Rainforest Garden at Chelsea Flower Show
Zoe Claymore tells us why she wants to focus on Britain’s temperate rainforests for her garden at Chelsea Flower Show
Main image: The Wildlife Trusts RHS Chelsea garden visual (c) Zoe Claymore
Britain’s temperate rainforests once blanketed a fifth of the country. These lush woodlands are home to a unique variety of plants and wildlife but now only cover 1% of the land.
At RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Teddington based garden designer Zoe Claymore is teaming up with The Wildlife Trusts to create a British Rainforest Garden to inspire people to support the restoration of this threatened habitat as well as demonstrating how to make their own outdoor spaces nature-friendly.
The garden will recreate the enchanting atmosphere of a temperate rainforest with beautiful ferns alongside bluebells, marsh marigolds and foxgloves. There will also be a waterfall, birch, and moss-covered mounds.
Zoe has a deep affinity with British rainforests having played in them as a child. “I have many happy childhood memories of playing in the area around my grandparents’ house in Devon. I’d be jumping over boulders, playing in moss, imagining I was in my own magical world. And so the idea of being able to design a garden that evokes this was really special.”
For research, Zoe revisited the Devon of her childhood, this time with a more focused eye, studying the native plants, trees, and overall environment of the land. She also visited The Wildlife Trusts’ Dart Valley Nature Reserve.
Zoe Claymore (c) Annabelle May Photography
Her hope is that her Chelsea show garden will encourage visitors to work with nature and not against it when it comes to their own gardens. “I want to show that you can have a beautiful garden that is biodiverse, that doesn’t look messy, because I think some people get worried about that, and can be built in a much more sustainable way.”
One example is moss. “Why not embrace moss rather than fighting with the lawn? It’s going to save you a lot of time and energy. It’s still going to be beautiful. And moss is an amazing air cleanser.”
With around 23 million gardens across the UK, these spaces can become powerful allies in the fight for nature’s recovery if they are designed thoughtfully. “We need to shift towards a more custodial relationship with nature,” she says. “Every garden, no matter how small, can play a role in supporting biodiversity.”
Zoe also wants to stress the power of gardening for mental wellbeing. For her, plants have provided a safe, healing connection in difficult times, and she hopes her Chelsea garden can inspire others to find solace in nature. “Gardens can be incredibly nurturing environments,” she says. “Plants provide a safe, low-stakes relationship with nature. It’s a process of connection and collaboration, which starts with planting the seeds and watching them grow.”
“Even being out in nature – we are lucky where we are to have Richmond and Bushy parks, and the Thames – is soothing for the soul. It’s very easy to put oneself and one’s problems into perspective when you’re standing next to a 500-year-old oak.”
Chelsea Flower Show 20-24 May
