Enjoy a summer party atmosphere at RHS Tatton Park Flower Show
There is always a summer party feel to the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show, which this year opens on Wednesday 20th July (RHS Privilege Day) with public days from 21st to 24th July.
Set in the beautiful surroundings of Cheshire's stunning thousand acre deer park, Tatton is renowned for its pioneering and innovative gardens and ideas. The highlight of the North of England's gardening calendar, the 2011 show promises to be another spectacular event.
All the favourites will be there - Visionary Gardens, Show Gardens, Back-to-Back and the RHS National Flowerbed Competition – plus this year Football Gardens (inspired by premier football teams in the region) and for the first time Ladies' Day, a perfect opportunity to dress up.
Ladies' Day, which is on Thursday 21st July, will include fashion shows showing cutting edge fashion from the North West's young designers and working gardening guru and TV presenter, Rachel de Thame will be one of the guest speakers on the day alongside milliner to the Royals Adrian Phillip Howard.
Tatton Park is also the venue for the final of the RHS National Young Designer of the Year competition and this year three designers will be competing for the title – Alexandra Froggatt, Daniela Coray and Owen Morgan. Good luck to all three, who I feel sure will produce stunning gardens.
I am looking forward to seeing 'Grasses with Grace' the show garden of Sue Beesley from Bluebell Cottage Gardens. Sue was BBC Gardener of the Year in 2006 and after four years of creating smaller, back-to-back gardens is now celebrating her 5th year at RHS Tatton Park by creating her first show garden. Sue's garden celebrates the beauty of some of the loveliest early flowering grasses, enhanced with a selection of complementary herbaceous perennials. The garden will feature 'Grace' an elegant sculpture, kindly loaned by sculptor Juliet Scott.
Sue wants to demonstrate that ornamental grasses are not simply for prairie-style, naturalistic plantings, which tend to work best in larger gardens, but as lovely plants in their own right that look wonderful in any garden.
'Perspective' designed by Carolyn R Hardern promises us a garden made up of wood and wildflowers inspired by many of England's beautiful forests. Carolyn has created her own wildflower meadow within her garden taking inspiration from the work of Dame Miriam Rothschild, who relentlessly campaigned for the planting of wildflowers alongside motorways.
Young designer Pillippa Probert is no stranger to RHS Tatton and returns this year with a show garden entitled 'Chocolate Orange'. The garden will demonstrate a traditional Ha-Ha in a more contemporary setting, allowing the visitor to experience an entirely different view of the garden dependent on where they stand. Phillippa always manages to produce a garden which is fresh and exciting and I am sure we will enjoy another stunning design with 'Chocolate Orange'.
'Waterfront' is a show garden from Stephen Dennis Design, based on an area of County Mayo on the West Coast of Ireland. Dublin based Stephen, was intrigued to notice wild flowers normally found in Africa growing amongst the native Irish plants and discovered that these plants had been brought to the area by botanists hundreds of years ago. Intended for a retired Irish couple living in the UK, the garden is a private space, blocking out views of their house, which reminds them of Ireland.
Tatton Park's Head Gardener, Sam Youd, has designed a garden to celebrate 100 years since the completion of the Japanese Garden in the park. 'Paradise Isle – 100 years on' is based on the one designed for the Egerton family after their visit to the Anglo-Japanese exhibition in London in 1910. Sam was instrumental in bringing the RHS Flower Show to Tatton Park and has exhibited at the show ever since. Sam has spent more than 30 years on the Estate and will be retiring next year. He will be greatly missed and we hope that we shall still see him at future RHS Tatton Shows.
In the Back-to-Back category, the Grosvenor Estate will bring us a garden inspired by the work of French artist Henri Matisse; Phillip Blant and Victoria Jackson have designed a garden to raise awareness of coeliac disease and Envirolink Northwest will theme their garden on climate change and how a modern garden can be adapted to deal with the more frequent extremes of weather.
Over 30 children's gardens in containers planted by local school children with the aim of attracting 'Beautiful Butterflies and Busy Bees' looks fun and the College of the Year Floristry competition promises to be among the highlights of the show.
Tickets are available online from www.rhs.org.uk/Shows-Events/RHS-Show-Tatton-Park
RHS Members, £25.50 for Wednesday 20th July (not available on the day), or £19.50 for Thursday 21st - Sunday 24th, £28 on the day. For members of the public ticket prices in Advance are £23 Thursday 21st - Sunday 24th or £28 on the day. All tickets are from 10am to 6.30pm, except Sunday 24th July when the times are 10am to 5pm.
Photographs © Reckless Gardener
