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Garden Gnomes; RHS Chelsea Flower Show Bound.
The gnomes of England have had enough. Downing tools, they are on strike. Bags packed, scarlet caps donned, they have left their suburban arcadia under the cover of night without saying goodbye to the trees and the birds. And from the garden, headed out to the Big Smoke.
For only the second time in horticultural history the RHS is lifting its gnome ban at the Chelsea Flower Show. This assuaging of the fear of bad taste for a worthy cause first occurred in 2013, ending a century-long ban on gnomes and ‘other brightly coloured mythical creatures’ imposed in 1912. Celebrities including Dame Mary Berry, Dame Helen Mirren, Cate Blanchett, and Sir Brian May have decorated the 2026 cohort of garden gnomes, to be sold in an online auction, to raise funds for the RHS Campaign for School Gardening to inspire the next generation of gardeners.
Why are these cheerful ornaments so controversial? For gnomes there is no middle ground between hatred and love. There is snobbery, the desire not to displease people of high society, versus the innocent joy of these cute-but-ugly little misters with their rosy cheeks, long white beards, and pointed hats. Commentators have often used comparisons to gnomes to mock politicians. Sir John Major regarded the ridicule aimed at him because his father made garden gnomes, as spiteful. And Robin Cook, one of the best parliamentary performers of his generation, was frequently lampooned because of his robust facial features, and being small and red-haired, it was easy to caricature him as a garrulous garden gnome.
A bit of history. Gnome origins are lost to the mists of time. Some claim their lineage reaches back into antiquity, linking them to small stone statues of the Greco-Roman fertility god Priapus which are placed in Roman gardens to protect beehives, livestock, and vineyards. Gnomes as mysterious and magical creatures are first described during the Renaissance by the Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus He regards them as one of the four elemental beings, classifying them as earth elementals. Paracelsus describes them as being two spans tall and able to move through solid earth as easily as humans move through air. At this time, in Italian Renaissance gardens, brightly coloured stone grotesques are found playfully positioned in the gardens of the wealthy and aristocratic. These small (about a metre high) stone statues are today, often regarded as precursors to the modern garden gnome.
By the late eighteenth century, gnomes made of wood or porcelain are popular home decorations in parts of Europe, with Switzerland the centre of production for little wooden men. In Germany, these decorative figures become conflated with earlier folk story characters, dwarves that helped in farms and mines. The popularity of ceramic gnomes for the home spreads quickly, and production increases. Soon pottery garden gnomes are being manufactured.
How do they arrive in England? Sir Charles Isham is the gentleman we must honour (or blame) for introducing them. This eccentric Victorian gardener, and owner of Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire, devotes himself to the construction and ornamentation of a substantial rockery. During a visit to Nurenburg in 1847 he purchases twenty-one terracotta gnomes. These small figures return with him to Northamptonshire, where they are playfully installed on the rockery. Wielding pick-axes and spades, or pushing wheelbarrows, he creates the illusion that they are mining. Well, most of them. The 10th baronet positions three of the arrivals in a protest, their placard calling for better pay and conditions.
Upon the whimsical aristocrat’s demise in 1903, his two daughters decided to wage an unladylike war against his gnomes. Legend has it they arm themselves with air rifles and turn the statues into unwitting targets. The pioneering garden figures are believed to be obliterated, until one lucky gnome is found playing hide-and-seek in a crevice during the rockery’s post-World War II restoration. This terracotta warrior, known as Lampy, is now on display in the hall. The decimation of his brothers leaves him as the earliest and most valuable garden gnome in England.
Garden gnomes gradually make their descent down the social scale from their nineteenth century aristocratic acqua alta mark. The die being cast with the manufacture of concrete gnomes from moulds, making them cheaper and quicker to produce, and therefore affordable to the hoi polloi. Crude concrete figures lack the individuality and detail of their hand-modelled brethren. Finally, the 1950s sees the rise of the plastic gnome, multiplying faster than rabbits at a carrot convention. Before you know it, these cheap and cheerful pint-sized guardians of whimsy with their chubby cheeks and drinker’s noses are taking British gardens by storm. And it can’t be coincidence that their ascent in popularity mirrors the rise of the garden centre. Technicolour suburban gnomes with associated plastic windmills and wishing wells add a psychedelic aspect to perfectly manicured lawns, sealing the fate of these little gentleman to be regarded as kitsch and infra dig.
Could things take a playful turn? Well, it seems King Charles has a soft spot for these cheeky little chaps, with a wandering gnome making cameo appearances at Highgrove Gardens. Meanwhile, Queen Camilla proudly flaunts her gnome collection in her Wiltshire garden and champions their return to the Chelsea Flower Show. If your curiosity has been piqued, keep an eye out for the celebrity-designed gnomes in The RHS and The King’s Foundation ‘Curious Garden’, a creation by Francis Tophill with a sprinkle of royal magic from King Charles and a dash of Beckham charm.
Are you team tacky or team fun? The real question is, should your local garden centre embrace the quirky world of garden gnomes, or would that be a horticultural faux pas of epic proportions? I guess, to each their gnome!
Further information:
RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026 details.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-chelsea-flower-show
The mysterious Dr Paracelsus.
https://www.aaas.org/membership/scientia/paracelsus-man-who-brought-chemistry-medicine
Plan a visit to Lamport Hall Gardens
https://www.lamporthall.co.uk/
How to do the ‘Chelsea Chop’
