Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 5 to 10 July 2011

240 Hackney Carriages worth of edible flora and a football pitch full of flowers

Hampton Court Palace Flower Show Vital Statistics

The Royal Horticultural Society’s Hampton Court Palace Flower show returns in full bloom this summer, taking over the palace grounds with a lavish feast for the senses.

The show is a British Summer cultural institution, gaining a reputation throughout the world for providing some of the most innovative Show and Conceptual gardens, alongside an eclectic assortment of horticultural delights which are sure to satisfy both young and old green-fingered visitors alike.

Now in its final stages of preparation, this year’s event is producing some fascinating facts and figures…

FACT AND FIGURES

The show

· This is the 22nd year of the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

· It takes 11 months to plan the show

· Over 160,000 visitors attend the show

· Most visitors spend around five hours at the show

· The show covers 34 acres

· It takes three weeks to build a show garden, and two weeks to build a small garden, but the gardens all come apart in just three days

Size of the show

· There are 9 Conceptual Gardens, 12 Show Gardens, four Show features, six Poets Gardens, nine Inspiring Spaces and 11 Small gardens

· The Grow Your Own marquee is 1125 square metres, equivalent to fit four tennis courts

· The Floral Marquee stand is 6750 square metres, enough space to fit an FA football pitch

· The RHS Edible Garden is 1905 square metres, enough room to fit 240 black cabs

What’s new in 2011?

· The RHS Edible Garden will present a fantastic range of beautiful plants which amazingly, all have an end use, mostly as an edible crop

· Designed by Jon Wheatley and Anita Foy, the RHS Edible Garden will provide a special focus on the artisanal methods by which plants are transformed into the things we use and consume

· This year’s event features the first ever fungus garden to be exhibited at Hampton. ‘Landscape Obscured’, appears an open expanse of grass; upon closer inspection and through the help of structured periscopes, an entire underground environment is revealed. Designed by professional sculptor Dan Lobb, the display will offer visitors the opportunity to engage with the organism at all levels, as each stem will be cooked and eaten on the last day of the show

· Garden designers including Bill Butterworth and Nick Buss will create six gardens based on poems from some of Britain’s best loved and highly esteemed poets. Including Jon Keats’ By the Sea, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Mont Blanc, Lord Bryon’s Love’s Last Adieu, Rudyard Kipling’s My Boy Jack, Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky and William Wordsworth’s Rural Architecture

· Inspiration for this year’s Rose Marquee comes from the classic book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. New roses making their public debut at the show include the Rose of the Year 2012 Moment in Time (‘Korcastrav’), a fine floribunda that produces an abundance of ruby-red flowers offset by dark glossy green leaves

The exhibitors

· There are nearly 600 exhibitors at this year’s show, offering visitors everything from gardens, nurseries and flowers

· There have been seven exhibitors that have taken part in every show since 1990. These are: Blackmore & Langdon, The Botanic Nursery, Fibrex Nurseries, Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants, Southfield Nursery, Squires Garden Centre and WS Warmenhoven

First timers at the show include:

· Taking influence from his former career at Google, Nigel Jones of Medlar & Cob’s arresting design focuses on the ethical considerations of sharing personal information online. Central to the garden is a partially transparent box containing personal information belonging to Nigel, obscured from view by Mountain Ash trees. Surrounded by soft foliage, the box appears to float amongst cloud like shapes, providing visitors with a visually impressive installation

· Using unique Boskke Sky Planters, Anoushka Feiler’s first garden at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show will turn gardening on its head. ‘Excuse me whilst I kiss the sky’ reveals a stunning tapestry of plants hanging from above, only truly appreciated from underneath; with the help of mirrors, visitors will be able to view the structure from different angles, hoping to push the boundaries of traditional horticulture

· Judy Cornford of Amazingardens is exhibiting in the Show Gardens category having decided on a change of career after 35 years as an interior designer. The garden is set to highlight the difficulties the older generation encounter learning to use the internet

Food and drink

During show week, visitors consume:

· 48,501 cups of fair-trade tea and coffee

· 15,029 rounds of sandwiches and 1,500 baguettes

· 14,274 glasses of Pimm’s

· 14,868 glasses of champagne

· 5,598 flower pot muffins

· 4,357 slices of cakes