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It is one of the most prestigious events of the UK social calendar, but the great and good attending Chelsea flower show may be in for a shock this year as the Royal Horticultural Society unveils a sex-themed garden sponsored by a company that sells vibrators.
Lovehoney, a sex toy company, is sponsoring an Aphrodite-themed “pleasure garden” full of flowers and plants associated with love and sex.
The show has been seeking new sponsors for its gardens after the charity Project Giving Back announced 2026 would be the last year it funds Chelsea. To fill the void, the RHS is looking for new charitable funding for 2027.
The garden, named Aphrodite’s Hothouse, is being designed by the award-winning designer James Whiting, the founder of Plants By There.
Whiting said he hoped to “break taboos” with his garden, which is themed around a giant greenhouse that contains a huge ornamental heart, as well as Aphrodite-themed props including a clam with a pearl inside.
He said: “Chelsea flower show is the perfect stage for storytelling with plants, and I’ve never been one to play it safe. Creating the ultimate pleasure garden with Lovehoney was too irresistible to pass up.
“Gardens should spark curiosity, break a few taboos and make people stop in their tracks. Houseplants, much like pleasure, are something we should celebrate openly and abundantly.”
The plants being used either have heart-shaped leaves, flowers or bracts, or are red or pink in colour. Aphrodite is also sometimes represented by orchids, so these will feature in the garden.
Plants that evoke the sea, from which Aphrodite canonically emerged in the foam, will be used. These include mistletoe cactus, spider plants and Spanish moss, as well as the unfurling fronds of ferns like those in the asplenium family.
Whiting said he would be using “flirty” and “playful” plants such as heartleaf philodendron, spiderwort and then plants with blooms and foliage in pink hues to signify early love blossoming such as phalaenopsis orchid and caladium.
Plants that evoke lust and have deep velvety foliage, tactile leaves, rich red and burgundy blooms and leaf undersides are combined in a throng of suggestive desire, including densely planted flamingo flower, prayer plants, pitcher plants and red-leaf philodendron.
Jo Connarty, of Lovehoney, said: “You don’t expect to see a sexual wellness brand at Chelsea flower show and that’s precisely the point. We’re always looking for cultural spaces to show up in and new ways to tell stories about sexual wellbeing, especially where it’s been absent. An immersive, unexpected pleasure garden designed to spark curiosity and challenge expectations, because if we want to change the conversation around sex, we can’t stay in our lane.”
Another potentially controversial change to the show is an end to a ban on garden gnomes. The RHS is inviting celebrities to decorate gnomes to feature at Chelsea, which will then be auctioned off to raise funds for the next generation of gardeners. It last lifted the gnome ban to celebrate the centenary of Chelsea in 2013. The gnomes have long been banned as they are deemed tacky and not in keeping with the event.
Also at the show will be a garden part-designed by King Charles. The RHS and King’s Foundation Curious Garden will contain delphiniums, one of the king’s favourite plants. He is a patron of the Delphinium Society and grows many of them in his Highgrove garden.
This exhibit is also part-designed by David Beckham and will contain seven raised plant beds as a nod to his shirt number for Manchester United and England.
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Chelsea flower show will be held at the Royal Hospital Gardens from 19 to 23 May.
