Book today
Tickets for the Garden Festival are available now through the official RHS website.
Swift populations are plummeting. It’s time to stand up for Swifts and other threatened species before we lose them.
The RSPB at Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival
Don’t miss your chance to experience the RSPB and RHS Swift Garden at the UK’s biggest garden event this summer.
You’re invited to the Swift Garden
The RSPB and the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) have come together for the first time to create a stunning show garden at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2025.
The RSPB and RHS Swift Garden celebrates one of our most iconic summer bird visitors, and the actions we can all take to help save them.
A unique collaboration between RSPB and RHScombining wildlife-friendly planting with innovative design
Inspired bySwifts
Join us between1st to 6th Julyat Hampton Court Flower Show
Let's celebrate Swifts together
Here they come, screaming over the rooftops! The Swifts are back! After a long winter in Africa, the Swifts have returned to the UK to breed. It’s really something worth celebrating.
The journey to Africa and back is at least 14,000 miles, but these little birds make the journey every year. In their lifetimes, Swifts might fly an astonishing two million miles. That’s the equivalent of four round trips to the Moon.
Swifts are astonishing aerial acrobats, spending most of their lives in the air. They feed on the wing, breed on the wing, and even sleep on the wing. The only time they land is to nest and raise young.
Why a Swift garden?
Sadly, Swifts are in big trouble. The latest research shows that in the last 30 years, we’ve lost two-thirds of our Swifts. The reason seems to be the lack of suitable places to nest in some areas. Another cause could be fewer insects around for Swifts to eat.
UK gardens can be helpful to Swifts during the breeding season. Looked after in the right way, gardens can provide abundant insects, which Swifts and other birds need to thrive. People can also give them safe places to nest by putting up Swifts boxes and bricks.
With our Swift Garden, we want to inspire more people to do what they can for these struggling birds, before we lose them from the UK. It’s just part of the RSPB’s mission to put Swifts on the road to recovery.
.jpg)
The sight of Swifts screaming through our skies in summer evenings is special, but their declines in recent decades mean they’re in trouble. Helping them and other wildlife can be as easy as introducing insect-friendly planting to your garden or Swift bricks or boxes to your home.”
– Dr Guy Anderson, migratory species specialist at the RSPB
Meet the designers
To create the garden, we're working with renowned landscape architect Lilly Gomm and horticulturalist Coralie Thomas. With their shared interest in encouraging biodiversity within gardens and public spaces, they were the ideal people to design a show garden with an important story to tell.
The RSPB and RHS Swift Garden will creatively reflect the epic migrations of these awe-inspiring birds. It will represent the varied habitats that Swifts fly and feed over on their journeys including, dry, damp, woodland, and flower gardens.
We can’t wait for you to see the garden for yourself.
By showcasing habitats rich in biodiversity and the small changes we can all make, I hope visitors will feel inspired to take action for wildlife in their own gardens.”
– Lilly Gomm, designer of the RSPB and RHS Swift Garden
A natural partnership
Birds and gardens go together like tea and biscuits, so it makes perfect sense for the UK’s leading bird and garden charities to come together. Our shared aim is to inspire you to appreciate how valuable your garden could be to Swifts and other wildlife. Small decisions that you make in your outdoor space can create big benefits for nature.
This garden is not only a celebration of Swifts but also a timely reminder that by making our homes and gardens more wildlife-friendly, we can all play a part in securing their future.”
– Bill Bailey, comedian and television presenter
Be part of the celebration
You can experience the RSPB and RHS Swift Garden in full flight at the Hampton Court Garden Festival, 1–6 July 2025.
The RSPB and RHS Swift Garden
We’re highlighting the plight of the Swift at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2025 (1–6 July). The Swift Garden invites you to reimagine what it means to give nature a home – on the ground and in the skies.
