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Pictured: Top Left – Michael Lote, It Doesn’t Have to Cost the Earth. Top Right – Mark Draper, The Cotswold Garden. Bottom Left: Perennial’s The Laskett Garden designed by David Wyndham Lewis. Bottom Right: Eat, Drink and Be Rosemary designed by Laura Ashton-Phillips.

Today marks the launch of the RHS Show season across the UK, the much-anticipated start of RHS Malvern Spring Festival at Three Counties Showground in Malvern, Worcestershire, running until Sunday 12^th May.

Boasting eight newly-created show gardens, alongside a brand-new feature garden, this year’s festival has a theme of Gardening For Change giving a platform to planet-friendly gardening as well as it’s benefits on communities and wellbeing.

RHS Malvern celebrates two RHS Gold Medals this year, one has been awarded to Michael Lote from MJL Garden Design for It doesn’t Have to Cost the Earth. The design takes inspiration from recycled materials and will be repurposed for community benefit at the Soil Association’s Woodoaks Farm.

Michael commented, “I’m really happy with the award, it was completely unexpected, so I’m over the moon. As this is my debut garden, here at RHS Malvern Spring Festival, the whole team has pulled together to make it a truly wonderful space.”

Top of the award-winning designers for 2024 is Mark Draper from Graduate Gardeners Ltd, who scooped up an RHS Gold Medal for The Cotswold Garden, as well as Best Show Garden and Best Construction Award. The triple-award-winning garden was created to celebrate Graduate Gardeners’ 50^th anniversary in 2024 and reflecting their work in the Cotswolds using sympathetic materials.

Kate Dufton, RHS Show Lead commented, “The 2024 RHS Malvern Spring Festival is the 37^th annual celebration of horticulture and gardening here at Three Counties Showground. It’s 4 days filled with floral inspiration, award winning gardens, unique plants, shrubs and trees and the wonderful new Festival of House Plants, plus an array of celebrity appearances, talks and demonstrations.”

David Wyndam Lewis was awarded a Silver-Gilt for Perennial’s The Laskett – An Autobiographical Garden, a beautiful space representing the essence of the Laskett Garden in Spring, with woodland planting and a central path drawing the eye toward the focal feature, the iconic Victoria and Albert Temple.

The second Silver-Gilt was taken by Ian McBain, with Concrete 2.0, supported by Red Rhino Crushers and build by Pickwell Paving. The garden showcases the use of sustainable and reclaimed materials, making use of cement-free concrete and recycled aggregates and emphasizing responsible water management with surface water captured by the studio roof used to feed water features and rainwater returning directly to the ground via wide channels of loose recycled aggregate.

Gloucestershire-based designer Laura Ashton-Phillips took Silver for Eat, Drink and be Rosemary, a garden designed for a young, environmentally-conscious family designed with zero wastage in mind.

The Show Gardens are the star of the show, alongside the stupendous Floral Marquee, a pioneering plant friendly zone, the brand-new Fire & Feast Stage and Tips & Tricks Theatre, plus the very best celebrity speakers, workshops and demonstrations.

Tickets for RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2024 start from just £25 (with under 16s free of charge). For full programme details and to book tickets, see https://www.rhsmalvern.co.uk/

RHS Malvern Spring Festival, in association with My Pension Expert, is set to return to Three Counties Showground, Malvern from 9 – 12 May 2024 in a blaze of seasonal colour. With a packed programme over four days, here are seven unmissable features of the 2024 festival:

1. New Festival of Houseplants

The number one place to head first is the exciting new Festival of Houseplants in collaboration with Green Rooms Market, a vibrant treasure trove of indoor plants to brighten up even the smallest spaces. Located in the new Kildare Hall, this indoor oasis will feature an array of top-quality independent house plant shops and expert growers on hand to offer guidance and advice.

As well as the chance to shop for some botanical buys to take home, there will be a series of engaging experiences, workshops and demonstrations from well-known special guests, including Sarah Gerrard-Jones, also known as ‘The Plant Rescuer’, Ben Newell of Worcester Terrariums, Joe Bagley, aka The Houseplant Doctor and The Bearded Plantaholic, Jonny Balchandani.

2. Magnificent show and feature gardens

A fundamental highlight of RHS Malvern Spring Festival is admiring the trailblazing show and feature gardens – the very first gardens of the 2024 RHS Floral Show season. This year’s Festival will see eight RHS Judged show gardens that promise an eclectic mix of designs reflecting traditional ideas and avant-garde concepts.

