The King’s Foundation and The Highgrove Shop return to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for 2025
The Highgrove Shop, all proceeds from which support the work of The King’s Foundation, is returning to this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show after a successful debut in 2024.
The Highgrove Shop has been dressed using the new Highgrove by Sanderson collection of wallpapers and fabrics, which launched on 1 May. The space will be decorated in the new Highgrove by Sanderson wallpaper, complete with bespoke theatre style curtains at the front of the shop.
“After a bumper first year in 2024, we are so looking forward to returning to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 – this time with a bigger footprint. We hope visitors to the Show can take away a piece of Highgrove with them and be inspired to visit the gardens and our other King’s Foundation sites in the future.”
Scott Simpson, Retail Director, The King’s Foundation
Products on offer this year will include produce from Highgrove Gardens such as honey, apple juice, rhubarb gin, botanical gin and honey rum as well as other delicious Highgrove Kitchen classics including jams, preserves and chutneys, tea and biscuits. A collection of Highgrove gardening accessories, homeware and fragrance will also be available, and we will proudly display some limited-edition lithographs – reproductions of HM King Charles III’s watercolors, which are all personally signed by His Majesty.
Highgrove will also showcase new collaborations with British fashion brand, Burberry and Penhaligon’s, as well as the Highgrove by Sanderson collection.
Flowers for the Shop have been designed by Shane Connelly & Co, who created the floral displays at the Coronation in 2023. All flowers are seasonal and British grown and will be replanted at Highgrove Gardens after the show. Emma Stothard, celebrated willow sculptor, has also created a willow replica of the Highgrove Topiary Crown decorated with flowers by Shane Connolly.
All proceeds from Highgrove Gardens products are invested back into the work of The King’s Foundation, which operates specialist workshops in traditional heritage skills such as embroidery, millinery and furniture-making on site.
In addition to the Highgrove Shop, The King’s Foundation and Highgrove will be represented across the Showground this year, in two other exciting displays.
King’s Foundation students create table for The London Square Chelsea Pensioners Garden
Garden designer Dave Green has been working with the Chelsea Pensioners since last summer to capture their stories and lives as service veterans to provide inspiration for the London Square Chelsea Pensioners Garden. The pensioners mentioned how their travels around the world during service and after always provides a connection with people they meet.
To highlight this important connection in the garden design, graduates from The King’s Foundation’s Snowdon School of Furniture were approached and commissioned to design and make a British oak dining table, inset with a decorative brass map of the world, which will form a centrepiece for the garden for the Pensioners to gather round and provide a talking point with visitors on where they have served and travelled. After the show, the garden will be relocated as a permanent feature within the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
The table is being made in The King’s Foundation’s Snowdon School of Furniture workshops at Highgrove and has been designed and made by Hannah Evans and Lily Hitchcock, recent alumni of The Snowdon School of Furniture, working with the School’s manager Nick Wright. The British oak was selected by Nick Wright, with Hannah and Lily on a visit to English Woodlands timber yard, based in West Sussex.
“Our graduates have thoroughly enjoyed working on this very special project which will live on at the Royal Hospital Chelsea for the Chelsea Pensioners to enjoy for years to come. It’s fantastic to see our graduates thriving and being given their own commissions, to be displayed in such a prominent and prestigious position at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. This has been a great learning experience for them, and I hope their beautiful work in British timber will encourage more budding furniture makers to come and study with us at The King’s Foundation.”
Nick Wright, Snowdon School of Furniture Manager
Sienna Hosta recreates the Stumpery at Highgrove
Surrey-based specialist nursery Sienna Hosta is set to unveil a stunning exhibit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025, created in collaboration with The King’s Foundation. Inspired by the magnificent stumpery at Highgrove Gardens, home to the National Collection of Large Leaf and Giant Hostas, this display will highlight the beauty and diversity of these shade-loving perennials.
Sienna Hosta has worked with Highgrove’s gardening team on developing the hostas in the Stumpery for many years, and their expertise in cultivating exceptional plants will be at the forefront of this year’s Chelsea exhibit. Visitors can expect an immersive display that echoes the naturalistic, woodland charm of Highgrove’s stumpery, featuring an array of majestic hostas nestled among carefully placed tree stumps.
