Gnomes are back! Thanks to King Charles, the divisive garden characters will play a key role at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026

Love them or loathe them, gnomes are set to be the unexpected heroes of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026 gardens.

For only the second time in the history of the world’s most famous gardening event, the ban on garden gnomes is being lifted by the Royal Horticultural Society to raise funds for the RHS Campaign for School Gardening.

To support their triumphant return to the limelight, the RHS team is inviting celebrities to decorate gnomes to feature at the 2026 Show, which will then be auctioned off to raise funds for the next generation of gardeners. We, for one, are very pleased to see this fun inclusivity, as is the King himself.

Gnomes are no longer banned from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

The famous gnome ban being lifted reflects and celebrates a tradition at Highgrove Gardens, the grounds of King Charles' Gloucestershire estate, where a gnome is often to be found hiding in plain sight, which many suspect is thanks to his majesty...

The Highgrove Gnome | The RHS - YouTube

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The idea of the King playfully plotting gnomes around the grounds does sound like something he would do based on what we know of him: "Like his mother Queen Elizabeth before him, King Charles is a monarch who doesn’t take himself too seriously and has a great sense of humour," says our Royal Editor Emma Shadlock.

"His chickens at Highgrove House don’t live in any old hen coop, they’re residents at the brilliantly-named ‘Cluckingham Palace’. When he presented the weather forecast in 2012 he quipped, “Thank goodness it’s not a bank holiday” after revealing it was going to be rather rainy… He might not be constantly cracking jokes, but his dry wit has come across at so many different points over the years."

The RHS last lifted the ban on gnomes to celebrate the centenary of RHS Chelsea, raising much-needed funds to get more children gardening in schools.

Celebrities who painted gnomes at the 2013 Show to raise funds included Sir Elton John, Dame Mary Berry, Lilly Allen and Joanna Lumley. So, who should we expect to celebrate their 2026 return? Celebrities who have already signed up to paint gnomes this year include Cate Blanchett, Dame Mary Berry, Sir Brian May and Baroness Floella Benjamin.

The full 2026 celebrity line-up of gnomes will be released in May, in the lead-up to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. So watch this space.

Surely David Beckham will be on board as he is helping to create The King’s Foundation Curious Garden alongside horticulturist, author and TV presenter Frances Tophill and Alan Titchmarsh CBE.

The RHS and The King’s Foundation garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (19 May – 23 May 2026) is being designed to encourage the nation to discover the joy of getting curious about gardening.

“We’ve never needed the joy of gardening, the power of plants for our planet or the peace of simply sitting in a garden more," says Clare Matterson, Director General of the RHS.

“We also want people to be playful with their gardening, which is why we’re lifting the gnome ban for these celebrity gnomes, who will then, by being auctioned off, help us do even more to awaken a curiosity in gardening in school children and support our national Campaign for School Gardening.”

For many, the love of gnomes never really went away, my parents included. They have always had these playful characters dotted around the garden to add a little bit of joy amongst the flora and fauna. Are you a friend or foe of gnomes?