styles — are a beloved tradition. You will see everything from Barbour jackets with Wellington boots (practical for the weather that May in London inevitably delivers) to full designer outfits.
The celebrity spotting is decent. Garden designers, television presenters, the occasional Royal. But really, the people-watching is the event — Chelsea is one of those places where the audience is as interesting as the show.
A genuine warning: wear comfortable shoes. You will walk several miles, much of it on grass and temporary pathways that turn muddy after rain. Heels are brave but inadvisable. I have seen more than one person abandon theirs by mid-afternoon.
What Nobody Tells You Before Your First Visit
Book months ahead. Chelsea sells out, especially Members’ Days and Saturday. Tickets typically go on sale in autumn for the following May — the popular days disappear within weeks.
Allow a full day. You can rush through the highlights in a few hours, but Chelsea rewards a slow pace. Five to six hours is about right to see the gardens, pavilion, trade stands, and food areas without feeling hurried.
The food is fine but expensive. This is a London event with London pricing. There are fine dining pop-ups and casual street food options. The Pimm’s bar is a Chelsea institution — practically mandatory. Budget accordingly.
British weather is not a cliché, it is a forecast. May in London genuinely can deliver sunshine and rain in the same afternoon. Layers, a compact umbrella, and sunscreen. The Great Pavilion is your shelter if things turn.
Arrive early for the show gardens. The main gardens get crowded by late morning. If you want photos without other people’s shoulders in frame, be there at opening.
Getting to Chelsea is straightforward — Sloane Square on the District and Circle lines is a short walk. No parking at the venue, so do not even think about driving.
If you are flying into London for this, booking flights early makes a real difference in price. Trip.com and CheapAir both tend to have decent fares to London, especially if you are flexible on which day you fly in.
Beyond the Show Grounds
Chelsea sits in one of London’s more elegant neighbourhoods, and there is plenty worth seeing before and after.
King’s Road runs nearby — boutiques, restaurants, cafes, and the lingering memory of being the epicentre of 1960s counterculture. It is still one of London’s most interesting shopping streets, though probably less radical than it was in 1966.
Saatchi Gallery is a short walk away, hosting rotating contemporary art exhibitions in a beautiful converted military building. Free entry, which is always welcome after Chelsea ticket prices.
The Thames Walk along Chelsea Embankment offers views across to Battersea Park and the Peace Pagoda. On a warm May evening, it is one of the nicest walks in London. Not dramatic, just pleasant.
The Royal Hospital Chelsea itself — designed by Christopher Wren, home to the Chelsea Pensioners since 1692 — is open to visitors outside show hours. The chapel and grounds are genuinely impressive, and you can often chat with the Pensioners, who have stories worth hearing.
For day trips out of London during your visit, KLOOK has a decent range of guided excursions if you want to see some English countryside gardens while you are in the mood.
The Walk Back to Sloane Square
The thing I remember most from my last Chelsea visit is not any particular garden. It is the walk back to the Tube afterwards — slightly sunburned, carrying a bag with two plants I definitely did not need, shoes covered in grass stains. The woman ahead of me on the escalator was still wearing her hat. Her companion was holding a potted fern like it was a newborn.
