The year of the tree

Kathryn Bradley-Hole on what to look out for at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show next week

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WOODPECKERS are drumming. A blackbird runs through his repertoire from the highest branches, as the trees unfurl brand-new leaves in translucent, luminous greens. The flowers of hedge bank and woodland edge—alkanet, campion, Queen Anne’s lace—beckon butterflies and bees. Take this as a keynote for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2024: the unfolding freshness and energy of deciduous woods in May, interpreted in numerous interesting ways in the show gardens.

The National Garden Scheme (NGS) Garden, by Tom Stuart-Smith (page 92), sets out its woodland credentials with an impressive grove of large, coppiced hazels, spreading broad canopies of fresh foliage. Slender footpaths create serpentine routes between them, to reach a cleft-oak hut for tea and cake, celebrating the time-honored tradition of the NGS. ‘Lemon drizzle or Victoria sponge?’ This is a calm and relaxed piece of gardened countryside, with pretty herbaceous plantings under the hazels, including deep-blue Siberian irises, green-and-white-flowered astrantia, ferns, primulas, epimediums, euphorbia and geum.

In contrast, the National Autistic Society Garden, by Sophie Parmenter and Dido Milne, suggests woodland alongside a wetland meadow. Tree bark is a theme, via several fine specimens of river birch (