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Anniversaries and international inspiration lead the garden line up at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2024

RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2024 celebrates anniversaries, international inspiration, and gardening for wildlife as the festival returns to the grounds of the historic Hampton Court Palace from 2-7 July.
 

Marking the 60th anniversary of RHS Britain in Bloom, the UK’s biggest community gardening competition, the Gardening for People and Planet, designed by father and son duo, Jon and James Wheatley, celebrates the journey of Bloom and the positive wellbeing and environmental benefits of gardening in communities. Inspired by The Friendship Garden, which will commemorate the anniversary at RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May, the garden at RHS Hampton will be packed with native and British grown plants alongside beehives to increase biodiversity.
 
Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Disney’s The Lion King in the West End, Juliet Sargeant is drawing inspiration from the award-winning production’s bright colours and the African savannah for The Lion King Anniversary Garden with dusty red soil planted with swathes of resilient grasses and vibrant, drought tolerant flowers.
 
Also drawing inspiration from hotter climates, The Climate-Forward Garden by Melanie Hick in the popular Get Started Garden category looks to the Australian bush to reimagine a UK front garden into a stylish yet climate conscious green space complete with typically Australian gum and crepe myrtle trees. Looking to the Mediterranean, The Mediterraneo Garden designed by Katerina Kantalis draws on the gardening traditions of Greece with drought tolerant plants nestled in and amongst terracotta pots, whilst Nilufer Danis’ The Way of Saint James seeks to capture the mystical essence of Galicia’s forests as well as support biodiversity through creating habitat for insects and wildlife.
 
Oliver Bond takes inspiration from closer to home for Bond Landscape Design: Match Point, a garden featuring a tennis court and green, purple and white planting with nectar rich plants to support biodiversity. Tim Jennings and Giada Francois also promote biodiversity in their designs. Jennings’ A Four Season Sanctuary features a pond to demonstrate the value they provide to wildlife and Francois’ The Garden of Renewal is packed with naturalistic planting.
 
Natalie Gearing, manager of RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, said: “There is such a variety of ideas at this year’s festival, from bringing gardening traditions of other countries to the classically British setting of Hampton Court Palace, to celebrating anniversaries of beloved institutions through garden design. There will be inspiration to suit all styles, abilities, and garden size.”
 
Alongside the gardens, visitors to the festival can also browse and buy plants from expert growers in the Floral Marquee and Festival of Roses, immerse themselves in a mass planting installation of the Asteraceae family and Freddie Strickland’s RHS Adventure Within Garden, a Feature Garden designed to reconnect visitors with a sense of childhood playfulness. Experts are on hand with advice at the How To and Get Growing Festival Stages and The RHS Allotment also returns with plots built by local community groups as well as the Pocket Planting category with a new theme of ‘resilient’.
 
RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival runs from 2-7 July 2024 and tickets are available online at rhs.org.uk/Hampton
 

Notes to editors

For further information, interviews and images, please contact [email protected].
 
Event: RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2024
Venue: Hampton Court Palace, Surrey KT8 9AU
Dates: 2-7 July 2024
 
Opening times:
Tuesday 2 July & Wednesday 3 July – RHS members, 10am-6.30pm
Thursday 4 July to Saturday 6 July, 10am-6.30pm
Sunday 7 July, 10am-5.30pm
Tickets: www.rhs.org.uk/hamptoncourt
 
About the RHS
Since our formation in 1804, the RHS has grown into the UK’s leading gardening charity, touching the lives of millions of people. Perhaps the secret to our longevity is that we’ve never stood still. In the last decade alone we’ve taken on the largest hands-on project the RHS has ever tackled by opening RHS Garden Bridgewater in Salford, Greater Manchester, and invested in the science that underpins all our work by building RHS Hilltop – The Home of Gardening Science. 

We have committed to being net positive for nature and people by 2030. We are also committed to being truly inclusive and to reflect all the communities of the UK.  


Across our five RHS gardens we welcome more than three million visitors each year to enjoy over 34,000 different cultivated plants. Events such as the world famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show, other national shows, our schools and community work, and partnerships such as Britain in Bloom, all spread the shared joy of gardening to wide-reaching audiences.
 
Throughout it all we’ve held true to our charitable core – to encourage and improve the science, art and practice of horticulture –to share the love of gardening and the positive benefits it brings. For more information visit www.rhs.org.uk 

RHS Registered Charity No. 222879/SC038262
 
 

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The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.