Hampton Court Palace Flower Show is a must see event in London this weekend

This year celebrates 25 years of the flower show and although it isn’t as prestigious as the Chelsea Flower Show, the Hampton Court Palace flower show is the largest flower show in the world. Around 140,000 people will visit the show this week and exhibitors from around the world have created some spectacular gardens to inspire us.

The show this year is broken up into three main sections. Grow, inspire and feast. Taking three weeks to build a show garden and two weeks to build a small garden, there is absolutely no doubt that the show has taken thousands and thousands of man hours to install and prepare. Over 500 exhibitors will be displaying their plants or garden products and are from all corners of the world. The results, are utterly breathe taking.

 

Of these 500 exhibitors, Malawi had the African Vision:Malawi Garden. The garden was opened to the press by Malawian dummers and traditional dancing performed by local school children. Talented stilt walkers brought vibrancy and energy to the garden demonstrating how people are at the heart of the charity’s sustainability planting project.

 

The Magna Carta garden celebrating the 800 years of the sealing of that historic document, leaves you breathless. A controversial display of children planting the final flowers took place this morning in protest of the government’s plan to amend the Human Rights Act. Personally I feel politics should be left at the door with regards everything, and the display was not appropriate in my opinion, but the children involved were incredibly touched to be involved.

 

The conceptual garden called the SMART Vision Garden: Having vision beyond mental illness, is depicting the image of a sort of Jurassic World. But it is spectacularly presented like something out of the films, being completely surrounded by a metal fence with peep holes. Behind the fences are incredible cycads alongside mirrored walls creating the illusion of a much larger landscape.

 

 

 

If you are after flowers for your garden you need look no further than the tents on the grounds. The festival of roses is without question breath taking and these are just a few of those stunning flowers on display.

 

 

If you fancy a fire pit or a water feature, a quick trip to the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower show will change every thought you ever had of these mundane items. The offerings here will have reaching for your credit card in an instant.

 

 

A highlight of this year’s show, and in celebration of the 25 years of the show, an anniversary maze has been commissioned. This a maze that links the show to the world famous maze in Hampton Court Palace which was planted in 1700. The maze covers over 900 square meters and the South African shall be exploring that after submitting this article. For fear of not find the way out best to keep people informed where it was we were last seen.

 

 

The scarecrow competition has been a feature since 2008 and returns this year with some incredible submissions. A few are below showing the fun, humour and incredible talent of these amazingly talented artists.

 

 

If you have the time over the next week try and make your way down to this amazing exhibition. The show closes on the 5th July at 5:30. Perhaps you might want to drop by and say hello to the lovely people from Southern Africa displaying and be inspired by the artists on display.