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Fire your child's imagination at the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park
Kids go FREE
There’s every reason to take the family to the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park and join us in celebrating the show’s 10th birthday as there’s so much to see. And now all children under 15 (inclusive) can come to the show free of charge. And you can’t go to a birthday party without cake - so every young gardener will be entitled to a free Flower Show Birthday Cupcake! So make the most of a great day out with animal sculpture making, plant pot painting, seed planting and a 3D helicopter made from flowers - there's lot's to keep the kids entertained.
If you have already paid for children's tickets to Tatton for Thursday to Sunday, you should be refunded automatically. However, if you bought tickets for Wednesday or still need a refund, please hand your tickets to the staff at cabins.
All refunds will be made by the original payment method.
87.7 Tatton FM
The RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park has its very own on-site radio station.
Inspired by The Lakes
Gardens and flower beds are celebrating the dramatic and awe-inspiring landscape of The Lake District at this year’s show.
Andrew Louden is creating a back to back garden entitled The Lake District Poets Garden, which is inspired by the home of William Wordsworth, Rydal Mount. It is a quiet, contemplative sanctuary, featuring a Victorian stone summerhouse and naturalistic planting.
In the show garden category, Paul Dyer has designed My Own Little Bit of the Lakes, a rock and water garden to show how natural effects can transform a small space.
Blackburn and Darwen Borough Council is paying homage to Wainwright’s Love Affair of The Lakes, reflecting the author’s first view of the Lakeland Fells, in its entry into the RHS/Ball Colegrave National Flower Bed Competition.
Fluttering butterflies at Tatton
Tatton has always been a hive for excellence in wildlife gardening, and at the 2008 show butterflies are taking top honours.
Chester Zoo’s Butterfly Journey will educate visitors about butterfly-friendly plants, while Reaseheath College’s Metamorphosis uses the structure of its design to symbolise the process that a butterfly goes through, from egg through to adult.
In the RHS/Ball Colegrave National Flower Bed Competition, Conwy County Borough Council’s entry represents its region’s ecology and biodiversity, with the display adorned with two large butterflies made from bedding plants.
Chris Beardshaw's inspiration
Gardening guru and designer Chris Beardshaw tells RHS Online what has inspired his 2008 show garden.
Find out about Chris' inspiration
Cheshire schools get creative with their containers
Schools across Cheshire are starting their special growing projects as part of the show’s Quirky Containers competition.
Show visitors can expect the unexpected as Sandbach Community Primary puts a technological spin on nature by planting up an old PC, while Nether Alderley Primary School hopes to cook up success with a rusty BBQ. Meanwhile, Barrow Church of England Primary School is showing off Daisy’s Day Out - a fully planted children’s tractor driven by a cow!
Gardens get charitable at Tatton
A number of gardens aimed at raising awareness of charitable causes are exhibiting at Tatton this year.
Last year’s winner of the Best in Show Back to Back Garden, Summers Gardens, is creating a show garden for Marie Curie Cancer Care. Entitled At the End of my Garden, the garden represents the work carried out by the charity in caring for terminally-ill patients.
Teenage Cancer Trust has enlisted Jon Tilley of Dragonfly Garden Design to create its show garden, which is split into two to explore the cultural clash between teenagers and their parents – half of Punk’s Not Dead celebrates the punk movement, while the other half portrays classical music.
Paul Hensey of Elysium Design, who won an RHS Silver-Gilt Medal for his Urban Garden at Chelsea Flower Show this year, has designed a show garden at Tatton for Samaritans called Always There. This celebrates National Samaritan’s Day, which takes place during show week on 24 July.
In the Back to Back Garden category, crime reduction charity Nacro unveils Ladies that Lunch, a sustainable garden that shows visitors the benefits of keeping hens, while Andy Walker’s A Garden for Grace has been designed for Christie Hospital.
Tatton designers triumph at Chelsea
A number of garden designers coming to Tatton have been celebrating their medal success at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Paul Hensey of Elysium Design won a Silver-Gilt Flora for The Pemberton Recess Garden. Phillippa Probert won a Bronze Flora for her Green Living Urban Garden, and Geoffrey Whiten also won Bronze Flora for Real Life with Brett in the show garden category.
Do the Floral Walk
This year, take the scenic route to show – travel by train, with a combined rail and show ticket, saving £2 on admission to the show, enjoy Knutsford’s spectacular Floral Walk, and arrive at the show in style through Tatton’s town gates.
