Family, food and the environment take centre stage at Hampton Court Flower Show this year from 3rd to 8th July.
Key themes include inspiring children about all things horticultural, growing your own fruit and vegetables and sustainable gardening for today’s world.
The show champions the RHS campaign to ‘Grow Your Own and many of the show gardens reflect this:
Visit edible gardens like The Torres Tapas Garden, by Anthea Guthrie, which features Mediterranean vegetables used in authentic tapas dishes to complement the wines of Torres; or
‘Mange Tout’, a decorative vegetable garden by Francesca Cleary and Ian Lawrence’s where everything, including the flowers, are edible.
At Quaglino’s Kitchen in association with NS&I, Craig James is giving cookery demos and talks, featuring delicious ideas for preparing summer vegetables, herbs, potatoes and soft fruits.
Educating young minds is behind Chris Beardshaw’s ‘The Growing Schools Garden – Learning Outside the Classroom’; over 30 schools took part in designing, planting and growing the garden.
A number of gardens deal with the environmental issues:
In our throw away world of conspicuous consumption and gross waste, the ‘Wildlife Garden in Skip’ design by Ruth Holmes of The Royal Parks, provides the ultimate horticultural solution for sustainability and recycling.
Tickets range from £13 to £30, with children aged 5-15 years £5 and under-5’s going free.
For further show information and online booking visit:
Web:Â http://www.rhs.org.uk/flowershows.
Tel:Â Â (0870) 906 3791 (public line) or 0870 906 3790 (RHS Members).