The green-fingered Glastonbury (RHS Chelsea Flower Show) has arrived, and chatter among the garden girls and “Interior Gays & Co”, as creative consultant Max Hurd puts it, is firmly on which florals are in for spring/summer. “We hold our breath for the opening of the gates,” he says. “In the same way that editors, designers and fashion fans study, then copy, trends from the runway, people like me descend on the Flower Show and drink in (literally, it’s quite the party) everything that it has to offer.”
So, what’s on the menu for 2024? “Thirsty, busty plants like peonies are out — they look like divas and they’re high maintenance, too,” says Ann-Marie Powell, the garden designer and a former Flower Show gold medal winner who is currently in trowel-dug pits preparing for this year. “Lupins, which have been all over the shows recently, have given way to irises — that was a trend set by Sarah Price and her beautiful garden last year.” Hurd agrees: “For months afterwards not a single party or table I attended was iris-less”
