The final countdown has started on what for me is one of the best horticultural shows – the RHS Malvern Spring Festival. The 2018 event opens in just over a week’s time and it looks set to be a memorable year.
As ever, there’s plenty on offer from show gardens and nursery displays to trade stands and talks from experts.
Here’s a preview of what’s on my must-see list.
A terrarium theme
One thing visitors are unlikely to miss are three giant terrariums by Cotswold-based designer Paul Hervey-Brookes. Drawing on the Festival’s 2018 theme of The Great Exhibition, the 7m-high terrariums symbolise the continued exploration of the world of plants and each will have feature a different plant: the palm, the olive and the pomegranate.
Designer Olivia Kirk is also bringing terrariums to RHS Malvern 2018 but hers are far more portable.
Although large enough to house a mini garden, the terrariums, based on Wardian Cases used by Victorian plant hunters, can be easily moved and are ideal for those who don’t have a garden.
The terrariums, which can be free-standing or hung from a ceiling, are being planted up by specialists London Terrariums and will include ferns and miniature orchids.
They will be part of Olivia’s first Malvern show garden, which celebrates the redevelopment of the Royal Porcelain Works in Worcester.
In fact, terrariums and small space gardening are a bit of a theme at RHS Malvern 2018. RHS Ambassador Jamie Butterworth is overseeing a new section, Green Living Spaces that will include terrariums.
I spoke to Jamie recently about the competition and I’m looking forward to seeing how the ideas for balconies, patios, and displaying houseplants turns out.
RHS Malvern 2018 show gardens
The show gardens are always one of the first places I head and this year several award-winning designers are at the festival, including three previous Best in Show winners.
Howle Hill Nursery has taken the work of sculptor Simon Gudgeon as the starting point for a garden that is intended as a place of contemplation and relaxation with a central pool and a stone grotto.
Sculpture also features in a design by Jonathan Bishop of Foliation, who is returning to the show after a gap of six years. He is working with James Dorran-Webb, whose driftwood pieces are well-known to visitors to the Chelsea Flower Show.
In ‘From Over the Fence’ Jonathan recreates a country garden where wildlife venture in over a broken fence.
Graduate Gardeners, known for their beautiful classically English show gardens, are doing something different this year with a garden for a young professional that is very modern and full of vibrant colour.
Martyn Wilson’s Memories of Service garden is another that I’m looking forward to seeing. Designed to commemorate 100 years of the RAF, it has many features that echo the service, including a central sculpture made from parts of a plane engine. The garden will be a permanent feature at The Three Counties Showground after RHS Malvern 2018.
Some of the gardens have a decidedly quirky edge. Ruth Gwynn, a regular at Malvern but this year designing with Alan Williams, is encouraging visitors to grow more scented flowers with The Perfumer’s Garden. It will follow the manufacturing process from the flowers to perfumer’s shop.
Even stranger will be a garden in an egg by Jonas Egger, who joins RHS Malvern 2018 as part of an exchange with the Moscow Flower Show.
His garden is enclosed in a metal egg that opens and closes on a timed schedule with various effects, including music and light.
Knitting up a storm
The Work of Heart garden will be full of flowers – but they’ve all been knitted. It’s been created by Clare Young to raise money for the Sue Ryder Leckhampton Court Hospice in Cheltenham in memory of her husband, Ken. Clare turned to knitting to help cope with depression after his death.
Clare and a team of volunteers have made a full-sized hospice room that is overflowing with plants known for their healing properties.
An appeal for 10,000 knitted hearts to hang in the garden and give to visitors in return for a donation has had a staggering response with more than 20,000 sent in from across the world just weeks after the call went out.
The garden is a non-judged installation but it seems likely it will be one of the most talked about features.
British Flowers
One of the best innovations at RHS Malvern in recent years has been the focus on florists working with British-grown flowers.
This year, they are in a marquee rather than the rather gloomy Wye Hall and alongside the usual stands, demos and talks, there will be a main display by Jonathan Moseley featuring a flower-filled, ‘flying’ Morgan car. It promises to be quite a spectacle.
The Floral Marquee
No show is complete without nurseries and RHS Malvern 2018 will have 70 leading growers. New this year are Scamps with their daffodils and Thorncroft Clematis, both well-known at Chelsea.
The marquee was redesigned last year to give one long expanse and it’s good to see the new shape has been kept. Such is the popularity of the Festival among nurseries, spaces in the marquee sold out early and organisers have been running a waiting list.
All in all, it’s going to be a great few days.
• The RHS Malvern Spring Festival runs from May 10 to 13 at the Three Counties Showground. For more information and tickets, visit the website.
I will be there, working hard with Avon Bulbs who are the Master Grower in the Floral Marquee for this show
That promises to be good – their display is always a highlight. Another on my long list of must-sees. Just as well I’m going to be there for a couple of days!