This year’s feature garden, The Secret Escape, is by RHS gold medal-winning Jamie Langlands – Lead Designer at Oxford Garden Design, who was responsible for last year’s Best Show Garden, Best Construction Award and the People’s Choice Best Show Garden Award. Jamie’s enchanting hidden garden will feature an unconventional dance floor surrounded by the sights of nature and the sound of music, and a horse box converted into a bar. Access to this one-of-a-kind garden is through a ‘disco polytunnel’ filled with lush greenery and a mirror ball casting kaleidoscopic reflections, and it will be surrounded by wild and unkempt planting to act as a disguise for this hidden treasure.

3. An abundance of flowers and plants to shop and admire

Of course, it wouldn’t be an RHS Flower Show if there wasn’t a kaleidoscope of colourful flora and fauna to admire, and this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival will not disappoint! The substantial 190m Floral Marquee will host even more carefully selected exhibitors than previous years, with over 60 of them all vying to be awarded a coveted RHS medal.

This really is a horticultural paradise, packed full of stunning displays of flowers and plants. For those looking to fill their own green spaces, experts will be on hand to offer advice and guidance on plant selection, and the free porter and plant creche service means you can enjoy your day hands-free safe in the knowledge that your purchases will be transported back to your car for you when ready.

4. Plastic pot swap

This year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival theme is ‘Gardening for Change’, so it’s apt that the plastic pot swap will make a return to this year’s festival in a bid to help visitors reduce their single use plastic and garden in a more environmentally considerate way.

Two pot-swapping stations, located next to the Floral Marquee’s Plant Crèche and within the Plant Village, will offer shoppers the opportunity to exchange plastic containers for biodegradable POSIpot transportation sleeves, which can be planted straight into the ground. All the plastic pots collected during the festival will be recycled after the long weekend.

5. Delectable dining

After working up an appetite exploring the festival, visitors can tuck into a delicious breakfast, lunch or afternoon tea at the new ‘Garden Shed’ dining experience, looking out over the impressive view of the Malvern Hills. These new, luxury dining sheds can accommodate between 2 – 6 people, with set menus featuring freshly prepared dishes such as slow cooked Worcestershire lamb or jackfruit, served on flatbreads with a fresh herb salad, lemon posset dessert and homemade cakes. Pre-booking is essential and available at: https://www.rhsmalvern.co.uk/whats-on/food-and-drink/

The Bluebell Bistro (a new addition to the 2023 festival) will return for 2024 and will be offering guests delicious new breakfast and afternoon tea options, in addition to its popular lunch menu. Visitors will be well-catered for, with gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian and vegan options available throughout the showground.

One of the region’s most talked about street food events is making its debut at this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival and it promises to deliver some of the most outstanding, local food and drink to visitors. Digbeth Dining Club, which featured on BBC’s The Hidden World of Hospitality with Tom Kerridge in 2023, have gained a stellar reputation for curating popular street food events by bringing together the best independent local food traders with DJs, live music and unique venues to create a one-of-a-kind dining experience. Located between the Kildare Hall and Avon Hall, this is one culinary highlight you won’t want to miss.

6. Pick up some clever tips & tricks to implement at home

The popular Tips & Tricks Theatre will make a return to this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival, hosted by Leigh Johnstone, aka ‘The Beardy Gardener’, with a range of experts sharing their top tips for growing your own edible produce, clever ways to save costs in your outdoor space and handy tips for upcycling, reusing and mending. Jason Williams, aka ‘The Cloud Gardener’, will share advice on ways to transform grey spaces into green ones, with actionable ideas to try at home for those living in apartments and flats with limited outdoor space.

7. Enjoy talks from horticultural experts and special guests

This year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival will host another stellar line-up of TV gardening personalities, horticultural heroes and gardening influencers, who between them will share advice on everything from how to garden in a rapidly changing climate to how to create delicious meals using home-grown ingredients.

Highlights of this year’s special guest line-up include Alan Titchmarsh MBE (one of the UK’s best-loved gardeners, writers and TV presenters), Adam Frost and Frances Tophill (BBC Gardeners’ World presenters), Ellen Mary (horticultural broadcaster and wellbeing advocate), James Alexander-Sinclair (RHS Vice President, Design Ambassador and Gardeners’ World magazine columnist), Jekka McVicar (multi-award-winning RHS gold medalist, author and organic grower), Marcus Bean (regular chef on ITV’s This Morning), Si King (of the Hairy Bikers), Joe Woodhouse (one of the UK’s best vegetarian chefs), and many, many more!

