by Holly Chapman | 13 May 25 | News, RHS Chelsea Flower Show
The Glasshouse Garden, designed by Jo Thompson, has announced that after the RHS Chelsea Flower Show next week it will find a permanent home at HMP Downview in Surrey.
Working with women at HMP East Sutton Park in Kent for RHS Chelsea, The Glasshouse is a charity that provides women with horticultural training and employment as they come to the end of their prison sentence.
The garden is expected to be relocated and ready for female prisoners at HMP Downview to use from July this year.
The Glasshouse Garden, designed by Jo Thompson for RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025
Amy Dixon, governor of HP Downview and HMP East Sutton Park comments:
“Women preparing for release will have regular access to the garden for planning their future and meeting their resettlement team, as well as training and support.”
The charity’s programme has a 0% re-offending rate, training women to grow houseplants in corporate environments for companies such as Franci Crick, C Hoare Bank and The Conduit.
Its garden designer, Thompson says the charity offers women a second chance, and this is “a garden that would encourage people to think about what second chances can mean,” she says.
Funded by Project Giving Back, the garden will be at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 20 – 24 May.
by Holly Chapman | 08 May 25 | News, RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Sustainability
The Glasshouse Garden, designed by Jo Thompson, sees a first in RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden construction by using hydrogen-powered machinery producing zero carbon emissions and emits only clean steam.
Using JCB’s machinery for the heavy lifting part of the garden’s construction, this acts as a step forward in environmentally conscious building and a “glimpse of the future,” says Thompson.
An environmentally conscious garden, Thompson thought about sustainability in every aspect of The Glasshouse Garden. Hydrogen-powered construction could avoid 30-50 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions globally, according to the garden designer.
Tim Burnhope, group director of special projects at JCB explains the company is the first to deploy such technology involved with the machine.
Other sustainability aspects within The Glasshouse Garden include a 50% recycled steel pavilion frame, made with recycled acrylic in botanical tints. It has used reclaimed British stone, sourced as waste or by-product from small UK queries for the paths, pavilion floor and stone rill.
Offcuts from constructions are reused, while self-seeded pathways and sedum roofing enhance biodiversity and aid rainwater management. There is also recycled material used in the seating within its pavilion.
Funded by Project Giving Back, The Glasshouse Garden is inspired by The Glasshouse charity offering second chances to women nearing the end of their prison sentences and will be open to the public at RHS Chelsea 20 – 24 May.
by Holly Chapman | 08 May 25 | Garden Design, Long Reads, RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Garden designer Jo Thompson partners with The Glasshouse for her Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show garden 2025 showcasing its work providing women in prison with a second chance.
The Glasshouse is a charity that provides women with horticultural training and employment as they come to the end of their prison sentence. They believe plants increase productivity, concentration and creativity. Inspired, Thompson decided to base her Chelsea garden around this initiative, while involving current employees of The Glasshouse. With a 0% re-offending rate, the charity intends to expand every female prison by 2030, bringing life to unused resources and offering second chances to more ex-offenders across the UK.
When Thompson met The Glasshouse founder Kali Hamerton Stove, she immediately fell in love with what she and her team stood for. Thompson explains why:
“The strong women supporting other women who hadn’t had the fortune that others have had, and who, for a variety of reasons which often include the lack of opportunity, had ended up in the prison system.”
This is why it is important to highlight the work of The Glasshouse, says project manager Nadine Charlton, thereby bringing it to Chelsea. Funded by Project Giving Back, Chartlon explains the importance of this collaboration:
“The benefit of Project Giving Back is being able to facilitate the opportunity for smaller voices to be heard. I think everybody that’s ever met the Glasshouse have all been blown away by what second chances provide.”
Managing the vision
Garden designer, Jo Thompson
As the garden’s project manager, Charlton brings both Thompson’s and The Glasshouse’s visions to life.
“In show gardens, my role is to see the vision and make it happen.”
Thompson met Charlton whilst judging a garden Charlton had worked on at Chelsea last year. Often working behind the scenes, she immediately wanted to help bring Thompson’s vision to life in collaboration with The Glasshouse.
Working on RHS Chelsea gardens since 2018, Charlton describes every experience differently. No show is the same, and this year her role with Thompson has spanned from landscape and construction, to design and plants.
Connecting RHS, Project Giving Back, Thompson and The Glasshouse, Charlton describes the garden as “a beautiful, immersive space. It’s centred around what women have been deprived of when they are in the prison system.”
The strong beauty concept
Recipient of four gold and five silver medals at Chelsea, Thompson bases her design around a notion of strong beauty.
While it’s not an entirely female team, its core team is woman-led. The studio team and the Glasshouse team are “the vein in the middle of it, and it comes through with the design and aesthetic of the garden,” says Charlton. Located on main avenue, the garden features rosa Tuscany Superb, rosa Charles de Mills and rosa Emma Bridgewater. The deep reds and muted pinks mirror the beauty behind strong women helping one another. Thompson’s concept of strong beauty is highlighted throughout the garden, also intended to be used as a reflective space.
This has been brought to life by the construction of the garden, using hydrogen-powered machinery supplied by JCB. A Chelsea first, Thompson has thought about sustainability in every aspect of The Glasshouse Garden. Hydrogen-powered construction could avoid 30-50 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions globally, according to the garden designer.
A space for reflection
The focal point of the garden is the pavilion, made from recycled acrylic designed by Hollaway Studio to open like petals. Its jewel-like tint will also reflect the colours incorporated within the strong beauty concept.
Thompson spent time with the women working for The Glasshouse when designing the garden. In response to their conversations, she introduced several sensory elements. Incorporating water allows visitors to hear and see its calming and reflective attributes through a narrow rill winding through the garden leading to a small pool. The garden also features multi-stemmed betula nigra, euonymus alatus, ferns and aquatic species. Thompson comments:
“It has been very moving to learn first hand how horticulture can be embedded within the prison environment to provide mental and emotional benefits and to help change outcomes and cut re-offending.”
Intended to be used as a space for reflection, the central pavilion is for women to gather for meetings, training, and planning for the future. It can provide privacy for the women once it is relocated.
After the show
The Glasshouse logo
After Chelsea, the garden will be relocated to a women’s prison in the South of England. It will provide a space for women to train, learn and reflect.
Women involved in the making of the garden will be at RHS Chelsea, helping to maintain the show garden. Once it is relocated, women in prison and part of The Glasshouse charity will then be included in the project.
“The outcome for this garden is about women. And so, it needs to have women leading it, and the issues that the women have faced. That educates people along the way as well.”
RHS Chelsea Flower Show takes place 20 – 24 May 2025.
