Hampton Court Flower Show. 2nd July

We were given tickets to the Flower Show at Hampton Court as a Christmas present - Thank you so much CJ and LMcG- it was a lovely day.  We last went in 2010 so it would be interesting to see any changes - its as big as ever! Luckily we were there on the Thursday which, although very warm, was not as hot as the day before when temperatures reached 37 degrees.
It's the largest Flower Show in the UK, if not Europe and has a lovely setting.  Its difficult to see it all in a day but hopefully this post will give you a flavour of what we did manage to get round.

The Macmillan Legacy garden

 We arrived early and headed for the larger show gardens - there seemed to be less of these this year - but more categories of smaller gardens.

The Macmillan Garden got a Gold medal - very lush, very green, with muted colours in the planting. it was designed as a Community space that could be attached to a Macmillan care centre.

Equilibrium, Winner, Conceptual garden category.

The Conceptual gardens are, to my mind, the Tate Modern of the gardening world. Concepts and ideas translated into gardens. Slightly strange! Equilibrium supposedly represents the importance of our relationship with sun and moon. Calm, stability and balance. This was the least odd of the conceptual gardens.
Moving on to the more conventional -

Unique : the Rare Chromosone Disorder Garden.

The planting here was much more to my taste. Blues and yellows and a good flow to the space.

The pictures below are of the garden that I liked the best - titled "A Music Lover's Garden" it was inspired by Handal's Water Music which had its debut on the River Thames.
  A meandering path flowed through the garden's planting, trees and large sandstone rocks.

Alongside is a rill that drops into a sunken area and pool beneath.
Sandstone steps descend to an amphitheatre area being used for live performances during the Show.

I thought these sculptures were fabulous - just like giant seedheads!

The garden had a real sense of space and the planting was lovely.

Most of the gardens you walk around the outside to view - just occasionally you can wander through - but not this one.  A shame - I would have loved to walk through it.
One of the smaller Summer gardens caught my eye -
Entitled "Living Landscapes - City Twitchers" it's focus was wildlife in gardens and birdwatching in particular.

Love the hide! A place to sit and watch the birds. The planting was predominantly green and white - quite restful

We wandered around nearly all the other show gardens then crossed the Long Water to the Floral Marquee and the Plant Village where the Nurseries exhibit and sell.

The large Floral marquee was a buzz of people
and plants.

Then it was on to the Celebrating Roses marquee

 A riot of colour and scent


and HOT





Outside was the "cake" celebrating the 25th anniversary of the show -

It's impossible to see the whole show in a day - but we managed a good percentage.
Finally - exhausted - it would have been good to sit and rest on this bench with these pots - but not accessible to public!! Only to look.

A good day!