Find out more about this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival at https://www.rhsmalvern.co.uk/

Tickets for RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2024 start from just £15 for a new Saturday ‘Taster Ticket’, and under 16s are free of charge, and can be booked now via https://www.rhsmalvern.co.uk/

The power of gardening to change lives, transform communities, combat the effects of climate change and make the world even more beautiful is all being celebrated at this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival, which takes place between 9 – 12 May 2024 at Three Counties Showground, Malvern.

The trail-blazing event (held in association with My Pension Expert) will be embracing the new wave of passionate people spreading the word about the joys of sowing and growing, as well as welcoming back well-loved TV gardening personalities, such as Alan Titchmarsh MBE, Adam Frost and Frances Tophill, to share their horticultural expertise.

This year’s festival theme is ‘Gardening for Change’ and there will be barrow-loads of advice on techniques to increase garden resilience, such as improving soil, saving rainwater and planting for especially wet or dry conditions, and plenty of cost-saving tips and techniques for visitors to try.

The growth in green indoor spaces will be celebrated with a new, dedicated Festival of Houseplants, held in association with Green Rooms Market and attended by specialist traders and experts, including many well-known faces from social media, all of whom hope to provide inspiration and answer questions.

There will be giant terrariums, each standing at more than four metres tall, providing botanical snap shots of different plantscapes from around the world. Jacob James from Grow Tropical will be filling one with rare tropical houseplants, while Hayley Stephens from Mint Plants will be showcasing cacti and succulents and Sarah Gerrard-Jones, also known as ‘The Plant Rescuer’ and Earth Champion Adam Critien will be creating a botanical paradise complete with a water feature. Daily workshops on terrarium planting and care are set to be delivered by Ben Newell of Worcester Terrariums.

The Bearded Plantaholic, Jonny Balchandani, will be showing visitors how to increase their houseplant collections for free to create their own versions of his celebrated indoor jungle, with plenty of tips and tricks for successful propagating.

Experts on hand to answer houseplant health-related questions and provide advice on good care practices to boost vitality include The Plant Rescuer, Sarah Gerrard-Jones. Thursday and Saturday will even see a dedicated question time in partnership with Green Rooms Market on the Festival Theatre, with panellists Sarah Gerrard-Jones, Jonny Balchandani, Ellen Mary and Joe Bagley, aka The Houseplant Doctor, ready to take audience questions.

With sustainable and regenerative gardening increasingly at the forefront of people’s minds, visitors looking to boost their outdoor spaces will find a large collection of nurseries in the Floral Marquee, many of which are now embracing, or well on their way to achieving, peat-free growing. These include Celtic Wildflowers, who will be bringing an array of locally-sourced native plants, shrubs and trees and providing advice on boosting numbers of pollinators.

Two pot-swapping stations, located next to the Floral Marquee’s Plant Crèche and within the Plant Village, will offer shoppers the opportunity to exchange plastic containers for plantable POSIpot transportation sleeves, which can be planted straight into the ground. All the plastic pots collected during the festival will be recycled after the long weekend.

With both the cost of living and the sheer joy of growing plants for free in mind, nurseries such as Proctor’s will be bringing along medium to large-sized herbaceous perennials that can be easily divided and shared, such as achillea, leucanthemum and nepeta.  There will be an array of herbs that root well in water, such as mint and oregano, with the Kitchen Garden Plant Centre offering a big selection. Meanwhile seed seller Stocks & Green, located on Avenue D, will have lots of vibrant annuals that promise to fill visitors’ gardens with colour this summer.

To learn more about techniques to get the most from gardens, don’t miss the wide range of creative talks and demonstrations at the Tips & Tricks Theatre throughout the four days of the festival. The Beardy Gardener, Leigh Johnstone will be hosting experts such as former Blue Peter gardener Chris Collins, who will be presenting ‘Small Space, Big Ideas’ on Thursday, The Cloud Gardener Jason Williams with ‘Small Space Container Gardening’ on Friday, Ellen Mary talking about ‘Endless Possibilities: Things You Can Do with Plants’ on Saturday and Adam Kirtland with ‘Garden DIY Made Easy’ on Sunday.

Kate Dufton, RHS Malvern Spring Festival Show Lead at Three Counties Showground, commented: “This year’s theme is ‘Gardening for Change’, celebrating the ongoing evolution in the world of horticulture and embracing the positive impact this is having on the mental wellbeing of people, communities and the planet.

“Our 2024 Festival seeks to inspire a new wave of green-fingered individuals, equip visitors with a greater knowledge of resilient gardening techniques and generally celebrate gardening and community initiatives across the UK.

