Plant Combination Ideas seen at RHS Chelsea.

The Chelsea Flower Show is the perfect place for learning about plant combination ideas to copy in your own garden. When I first started visiting the RHS flower shows, plants were forced into flowering either early or late, so for example daffodils might be seen blooming in May, next to a display of dahlias forced to flower early.  These days, the trend is for more natural plant combinations, at RHS Chelsea in May the plants are, by and large, what one might expect to see flowering in May. I’ve picked up a few plant combination ideas again  this year and  inspired by past shows, that you can read about in our previous blog on Chelsea, if you wish here.

Plant combination ideas for borders using perennials

Continuing on the  wildlife friendly theme from last year, Chelsea 2024 was crammed with borders full of plant combination ideas for borders beneficial to pollinators. Here’s a great one for a shady border, Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’ self-seeds obligingly in my garden.  I love this combination with Geranium Sanguinium Album where the white edges of the Brunnera are enhanced. Definitely one to try in a shady position, with ferns acting as a foliage contrast, for spring interest.

The acid yellow of Euphorbia Palustris act here as a backdrop to the star plant Kniphofia ‘Bees Lemon.’ When designing gardens we tend to find that people shy away from yellow plants, but this wonderfully cheerful combination is hard to resist!. Eye catching it certainly is!

 

Many of the gardens at Chelsea this year used achilleas. Again, if yellow is not for you, this plant combination may change your mind. Paired here with wafts of fragrant fennel  foliage and picking up the startlingly yellow centre of the oxeye daisy, the way these plants combine make a fabulous sight.

 

Baldder campion – Silene vulgaris is a common site on roadsides, but just because a plant is ‘common’ doesn’t mean it can’t look ‘sophisticated’ when planted at the Chelsea flower show!  Seen here in combination with the stems of birches and grasses, this is easy to grow and looks wonderfully elegant.

Buttercups are no longer considered weeds (although perhaps in moderation.)   Just as last year, they were seen in colourful abundance at Chelsea 2024, pictured here with white Ragged Robin – Lychnis flos-cuculi alba another ‘must have’ combination idea for easy growing.

Geums are just ‘going over’ now in my Oxfordshire garden, but there were plenty at Chelsea, flowering abundantly. This orange geum, possibly ’Totally Tangerine,’ contrasts well with the  fennel, another plant used in many of this year’s show gardens at Chelsea.

Yellow, white and blue are confident colour combinations seen at Chelsea this year. Euphorbais and geraniums are happy together in light shade. Neither are fussy plants so good to try in a tricky spot of the garden.

 The beautiful Cornus kousa, we saw so much of at last year’s Chelsea Flower show, was less in evidence this year, but I think it looks great here pictured with purple undergrowth…

…and with the bright blue cornflower.

 

Verbascum chaixii Vill.is a reliable plant for May colour and was featured in some of the Chelsea show gardens. I find verbascums (nettle leaf mullein) seed freely in my garden and they are welcome too. Seen here with Euphorbia and Artemisia in the background, another wonderful example of plant combination ideas to use in our gardens.

Plant combination ideas for pots

Some of the show gardens feature pots, and it’s also worth seeking plant combination ideas on the trade stands. It’s hard to go wrong with the classic grey, blue and white theme. Seen here with White Alliums as the star and Nepeta (cat mint) as the supporting act in a grey container, this is a perfect partnership for the May garden.