Today, I’m taking you to a real secret garden. Located in the heart of London, the Chelsea Physic Garden is a true hidden gem of the British capital. The Garden, established in 1673, is the only botanic garden collection focused entirely on medicinal, herbal and useful plants. I recently had a chance to spend a lovely morning there during the Plant Festival. Here is what I saw.

Visiting Chelsea Physic Garden

If you’re interested in visiting the Chelsea Physic Garden, check out the official website for up to date information about opening times and ticket prices: https://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/. Whilst normally you need to buy a ticket in order to visit the Garden, entry was free during the Plant Festival.

Plant Festival at Chelsea Physic Garden

Plant Festival is an annual event at the Garden, taking place in the spring. In 2024, it happened on April 27th. During the event, entry to the Garden was free. However, tickets had to be booked online in advance. If you’d like to grab a free ticket for the Chelsea Physic Garden Plant Festival, keep an eye out on their website or social media accounts a couple of months in advance. I booked my free ticket in early March.

During the Plant Festival, you’ll get to visit the 350-year-old botanical garden for free and have a chance to join guided tours. You can also expect stalls with independent traders and local businesses selling their products. Great place for gift shopping! And yes, gifts for yourself also count.

What you’ll find in Chelsea Physic Garden

Medicinal plants – and poisonous plants too!

The most important part of Chelsea Physic Garden’s collection are medicinal plants. You’ll find plenty of those, from commonly known ones to more exotic ones. If you’re wondering what St John’s Wort, Ginko Biloba or Ginseng look like – come and visit the Garden. But perhaps the most fascinating element at the Garden are the poisonous plants – there are quite a few! Some of them are there to show subtle differences between widely used medicinal herbs and deadly lookalikes. Others might be poisonous and medicinal themselves at the same time! It all depends on the dose.

During the Plant Festival I had a chance to listen to a guided tour, which was not only informative and educational, but also included a lot of fun facts and anecdotes. If you have a chance, I definitely recommend joining a guided tour at the Garden.

Glasshouses

Chelsea Physic Garden has a few glasshouses that are home to plants requiring sheltered conditions. To mention a few: in the Tropical Corridor you’ll find plants such as coffee and orchids. If you fancy seeing some flowering plants, check out the Pelargonium Collection. Dating back to the 19th century, the Cool Fernery is house to – you guessed it – various species of ferns. There is also a small glasshouse with carnivore plants.

Café

There is also a café in the Garden, where you can buy a hot or cold drink and delicious baked goods. What’s not to love about having a cup of coffee and a slice of cake in the beautiful garden? Sounds like a perfect recipe for a relaxing time to me! I had a slice of a lemon drizzle cake and it was delicious.

Shop

The Garden also has a small shop where you can buy plant seeds and various botanically-inspired accessories. It’s a great place for gift shopping if you need a present for a keen gardener and plant lover.

Come and visit Chelsea Physic Garden!

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit at the Garden. Although it’s not huge in size – around 4 acres – you can feel the rich history in the air. The guided tour was a highlight of the day – I loved learning all the little fun facts about medicinal plants. It left me thinking about the incredible scholars who managed to identify the medicinal properties of plants throughout centuries, without access to 21st century knowledge and sophisticated tools and labs. It’s truly incredible how – by trial and a lot of errors – they often managed to correctly assess the plants’ impact on treating illnesses. I left the Garden equipped with new knowledge… and quite a bunch of products I bought from the independent traders of the Plant Festival. Oops! No regrets though – I will be coming back next year.

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