Show business!

Published 12th July 2014 in The Nottingham Evening Post

With summer well underway the gardening calendar (as far as shows go) is almost up for another year. Only the remaining autumn events and of course this weekend at Hampton Court Palace are left and garden designers across the country are already turning their attention to next years exhibitions.

The time and effort that goes into these shows, especially the gardens takes the full year in preparation (at least!), but what is it all for? Pure entertainment on the day? a few bargains and a chance to enjoy the displays? 

For designers and exhibitors its an obvious opportunity to showcase what we can do, an RHS medal is difficult to come by and it helps to raise the profile of that business but when it comes to the visitor there is so much more to gain. 

Taking away the purchasing power of buying direct from suppliers, the main reason most people go to one of the many RHS exhibitions is to see the gardens. Chelsea is most well known for this and whilst you might not have the £250k budget to build one of the main avenue gardens you can still gain inspiration and get ideas for practical use back at home. The smaller shows such as Tatton, Gardeners world live and Malvern are perhaps more realistic in terms of everyday opportunity but its still important to see these shows for what they are. 

When applying to the RHS to design a garden there has to be a concept, an idea behind the garden, this brief makes up around 20% of the marks and so it has to be equally creative. To say 'We are building a practical family garden that looks great' wont cut it but yet thats what a lot of people want and so as designers we design and build conceptual gardens with the aim of including 'bits and pieces' that could be used directly as they are in a household garden and then perhaps inspire with the rest. 

As a spectator its vital we view the gardens with an open mind, we might not be able to imagine the garden behind our house but you might see a combination of yellow phormiums and purple salvias that inspires a colour scheme that transforms the flower beds into something more interesting.

These gardens we see have been built in 2-3 weeks and are dismantled in just 2-3 days; they're just like a film set and just like a film can make you think about life these shows are there also to inspire. So if you're thinking about a new garden and you want to have a go at it yourself one of the best places you could start is an RHS show, their website will have plenty of pictures of the ones gone and details of the remaining shows this year

For more details of the RHS and its inspirational shows take a look at www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events