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10 take-home trends from RHS Hampton 2024

What can we learn from RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2024? Discover the best in garden design, planting ideas, money-saving tips, and styling from this wonderful summer event

Summer arrived in the UK at last as the RHS rolled out the green carpet for floral-clad visitors flocking to this glorious horticultural event at the historic Hampton Court Palace. If you missed out on visiting the Show this year, here are some of the top trends, brightest ideas and freshest floral palettes to inspire you. 

1 Sunshine yellow versus dark and brooding 

Colour burst onto the showground in a mix of rainbow shades, but the standout colour at the show in 2024 was lemon yellow. From Hemerocallis (daylily) to bright yellow furniture on The Reinvention of Yellow, it was everywhere. Whether teamed with limey greens or a sea of ocean blues, yellow was having a ‘hello sunshine’ moment. 

Snazzy yellow furniture on A Reinvention of Yellow, designed by Garden Girls Collective

Bright combo of yellow tones on The Lion King Anniversary Garden, designed by Juliet Sergeant

Sunny Santolina and Achillea standout against a purple haze on The Mediterraneo Garden, designed by Katerina Kantalis

On the dark side, blackened timber, dark foliage and brooding flower tones were a striking contrast, setting off a variety of palettes in peaches, lilacs and greens. Dark shades become a shadow, allowing us to hide elements, or provide an inky backdrop for plants in the foreground. 

Black timber on the Bond Landscape Design: Match Point garden, designed by Oliver Bond
Striking black backdrop for lilac Veronicastrum on the Exodus Adventure Travels: The Sounds of Adventure Garden, designed by Nic Howard
Dark foliage used to maximum effect on the RHS Peat-Free Garden, designed by Arit Anderson

2 Ways with wood  

Timber was widely used across the Show in brilliant and creative fashion. Edging, seats and walkways were all made from warm-toned wood. This included many recycled elements, such as using scaffold planks to make tables and hand-made chairs. 
Hand-made seat made using scaffold boards and aged steel on Lancaster’s Garden of Renewal, Nature’s Embrace, designed by Giada Francois
Innovative use of longlasting timber sleepers as a walkway across a shallow rill on the RHS Peat-Free Garden
Screens and fences came in all shapes and timbers, from chunky birch branches to thin golden planks. Leaving gaps between the timbers slows the wind down, and provides privacy without being a solid barrier, useful to give the illusion of space in a garden by creating ‘rooms.’

Beautiful birch trunks used to make a fence on the Moss Magic Garden, designed by Bea Tann

3 Inside out 

The doors were open and the furniture had escaped into the gardens. Clever use of cupboards, cabinets and even beds gave the gardens a homely feel. Using repurposed furniture means giving those retro pieces another life amongst the plants and takes the shabby chic look to another level. You might need to give your repurposed items a lick of varnish to make them last that little bit longer, or just enjoy the patinas and textures that form as they age gracefully. 

Vintage style table and chairs used on The Kitchen Garden at The Pig by Ollie Hutson
Quirky use of a cabinet to display treasures on Healing Power, designed by Plant Spaces
Time for a nap amongst the hostas. Eye-catching use of a bed by New Forest Hosta & Hemerocallis
4 Going up?  

Walkways elevated the views of the gardens to another level.  A timber walkway through planting doubled as a bench, while a gently sloping ramp took you to a building that hovered above a pool. This would be useful in a garden that often floods and gives you an extra dimension to play with planting, around and under the walkways. 

Timber boardwalk that doubles up as a seat on the RHS Adventure Within Garden, designed by Freddie Strickland
Dark timber walkway leading to an open-sided summerhouse on the Exodus Adventure Travels:The Sounds of Adventure Garden, designed by Nic Howard
If you can’t go up, take it down. Sunken areas were seen in several gardens, creating cool, chic seating areas. This allows you to surround a space with plants and add a touch of drama to a garden. They’re also a perfect way to provide privacy and a sense of peaceful seclusion. 

Sunken garden with an open feel on The Making Sense Garden, designed by Flora Scouarnec and Victoria Pease-Cox
A cool sunken space surrounded by shade-loving plants on the Moss Magic Garden

5 Weave a willow spell 

Swirling and twisting its way around many Show gardens, willow was having a moment and doing it with style. Used as compost bins, dens, fencing and plant supports, this wonderful pliable material is fun to play with and easy to try at home. You can source online or grow your own to cut at home. 

Creative use of willow to make a compost bin on RHS Peat-Free Garden
Woven willow used as a simple fence on A Four Season Sanctuary, designed by Tim Jennings
Willow plant supports on the RHS Peat-Free Garden
6 Multi-stems continue to reign 

Undeniably beautiful, trees with multiple stems were as popular as ever in Show gardens, providing drama, structure and elegance. The joy of a multi-stem tree is that it gives you height in a space without feeling heavy, allowing planting to surround its base in dappled shade. 

Multi-stem trees remain popular, here used on A Four Season Sanctuary, designed by Tim Jennings
Mature multi-stem tree adds dappled shade and interesting texture on the Exodus Adventure Travels: The Sounds of Adventure Garden
7 Incredible edibles 

The choice of edibles available continues to grow, quite literally, and many gardens were showing off unusual colours or ways of displaying veg, from kokedama to cushions. We are encouraged to ‘eat a rainbow’ of fruit and veg, which gives us a wide variety of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. 

Microgreen beetroot in a miniature pot, on the She Grows Veg display
8 Tank top 

The water tank remained popular, with designers using them to create beautiful ponds, planters and storage. Adding taps, spouts and rain chains makes the most of any free water from buildings and is an important way of storing water for periods of drought. It also slows water down and reduces flooding. 

Important rain collection in metal tanks on the RHS Peat-Free Garden
Large water tank used on the RHS Money-Saving Garden, designed by Anya Lautenbach and Jamie Butterworth
9 Oh I do like to be beside the seaside 

There were lots of ideas to personalise your garden with a little seaside style, from adding golden shells to pavers, to ‘shellcreting’ pretty shells to pots. Shells were also used as a mulch and are a waste product of the shellfish industry. 

Beautiful, hand-crafted shell embellishment on pots, on Kent Wildflower seeds display
Pretty golden shells on paving on The Way Of Saint James, designed by Nilufer Danis
Shells used as a mulch on Wild Child Cornwall, designed by Victoria Jane Cucknell
10 The dead hedge 

Rapidly becoming a popular way to create a fence is the dead hedge – made using uprights as supports for laying shrub pruning’s and tree branches in layers. As it decomposes you can keep adding more, giving you an ever-changing piece of art that doubles up as a wildlife home, and reduces the need to take waste away. 

Curvacious dead hedge on The Lion King Anniversary Garden, a great way to reuse waste garden material

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See the RHS Allotments growing remedies for health

See the RHS Allotments growing remedies for health

Star plants of RHS Hampton Court 2024

Star plants of RHS Hampton Court 2024

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The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.