New ‘BBC Radio 2 Feel Good’ Gardens announced for 2017 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

• BBC Radio 2 Feel Good Gardens Category announced for 2017 RHS Chelsea Flower Show
• New RHS Chelsea content to demonstrate that gardens are the best place to escape and indulge your senses
• Garden designers are Sarah Raven, James Alexander-Sinclair, Jon Wheatley, Matt Keightley and design duo Kate Savill and Tamara Bridge
• Radio 2 is taking part in the world-famous flower show as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations

Gardens provide havens to calm the body, relax the mind and make us feel better. The gardens will uplift the senses and encourage people to lose themselves among a feast of sights, scents, sounds, flavours and textures, designed to make them feel happier, calmer and generally better about the world.

The five gardens will show how plants can enrich and indulge one of the five senses - touch, taste, smell, sight and sound.

The gardens will also celebrate BBC Radio 2’s 50th anniversary and are named after different BBC Radio 2 Presenters. On Monday 22 May Chris Evans will do an outside broadcast from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show from 6.30am-9.30am.

Chris Evans says: "I'm beyond thrilled to be taking the Radio 2 Breakfast Show to Chelsea in May and to work with Mary Berry on one of the Radio 2 Feel Good Gardens. We're going al fresco and gardening bonkers for a very special show at the world’s most prestigious horticultural happening. We cannot wait.”

Sue Biggs, RHS Director General, says: “We’re incredibly excited about Radio 2 being at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and look forward to celebrating the joy of gardening with their listeners.

“Growing plants and gardens helps us to feel better both physically and mentally. We spend too long at our computers or on our phones; the Gardens are a reminder that we need to give our senses a treat, get out into the garden and get close to nature.”

Lewis Carnie, Head of Radio 2 said: “Radio 2 is delighted to be broadcasting from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show to kick off our 50th anniversary celebrations. We know many of our listeners take great pleasure from the great outdoors and I’m looking forward to seeing how the designers of the BBC Radio 2 Feel Good Gardens interpret the spirit of Radio 2 and our presenters in flower and vegetable form!”

The five BBC Radio 2 Feel Good Gardens are:

The Chris Evans Taste Garden is designed by Jon Wheatley, who has asked friend of the Radio 2 breakfast show, Mary Berry, to help celebrate the tastiest plants growing in UK gardens, by growers on allotments and in many communities. Plants that excite and stimulate your palate and enhance your lifestyle and health and well-being, feature in this garden.

The Jo Whiley Scent Garden is designed by Tamara Bridge, 2015 RHS Young Designer of the Year, and Kate Savill. Tamara and Kate have asked fragrance designer Jo Malone to help create the garden, which will include aromas that transport visitors to a time or place such as woodland walks, rain on warm paving, fresh earth and new leaf growth, or freshly cut flowers from the garden. Both Jo Malone and Jo Whiley will visit the show in the build to help with planting.

The Anneka Rice Colour Cutting Garden is designed by Sarah Raven. Every square inch of space will be filled with flowers, flowers and more flowers. Sarah Raven has enlisted the help of Tricia Guild as they share a passion for colour and Tricia is renowned for the use of colour in her designs. It is a profusion of colour that will be an amazing sight and concentrates on plants that cut and come out again. Gold, the colour for 50th Wedding Anniversaries, features in this garden to celebrate 50 years of Radio 2.

The Jeremy Vine Texture Garden is designed by Matt Keightley and is an immersive tactile garden which features bold geometric forms juxtaposed with a soft and elegant planting pallet. Varying material finishes and planting structure seemingly evolves through the space to create a garden people want to interact and relax in.

The Zoe Ball Listening Garden, designed by James Alexander-Sinclair aims to reproduce the feeling when you stand too close to a speaker stack at a concert; the sensation of feeling music through your whole body. Whilst you can’t hear the sound of music at the garden, it will be visible in water patterns in water features and felt through the floor. The music will be from the last 50 years of Radio 2.

The BBC Radio 2 Feel Good Gardens are half the size of the big Show Gardens and will have the backdrop of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

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