Arit Anderson won the People’s Choice Award for Best Show Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026 on Monday for Parkinson’s UK – A Garden for Every Parkinson’s Journey, a design she said was personal to her because her sister is living with Parkinson’s. Anderson became moved to tears as she accepted the award from Mary Berry, after a garden built to be a joyful, sensory sanctuary for people with the disease won the public vote.
The garden had already been awarded a Silver-gilt medal by the judges, but the people walking the showground chose it as their favorite show garden. Anderson said she wanted to raise awareness of Parkinson’s, which she described as a little understood condition, and thanked her sister for allowing the family’s story to be shared. “That’s so kind,” she said as she accepted the honor.
Created in partnership with Parkinson’s UK, the garden was inspired by a workshop for gardeners living with Parkinson’s and their loved ones. Its design uses a wide, accessible path that weaves through contrasting planting borders, along with accessible pathways, calming water features and restorative planting meant to support people living with the condition.
The detail is in the way the garden moves. A sculptural hand-rill acts as both a flowing water feature and a tactile handrail, while the sound and movement of water were intended to offer sensory cues that may help with freezing, one of the common symptoms of Parkinson’s. Bright, jewel-toned perennials and annuals fill a sunny border, while woodland-inspired planting is used to create a calmer feel. A wooden, organically shaped arch gives visitors a place to pause and rest, and gentle lighting picks out night-time plants after dark.
Anderson said the project was about helping people with Parkinson’s, not chasing medals, adding that her motto had been that not everything that glitters is gold. The garden will now take on a second life after Chelsea, when it is permanently relocated to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, a UK Parkinson’s Centre of Excellence. The move gives the public-voted winner a practical future as well as a symbolic one, tying the show garden to the people it was built for long after the flower show closes.
For Parkinson’s UK, the garden fits a wider effort to support every Parkinson’s journey through research, campaigning for better care and support services. For Anderson, the moment brought a public win, a family story and a charity partnership together on one of the show’s biggest stages. The judges gave it silver-gilt. The public gave it something else: the prize that says the garden connected.
