MAY 2010
6th to 9th May 2010 – Malvern Spring Gardening Show
PRINCESS ROYAL VISITS 25TH MALVERN SPRING GARDENING SHOW
HRH The Princess Royal has accepted an invitation to visit the 2010 Malvern Spring Gardening Show, in its 25th anniversary year.
Her Royal Highness will arrive at the Three Counties Agricultural Society’s Malvern Showground home in Worcestershire, on Friday 7 May, and is expected to remain on site until early afternoon.
She will be met by the Lord Lieutenant for Worcestershire, Mr. Michael Brinton and Mrs Angela Brinton DL, and will tour the event with Three Counties Agricultural Society President, James Hervey-Bathurst CBE DL.
The Malvern Spring Gardening Show started life as a small regional flower show, and has grown to become one of the big top five gardening events in the country.
2010 is a special milestone for show organizers, the Three Counties Agricultural Society and the Royal Horticultural Society, and Her Royal Highness’s itinerary is likely to take in some of the birthday celebrations and features planned for this year.
It is hoped her visit will include a tour of the Show’s 25th Anniversary Garden, which at 676 square metres, is the biggest Show Garden ever to be built on the gardening show circuit.
The Society also plans to introduce the royal guest to some of the exhibitors who have been with the Show since the very beginning, including David Matthewman, who will be creating a specially commissioned ‘Birthday Cake’, cleverly worked in beautiful sweet peas.
The Princess Royal first visited the Showground in 1976, and served as TCAS President in 1981.
In 1986, she was in Malvern again to open the new Members Complex overlooking the Main Arena, and more recently, in 2006, she attended the National Pony Society’s 100th Summer Championship Show and the National Sheep Association Show, both taking place at the Showground on the same day.
Said Malvern Spring Gardening Show Manager, Doreen Smillie: “HRH The Princess Royal is no stranger to the Malvern Showground, and we are naturally dfelighted that she should choose to honour us with a visit in this special year.
We hope to introduce her to some of the many people who have supported the Show over the years, and have worked tirelessly, very often behind the scenes, to make it the success it is today.”
MALVERN DOES SILVER IN STYLE
It’s twenty five years since the national Malvern Spring Gardening Show first sprang to life as a small regional flower show in the heart of the countryside.
A quarter of a century later, organizers of the event which now ranks in Britain’s top five big flower shows – are preparing to celebrate more than two decades of gardening innovation and excellence.
The Malvern Showground and its partner the Royal Horticultural Society will mark the Silver Anniversary with a whole host of special birthday celebrations.
The Show is synonymous with fresh ideas, horticultural excellence, environmentally responsible design and practice, education and real gardening for all. It is also known for its beautiful location in a green and fertile countryside, dotted with hamlets and villages, orchards and historic landmarks, and rich in wildlife and crops.
Garden designers James Steed, Alex Bell and Claire Potter will be coming together for the very first time in 2010 to create a beautiful anniversary garden which will remain in place until July.
The garden has been designed to capture Malvern’s unique appeal and features blocks of meadow grass with fruit trees, vegetables in galvanized troughs under-planted with ornamentals, a pool with a tasteful ripple, bees and a space for chickens.
Malvern is home to a 1.7 acre Royal Horticultural Society Floral Marquee, with thousands of blooms from the top 100 nurseries in the country.
As part of the birthday celebrations, nurserymen and women from all over Britain will be compiling a short list of favourite plants for a ‘Best of The Best’ signature collection.
25 of them will be staging ‘Celebration’ themed displays for a Marquee centre-piece and competing for ‘The People’s Choice’ award.
Malvern’s success over the years can be attributed in part to its constantly evolving content, and a commitment to embrace the future in every respect.
But a 25th milestone is the perfect excuse for a trip down memory lane to see just how far the Show has come, and visitors can enjoy a special Birthday Exhibition, which chronicles the Show’s history in stories, characters, photographs and publicity materials.
Fast forward to the future – how might our gardens look 25, 500, 1000 and even 1500 years from now? Will we be growing our food in an urban setting, and how might the climate and rainfall have changed by the year 2035 and beyond?
Students from primary and secondary schools and colleges in and around the region, will be trying to predict the answer in the form of school gardens with a futuristic theme, as part of a project sponsored by BAM Construction.
No birthday would be complete without a celebratory cake, and flower show exhibitor, David Matthewman of Matthewman Sweet Peas will be saying it with flowers this year, in the shape of a highly visual birthday cake made entirely from the fragrant blooms of the lovely sweet pea!
Visitors to Malvern this year can look forward to 17 Show Gardens, ranging from a disused Welsh railway crossing, an outdoor Quaker meeting room and the Morgan Motor Company’s unique wildlife-friendly interpretation of the traditionally formal front garden.
Candidates for this year’s Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholarship, sponsored by Bradstone, will be creating 8 circus-themed gardens, there’s a new
Botanical Art exhibition and an Arts and Food Market with delicious home produce, quality ceramics, pictures and accessories from local artisans.
Television gardeners will be talking to growers and designers from the superb Design For Living Theatre and Garden Stage, and gardenersclick (Digital
Media Award Winner 2008) will be hosting ‘Ask The Experts’ Q & A sessions throughout the Show.
For more details about the event, go to the Malvern Spring Gardening Show website: www.threecounties.co.uk/springgardening
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