Garden gnomes are back at the Chelsea Flower Show, at least for this year, after celebrities painted them for the king’s garden and the Royal Horticultural Society relaxed its long-standing ban to raise money for school gardening.
The show begins on Tuesday in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in south-west London, and the gnomes will be auctioned off during the week. The one-off decision means the figures are making a return to an event that has frowned on them since 1927, but only as part of a charity push rather than a permanent change to the rules.
Bill Bailey gave his gnome a purple and gold stripy hat, while Alan Titchmarsh painted his in a neat blue suit. David Beckham also painted one for auction, decorating it with pink and glitter, as part of a garden he co-designed with King Charles and Titchmarsh. Other celebrities taking part include Dame Mary Berry, Sir Brian May and Floella Benjamin.
The king is said to have been keen for the ban to be lifted so some gnomes could appear in the feature garden he helped shape with Beckham, Titchmarsh and Frances Tophill. The garden includes an organic vegetable patch and a shed full of curiosities, and Charles wanted wildflowers and weeds, including nettles, to stay in the design to help encourage butterflies.
For Titchmarsh, the point is simple: the figures can be a bit of fun in a show that often takes itself seriously. “I think it’s no harm to have little ones sneaking out now and again to remind us that you might as well have a bit of fun,” he said. He also said of his own figure: “Mine is in a blue suit to match me and he also has a red and white striped tie but you can’t see it because he has a giant beard.”
Bailey made a different argument, casting his gnome as a small joke about technology and a nod to repair. “Mine is a comment on AI. When my gnome was delivered to me, the top of its hat had broken off, and I fixed it with gold acrylic. This is kintsugi, the Japanese art of fixing, with gold, which celebrates imperfection, which is what AI couldn’t do,” he said. He also offered a defense of the figures themselves: “The origins of gnomes, as you well know, is the Latin gnomus, meaning earth dweller. The Romans had them as guardians of the garden, and to protect against malign spirits. So I think they have been much maligned.”
The return is not a change of heart by the society so much as a fundraising exception. The gnomes are being used to support its campaign for school gardening, and they are due to go under the hammer during the week. But the king’s garden, and the line-up of names lending their paintbrushes to it, has given the old figures a fresh role in one of Britain’s most watched horticultural stages.
