Chelsea flower show seeks new charity sponsors after mystery donors end support | Chelsea flower show
Chelsea flower fair is looking for new charity sponsors after a mysterious philanthropic couple who spent more than £23 million on show gardens ended their support.
Project Giving Back was founded by two anonymous donors in 2022 and has since paid for 63 gardens at the world’s most prestigious gardening event, held every summer at the Royal Hospital gardens in south-west London.
This year will be the show’s final funding and the charity is creating a farewell garden to celebrate her work and bid farewell to Chelsea.
In previous years corporate sponsors spent up to £1 million on a garden. For example, the Daily Telegraph paid a large sum of money for a garden in Chelsea every year until 2016. But the number of corporate sponsors has decreased since the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid pandemic.
Supported by donations from Project Giving Back, 63 charities have stepped in to fill the gap, using demonstration gardens to celebrate their causes. This year’s events include Asthma and Lung UK, Children’s Charity, Eden Project and Parkinson’s UK.
The event has become more focused on eco-friendly gardening in recent years, with bee- and butterfly-friendly flowers coming to the fore and a focus on growing native plants.
Much of this has been driven by Project Giving Back, whose rewilding garden – which has caused some controversy in the gardening world for its deliberately messy appearance – won best in show in 2022, an award that charity-sponsored gardens have won three times.
The flower show, run by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), has long benefited from the generosity of investment company M&G, which was the main sponsor for 11 years until 2020. This year Range Rover took over as title sponsor of Somerset hotel The Newt.
But to fill the gap left by the Giving Back Project, the RHS is seeking new relief funding for 2027.
A spokesman said: “Throughout its 100-year history, the RHS Chelsea flower show has always attracted sponsors and charities to benefit from the international platform and high-profile stage of the world’s most famous horticultural event. “Over the last five years and beyond the pandemic, Project Giving Back has played a key role in supporting charities small and large and demonstrating the power of gardens to make a real difference.
“RHS Chelsea has always attracted, and continues to attract, demonstration gardens related to charitable work, and it remains the Royal Horticultural Society’s biggest fundraiser, enabling us to engage millions of people in gardening across the UK.”
Hattie Ghaui, CEO of Project Giving Back, said: “This is the last year we have funded the gardens for good causes through an application to the RHS Chelsea flower fair. We were initially set up as a three-year project and have extended it for a further two years based on the positive impact and feedback we have received.”
He added that the charity will be closed after the show but will share its experience with others: “We believe we have created an inspiring plan that other sponsors can follow.”
The charity’s final garden will be designed by James Basson of Provence-based Scape Design. Nestled among pine forests will be towering red sandstone cliffs, colored with natural ocher pigment and gently weathered over time.
It will be a striking sight and will feature plantings suitable for the warm climates of Southern France; This could be the plant to grow in UK summer gardens in the future as the climate crisis progresses.
Basson’s last garden in Chelsea was for M&G Investments in 2017. Inspired by a remote quarry in Malta, the garden featured simple limestone pillars covered with wild shrubs. She won top honors in the show, so maybe that’s what Project Giving Back is aiming for when leaving Chelsea.
The charity said the study would show that gardens “when thoughtfully designed and generously supported, can continue to inspire, heal and give back long after the show has finished”.
