Plant List: Hospice UK Garden of Compassion

A full list of the plants exhibited at Hospice UK’s Garden of Compassion in 2025 – including some never seen before at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

A full list of the plants exhibited at Hospice UK’s Garden of Compassion in 2025 – including some never seen before at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

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The Hospice UK Garden of Compassion:

Tom Hoblyn's design for Garden of Compassion for Hospice UK's RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden in 2025

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A full list of the plants exhibited at Hospice UK’s Garden of Compassion in 2025 – including some never seen before at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Some plants have never before been seen at Chelsea

About the Hospice UK Garden of Compassion

In what is his final RHS Chelsea Flower Show Garden, multi award-winning designer Tom Hoblyn is to create the Hospice UK Garden of Compassion, to celebrate the important role played by hospice gardens in end-of-life care across the UK.

Hospice UK is the national champion for more than 200 hospices in the UK, fighting to make sure hospice care is there for all who need it, for now and forever.  It is that sense of permanence which Tom aims to capture in his innovative design. The garden is sponsored by Project Giving Back, the unique grant-giving charity that funds gardens for good causes at RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Patients at the end of life often express a wish to enjoy the outdoors in their final days and following the show, the Hospice UK’s Garden of Compassion will be relocated to St Cuthbert’s Hospice in Durham. While Tom’s naturalistic design may challenge a traditional notion of a hospice garden, the design has been carefully curated by Tom, who worked closely with hospice occupational therapists, to ensure accessibility for all and easy access for both a wheelchair and a hospital bed.

The Hospice UK Garden of Compassion at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025, designed by Tom Hoblyn

A wild and sensory exploration

Tom has taken inspiration for the garden from his plant hunting trips in the Mediterranean, where ancient Olive Houses are built around monumental boulders, embracing nature’s raw beauty and rooting themselves firmly in the rocky landscape.

The garden’s wide and gently sloping paths allow for a tranquil navigation through each distinct space, encouraging a deeply sensory exploration and connection. The garden offers a choice of communal and secluded spaces, providing hospice patients, their families and staff, with opportunities for gathering, quiet solitude and remembrance.

Plants never seen at RHS Chelsea before

Tom’s design offers year-round interest, showcasing specimen trees such as Arbutus andrachne – Grecian strawberry tree and Pinus pinea – stone pine, and an array of colourful and fragrant, climate-tolerant plants, including some species never seen at RHS Chelsea before. 

Tom has grown a selection of the specialist plants himself, some from seed he collected on his plant hunting expeditions to the Mediterranean. These include the fascinating umbellifer Malabaila aurea with its golden flowers, the wild and ethereal Delphinium peregrinum, with its soft delicate lilac blooms and the lush, matt forming legume, Trifolium boissieri.

Delphinium peregrinum (image: Isidre blanc, Wikimedia Commons)
Delphinium peregrinum (Image: Isidre blanc, Wikimedia Commons)

Full plant list

  • Acer monspessulanum
  • Adiantum capillus-veneris
  • Adonis annua
  • Aloysia triphylla
  • Anthyllis vulnereria var. coccinea
  • Antirrhinum majus subsp. majus
  • Antirrhinum molle
  • Arbutus andrachne
  • Asperula orientalis
  • Asphodelus fistulosus
  • Asplenium trichomanes
  • Atriplex halimus
  • Bituminaria bituminosa
  • Briza maxima
  • Centranthus lecoquii
  • Cephalaria transylvanica
  • Cistus Alan Fradd
  • Cistus pulverulentus
  • Cistus ralletii
  • Cistus x aguilarii Maculatus
  • Convolvulus cantabrica
  • Convolvulus cantabrica
  • Convolvulus sabatius
  • Convolvulus sabatius
  • Crepis rubra
  • Cymbalaria muralis
  • Cytisus scoparius
  • Delphinium peregrinum
  • Dianthus cruentus
  • Dianthus Miss Farrow
  • Didiscus caerulea
  • Digitalis laevigata
  • Dracocephalum argunense Fuji Blue
  • Dracocephalum rupestre
  • Ficus carica Ice Crystal
  • Gladiolus italicus
  • Glaucium corniculatum 
  • Glaucium flavum
  • Globularia alypum
  • Helichrysum cymosum
  • Helichrysum orientale
  • Hordeum jubatum
  • Hunnemannia fumarifolia
  • Isatis tinctoria
  • Lagurus ovatus
  • Legousia speculum-veneris
  • Lilium candidum
  • Linum bienne
  • Linum narbonse
  • Lomelosia argentea
  • Lomelosia cretica
  • Lonicera Belgica
  • Lotus hirsutus Frejorgues
  • Luma apiculata
  • Lupinus pilosus
  • Malabaila aurea
  • Marrubium incanum
  • Marrubium supinum
  • Muscari comosum
  • Myrtus communis
  • Oenothera versicolor 'Sunset Beauty' 
  • Onosma echiodes
  • Onosma rigida
  • Origanum Kent Beauty
  • Oryzopsis milacea
  • Papaver carmeli
  • Papaver glaucum
  • Papaver umbonatum
  • Phlomis cytherea
  • Phlomis purpurea Alba
  • Pinus halapensis
  • Pinus pinea
  • Ridolfia segetum
  • Rosa canina
  • Rosa multiflora
  • Rosa 'Sally Holmes'
  • Rosmarinus Whitewater Silver
  • Salvia cyanescens
  • Salvia Skylark
  • Santolina viridis Olivia
  • Satureja thymbra
  • Scabiosa ochroleuca
  • Silene vulgaris
  • Sparteum junceum
  • Stachys cretica
  • Teucrium marum
  • Teucrium marum
  • Teucrium subspinosum
  • Thymus vulgaris Compactum
  • Tordylium apulum
  • Trifolium boissieri
  • Tulbaghia 'Fairy Star'
  • Vaccaria hispanica
Trifolium boissieri (Image: Anastasiia Merkulova on Wikimedia Commons)
Trifolium boissieri (Image: Anastasiia Merkulova on Wikimedia Commons)
Woman in hospital kissing a young girl

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The Hospice UK Garden of Compassion, designed by Tom Hoblyn, has been officially unveiled at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025, where it is raising the profile of the UK's hospices

The Hospice UK Garden of Compassion at RHS Chelsea 2025

The Hospice UK Garden of Compassion, designed for RHS Chelsea 2025 by multi award-winning designer Tom Hoblyn, celebrates the role played by hospice gardens in end of life care.

Find out more