The Glasshouse Garden
Designed by Jo Thompson

RHS CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW 2025

The planting is bold, textural, and deeply feminine, featuring river birch trees, ferns, grasses, and a variety of roses. The planting is rich and layered, with a tapestry of jewel-like colours and a variety of textures in both leaves and bark.

Jo Thompson

Jo Thompson is one of the UK’s most celebrated garden designers and plantswomen. Renowned for her exquisite planting and masterful use of colour, Jo is a multi-award-winning designer with 9 RHS Chelsea medals. Jo creates gardens around the world — from the UK and Europe to New York and Brazil.

Jo Thompson designed The Glasshouse Garden to celebrate the transformative power of second chances through horticulture. Inspired by the women of The Glasshouse, Jo has created a space filled with aspiration, hope and feminine strength.

The Glasshouse Garden reflects the sense of purpose, self-belief and hope offered by The Glasshouse, which provides horticulture training, employment and resettlement support to women in prison as they prepare for life beyond custody.

In approaching the design, Jo spent time meeting the women in The Glasshouse programme and was asked to bring a series of sensory features into the garden – the ability to see and hear water, to smell fragrant plants and to be inspired by nature’s beauty. Every detail of the garden responds to these requests with care and creativity.

“My first meeting with the women of The Glasshouse was possibly one of the most thought-provoking days of my life. Whatever happened, I was going to pour my heart and soul into designing a garden for these women, a garden which would be for them as well as represent them. A garden that would encourage people to think about what second chances can mean – for the individual women but also for our society as a whole. We can’t expect outcomes to change if a woman does not have somewhere stable to live, returns to a violent relationship, or is unemployable through lack of training.”

The Glasshouse Garden has been made possible thanks to funding from Project Giving Back, a charitable organisation that supports gardens for good causes at RHS Chelsea and in communities around the UK. Find out more at givingback.org.uk

A heartfelt thank you to Jo and her team for taking the time to truly understand life in prison and bringing a dream to life that will help women in custody feel hope and find a better future.

Additional thanks for support in building the garden and for funding the inclusion of The Glasshouse team on the journey.