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Many of the show gardens have drawn heavily on the history of plant hunting around the world. Trailfinders Australian Garden presented by Flemings Nurseries is based on the voyage of discovery undertaken by Captain James Cook, and the renowned botanist and joint founder of the RHS, Sir Joseph Banks. Uniting Australia and England in a love of horticulture forever, many of Banks' discoveries, used in the 2011 show garden, are common within gardens today.

The RBC New Wild garden, designed by Dr Nigel Dunnett, combines ecological awareness with artistic and sculptural use of materials, but takes its planting ideas from one of the founding fathers of British horticulture, the Victorian horticulturalist William Robinson. Robinson introduced the herbaceous border into popular gardens, focussed mainly on perennials, and pioneered the use of meadows and other naturalistic approaches in his designs.

Horticultural history is also strongly present in the Great Pavillion with a superb display of 180 varieties of cut flower tulips ranging from 1600 to present day by Bloms Bulbs; Burncoose Nurseries display entitled 'There and back Again with Caerhays and the Princes Trust' highlights the fascination of the plant collector JC Williams; and Crug Farm Plants bring plant hunting up to date with a display of many unusual and rare plants that have never been cultivated in the West before and collected by Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones on their plant hunting expeditions in parts of Asia and Central America.

With 17 show gardens, 15 smaller gardens and a hundred of the worlds best growers and nurseries, 2011 is destined to be one of the best RHS Chelsea Flower Shows in history.