Hillier Signs as Founding Retail Partner of Spacelift - the AI Garden Design Platform Creating a Powerful New Route to Market for UK Garden Retail

Hillier Nurseries and Garden Centres, one of the UK's most respected and long-standing horticultural brands, has signed as a Founding Retail Partner of Spacelift - the UK's first expert-led, AI-supported, garden design platform.

The partnership, the first in the UK gardening industry, creates a seamless bridge between digital garden design and real-world retail purchase, embedding the Hillier plant ranges directly into Spacelift’s design and recommendation engine.

For the retail garden and landscape trade, this is a landmark moment. Spacelift represents a genuinely new route to market: a platform that reaches consumers at the moment of peak intention - mid-design, mid-project, mid-inspiration, and converts that intent into a direct retail journey. As the platform's Founding Gardening Retail Partner, Hillier is first through the gate.

The collaboration launches at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May 2026, one of the UK's most commercially significant moments for the garden industry and comes at a time when the sector is actively seeking new digital pathways to growth. With consumers increasingly beginning their garden journey on a screen, the ability to meet customers at the point of inspiration, and guide them seamlessly to purchase, has never been more commercially valuable.

Consumer passion for gardens has never been higher, yet the industry has long faced a conversion challenge from the gap between a homeowner's inspiration and their first purchase. Spacelift was built precisely to close that gap.

The UK garden retail sector is also navigating a period of meaningful change. The well-documented pressures of rising overheads, business rates and shifting consumer habits accelerating the search for new commercial models. Digital routes to market are no longer a future consideration; they are an immediate strategic priority. Spacelift gives garden retailers a credible, proven opportunity to that question, with Hillier the first to recognise the opportunity.

Spacelift empowers homeowners to scan their outdoor space, select preferences from the platform’s style, planting and living prompts, and receive photorealistic garden designs rooted in the methodology of Matt Keightley - double RHS Chelsea Silver-Gilt Medallist, RHS People's Choice Award winner, and one of Britain's most acclaimed garden designers. From that design, users are guided to purchase the plants, materials and products required to bring it to life.

For Hillier, integration into the Spacelift platform means its products and plant ranges become part of the design journey from the outset, not a destination to remember, but a recommendation embedded at the point of inspiration, creating a stronger customer experience. Additionally, access to platform insights and emerging trends enables Hillier to better understand and serve its audience with more targeted, relevant offerings.

Maeve McDonald, Co-Founder and CEO of Spacelift, said: "The garden retail industry has the most passionate, knowledgeable customers of any sector in UK retail. The challenge has never been demand, it has been conversion. Spacelift is the infrastructure that takes a homeowner from 'I want this' to 'I'm buying this', and the Hillier products are the ones they'll find when they get there. Hillier as our Founding Retail Partner reflects everything we believe about who should occupy that position, heritage, horticultural authority, and genuine customer trust built over more than 160 years."

Shelley Sims, Head of Marketing at Hillier Nurseries, said: "Partnering with Spacelift marks an exciting step forward for our garden centres. This collaboration allows us to blend trusted gardening knowledge with cutting-edge AI, helping customers move seamlessly from inspiration to a beautifully designed outdoor space.”

The partnership launches publicly in May 2026, aligned with the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the single most influential event in the UK garden calendar, and the moment when consumer engagement with garden design reaches its annual peak. Hillier has a storied Chelsea history as the world record holder for RHS Chelsea Gold Medals. Spacelift makes its public debut at the show with three show gardens designed using the platform. 

Spacelift is available from 18th May 2026. For trade enquiries about retail partnerships, or to discuss how Spacelift can work as a route to market for your business, contact the team below.

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Editors notes

“To inspire the creation of green living spaces for now and the future” Hillier is one of the leading names in the horticultural industry, with 160 years of growing and retail experience.

Founded in 1864 by Edwin Hillier, the company remains a family-run nursery with the fifth generation now actively involved in the family business as it continues to grow.

Not only is Hillier the largest producer of semi-mature trees in Europe and grower of over one million plants at its Hampshire nursery, but it also employs over 750 staff across its nursery, amenity trees and 22 garden centre divisions and is a flourishing multi-million pound company. It proudly holds the world record for the most consecutive gold medals awards at the world-famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show, with 74 wins.

As one of the leading growers in the UK, Hillier is involved in many peat-free initiatives, including the RHS Peat-Free Fellowship, the largest peat-free collaborative research project globally. The company was amongst the first nurseries to become 100% peat-free across both its production nursery and retail garden centres, and all Hillier plants are grown in peat-free compost.

Recent successes for the company include the launch of its online shop, the substantial redevelopment of Hillier Garden Centre Newbury and the acquisition of the Rosebourne Garden Centre Group in November 2022, as well as sponsorship of BBC Gardeners’ World Live and BBC Gardeners’ World Spring Fair, and the incredibly popular free ‘Hillier Gardening Club’ loyalty program which now has over half a million members.

Renowned for being a leading breeder of plants in the UK at its 100% peat-free nursery in Hampshire, each year Hillier introduces amazing new varieties. Many of these have become essentials in British gardens and the company continues with the tradition of innovation and the introduction of new garden plants in the present day.