Tatton Park Flower Show facts for kids
The RHS Flower Show Tatton Park is a big garden show held every year at Tatton Park in Cheshire, England. It started in 1999 and is organized by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). This show is famous for its amazing gardens and plants. You can see the RHS National Flower Bed Competition here. There's also an award for the Young Designer of the Year. The show features many different types of gardens, like inspiring show gardens and smaller 'Back to Back' gardens. You can also find large tents filled with prize-winning plants and flowers. Other cool parts of the show include the main flower tent, a plant market, an arts and history area, and a floral design studio.
Contents
The Story of the Flower Show
How the Show Started
In the mid-1990s, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) felt confident about holding big garden shows. They wanted to start new shows in different parts of the UK. By 1996, they were talking about holding shows at Tatton Park in Cheshire and in Scotland.
A place called The Island, which is about 19 acres (7.7 hectares) big, was chosen for a show in Scotland. This area is near the River Clyde in Strathclyde County Park. People at the RHS were excited, saying Scotland had great potential for a big show. They hoped 50,000 visitors would come in the first year.
Scotland's First Garden Show
Scotland’s National Gardening Show began in 1997. It was advertised as the biggest flower show in Scotland since 1988. The first year was a big success! There were 260 exhibitors and 47,000 visitors. Many of the exhibitors (over 40%) were from Scotland. Most of them had never shown their work at an RHS event before.
Some interesting exhibits included a garden dedicated to plants brought in by Robert Fortune. There was also a mining garden and a small wildlife garden. One exhibit even recreated the center of Inverness using alpine plants.
Challenges in Scotland
In its second year (1998), more exhibitors came, reaching 300. However, fewer people visited, with only 43,000 attendees. This was mainly because of bad weather.
The third year (1999) was even tougher. The show was getting more expensive to put on. It needed 50,000 visitors just to cover its costs. But attendance dropped to 35,000 people. This was much less than the Tatton Park Show attracted in the same year.
In August 1999, the RHS sadly announced they could not afford to hold the Scottish show anymore. Gardeners in Scotland quickly formed a group to create a new show. The Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society helped organize it.
New Ideas and Talent
In later years, the Tatton Park show became known for showing off new talent. This included all kinds of garden design and art. In 2009, two new garden categories were added. These were the RHS Young Designer of the Year Award and the Visionary Gardens. Designers were encouraged to "break the mold" and try new things.
In 2011, the show even had a "Ladies Day." This event encouraged women to dress up and enjoy a fashion show and dinner from Fortnum & Mason.
RHS Show Tatton Park
The First Tatton Show
The first Tatton Show was originally planned for 1998. However, the RHS decided to focus on the Scotland show first. Max de Soissons, who was an experienced event organizer, became the manager for the Tatton Show.
The first Tatton Show in 1999 was a huge success! It had 12 main show gardens and 16 'back-to-back' gardens. These were different from other small gardens seen at other shows. There were 77 plant nurseries in the main tent. Ten rose growers were part of the Royal National Rose Show.
The show also featured 200 stands selling garden supplies. About 20 plant societies had exhibits in a special tent. Around 30 national plant collections were shown in a heritage tent. There was also a crafts area and a separate furniture area. The organizers expected 70,000 visitors, but an amazing 102,000 people actually came! Everyone at the RHS agreed that Tatton had the friendliest feeling of all their shows.
National Flower Bed Competition
Robert Sweet, who was in charge of developing shows, came up with a cool idea. He suggested a competition for parks departments to create the best flower bed design. Each garden bed was a standard size (6 by 4 feet). This meant all local authorities competed fairly, no matter their size or wealth.
These beds were placed along a main path. In the first year, six groups competed. This grew to 12 in the second year, and then 24 by 2003. This competition really helped get media attention for local flower displays.
Getting There
The large number of visitors to the show can cause some traffic. Sometimes, roads near Tatton Park have to be closed temporarily. Some country lanes become one-way streets. There can also be some traffic jams on the A556 road.
Gallery
-
England's North West a Healthy Future Garden, 2006
-
The Cater Allen Private Bank Garden, 2007
-
The East Meets West Garden, 2008
-
The Into the Light Garden, 2007
-
The Brewin Dolphin Garden, 2007
-
The Out of Africa Garden, 2006
-
The Four Elements Garden: A garden for the senses, 2006
-
The Life and Soul Garden, 2007
-
The Green Approach's Amen Corner Garden, 2007
-
The Water Garden, 2007
-
The Natural Distinction Garden, 2008
-
Albert Dock Garden, top prize entry in 2010
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
