We're thrilled to have created the Missing Collector Garden for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026
Our garden brought plant conservation to the heart of the world’s most famous flower show. It was designed by William Murray, Kate Campbell and Sally-Anne Rees of the Planting Design Collective and sponsored by Project Giving Back, with additional support from Shanly Foundation.
The garden was awarded a silver gilt medal and lots of people told us it was their favourite because of the variety and quality of plants, which is fantastic. Find out more about the garden and growers below. If you can, please support our work so we can save more plants for the future.
Help us save more garden plants for the future
Join us
Support our conservation work by becoming a member of Plant Heritage and enjoy talks, visits and more
Make a gift
As a small charity, your support will make a big difference
Become a corporate partner
Highlight your commitment to conservation with your customers and staff
About the garden
The Missing Collector Garden is a woodland edge garden, filled with plants safely looked after in our living library of National Plant Collections® as well as those looking for someone to take care of them. We aim to inspire more people to get involved in plant conservation as a National Collection holder or Plant Guardian, or to support our work in other ways. Collection Holders from across the UK are contributing their plants and expertise including Geum, Boehmeria, Rubus and Thalictrum. The garden will also include plants not yet safely in a Collection such as Aquilegia, Verbascum and Deschampsia grasses. Read more about the garden in this leaflet.
This is the full plant list. This brochure will tell you more about the garden.
Jason Ingram
Some highlights of The Plant Heritage Missing Collector Garden
Photographer: Jason Ingram
Why did we do a Chelsea garden? And why do people become a Collector?
One of our trustees and host of the 'Our Plant Stories' podcast has been following some of the preparations for our garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Episode 1: Gwen, our CEO, and the Planting Design Collective - Kate, Sally and Will - discuss how the project started. Listen here
Episode 2: Sally meets Plant Heritage volunteers who play a vital role in the charity's work and are lending plants for the Missing Collector garden. Listen here
Episode 3: 'The Chair Farmer' - Sally meets Gavin and Alice Munro of Full Grown who have literally grown the chair featured at the heart of our Missing Collector garden with meticulous pruning and training. Listen here.
Episode 4: 'The Garden Reveal' - Hear about the build, the garden reveal and final thoughts on The Plant Heritage Missing Collector Garden. Listen here.
Meet the people who brought the Missing Collector garden to life
Building the garden
From Chelsea pros to creative craftspeople
Growing the garden
We've packed our garden full of beautiful plants, grown by experts
From Chelsea to Chester
Chester Zoo is known for its animals, but it has incredible plants too
About Project Giving Back
Our garden was sponsored by Project Giving Back, a unique grant-making charity that provides funding for gardens for good causes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It was launched in May 2021 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its devastating effects on UK charitable fundraising - effects that have since been exacerbated by the cost of living crisis.
Project Giving Back funded 12 gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2026 making a total of 63 gardens inspired by a range of good causes from 2022 to 2026.
About Shanly Foundation
Shanly Foundation kindly provided additional support to Plant Heritage for our RHS Chelsea Flower Show exhibit in 2026. Shanly Foundation is a grant-giving charity funded by the Shanly Group of companies. Since 1969, Shanly Foundation and Shanly Group have contributed over £30 million to those in need of a helping hand, from youth clubs, schools, and woodland projects, to centres for adults with physical and learning disabilities. These good causes are primarily within the southeast of England but at critical times the Foundation also makes donations to worldwide disaster funds.
Find out moreWould you like to become a National Collection holder, or to support our work in other ways? Get in touch today. We'd love to hear from you.