Jo Thompson returns to RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 with a garden for The Glasshouse -
A social enterprise providing second chances through horticulture
We are delighted to reveal that Jo Thompson has been invited by The Glasshouse, a social enterprise providing training and employment to women in prison alongside resettlement support as they approach the end of their sentence, to create a garden at 2025 RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Funded by Project Giving Back, the garden is inspired by conversations Jo has had with women supported by The Glasshouse programme and will be centred around a translucent pavilion emerging from the foliage.
The Glasshouse programme has a zero percent re-offending rate, showing how building purpose, self-belief and hope for the future can break the cycle of re-offending. Following the show, the garden will be re-built in a women’s prison in the South of England where it will provide a nurturing space for training and planning second chances for a new community of women.
The Glasshouse Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show will be an immersive, hopeful and reflective space – a garden that embodies the transformative effect of The Glasshouse mission to help people grow and embrace a second chance. In approaching the design, Jo has spent time meeting women in The Glasshouse programme and was asked to bring a series of sensory delights into the garden – the ability to see and hear water, to smell fragrant plants and to be inspired by nature’s beauty. A narrow rill will wind its way through the garden connecting different areas and ending in a tranquil pool. The planting is rich and full of texture, and includes multi-stemmed Betula nigra, Euonymus alatus, ferns, grasses and roses, as well as marginal and aquatic species. The planting colours are inspired by the notion of ‘strong beauty’ in a palette of deep reds and muted pinks with highlights of other shades and tones to create one of Jo Thompson’s unique colour palettes.
Visitors to the show will be drawn to the elliptical pavilion at the centre of the garden, designed in collaboration with award-winning architects Hollaway Studio. The uplifting structure is a space for the women to gather – for meetings, training and planning for the future – and will be made from recycled acrylic given a touch of jewel-like enhancement to compliment the colour palette of the planting in the garden.
Jo will be sharing the story of creating the garden via her Substack newsletter.
