'Gardeners at their best, Britain at its best — and tickets are a snip': Alan Titchmarsh on his all-time favourite flower show
If you didn't manage to get tickets for RHS Chelsea, Alan Titchmarsh has a wonderful alternative idea for you.
Close your eyes and conjure up an image of what you imagine to be the perfect English flower show. The day is fine and fair, a thing of blue skies and birdsong (forgive my lapse into P. G. Wodehouse prose). There are marquees bursting with fragrant blooms and children dancing around a maypole; there is tea and cake aplenty on the grassy meadow where the egg-and-spoon race is in full swing.
One tent, set apart from the rest, houses an array of silver cups and salvers to be awarded at the end of the day for potatoes or sweet peas, roses or the straightest runner bean. Through the translucent canvas of a large marquee, the sunbeams glint upon trestle tables devoted to exhibits from children groaning under the weight of miniature gardens and tiny flower arrangements, as another boasts serried ranks of jam-oozing Victoria sponges and cream-topped sherry trifles.
Children from local schools tip out bags of luscious compost and weigh the potatoes that have been nurtured within their confines to see who has grown the heaviest crop, as others, more sparingly clad, demonstrate the skills and artistry they have absorbed at the local ballet school.
"It is a day in the year to which I look forward with joyful anticipation"
Among this happy throng of mums and dads, grandparents and offspring of all ages meanders a member of the Royal Family, smiling and saying ‘hello', offering encouragement and admiring the display gardens constructed for the day in the hope of capturing the interest of a future client and winning a prize to boot.
Well, this dream flower show is, in fact, a reality. It is the Royal Windsor Flower Show, organised by the Royal Windsor Rose and Horticultural Society and held, each June — for one day only — on the lawns around the York Club in Windsor Great Park. This year it will take place on June 6 and, if previous years are anything to go by, it will be a day of joyful celebration accompanied by glorious weather. (Not guaranteed, but fervently hoped for.)
The King is the society's Royal Patron and I count myself lucky to be its honorary president. It is my favourite horticultural show of the year. Why? Because it embodies all those things that one remembers from childhood: families coming together and celebrating gardens and gardening, teas on the lawn, talks in a tent, good humour, good food and an overwhelming sense of joie de vivre — a French term, but one that perfectly describes an intrinsically English event.
You can buy your ticket in advance. (Tickets are available at the gate on the day, but numbers are restricted, so play safe and book early.) London theatre tickets nowadays can cost up to £300. For that you'll get about three hours of enjoyment. At the Royal Windsor Flower Show, you'll be entertained from 10am until 6pm. The cost? For an ‘Early Bird' adult ticket it's £17. Children: £4.50. A snip.
This year's theme is ‘Rooted in Nature' — inspired by The King's book Harmony. It ‘celebrates the balance between people, plants and the planet, reminding us that the true sustainability begins with connection — the soil beneath our feet, the communities we nurture and the living world that sustains us'.
Not that such messages are ever promulgated with a heavy hand at this most glorious of flower shows. It remains, in essence, a joyful celebration — and a place to spend rather more than you had bargained for buying plants from some of the country's leading nurserymen, or from the stand of The Royal Gardens Windsor, whose offerings all come with a very fetching label bearing a crest with which to impress your neighbours.
Last year, The King made an appearance, touring the show and talking to both exhibitors and visitors to everyone's surprise and delight. This year, The Duchess of Edinburgh has agreed to design a garden. Now that will be interesting…
Numbers are restricted, so everyone can enjoy themselves without elbowing their way through the madding crowd. It is a day in the year to which I look forward with joyful anticipation. Britain at its best. Gardeners at their best. Small it may be, but when it comes to charm, good humour and spirit, I rank the Royal Windsor Flower Show as my all-time favourite.
More details and tickets for The Royal Windsor Flower Show are available via their website.
'Chatsworth: The gardens and the people who made them' by Alan Titchmarsh is out now (Ebury, £35).
This feature originally appeared in the print edition of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.
The Country Life ‘Garden Lover’s Library’, designed by George Saumarez Smith of Adam Architecture, is at stand PW215 at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, May 18–23.
The first 200 subscribers at Chelsea will receive a bottle of The Grange Classic Sparkling NV, worth £39. Rated 94 points by Decanter magazine, this premium sparkling wine from Hampshire was described in Country Life as ‘the connoisseur’s choice’. Offer available with subscriptions for UK delivery only.
