MORE than 100,000 people have flocked to this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival – the most ever.
Formerly the Malvern Spring Gardening Show, 2014’s showcase was the first under the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) banner and housed an array of new features especially to reinforce the relationship between gardening and cooking.
Celebrity gardeners provided demonstrations and advice including Carol Klein, James Alexandre-Sinclair, Chris Beardshaw as well as Blue Peter’s Chris Collins. They were also joined by television chefs James Martin and Rachel Allen who entertained the crowds at The Three Counties Showground which welcomed Her Royal Highness Princess Anne who visited on Friday (May 9).
The floral marquee also received a substantial upgrade for this year housing 80 exhibitors. With RHS Malvern being the first big show of the year, its was visitors’ first chance to see colourful early summer displays.
Show manager Doreen Smillie, said: “We were delighted to open the gates of RHS Malvern 2014, this year’s show was like no other. Hundreds of thousands of plants from across the globe were collated by the cream of the UK’s gardening industry to create a mass selection of word-class floral and garden exhibits. We were thrilled to once again put Malvern on the gardening map.”
On Thursday (May 8) the show’s medal winners were announced with Graduate Gardeners Ltd scooping the best show garden award and Lorenzo Sopriani Volpini earning the festival garden prize while Drointon Nurseries won the award for best exhibit in the floral marquee.
Other winners included Gael Sellwood in the botanical art exhibit section and Crescent Plants who were declared top of the pile for creative exhibit in the floral marquee.
RHS judge James Alexander-Sinclair said: “Judging the show gardens at RHS Malvern is always a delight.
“The show has a reputation of being ‘one for the gardener’ and this year was no exception.
“There was a fantastic range including the exciting new Festival Gardens category. All of the designers should be extremely proud of what they have achieved, we were thrilled with how the gardens were looking.”
