For peat’s sake: RHS faces conservative backlash over Chelsea flower show

T here was King Charles and David Beckham as well as a nocturnal garden to support bats and a Viking-themed allotment full of edible plants in pots. The Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea flower show , which ends on Saturday, was as lovely and celebrity-glittered as ever, most agreed. But dig a little deeper, say critics on the conservative wing of the RHS – including one spectacularly outspoken former contributor – and not everything is necessarily smelling of roses. David Beckham having the new rose named after him pinned to his button hole at the RHS Chelsea flower show. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA There has been a cashflow problem and, depending on whom you speak to, the root cause might be global events, financial losses due to A3/M25 roadworks blocking visits to RHS Garden Wisley or, in the mind of some, “wokery” and a lack of adherence to the traditional ways of doing things. Sarah Eberle’s garden, featuring a giant, sleeping woman carved out of a fallen tree, won the top prize at this year’s show. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/Reuters The RHS’s latest accounts filed with the Charity Commission reveal it recorded a net loss of £8.1m in the year ending January 2025 – double its losses of the previous year – raising concerns that financial pressures might grow like Japanese knotweed. The RHS said unpublished financial accounts for the last financial year were much healthier. …