Gardeners are expected to put the “green” into green-fingered in 2025, with front gardens for EVs and planting for flood prevention, experts suggest.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has predicted what will be popular next year with gardeners, drawing on inquiries from their members, trends in gardening and flower shows, and industry insight.
Front gardens will be on the front line of ongoing shifts driven by climate change, the RHS says, with an increasing number of electric vehicles on the road and householders looking to have easy access to charge points.
The horticultural experts say permeable paving and gravel gardens flanked by low-maintenance plants are low-cost options for front gardens that make room for cars to charge, while also cutting the risk of rainwater run-off and flooding.
There is also likely to be a growth in “sponge city” planting, with developers and councils increasingly providing smaller scale growing spaces in more urban areas, to soak up heavy rain and protect against flash flooding.
Green roofs and walls, which can cut flooding, cool buildings and roof-top solar panels, and improve air quality are also likely to proliferate. The charity’s online shop RHS Plants even sells small modular green wall systems for internal and external use because of consumer demand.
Guy Barter, chief horticulturist at the RHS, said 2025 was likely to see new ways of designing, growing and maintaining spaces.
“The EV revolution could usher in significant changes to what front gardens look like, while city centres could be punctuated by many more growing spaces that serve the dual purpose of providing refuge for people and wildlife but also all important flood proofing capabilities.”
He said that where the soil allows, planting in corners that people and cars will not be using could provide scope to add plants to front gardens that will soak up excess rainfall, tackle dust and pollution, help wildlife and support well-being.
In clay soils, well-sited planting areas to gather rainwater run-off can reduce and slow unwanted water flows.
And he suggested: “Clever siting of charging points to allow easy access should not mean front garden planting is neglected.
“This might include low-level post or fence-mounted sites, using the disruption to lay the cable as an opportunity to insert more planting.”
Plants for these spaces could include trees such as magnolia “Leonard Messel” and crab apple variety “Adirondack” , evergreens including aucuba japonica and choisya ternata, heuchera and hardy geranium groundcover and hedges of Portugal laurel.
The RHS is also predicting people will be growing more edible perennials, which are low maintenance, produce lots of fruit and provide structure and habitat in the garden.
The charity says 2024 was the year of the blueberry, which is easy to grow, compact and has attractive flowers and autumn colour, and 2025 will feature a new kid on the block, honeyberries or edible honeysuckle, which require even less attention.
Meanwhile the shift from traditional bedding plants to more long-lived, less thirsty and more robust planting will continue, particularly in public parks and community gardens, the RHS says.
Plants such as salvia, heathers and dahlias have proved particularly popular with community gardening groups in 2024, it said.
Carnivorous plants will become more widely available as new peat replacements in 2024 are expected to help UK growers increase propagation and breeding.
Another popular trend in 2024 that will continue is starting small, with gardeners buying 9cm (3.5 inch) potted plants rather than larger options, making them cheaper and allowing people to try out more variety for the same price.
The RHS also says this year’s trend of “gardening for the fun of it”, with green spaces reflecting interests and personalities rather than just looks or food, will be a theme again in 2025, and its own shows and gardens will be getting in on the act.
At the Chelsea Flower Show, there will be a garden for dog lovers designed by TV’s Monty Don, and a sustainable garden complete with a composting toilet will open at RHS Wisley in the spring.