We’ll have houseplants, an immersive feature garden, inspiring show gardens, many interactive demonstrations and plenty of insights into planting for the future. We’re hoping to do everything we can to spread the message about the benefits to wellbeing that gardening brings and show its vital role in fostering positive change in our lives and the world.”

Tickets for the RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2024 start from just £15 for a new ‘Taster Ticket’ (with under 16s free of charge) and can be bought here https://www.rhsmalvern.co.uk/

RHS Malvern Spring Festival Giant Welly Tour Launch at Webbs of Wychbold

The striking Royal Horticultural Society’s Malvern Spring Festival giant welly has planted itself at regional horticultural mecca, Webbs of Wychbold, as it launches the 2024 tour, taking in Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, in support of the prestigious annual gardening event held at Three Counties Showground in Malvern.

A selfie magnet for visitors, the welly measures 10ft in height and weighs in at 100 kilos and has already been providing visitors to Webbs in Droitwich with lots of photo opportunities, since it arrived earlier this week and making Webbs it’s home until Monday 4^th March.

Head of Shows & Marketing at Three Counties, Jane Edwards, said: “It’s that time of the year again when we polish off our iconic RHS Malvern Spring Festival giant welly, to signal that spring is on its way  and the prestigious RHS floral show season is about to begin.”

“Huge thanks to Webbs of Wychbold for welcoming the ‘new look boot’, with a freshly hand painted design by Amanda Steer, highlighting this year’s theme of ‘Gardening Change. Promoting our message of the benefits to wellbeing that gardening inherently brings, underlining its vital role in fostering positive change in our lives and the world.”

The RHS Malvern Spring Festival, afour-day gardening extravaganza held at the Three Counties Showground, in association with My Pension Expert, is set to launch the exciting new RHS 2024 show season from 9 – 12 May 2024, with a whole host of thematic new zones, theatres, immersive experiences and interactive demonstrations.

The RHS Malvern Spring Festival features an unmissable line-up showcasing the country’s best-known expert horticulturalists and TV gardening personalities, the crowning of the very first RHS award-winning gardens of the year, plus a showcase of new talent and the latest in horticultural trends and innovation.

The theme for 2024’s Festival ‘Gardening for Change’ references the positive impact horticulture has on places, people and wellbeing. The spring event seeks to inspire a new wave of green-fingered individuals, equip visitors with knowledge of resilient gardening techniques, and celebrate gardening and community initiatives.

Head of Brand at Webbs, Sarah Brooks, added: “We are delighted to support RHS Malvern Spring Festival. It is a wonderful family event, offering inspiration for gardeners and foodies alike – which is very much our thing at Webbs! The giant welly has been attracting lots of attention at the entrance to our Wychbold store.”

Next on the tour itinerary is Oakchurch in Hereford with the giant welly arriving on Monday 4^th March until Monday 18^th March before it heads off to Webbs in Cheltenham.

Visitors to RHS Malvern Spring Festival can expect a journey of discovery when the four-day horticultural showcase, held in association with My Pension Expert, returns to Three Counties Showground from 9 – 12 May 2024.

From an experimental hidden grove reached via a disco polytunnel to a thought-provoking artistic reflection on environmental issues inspired by Elizabethan poet John Donne and Korean islands, not to mention a brand-new Festival of Houseplants, the popular event promises to live up to its reputation for breaking new ground.

This year’s feature garden, The Secret Escape, is by RHS gold medal-winning Jamie Langlands – Lead Designer at Oxford Garden Design, who was responsible for last year’s ‘Best in Show’ and ‘People’s Choice’ for The Wildlife Trusts: Wilder Spaces garden. He has come up with an enchanting hidden grove in which there’s an unconventional dance floor surrounded by nature, with a DJ maintaining a constant groove. Access to this one-of-a-kind garden is through a ‘disco polytunnel’ filled with lush greenery and a mirror ball casting kaleidoscopic reflections. The entire space has been carefully designed to blend seamlessly with the natural surroundings, while offering a contrast of untamed wilderness and cultured beauty, including upcycled marvels.

This year will see eight RHS Judged show gardens that promise an eclectic mix of designs reflecting traditional ideas and avant-garde concepts.

Renowned designer David Wyndham Lewis, well known for his work at the Roof Gardens in Kensington, will be bringing a sample of The Laskett in spring to Malvern, both as an homage to the creators of the famous Herefordshire garden, Sir Roy Strong CH and his late wife Julia Trevelyan Oman CBE, and to raise awareness of Perennial, the charity for everyone working in or retired from horticulture. Sir Roy gifted The Laskett garden in Herefordshire to Perennial in 2021. At RHS Malvern Spring Festival, David’s show garden, called The Laskett – one of Perennial’s Gardens – An Autobiographical Garden, will include representations of the iconic Victoria and Albert Temple, yew topiary and woodland planting, along with spring bulbs and border auriculas.