Oriental influence comes to Tatton
With the Beijing Olympics taking place a month after the show, it’s no wonder that oriental style and design has been making its way into some of the gardens at Tatton.
Manchester Metropolitan University is creating its Tales from a Chinese Garden, where the country’s art, culture, mythology and plants are being celebrated. The focus of the garden is a timber pavilion designed by an architect from Guangzhou, and Chinese musicians will be on hand to entertain visitors.
Andy Stockton, for Urban Vision, is creating a tranquil East Meets West retreat taking inspiration from Japanese Zen gardens. It will be quiet and peaceful, and features planting such as Japanese maples, jasmine and bamboo.
See gardening in action at Tatton
The RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park is the place to visit if you want to learn more about how to care for your garden.
In the Gardening in Action Marquee, Guy Barter from the RHS Advisory Department will be helping gardeners to find out more about how to grow and look after veg, while John Scrase will talk through the UK’s top 10 pests and diseases, so gardeners can be on the look out for the beasts and bugs that could harm their perfect plants.
Dean Peckett from RHS Garden Harlow Carr will be available to give gardeners tips for caring for roses, and a host of other speakers will be on hand throughout the week to share some of the tricks of the trade.
A crescendo of musical displays
Floral notes will be weaving their way around the show as several gardens, flower beds and plants take their inspiration from music.
Show garden Punk’s Not Dead designed by Jon Tilley for Teenage Cancer Trust examines the cultural clash between teenagers and their parents. One half of the design is punk and features chaotic and rebellious planting, while the other half with its ordered box hedging represents classical music.
The RHS/Ball Colegrave Flower Bed Competition is also getting in on the act, with Vale Royal Borough Council creating a psychedelic 60s bed inspired by The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, while Stoke-on-Trent Council’s design celebrates the city’s cultural heritage, from music hall right through to the modern stage.
And take a look in the Floral Marquee at Fryer’s Nursery’s ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Mamma Mia’ and ‘You Are My Sunshine’ rose cultivars.
Win a chance to create a display at the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park in 2009!
Britain’s Best Flower Bed will be announced in September 2008 and the winner will get the chance to go head to head with the big names in bedding with a place at the RHS/Ball Colegrave National Flower Bed Competition at the prestigious RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park 2009.
Special attractions – new for 2008
This year’s key attraction to the event is a specially commissioned show garden designed by gardener and TV presenter Chris Beardshaw. This will celebrate Cheshire’s Year of Gardens ‘08. It will be flanked by four back to back gardens designed and built by four of the region’s Gardens of Distinction: Ness Botanic Gardens, Chester Zoological Gardens, Arley Hall & Gardens and our host venue Tatton Park – a glorious portrayal of the region’s gardening heritage and wealth.
The British Florist Association Marquee is where you’ll find a wealth of the country’s finest talent arranging some of the most extravagant displays in both the WorldSkills UK 2008 Floristry Final and the Teleflorist Florist of the Year Competition. Or if you prefer, creative crafts people will captivate you in the Rural Crafts and Skills Pavilion with demonstrations of basket making, coppice crafts and willow weaving.
Quirky containers
Children are about to teach us a thing or two about gardening. Cheshire’s primary schools have been invited to enter our ‘quirky container’ competition, so come and see how gardening, education and environmental concerns can blossom in the imaginative hands of schoolchildren.
The art of gardening
Art in all its forms enhances any garden. Come and see an interesting and diverse range of works from contemporary and traditional artists that will make your garden look even more remarkable. Artists Rocca Gutteridge and Peter Lardi are among those displaying some spectacular pieces.
Floral Marquee Firsts
After winning the top accolade of ‘Best Plant Selling Exhibit’ for its Plant Plaza display at the 2007 show, Solva Plants has been awarded a space in Tatton’s Floral Marquee at the 2008 show. The Hampshire-based nursery is displaying heucheras and other associated foliage plants.
Southport-based Alan Leyland of Churchtown Carnivores is also a first timer to the Floral Marquee and is showing a variety of fascinating carnivorous plants such as Venus fly traps and pitcher plants, complemented by foliage and moss.
Turn it Tropical
Visitors to Tatton will be inspired to use more unusual plants in their garden when they see the Back to Back garden from Amurlee Exotics entitled ‘Turn it Tropical’.
This nursery, which is also exhibiting in the Plant Plaza, will feature structural plants from a range of climates, such as tree ferns, cacti and palms to create a relaxing and secret oasis in a compact space.
