Sparsholt College has teamed up with The Royal Entomological Society to create ‘The Ugly Bug Ball’ garden for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 (20 – 24 May 2025). The garden will show visitors some of the fascinating beauty that lies in the miniature world of invertebrates, and how we can all encourage often overlooked but highly beneficial insects into our home gardens and green spaces.
The 2025 garden is designed by Sparsholt’s multiple-medal-winning-team including several full-time and part-time mature horticulture learners. The exhibit, that will be staged at GPB018, inside the Great Pavilion, will explore the various plants and habitats that encourage and support beneficial insects in different horticultural settings, many of which are not fully appreciated by gardeners.
The design and concept takes inspiration from the Royal Entomological Society’s book ‘RES Insects: Discover the Science and Secrets Behind the World of Insects’. Written by a team of leading entomologists from around the world, including Dr Claire Cresswell – PHD, MSc, BSc (Hons), ‘Wildlife Ecology and Conservation’ and ‘Agriculture’ lecturer at University Centre Sparsholt, the book is a fascinating deep-dive into the world of insects in their endlessly varied and beautiful forms.
Lucy Lewis, Horticulture Lecturer at Sparsholt College and designer of ‘The Ugly Bug Ball’, said: “The team have fully embraced this year’s theme, researching and learning about beneficial insects such as moths, springtails and earwigs. We can’t wait to share our garden with visitors at RHS Chelsea 2025 and we hope they learn to love insects as much as we have!”
The Ugly Bug Ball garden design consists of four areas which flow seamlessly together, surrounding a small house crowned with a modern and biodiverse wildflower roof. All the areas are essential in supporting a diverse range of insects:
Simon Ward, CEO of The Royal Entomological Society, said: “Healthy gardens and green spaces rely on a network of invertebrates – most of them insects – to provide food for birds and small mammals, to process waste materials and turn them back into enriched soil and to manage the ecosystem by eating larvae and other invertebrates. Ants, earwigs, aphids, wasps, springtails – without them, the world simply wouldn’t work and some of our greatest human innovations wouldn’t have been possible. We’ve teamed up with Sparsholt College to continue the conversation with gardeners we started in 2023, with our garden designed by Tom Massey and supported by Project Giving Back, and we can’t wait to continue singing the praises of some of the most beautiful and fascinating common garden insects.”
The design will also look to the future of biodiversity in gardens and will explore the continual developments of new plants, showcased through the RHS Chelsea Plant of the Year entries hosted in the garden.
Rebecca Lockwood, RHS Level 3 Practical Horticulture learner and member of the 2025 RHS Garden Plant Team at Sparsholt College, said: “I have always hoped that I might one day be involved with creating a garden for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, so this feels like a dream come true! I am excited to see how a garden like this comes together from start to finish and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.”
In 2025, Sparsholt College is celebrating its 125th academic year, a period that sees the College striving to be at the forefront of innovation, continually enhancing its technology, facilities, and teaching methods to provide an exceptional and forward-thinking educational experience that prepares students for an ever-evolving world. The RHS Chelsea exhibit will help continue a long tradition of sharing knowledge and expertise with as many people as possible.
