YoungMinds garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show

YoungMinds and Chase Gardens are creating the charity’s first ever garden for RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026, with a biodiverse plant-rich design highlighting the crushing pressures affecting young people’s mental health and the importance of community to help them thrive. 

Sponsored by Project Giving Back, the grant-making charity that funds gardens for good causes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the garden features in the ‘All About Plants’ category and is influenced by designer Charlie Chase’s experiences of navigating his mental health following the death of his mother. Her love of gardening inspired him to immerse himself in horticulture and helped him find a path through his grief. 

With one in five young people aged 8-25^[1] experiencing a probable mental health condition, the garden's design captures the diversity of young people’s experiences and offers a dynamic response to the struggles they are facing. The many pressures affecting their mental health, such as poverty, inequality, intense academic pressure and the online world, are represented by two, four-tonne boulders with yellow  flowers^[2] breaking through and two giant conifers emerging from the top, to show young people’s strength while struggling with the impact on their mental health.  

The garden is a space for young people to be together and for others to join them, recognising the importance of community and making sure no young person feels alone with their mental health. This is reflected in the habitat wall at the back of the garden which will attract its own community of insects and wildlife, making sure no gardener or visitor is alone.  

Young people will be involved in shaping the YoungMinds Garden through its time at RHS Chelsea Flower Show and beyond. After the show, the garden will be relocated to Newham where it will become a community space for all. The garden will also be used by Chase Gardens to host gardening sessions with the aim of opening up horticulture, and the potential career paths available, to young people who would otherwise not have the opportunity to engage in gardening. 

The YoungMinds Garden has also received additional support from the Bupa Foundation.  

YoungMinds is excited to have a garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show for the first time thanks to Project Giving Back and the incredible creativity of Chase Gardens. With record numbers of young people struggling with their mental health, having spaces to connect with and build communities is more important than ever.  We hope visitors to the garden will draw inspiration and hope from it and join us in supporting young people to thrive.

Abigail Ampofo, Interim Chief Executive at YoungMinds
As soon as I reached out to YoungMinds I knew this was going to be an incredible collaboration. With the generous support of Project Giving Back, the YoungMinds Garden is truly a garden aimed at activating young gardeners. We’re excited to be working with young people for RHS Chelsea Flower Show and continuing this once the garden is relocated to Newham. The YoungMinds garden is about more than just going outside. It acknowledges young people’s mental health struggles and we’re aiming to open up horticulture to young people who might not have considered it an option before, either as a career or a place to find community.

Charlie Chase, garden designer from Chase Gardens
The health of people and the health of our planet are deeply connected. The Bupa Foundation is proud to support the YoungMinds Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show - celebrating the powerful role nature plays to nurture young minds, while introducing young people to gardening where they can forge connections and develop skills. Co-created with young people, the garden offers a hopeful vision for both people and planet.

Anna Russell, Director of the Bupa Foundation

For further information and for interview requests please contact press@youngminds.org.uk or call 0203 861 2072. 

[1] Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, 2023 NHS England Digital  

[2] The yellow flowers around the boulders are: Allium Oliiquum, Allium Fistulosum, Allium Sikkimense, Aaquilegia Viridiflora, Helicrysum Italicum, Euphorbia Rigida and Zizea Aureum