There is a picture in the office of the current Southport Flower Show general manager Alan Adams of the 30-strong committee who put the first show together 100 years ago.
Some of the all-male group are relaxing on benches with the rest standing behind them. In the background are the tents that would have housed the grand floral displays for which the event has always been famous.
And while this year’s show doesn’t have as large an organising committee, there will be much those men from 1924 would recognise.
Since the gates of Victoria Park opened for that first show, just seven shows have been missed – five during World War Two and a couple more because of Covid.
The show’s future was in doubt in the mid-1980s after Sefton Council withdrew funding, but a group of local horticulturalists and business leaders came together and it has grown to be the largest independent flower show in the UK.
The council now lease the 34 acre park to the show for the peppercorn rent of a bouquet of flowers.
More than 55,000 people are expected over the four days of this year’s centenary show which will feature the now customary mix of floral displays, entertainment, food, shopping and celebrity guests.
Among the star names at this year’s show will be television gardeners Adam Frost, David Domoney, of Love Your Garden and Carole Baxter and George Anderson of BBC’s Beechgrove Garden. And after proving popular at last year’s event, television chef Phil Vickery will be returning and cooking live in the Cookery Theatre.
Flower Show general manager Alan Adams said: ‘The show is going to be a real horticultural extravaganza and we can’t wait to welcome the special guests – and all our visitors – to the hundredth Southport Flower Show.
‘It is a landmark occasion for us and we plan to mark it with a wonderful show for all the family, with colourful floral displays, a packed programme of entertainment, food and drink, shopping and live music.’
* Southport Flower Show runs from August 15-18 at Victoria Park in Southport. For tickets and more information, go to southportflowersshow.co.uk.
