A CPRE Lancashire view from Chelsea Flower Show 2026

CPRE Lancashire’s Debra McConnell reports back on what was an amazing Gold Award winning year for CPRE at Chelsea Flower Show…and how a bit of fly-tipped waste and a glorious Gaia stole visitors’ hearts…

Standing in our “On the Edge” garden at the Chelsea Flower Show on a dull and damp early Tuesday morning on 19 th May – RHS members and medals day – I wondered if the members would like it? Buttercups and nettles taking root from a bit of fly-tipped waste? Ok, this may be on the edge of every town and city, their urban fringes, but in a Chelsea Garden!?

Sarah Eberle’s design showed the resilience of nature as well as its beauty. The native beauties including Dog Rose, Sweet Woodruff, Foxgloves, Ragged Robin and Stinking Irises reminded the visitors how rich in flora, and food for pollinators, our
countryside and rural areas can be. The Silver Birch, Hornbeam and Hazel looked so settled, as if they had always been there. “It is SO together and beautiful” a Japanese visitor commented to me. Folk loved the naturalistic planting and its blowsy richness, wanting to tread its winding path to see what lay around the corner.

I will remember the day for the joy and smiles of so many of the visitors,an antidote to a troubled world. I chatted with, so many people from all over the world. Visitors from Ireland, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Italy and Spain recognised many of the plants and I practised my rusty French and Italian! Folk from Australia, South Africa and the USA were fulsome in their praise. The sculpture of Gaia – made from a Redwood – the “mother goddess”, with her flowing, willow hair over a stone bridge,
caught the attention of many. It was stunningly beautiful.

Many visitors talked to me about our campaigning work too: renewables done well and protection of green space were common themes. If only politicians had heard them!

A gold medal and “Best in Show 2026” were the icing on the cake of a wonderful day which I shall always treasure and remember.