Alan Titchmarsh blasts ‘rewilding fad’ at Chelsea Flower Show

Alan Titchmarsh has hit out at ‘fads and fancies’ at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Branding the likes of rewilding as a ‘step backwards’, the 75-year-old celebrity gardener said the assumption that we should reduce the number of ‘exotic’ species we plant was ‘erroneous’.

And he added that climate change meant gardeners need to increase the variety of plants and flowers not reduce it.

‘Rewilded’ gardens have attracted controversy at the Royal Horticultural Society’s flagship event in recent years – with one garden by designers Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt including a beaver dam winning the coveted ‘best in show’ award in 2022.

Writing about the annual show in Country Life magazine, he said: ‘The variety of today’s show gardens is hugely welcome, as is the appearance of young garden designers with original ideas.

‘Less welcome are the fads and fancies that purport to signal the way forward in domestic gardens, but which are in real terms a step backwards.’

He continued: ‘The erroneous assumption a couple of years ago that ‘rewilding’ meant reducing the number of exotic plants in the garden and sticking to British natives was a case in point.

‘Why anyone could think fewer species and varieties could increase biodiversity is beyond me.

‘What’s more, if our gardens are to survive global warming, we need to be broadening the range of plants we grow, not reducing it, in the interests of populating our gardens with plants that thrive in a changing climate.

‘But we need controversy to make us think and keep us fresh.’ He added that the costs of some of the Chelsea show gardens are ‘eye-watering’ and described the event as the ‘Paris catwalk of the British gardening scene’.

And he singled out the specialist growers for particular praise.

‘Amid all the hoopla that surrounds the horticultural event of the year that we call the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, at its heart is a group of folk who continue a tradition that is as old as Adam,’ he said.

‘It would be a travesty if they were regarded as merely an add-on, for what they do is keep alive the plants and the growing skills that have made British gardens the envy of the world.

‘It may be the show gardens that steal the newspaper headlines, this year, we are promised a Bridgerton Garden sponsored by Netflix.

‘One only hopes that the ghastly artificial wisteria that flowers all year round on the townhouse owned by that family in the television series is not a feature.

‘Yes, the show gardens themselves offer inspiration – although their six-figure construction costs are eye-watering -, but it is the expertise of specialist growers in the Great Pavilion that deserves every bit as much attention and praise.’

The five-day Chelsea Flower Show is held by the Royal Horticultural Society in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London. This year’s show opens on Monday.

If our gardens are to survive global warming, we need to be broadening the range of plants we grow, not reducing it, in the interests of populating our gardens with plants that thrive in a changing climate.’

Writing in Country Life, he said the costs of some Chelsea show gardens are ‘eye-watering’ and described the event as the ‘Paris catwalk’ of British gardening.