Chelsea...but in Middlesbrough?

It's time to rethink what the most important gathering of garden talent could look like…

It’s May. A dry one at that and we’re nearing the end of ‘that week’. Circled in red Sharpie on every gardener's calendar (or at least at the margins of their consciousness): Chelsea. Horticultural excellence and innovation, celebrities in floral maxi dresses (but probably paired with trainers), dog gardens and a glass of Pimms costing nearly as much as the coach from Chepstow to London Victoria.

Chelsea has been a ritual for me for years - although bar 2022 when I got an invite, enjoyed from the sofa. The BBC floods the schedule with coverage and I marvel at the alchemy of the plantspeople conjuring beauty timed exactly for this one short week. Since a career change into horticulture in 2017, I’ve discovered some of my favourite garden designers through the show gardens: Sarah Price, Jo Thompson or Wild City Studio. A gathering of gardening talent is vital and needed and there’s a lot to celebrate. But something is shifting and has been distilled by Tayshan Hayden-Smith’s eloquent and brave statement in the run up to this year’s flower show.

As I write this, lorries, diggers and delivery trucks are lining up for the build of RHS Chelsea Flower Show - bringing to life a much-celebrated display of horticultural excellence. But in a city already grappling with dangerously high levels of air pollution, and in one of London’s most unequal boroughs, it’s hard not to reflect on the contrast.

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It sets a precedent that celebrates spectacle over sustainability, exclusivity over equity - a precedent that has trickled down into the organisation's foundations.

This isn’t an essay bashing the RHS of whom I have only had the briefest of professional interactions with. But I do have experience working at, and with, large institutions who uphold a kind of fortress mentality. In the face of criticism - for access or lack of diverse governance or programming - those high ivory towers create a role or engage a creative to change their optics. But then: business as usual. The individual is invited to all the important meetings but their comments and suggestions are met with embarrassed silence. Nothing changes, although perhaps someone prints a new marketing leaflet.

Gardening and art are political. They are filled with dreamers and rule breakers who help us all find the world beautiful and vital. Yet the institutions who are considered a safe pair of hands to represent this impossibly diverse rabble of people, end up, inevitably treading a safe, middle road.

I’ve been imagining since my one and only trip to Chelsea in the flesh what an alternative would look like and this feels like the time for a collective reimagining. I don’t have a shiny business and investor deck to make this thing happen but I’d love this conversation to continue.

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It’s the winter of 2026 and a city has been chosen for the inaugural event. Let’s say it's Middlesbrough as one of the UK’s cities with the least green space. Eight spaces across the city have been identified including a brownfield site, neglected park, abandoned car park, and a polluted body of water. Eight designers - still excellent but emphatically not solely the usual suspects - will create show gardens to remain permanently in the city. All gardens can be wandered through by ticket holders, are fully accessible for wheelchair users and - a subject close to my heart - buggies are welcome.

‘Babe in arms’. My one and only trip to Chelsea, invited for work but unable to bring my 5 month old in a buggy.

There will be a longer than usual lead time in the planning because designers have been listening carefully and responding to the needs and ideas of the community that these gardens will take root in: allotment groups, youth clubs, schools, nursing homes, prisons, office workers who need somewhere to eat their lunch. They’ll also be creatively responding to the history of the city itself. Middlesbrough’s evolution from small farming community to a titan of the industrial revolution - all that steel and iron - will provide rich inspiration. Who can see the brutalist steel structure juxtaposed with crumbly stone wall, traditional farming tools hanging from it, already?

The judging criteria is still one of excellence and innovation but future proofing against a changing climate is also a key category designers will be marked against. Water harvesting, improving porosity in soil, drought tolerant species selection etc.

Now imagine its May 2028 and you are planning your trip to Middlesbrough. A bit like the Edinburgh fringe (except with cheaper accommodation), you might go for a few days - packing a kagool and comfortable walking shoes so you can tramp between gardens and events. You’ve arranged meetings to network with other garden folk or invited a school pal for a flowery weekend away. You received a beautifully illustrated map of the garden trail and programme of events, made by a Middlesbrough based artist and are meticulously planning your schedule. There are brilliant talks scheduled and the floral pavilion has pitched a tent in the city centre’s Albert Park. You’re planning to visit that amazing hellebore grower, while seeking some inspiration in the balcony gardens. The city has full hotels, cafes and has laid on extra buses.

Tickets are free to book for locals.

Once the month long festival is over, the fences will come down and the stewardship of the garden will be handed over. What of the group of ne'er do wells who might trash the gardens and graffiting that artisan tool shed? Perhaps some of the cash that’s not being spent on relocation can be designated to a ‘guardian keepers fund’ to sustain it. By involving the community in the design and use of the garden from the beginning, a sense of civic pride - remember that? - has bubbled up and rooted in the hearts of residents.

I know this all sounds like a utopian pipedream but we are living in a climate crisis now. It is not coming, it is already here. This spring has been the driest on record since 1956. The UK, despite our green and pleasant fields, is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world. Churning up acres of ground once a year, craning in mature trees, building pretend Yorkshire stone walls or ancient castle ruins does feel like a gargantuan amount of effort for one short week, and has nothing to do with the sense of place or the communities who surround it. And then there’s the waste: plastic wrapped mulch, moss, bags of gravel, and the rest.

Chelsea is the pinnacle. A career highlight for the best of the best. And I have benefited immeasurably a gardener and florist through its inspirational displays and installations. But why not in Middlesbrough? Or Glasgow or Derry or Basildon? If we are serious about inspiring the public to take a more eco approach to managing their own patch of land - window box or big backyard, we need to do much better to make that accessible and affordable. This isn’t about dumbing down but democratising and radically rethinking how we build relationships between people and the natural world. To encourage people to live greener and prepare for the world and climate that is arriving.

And maybe it couldn’t happen annually. Maybe - just like the city of culture - it would happen on a 3 or 5 year cycle and would mean time could be taken to secure funding and a legacy plan responsibly. But in the next iteration it could be Leeds or Worthing or Redruth. This once in a generation event would land in a city and offer life changing opportunities. Young people who didn’t even know you could be a garden designer or dahlia farmer or hard landscaper before the show came to their town.

True regenerative event and horticultural spectacle and not a flash in the pan.

Watching Robert Macfarlane speak about his book ‘Is A River Alive’ last night at The Hay Festival, I was struck by his description of hope as ‘both a fantasy and a discipline.’ It is clear, from 580 overwhelmingly supportive comments attached to Hayden-Smith’s Instagram post that garden lovers are ready for change. Our next steps are to continue to dream about what that looks like and to listen to people like Tayshan who are asking the hard questions.

This is my alternative Chelsea. What would yours look like?

A show garden from 2022. Please let me know if you know which designer!