Unmissable plant displays at the festival
Visitors enjoyed tea in a garden of roses, inhaled bouquets of lavender and wandered through a sea of dahlias
The plant displays are one of the highlights of the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival and the line-up for 2019 was one of the best yet.
From airplant specialists and displays of ginkgo to the famous Festival of Roses, there was plenty of inspiration and take-home ideas to be found.
The show also offered the perfect opportunity to pose questions to our specialist growers, with our experts on hand to help visitors get their growing back on track.
Living wall inspiration
Living walls are a great way to add interest to your garden, whether you’re short on space or want to brighten up a boring boundary. Plus, for city dwellers, they’re more than just decoration. Living walls can help insulate buildings, reduce noise pollution and carbon emissions, and save on energy bills.
There were three living walls at the 2019 festival, designed by Meristem Design, which provided the perfect selfie opportunity and inspiration for greening up walls. They could be found in Dig In, the Thames Gate Entrance and near the RHS Sanctuary Garden.
Plants for pollinators
Our Master Grower at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival was Downderry Nursery, based in Kent, and a specialist in growing lavender and rosemary.
It was difficult to resist the aromatic plants on Downderry’s display and visitors discovered the best species to keep the garden a lovely purple hue all summer long. One thing’s for certain – the pollinators at the show loved it!
Immersion of flowers
Visitors had their cameras at the ready for the ultimate selfie, immersing themselves in a blooming border of dahlias.
Dahlias were celebrated at the RHS shows this year, with Chatsworth, Tatton Park and Hampton Court Palace each featuring a different variety. Dahlia (Dalina maxi) ‘Mendosa’ was the chosen bloom for the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival.
The dahlias decorated a brand new entrance to the show – the lime-tree lined Ditton entrance – and were accessed by taking a peaceful wander through the palace’s expansive and impressive Privy Garden.
Smelling the roses
The Festival of Roses at Hampton Court Palace offered a spectacular display, stimulating the senses with beautiful blooms and enchanting aromas.
Our gorgeous entrance to the Festival of Roses was designed by Jo Thompson in 2019. Her design, the RHS Rose Garden, featured curving beds of roses that combined with summer-flowering perennials in all colours to show the blooms off to their best potential.
Visitors also noticed a new addition for this year's festival called the Roses Tearoom. Here, guests were immersed in the colour and scent of beautiful roses while enjoying morning coffee or afternoon tea.
The Floral Marquee
The vast Floral Marquee had some beautiful blooms to offer. Guests were bathed in colour and scent as they wandered through our vast marquee and saw stunning displays from expert growers.
See our full list of exhibitors
National Plant Collections
Plant Heritage showcased National Plant Collections at the festival including Hakonechloa macra, Ophiopogon japonicus, hosta (miniature and small) and the Queen Mary II Exoticks display.
The Exotick plants were a recreation of a part of Queen Mary II’s extensive 17th century plant collection. Queen Mary II collected new, exotic tender plants, many of which were brought back from voyages to botanical hotspots such as South America and South Africa.
