With the Chelsea Flower Show in full swing this week, we’re certainly not short on gardening inspiration to take home – from the colours taking over this year’s show to the mid-level planting trend spotted across so many of the 2026 show gardens.
But there are a few key plants that define this year’s show and one plant in particular kept cropping up during our visit – ferns.
Interestingly, it’s also a plant Monty Don recently said is an underrated garden addition.
When asked "which plant deserves more love?" in a recent Instagram social video series with Barbour, he said: “Ferns get bad press. They’re seen as a bit dull and to do with darkness. But they’re exquisite and beautiful.”
Ferns were spotted time and time again, in various creative ways, at the Chelsea Flower Show this year – from acting as a brilliant ‘filler’ for border displays, helping to anchor a planting scheme, to adding a sense of wildness through overhanging placements. They're also brilliant for bridging the height gap between ground-level plants and taller climbers.
Our team spotted them in Patrick Clark’s Children’s Society Garden, where they were layered with other mid-level plants, as well as other shady garden favourites like silverberry and Japanese forest grass.
They were also seen in the Tokonoma Garden, bringing delicate texture to the space and elevating the garden in a non-showy way – adding to its overall sense of tranquility.
Ferns were also spotted in Trussell's Together Garden, where they acted as a gorgeous neutral planting backdrop, helping the purple and white plants (such as Baptisia 'Purple Smoke' and honeywort 'Purpurascens') pop – as well as spilling onto paths for a wild, naturalistic effect.
They're also a great option for smaller and balcony gardens – seen first-hand in The Seasalt Painted Garden where they formed bold visual displays, sitting alongside geums and common poppies in colourful painted green pots.
With garden designers creatively using ferns for striking visual effects and as small and shady garden solutions, perhaps this often overlooked garden plant is finally getting the limelight Monty Don thinks it deserves?
Summer gardening edit
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Lizzie is the multiplatform editor at Country Living, where you’ll find her writing about unique property market finds and dreamy UK staycation spots. Her specialisms include interiors, property, wildlife, travel, slow living and more. Previously, she’s written for Metro, Evening Standard, Ideal Home, Woman & Home and various other home and lifestyle titles. Lizzie studied English Literature at University of Liverpool, where she also was a writer and editor for her uni paper.
