From the Torture Garden: A Sanctuary for Survivors to the Stroke Association’s Garden for Recovery, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024, was an overwhelming display of overcoming hardships, and proof of how horticulture can provide a therapeutic outlet for so many different types of people.  

Rather than simply beautiful gardens, these spaces offer the opportunity for charities to tell their stories and get across a stronger message – something with Project Giving Back has arguably helped the Royal Horticultural Society to achieve. Since 2022, it has been granting charities the funds to bring their messages to Chelsea and raise awareness of their various causes. 

Show gardens can do this by reminding visitors of the benefits of therapeutic horticulture and providing a space for people to feel safe, secure, and connected to nature.

Defined as being the use of plants and plant-based activities for the purpose of human healing and rehabilitation, therapeutic horticulture comes in many different shapes and sizes. The Muscular Dystrophy UK – Forest Bathing Garden, for example, showcases the ancient Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku, meaning ‘to bathe in the forest’… The garden seeks to “awaken imagination and an innate connection to nature by bridging a gap between us and the natural world.” Garden designer, Ula Maria, wanted to explore this form of therapy as a “much needed place of solace and reflection for those affected by a muscle wasting condition, Muscular Dystrophy” – something that earned her the highly coveted Best in Show Award this year. 

A more simplistic method might be the RHS Britain in Bloom 60th Anniversary: The Friendship Garden, which celebrates the relationships that form when people garden together in their communities. And with decades of experience in creating these community gardens, designer Jon Wheatley appreciates the importance of using green spaces to bring people together to aid both mental and physical wellbeing. 

As the industry pushes for further awareness for therapeutic horticulture, Chelsea is seemingly the perfect outlet.