Garden Ideas from RHS Hampton Court 2025 That You Can Use at Home

The RHS Hampton Court 2025 Garden Festival had some lovely ideas that we can try in our own gardens.

Whether your style is natural and romantic or more sleek and modern, here are some practical takeaways that could work in your garden, whatever its size.

The most dominant planting theme at RHS Hampton Court 2025 was cottage garden planting.

Admittedly, this is a broad church. It can mean anything from soft colour-themed borders to exuberant mixes of classic favourites.

Cottage garden style is informal, romantic and personal. You don’t have to follow rigid planting rules like “threes and fives.” It can be wispy with flowers popping up here and there, or full and bursting with colour.

3 Graces of Galicia by Nilufer Danis – soft pretty cottage garden planting.

Inspiration came from gardens like The Three Graces of Galicia—with its pretty blues, pinks and whites—and the bold, cheerful display on the Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants stand.

A vibrant display of cottage garden flowers on the Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants stand in the Floral Marquee.

The key is to use plants that grow well where you live—often easy to find, affordable, self-seeding and pollinator-friendly. That’s what makes this a sustainable and achievable look for any gardener.

Naturalistic and colourful. This show garden by Robert Pryor is ‘A Colourists Garden’ on the KLC Creative Cubes.

More of a naturalistic garden than strictly a ‘cottage garden’ but the principles of cottage garden and naturalistic garden overlap. This is Travel Oregon by Sadie May Powell and it uses plants that almost look wild.

Add a Splash of White for a Fresh Look

There were also show gardens where the theme was predominantly green, with splashes of white.

This is a serene and contemporary look. It’s also quite low maintenance because foliage is less work than flowers.

White and green combinations, in particular, looked smart and contemporary throughout the gardens. It’s a simple approach that looks instantly very effective.

White on white or white on green is cool and contemporary. Seen in a number of gardens and here on the Greenjjam Nursery stand where they combined white flowers with variegated foliage. Very pretty!

Use Deep Reds and Bronze for Bold Foliage Contrast

While most planting was romantic and soft, a few gardens introduced vivid colour with striking red and bronze tones. Illusion 2050 by Kitti Kovacs used a dark red tree (Cercis canadensis) for bold impact.

Kitti Kovacs planting on her Illusion 2025 garden was vibrant, making a good use of red in both the foliage (the tree is Cercis canadensis) and flowers. The planting demonstrates how resilient plants will need to come to the forefront by 2050.

So look out for plants like Berberis ‘Rose Glow’ from Burncoose Nurseries and deep-toned acers from Norfield Nurseries. These add contrast, texture and drama to your borders.

Physocarpus ‘Lady in Red’ on Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants stand.

Re-Discover Ferns for Structure and Resilience

One of the standout plants at RHS Hampton Court 2025 was ferns. They’re sculptural, surprisingly tough, and ideal for everything from shady corners to sun-exposed spots.

The labels on the plants at Alchemy Ferns highlighted how adaptable they are—many cope with both damp and dry conditions, and sun as well as shade. With weather all over the world lurching from heat waves to flooding, we are all looking for resilient plants.

There were several ferns in the contemporary Subaru Cocoon Garden by Mike McMahon and Jewlsy Mathews, which won Best in Show and a Gold medal. This is a modern reinterpretation of a walled garden using interesting bricks.

And ferns work in gardens with very different styles: from the conceptual Subaru Garden and naturalistic Travel Oregon, to the romantic Three Graces of Galicia and modern A Garden of Two Tales.

Ferns in the One Element garden by Nadine Charlton and Michael Lote. This is a garden based on using recycled ‘grey water’ and aims to draw attention to our use of water. Note the green roof.

Use Logs or Stumps Creatively

Logs and stumps were used in a number of gardens—not just for edging, but also as features and plant displays.

In the RHS RSPB Swifts Garden, logs highlighted habitat loss.

The RHS RSPB show garden at RHS Hampton Court 205 showcases how the loss of habitat is decimating our swift population. Logs were used as edging and as ornaments.

In the Woodland Edge Garden by Nicholas Navarro Garden Design, they became rustic border edging.

The Woodland Edge garden by Nicholas Navarro had a wicker fence and log edging to the borders.

And you can take this further by creating a mini stumpery. Raising up small plants means you’ll enjoy them more. For inspiration, see the dieramas in the Floral Marquee and the national collection of santolina on the Hardy Plant Society stand.

Both rocks and stumps can be used to raise plants up in order to display them.

Break Up Paving for a Softer, Cooler Surface

More people are replacing their lawns with planting, especially in smaller gardens. But large areas of paving are expensive, get hot and are not environmentally friendly.

The answer is to make sure that paving and other surfaces are permeable and to break them up. This also looks attractive.

Mixed use of pavers, gravel and decking on the APL garden (Association of Professional Landscapers)

Several show gardens at RHS Hampton Court 2025 broke up paving with gravel, bark or planting—creating a softer, more natural look and improving water runoff.

This crazy paving is recycled and laid on a reclaimed rubble base. It was created by Yoni Carnice and a team of London National Park Rangers.

Crazy paving’ made a comeback in the Aster of Senses garden by Yoni Carnice and the National City Park Rangers. They reused broken pavers and set them in crushed concrete—an environmentally friendly idea to borrow.

Add Not One Pond, But Several

This year’s show gardens don’t add just one pond. Several at RHS Hampton Court 2025 included multiple water features—small, raised ponds linked by simple rills or waterfalls.

In A Garden of Two Tales by Daniel March, round ponds were set into the design with copper taps and shallow streams underneath. Raising tree canopies was another smart idea in this garden, creating more light and space without losing the trees entirely.

A Garden of Two Tales by Daniel March had several raised ponds as well as a stream running beneath. The simple copper piping tap is something a good plumber should easily be able to copy.

Even small water features can help wildlife, cool the garden and add a restful feel.