Spring Bank Holiday Weekend
Saturday 5th, Sunday 6th and Monday 7th May 2007
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The beautiful City of Bath will play host to its annual Spring Flower Show in Royal Victoria Park over the Spring Bank Holiday Weekend. For many people this will be the moment when they start to think about their gardens again after a long winter, and thoughts turn to summer planting, longer evenings spent in the garden and al fresco dining and barbecues with friends and family. So what better way to spend a part of this holiday weekend than at the Bath Spring Flower Show?
Bath’s show offers a friendly, welcoming day out for all the family and tickets are priced at just £7 for an adult (with concessions for Senior Citizens at £5), and accompanied children under 16 are completely free. Parking – a perennial problem in Bath - is easy too.
The Spring Flower Show is celebrating its 21st anniversary this year – it started in 1987 to mark the centenary of the Botanical Gardens in Royal Victoria Park. The organizers have planned a special display created by Bath & North East Somerset Council’s award-winning Parks Department recreating a vista within the Botanical Gardens.
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The main floral marquee is always packed with stunning exhibits from plantsmen and women from across the country showing perfect blooms in pristine condition, but also offering plants for sale or to order and they are always willing to dispense helpful advice and new ideas. Highlights always include truly inspirational displays of spring flowering bulbs, aricula, fuchsias, clematis, and violas, alongside more unusual Japanese maples and bonsai trees, to name but a few specimens.
There are a plethora of stalls offering fascinating and innovative products for the home and garden, as well as the more conventional – whatever your dream garden, from the minimalist with paving and pots, to the traditional country garden awash with summer blooms, you will find inspiration here.
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As always, there will be a large refreshment marquee to nourish and revitalize in between some serious horticultural retail therapy, and for serious foodies a wonderful area dedicated to British Food and Farming offering delicious and tempting edible treats to take home from small, often local and organic, suppliers who will be able to discuss the provenance of their food and reassure purchasers of its high quality and ‘slow food’ credentials. And to offer even greater inspiration there will be regular cookery demonstrations, too.
The English Garden Roadshow will be present on all three days. It will provide three sessions per day, hosted by ITV presenter Peter Rowell, when a panel of gardening experts will call upon their own specialist areas of gardening expertise to solve problems, make suggestions and discuss seasonal trends and new developments in the horticultural world. These sessions are informal, and there is no additional charge, in fact audience members often leave with a goody bag generously donated by the event’s sponsors. This year’s specialist panel members will include the gardening columnist and TV broadcaster Steve Bradley; Mary Payne, RHS Master of Horticulture and the creator of the stunning prairie-style garden at Lady Farm, near Bath; and international flower show judge and local nursery owner, Jon Wheatley.
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There will be a special children’s tent, full of fun things to occupy younger members of the family, and Bath City Farm will bring along some of its furry or feathered residents, many of whom are happy to be gentle stroked by small hands!
The central bandstand will offer a varied programme of entertainment throughout the day, from music to Morris Dancing, and this area provides welcome seating – a great place to arrange to meet up with friends or family, rest your legs and perhaps enjoy an ice-cream if the sun is shining. If not, don’t worry as most of the stall and exhibits are under cover.
As well as an opportunity to gain inspiration, browse, enquire and buy, the Bath Spring Flower Show welcomes active participation, too. There are floral art, junior, photographic and art competitions to enter – no-one can fail to be impressed by the high standards and sheer beauty of the displays in the Floral Art Marquee, many created by members of local floral art clubs. And local Townswomen’s Guilds and Women’s Institutes have their own marquee with competition entries and delicious home-baked cakes and preserves.
So, there really is something for all ages and to suit all tastes, even those who only have a window box or postage-stamp sized garden, at the Bath Spring Flower Show…
Bath Spring Flower Show takes place in upper Royal Victoria Park from 10am to 6pm daily from 5th to 7th May.
Tickets are £7 adults, £5 senior citizens, unaccompanied children and concessions. Accompanied children under 16 are free.
Group discounts are available.
Please call 01225 394041 or visit www.bathnes.gov.uk/bathspringflowershow for further details, including competition entry forms.
