Cabana's Best In Show: RHS Chelsea 2026

BEST IN SHOW | HAPPENINGS | WORLD OF CABANA

British landscape designer Elizabeth Tyler, founder of her eponymous studio and designer of historic gardens across England, visits RHS Chelsea Flower Show, choosing her favorites exclusively for Cabana.

BY ELIZABETH TYLER | HAPPENINGS | 20 MAY 2026

Header image: Tokonoma Garden – Sanumaya no Niwa. Designed by Kazuyuki Ishihara and Paul Noritaka Tange. Show Garden. RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026. © RHS / Neil Hepworth

Since its founding in 1913, London's RHS Chelsea Flower Show has set the benchmark for global garden design, balancing horticultural tradition with bold new ideas. Cabana asked long-time attendee Elizabeth Tyler, a Wiltshire-based landscape designer, to select the gardens that most impressed. From ochre-hued Provençal landscapes to exquisitely restrained Japanese courtyards, wild British woodland and innovative low-carbon planting schemes, Elizabeth's choices reveal gardens defined by beauty, ecology and atmosphere.

James Basson, Project Giving Back

Although this garden was not judged in a category, it is a brilliant example of a show garden doing something interesting and beautiful. Created for Project Giving Back (without whom the show would have struggled in past years) the garden is an evocation of the ochre mines near Roussillon in the south of France, and the ecology that has developed around them.

The attention to detail with plant and specimen choices and little incidentals like dead leaves and pine needles strewn on the floor make this a very special garden indeed. Basson plays around with the idea of beauty and leans towards the imperfect in the form of many of his key plants, something that is a joy to see.

Sarah Eberle, Campaign to Protect Rural England

This garden was crowned best in show whilst I was standing next to it, and the whoop that went up from the crowd attests to how well loved it is. Sarah Eberle is one of only three women to have ever won Chelsea Flower Show 'Best in Show', and this is the second time she’s won. A large sculpture of Gaia lies across the garden, but what stands out for me is the stunning planting and its evocation of an ‘edgeland’ where rural and urban meet. Flawless. I particularly loved the characterful Crataegus and Viburnum opulus, among much else.

Kazuyuki Ishihara: Tokonoma Garden

Always one of my favorite gardens at Chelsea, which every year feels a little different. This year, Kazuyuki Ishihara and his team presented the ‘Tokonoma Garden’ as an evocation of a Japanese courtyard. Perfect mossy cushions run like rivers through the space and echo the crystal-clear water feature, which ends in a pool beneath the traditional Japanese tea house. Delicate irises and perfectly formed trees were highlights for me.

Tom Stuart-Smith, Tate Britain

The Tate Britain Garden. Designed by Tom Stuart-Smith. Show Garden. RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026. © RHS / Neil Hepworth

Another lesson in restrained beauty from Tom Stuart-Smith’s studio whose main avenue gardens are always high on my list at the show. The garden this year was designed for Tate Britain and will be transferred there to be part of the new Clore Garden, opening in 2027. Drought tolerant and tender species are combined beautifully around a rill which snakes through the space. Barbara Hepworth’s ‘Bicentric Form’ sculpture acts as perhaps the best garden sculpture I’ve yet seen at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Chase Gardens, YoungMinds

This was the first year that the ‘All About Plants’ category has been shown outside the main tent, and it works beautifully. I adored this garden, with its thoughtful layout and brilliant plant palette, it is a true plant lover’s garden.

Towering conifers frame the multiple layers of planting with favourites such as Nothofagus antartica providing real moments of beauty on the borders. Bursts of yellow (from plants such as Aeonium and buttercups) are placed to represent moments of light cutting through the heaviness (represented by boulders throughout the space).

Harry Holding, Alex Michaelis, Eden Project

The Eden Project: Bring Me Sunshine Garden. Designed by Harry Holding and Alex Michaelis. Show Garden. RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026. © RHS / Neil Hepworth

The Eden Project in Cornwall has been drawing crowds for many years, but this garden was designed to celebrate the brand-new Eden Project Morecambe which will be opening in 2027. The materials palette was especially striking, with the central structure and paths being built from low carbon ‘clamcrete’, which uses shells and other by-products from the fishing industry. The soft, coastal planting that surrounded these elements included some of my favorites, such as Viper’s bugloss (Echium vulgare), Asphodeline lutea and Crataegus x lavalleei.

Main Marquee: Roses

This is the very heart of the show in my eyes, with nurseries from across the country (and Europe) setting up incredibly intricate stands to display their specialist plants. The rose growers, David Austin and Peter Beales, always put on an incredible show with stands that envelope you in intoxicating perfume and this year was no different.

David Austin’s stunning display included the new David Beckham rose in its Chelsea debut and the species roses of Peter Beales really drew my eye.

Joe and Laura Carey, Addleshaw Goddard

The first thing that struck me about this lovely garden is the patchwork wall (made of oyster shell-based low carbon concrete) that stands behind the seating area at the heart of the space. Designed to celebrate the patchwork of pocket parks of London, this charming garden has a water feature made of reclaimed stone and uses copper to create a series of steps through the space. Planting delicately envelopes these features and includes a striking pine tree as well as Verbascum, Helianthemum and London Pride.

Ashleigh Aylett, Woodland Trust

Another ‘All About Plants’ garden that I really enjoyed. The ‘Forgotten Forests’ Garden is an homage to native British woodland with layer upon layer of native plants and attention to detail. The dry-stone wall that surrounds the garden is as much a place for planting as the rest of the space, with ferns and Navelwort nestled in to the cracks. Field maples (Acer campestre) and spindle (Euonymus europeaus) form a beautifully dappled border to the garden.

Special Mentions

The other stands I go to first are always Kevock Garden and Jacques Amand, both of whom grow a range of delicate, rare and beautiful plants for a range of conditions.

It was also great to see auriculas back at the show this year, grown beautifully by Summerdale Garden Nursery. And the two bonsai stands were fabulous, as ever, but I will never be an expert bonsai grower myself…