Plant conservation takes centre stage as Plant Heritage reveals its first-ever garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026
Sponsored by Project Giving Back and designed by The Planting Design Collective
The Plant Heritage Missing Collector Garden
Plant Heritage, the UK’s leading conservation charity for garden plants and home of the National Plant Collections®, is thrilled to announce its first-ever designer garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026, thanks to sponsorship from grant-giving charity Project Giving Back with additional support from Shanly Foundation.
The Plant Heritage Missing Collector Garden brings the charity’s mission to protect the UK’s garden plants to the heart of the world’s most famous flower show. Fittingly, it is created for the All About Plants category, with 80% of the garden planted up.
With more than 40 new National Plant Collections accredited in 2025 and just under 100,000 plants now safeguarded across the UK, Plant Heritage’s work is already making a significant impact. But far more needs to be done to ensure the future of many of our much-loved garden plants, as well as more unusual plants.
The Plant Heritage Missing Collector Garden comes at a pivotal moment for plant conservation. The charity’s Threatened Plants Programme has found that more than half the cultivated plants grown in the UK or Ireland in the past are no longer available to buy. One in six plants have been found growing in just one or two places, or nowhere at all.
Gwen Hines, Plant Heritage chief executive, explained: “We hope to inspire more people to join our growing community in safeguarding our nation’s favourite plants. Whilst plants in your garden may appear safer than those in the wild, they can still be at risk, so it's crucial that we protect our garden plants.”
The garden is designed by the newly-formed Planting Design Collective, a trio of designers who met while studying planting design at the London College of Garden Design. It will be packed with plants representing the charity’s work and aims to inspire a new wave of National Collection Holders and Plant Guardians, as well as more support for the charity’s ongoing work. It will shine a light on both the ‘living libraries’ of plants already safeguarded within National Plant Collections, alongside those still in need of a ‘missing collector’ to step forward.
The Planting Design Collective
More than 10 National Collection Holders from across the UK will contribute plants and expertise. Collections to be featured will include Geum, Boehmeria, Polypodium and Thalictrum, while the garden will also champion plants currently without a collection such as Aquilegia and Verbascum, to encourage future custodians. The plants have been selected to suit the woodland edge theme of the garden, but also to show how collections can be part of a beautifully designed space. Its ethos will be to inspire this nation of 40m+ gardeners to make a difference to plant conservation, at the same time as doing what they love.
Whilst the plants in the garden are the stars of the show, the space will also feature bespoke sandstone features, echoing the knowledge of plant collectors and the passion for learning that inspires so many gardeners. Stone pillars will represent stacks of books and museum-style stone drawers will be filled with plants.
Sustainability is at the heart of the garden, with reclaimed stone being used for the hard landscaping built by contractors Crowton Rowarth and the majority of the plants grown by How Green, a sustainable peat-free, family-run nursery in Kent.
Uniquely for RHS Chelsea, as well as the All About Plants garden, Plant Heritage’s work and plant success stories will also be spotlighted in the Great Pavilion, with a Plant Heritage zone showcasing more National Plant Collections.
The Planting Design Collective, Sally-Anne Rees, Kate Campbell and William Murray, met while studying planting design at the London College of Garden Design. Following a successful collaboration on a border at the 2024 RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival, the trio now take on their biggest project yet with their 2026 RHS Chelsea debut. They were inspired to get in touch with Plant Heritage after seeing the charity’s Missing Collections campaign and their garden puts the focus on the people behind the plants. Talking about their Chelsea garden, they said: “We’re all about collaboration at the Planting Design Collective, so we are absolutely thrilled to be working with Plant Heritage and their wonderful National Plant Collection holders to bring a really special garden to the world’s greatest flower show.”
Alex Denman, trustee of Project Giving Back, the grant-making charity that funds gardens for good causes at RHS Chelsea, says: “We are really excited to see this garden come to life at the show. It will be a true celebration of plants in all their glorious diversity, and we hope a springboard for Plant Heritage to grow their national plant collectors and more general support for its plant conversation work. Show visitors are going to love it!”
The garden is funded by Project Giving Back and the charity is receiving additional support from the Shanly Foundation.
More information about the garden, including the people and plants involved, will be shared via a dedicated website page. More information about the charity's work is available here and the National Collections here.