Press releases

Don’t miss the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park

The glorious tree-lined estate of Tatton Park in Knutsford, Cheshire, will play host to the final major RHS flower show this summer with the magnificent RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park (19-23 July).

This year the show takes on a ‘Manhattan’ look, incorporating a grid layout that will make it even easier to navigate as well as enabling the event to display more gardens than ever before.

Designs to watch out for amongst the show and back to back gardens include a collection that is distinctly Victorian in style and influence, from Charlesworth Design’s celebration of the versatile fern, ‘Pteridomania’, to the stumpery in Cheshire Wildlife Trust’s garden and Clive Scott’s tribute to Tennyson’s ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ poem.

Victoriana has also taken hold of other parts of the show. In the ever-popular RHS National Flower Bed Competition, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council’s design pays homage to its recently restored Victorian gardens, featuring a richly ornamented cast iron structure to represent the park’s conservatory in Corporation Park.

A number of designers have taken their source of inspiration from other continents. Louise Ward and Lucy Hunter are teaming up to create ‘Out of Africa’, an art deco show garden inspired by the film, while Tatton Park’s very own back to back garden ‘Into Africa - Lord Egerton’s Legacy’, will resemble a Kenyan school garden, complete with Masai shields and spears. This project has brought two continents together, as pupils from Egerton School in Knutsford have worked on different aspects of the garden, in an exchange project, which has taken their Head Teacher on a visit Egerton School in Kenya, to forge a lasting relationship for the future.

One of Tatton’s RHS Gold Medal-winning designers, Peter Tinsley, will be creating a modern Japanese water garden, Oak Tree Nursery will be introducing some Australasian plant varieties, Lomandra and Stylidium in the Floral Marquee, and Vale Royal Borough Council will present a Costa Rican ‘Fairtrade’ feature garden, boasting a banana plantation and a South American hut.

Eating healthily will also be the order of the day at Tatton with Jacqui Brocklehurt’s ‘Eat my Garden’ back to back showing how a grow-your-own garden can have an attractive, modern design. It will show produce such as sweetcorn, chillies, oats and broad beans as well as edible flowers like marigolds grown in a contemporary setting.

The Northwest Regional Development Agency’s show garden will have ‘5-a-day’ on the menu with a design that will eventually become the garden for two merging inner city schools in Salford. Here, a greenhouse and terraces of fruit and vegetables will be grown in what is effectively an outdoor classroom, teaching youngsters about healthy eating, the environment and sustainability.

Show favourites the British Bedding and Pot Plant Association will be back with another show-stopping bedding bonanza after memorable past performances with the ‘Snakes and Ladders’ and ‘Jigsaw’ displays. This year its feature is entitled ‘Butterflies and Bubbles’, but the design detail is still under wraps.

With an extensive array of shopping opportunities, from plants and garden accessories to gourmet food and books, advice from the RHS Advisory Stand and packed pavilions to peruse, including award-winning displays in the Floral and National Plant Society marquees, Tatton reflects the true essence of summer.

The RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park takes place between 19 and 23 July, with 19 July reserved for RHS members, and is open between 10am and 7pm. (On the Sunday the show shuts at 5pm, with the sell off starting at 4pm). To book tickets call 0870 906 3311 (public) or 0870 906 3810 (RHS members) or online at www.rhs.org.uk/flowershows

Notes to Editors

For more information contact Catherine Turner or Erin Portsmouth at Fido PR on 0161 274 3311 or e-mail: catherine@trustfido.co.uk or erin@trustfido.co.uk

www.rhs.org.uk/pressoffice

The RHS is the UK’s leading gardening charity dedicated to advancing horticulture and promoting good gardening. RHS work includes providing expert advice and information, advancing horticulture, training the next generation of gardeners, helping school children learn about plants, and conducting research into plants, pests and environmental issues affecting gardeners.

An interest in gardening is all you need to enjoy being a member of the RHS. For more information visit www.rhs.org.uk or call 0845 130 4646.

Founded in 1804, the Royal Horticultural Society is Britain's largest gardening charity and is committed to being the leading organisation demonstrating excellence in horticulture and promoting gardening. Renowned for its outstanding gardens and inspirational flower shows, the RHS is a key source of advice and information for all gardeners. It encourages gardening through its publications, trials, lectures, education programmes and scientific research and is home to the Lindley Library, which contains the most comprehensive collection of horticultural books in the world.

Membership of the Royal Horticultural Society offers many exclusive benefits including a monthly copy of The Garden magazine; free entrance to RHS Gardens Wisley in Surrey, Rosemoor in Devon, Hyde Hall in Essex and Harlow Carr in North Yorkshire; free access to a further 88 beautiful gardens across Britain and 20 gardens in Belgium and France; access to seeds collected at RHS gardens; free gardening advice and privileged tickets to 18 RHS flower shows, including the Chelsea Flower Show, the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park.

For further enquiries about membership of the RHS contact: Membership Department, Royal Horticultural Society, PO Box 313, London SW1P 2PE; 0845 130 4646 Monday - Friday 9.30am - 5pm or via the RHS website

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