Chelsea Flower Show: Welsh team create most biodiverse garden yet

The garden was commissioned by climate change charity Size of Wales, which works to protect areas of tropical rainforest overseas.

The Welsh links are obvious – with the garden itself designed in the shape of Wales, and most of the plants grown for the show in Welsh nurseries.

The planting will highlight some of the country’s rarest species, including a critically endangered dandelion and hawkweed which are only found in Bannau Brycheiniog national park.

Until recently the total world population of the Beacons hawkweed (Hieracium breconicola) comprised a single plant on a mountain ledge, while the Brecon dandelion (Taraxacum breconense) – once found across Monmouthshire and Powys – is also on the verge of extinction.

Andrew Shaw, of the Rare British Plants Nursery near Builth Wells, Powys has been trying to rescue them by growing more from seeds held in storage at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and said he was grateful for the opportunity to showcase that work.

“Hopefully it will bring them to a wider audience,” he said.

He has supplied dozens of rare plants for the garden – including York Groundsel (Senecio eboracensis) – which he managed to resurrect in 2022, after it had been declared globally extinct.