This year’s RHS Chatsworth Flower Show, 5th-9th June, partnered by Wedgwood, will be focusing on the five senses of horticulture – taste, scent, touch, sight and sound – and promises stunning displays
As a county we're incredibly fortunate to have fantastic gardens and parks as well as glorious countryside, and now, each June, The Royal Horticultural Society's (RHS) newest Show - RHS Chatsworth Flower Show - has been added to the outstanding events that celebrate the great outdoors. Exciting new content for this year's show includes an amazing 'floral immersion' experience, a mass planting of thousands of Dahlia, an impressive Power of Trees feature and a new Mindfulness category in the Show Gardens.
The theme this year is a celebration of the five senses of horticulture, with the taste and smell of herbs, plants and flowers, the touch of a variety of natural textures, the sight of high summer colours and the sound of bees, grasses and trees.
Inspired by the resounding success of last year's Cosmos display in front of Chatsworth House, there will be a mass planting of thousands of lilac and white Dahlias to greet visitors.
The 'floral immersion' feature will consist of six dramatic displays created by florists in a covered scent-filled walkway. Deputy Flower Show Manager, Esta Morris, said: 'Our floral experts will create a spectacular effect unlike anything we've done before -they've embraced the trend for looser, more naturalistic floral design that's proving so popular these days.' The immersive experiences range from 'a walk in the woods' with three levels of flowers rising from a woodland floor, to discovering what it's like to wear a crown of flowers, find yourself in a 360? spiral meadow or in a space of thoughtful reflection. You will also be able to explore the delights of the scents of British Flowers and enter the 'Blue John Floral Cavern', a Derbyshire-inspired design where visitors enter the 'cavern' to be met with sculptural floral stalagmites and stalactites. All will showcase the broad range of flowers, plants and foliage available to the contemporary florist.
The important role trees play in our world is to be explored in a Power of Trees feature. Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, RSPB and Forestry Commission (celebrating its 100th anniversary this year) have come together to show the vital and extensive role trees play in our lives and will be encouraging people to plant more in a bid to help battle climate change. There'll be a tree nursery, story telling, woodland crafts, carving, arborist talks, and even tree listening! A Virtual Reality experience created by 3D expert and VR designer, Simon Mabey will allow visitors to experience the wonder of wildlife from trunk to treetop.
As always the show gardens will be a highlight and this year there will be 13 stunning gardens. BBC Radio Derby, BBC Radio Sheffield and BBC Radio Stoke have run an exciting garden design competition and the winning 'My Garden' designs will be on show, brought to fruition by Lee Bestall, whose landscape design company is based at Renishaw Hall. The BBC Radio Derby winner was Haydn Vernon's 'The Brewery Garden', celebrating Burton on Trent, BBC Radio Sheffield's 'Elements of Sheffield' will celebrate the connection between the city and bordering Peak District, while Radio Stoke has 'An Imagined Miner's Garden'.
Sponsors Wedgwood - celebrating the 260th anniversary of the company's founding - are creating a show garden inspired by John Wedgwood, one of the RHS founders, which will be designed by horticulturalist and RHS Ambassador Jamie Butterworth. The planting includes sweet peas, roses, herbs and fruit trees, and the colour palette references Wedgwood's Jasperware of rich sky blue, lush greens and deep crimson. It is inspired by Wedgwood's vision of using 'the power of horticulture and plants to connect people and unite communities'. Wedgwood and Reaseheath College in Nantwich have repeated a successful collaboration with gardening students who will be helping with this garden.
'The Brewin Dolphin Artists' Garden', designed by multi-award-winning designer Paul Hervey-Brookes, will showcase artisan crafts and makers and include textile art, Japanese porcelain and basket weaving, while an RHS Wildlife Garden will demonstrate how the UK's 24 million gardens can be transformed into a network of nature reserves, encouraging the return of once common garden visitors such as hedgehogs, house sparrows and starlings through native and non-native planting.
Finding peace through gardening will also be brought to the fore through five gardens in the new Mindfulness Gardens category, championing wellbeing and mental health in their design.
Derby College's show garden, delivered by Broomfield Hall Garden volunteers, is entitled 'Find Yourself…Lost in the Moment…' and its theme is mindfulness, with two carved spiral sculptures emerging from a sea of soft loose planting against a backdrop of doors, representing new possibilities.
Other designs include those for everything from a small central city apartment terrace to a relaxed space to sit and tune in to nature, and gardens for retreat and meditation.
Liz Patterson, RHS Chatsworth Flower Show Manager, said: 'It's so apt that we're celebrating the senses at our 2019 show as gardens and gardening engage all five - from the sound of a breeze through the treetops to the taste of ripe fruit or the touch of soft grasses that anyone and everyone can relate to. As the RHS's newest show, we're building on the success of the last two years at Chatsworth and are really pleased to announce that our Long Borders competition has nearly doubled in entries. We can't wait to see these popular displays this year.
'Our Floral Marquee will be bursting with 80 growers and nurseries including RHS Chatsworth's Master Grower Pennard Plants. We also have a fantastic line-up of experts in the Potting Bench and Dig In theatres. There's shopping galore and plenty of family-friendly workshops and great community and schools competitions. We've definitely got something for everyone to enjoy at our stunning show.'
To purchase tickets to
RHS Chatsworth Flower Show visit the website at www.rhs.org.uk/shows
