Nestled behind the truly majestic Hampton Court Palace lays the home and sprawling grounds of the UK’s largest flower show, the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival. The 2023 RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and will be a source of much excitement for any garden lover.

This year it starts on Tuesday 4^th July and finishes on Sunday 9^th July where visitors came from far and wide to be dazzled by the multitude of show gardens and to get lots of hands-on advice as well as endless shopping opportunities.

The RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival is the world’s largest annual flower show, spanning over 34 acres, and has been running since 1990.  The show is placed on either side of the Palace and consists of Show Gardens, a festival of Roses Marquee, and Floral Marquee. As well as plant pavilions which consist of expert talks, workshops and exhibits.

With a huge increase in people taking up gardening and growing in the last couple of years, there are plenty of ideas to take away from a whole host of gardens with many of the show gardens focussing on environmental issues.

Brimming with activities, sights and sounds, RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival is the perfect day out with family and friends. To find out more information and to book tickets, go to https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-hampton-court-palace-garden-festival

Apple Blossom Day is a day to celebrate the beauty and bounty of apple blossoms. It is a time to enjoy the fresh spring air, the sweet scent of apple blossoms, and the delicious fruits that will soon follow.

There are many ways to celebrate Apple Blossom Day. You can go for a walk in an apple orchard, have a picnic under the trees, or simply enjoy the beauty of the blossoms from your window.

One option this weekend, from 1 pm till 5 pm this Sunday 30 April 2023, Home Farm Orchard in Stanmer Park will celebrate Apple Blossom Day.

On the hour, there will be blossom tours as well as music, talks and activities throughout the afternoon to keep the kids entertained.

If you’d like more information about this free event, go to https://brightonpermaculture.org.uk/apple-blossom-day/

No matter how you choose to celebrate, Apple Blossom Day is a time to enjoy the beauty of spring and the bounty of apple trees.

Here are some additional facts about apple blossoms:

• Apple blossoms are white or pink in colour.
• Apple blossoms bloom in the spring, usually in April or May.
• Apple blossoms are a source of food for bees and other pollinators.
• Apple blossoms are a symbol of springtime and new beginnings.
• Apple blossoms are used to make apple cider, applesauce, and apple pie.

I visited Nymans recently, one of my local National Trust gardens in West Sussex.

The Camellia’s are flowering well. This particular one caught my eye – Camellia sasanqua ‘Paradise Pearl’. It’s a stunning camellia with masses of beautiful pink buds opening to semi double pure white flowers. It will also flower in absolute profusion over a long period in the cooler months of winter.

Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’ is the perfect winter shrub and I can see why it has been awarded an AGM by the RHS. The scent from the clusters of the small, sweetly scented, deep pink buds of Daphne Bholua  made the walk a pleasure to the senses and I couldn’t help but linger by them for a while.

Many of the hardy Cyclamen were in also flower, naturalising perfectly under trees.

I’d encourage anyone on a dry, bright winters day to pop along to Nymans and enjoy the scent and colour of the many winter flowering shrubs and perennials. The garden is definitely worth a visit if you live close by.

Nymans Gardens, West Sussex

I had the pleasure of visiting the William Robinson Festival at Gravetye Manor this weekend and was fortunate to listen to a talk by Piet Oudolf.

Piet Oudolf is an influential Dutch garden designer of which he is seen as the figurehead of the New Perennial Movement. His designs and plant compositions use bold drifts of robust herbaceous perennials and grasses which are chosen at least as much for their structure as for their flower colour. They have to look as good in decay as they do in the first unfurling of spring.

Hummelo garden in Autumn

Oudolf talked about his own garden at Hummelo, which when he first moved into, was a dilapidated country farmhouse with a few acres of land. Piet and his wife, Anja, renovated the house, raised a family, created the gardens and established a 6,000 square metre plant nursery – no mean feat! They collected, propagated, trialled and refined what then became his signature palette of robust perennials and grasses necessary for his designs. Later, after closing the nursery, Oudolf transformed it into a wild meadow, combining structural perennials with a matrix of native grasses used from the nursery. The garden was then opened to the public where Anja handled an increasing flow of visitors. Sadly for us now, the garden is now closed to the public. However, if this brief overview of Piet Oudolf and his garden at Hummelo has whetted your appetite and you’d like to discover more, then take a look at the book – ‘Hummelo: A Journey Through a Plantsman’s Life’.

The Piet Oudolf borders at RHS Wisley

There are Oudolf meadows up and down the country, the closest to me being at RHS Wisley. Here the borders are divided into bands of planting, with each band containing three or four perennial varieties and/or grasses with no single band being repeated. The plants are chosen for their aesthetic relationships to each other as well as for their ability to provide seasonal interest.

I’ve also had the pleasure of visiting Trentham Gardens, which also showcases his complex, highly naturalistic schemes. In contrast to its formality, Oudolf has created more flowing borders either side of the Italian garden.

Rivers of Grass at Trentham Gardens

There are also a number of publications describing his planting style and projects that he has been involved in:

Gardens of the High Line
Planting the Natural Garden
Hummelo
Dream Plants for the Natural Garden
Planting: A New Perspective
Piet Oudolf: Landscapes In Landscapes