Three-times Malvern gold medal winner Mark Draper will be returning to the festival with The Cotswold Garden, the highlights of which will include a self-supporting stone dome, over which a natural spring will run on its way through the garden and into a stream, and a timber pergola set on staddle stones. There will be distinctive dining and lounging areas, meadow planting and beautiful borders. Mark is a designer for Graduate Gardeners, which has a long association with the festival and celebrates its 50^th anniversary this year.

The Botanic Blonde Laura Ashton-Phillips will be looking to add to her Malvern silver and bronze medals achieved in 2023 and 2022 with ‘Eat, Drink and Be Rosemary’, a native wild space and kitchen garden combination. Patients at Gloucester’s Wotton Lawn Hospital are helping to grow some of the plants and afterwards everything will be absorbed into a children’s wellbeing garden at Gloucester Royal Hospital.

Lu Wenjuan and Yun Sunmi’s Green Islands garden is inspired by the John Donne poem ‘No Man is an Island’ and the breathtaking natural scenery of Korean islands. This artistic garden will seek to reflect the relationship between people and nature, with resilient planting and the use of moss among the stand out features.

Meanwhile Suzy Dean, a paediatric intensive care consultant at Bristol Children’s Hospital, will be presenting the Grand Appeal garden, a place for childlike exploration and adventure with woodland-inspired planting. Suzy, a director of Ammil Garden Design, completed a diploma at the Bristol Garden Design School in 2022 and now balances two careers. The Grand Appeal charity provides places for families to stay when their children are in hospital.

Michael Lote’s garden, ‘It Doesn’t Have To Cost The Earth’, is based on real gardens in many housing developments around the UK and will highlight the need to reinstate habitat for native wildlife that has been impacted by property construction. Representatives from the Soil Association will be on hand by the garden throughout the show to answer questions around the subject of soil health. Following the festival, Michael’s garden will be repurposed for community benefit at Woodoaks Farm, Hertfordshire.

Kerianne Fitzpatrick and TJ Kennedy will present ‘The Macmillan Legacy Garden’ – a thought-provoking circular garden offering visitors the chance to experience plants at different growth stages alongside the human lifecycle.

‘Concrete 2.0’ by Ian McBain seeks to highlight the need to use reclaimed and recycled materials in our gardens. It also seeks to promote the responsible use of water, as well as rethinking paving options and opting for the use of sustainable materials.

Along with the show gardens, children from 11 schools across Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire will be showing off their creativity with mini plots at the School Gardens on a theme of ‘The Magic of Music’.

Malvern is renowned for its displays of plants, and with more than 50 nurseries exhibiting in the Floral Marquee and many more offering a tempting array in the Plant Village and Pavilions, expect to find everything from native blooms from new to Malvern Swansea-based Celtic Wildflowers to various Phalaenopsis, Cattleyas, Debdrobiums and Masdevallias (orange) African species from Laura Hobbs Orchids of Sussex.

There will be an opportunity to get up close and personal to eucalyptus and discover the value of this climate change-resilient tree with a walk-through display combining lofty taller varieties and smaller types that visitors can touch and smell.  RHS Master Grower Grafton Nursery Ltd from Worcestershire will be relating the history of eucalyptus, which first came to the UK with Captain Cook’s third expedition to Tasmania in 1777, and showcasing its various uses, from floristry to flood amelioration. The display will also draw attention to the smaller dwarf species and cultivars such as the fabulous bushy ‘France Bleu’, which has neat bright blue adult foliage sitting beneath rose-pink new growth, and specially-pruned bushy fragrant Eucalyptus archeri shrubs.

New to the show this year is a Festival of Houseplants, in collaboration with Green Rooms Market, offering an opportunity to step into a world of indoor greenery. Expect vibrant botanical displays from much-loved classics to rare and exotic specimens, engaging workshops from expert horticulturalists and popular social media personalities, plus an abundance of shopping opportunities.

Tickets for the RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2024 start from just £15 for a new ‘Taster Ticket’ (with under 16s free of charge) and can be bought here https://www.rhsmalvern.co.uk/

RHS Malvern Spring Festival, the trailblazingfour-day horticultural showcase, in association with My Pension Expert, will return to Three Counties Showground, Malvern from 9 – 12 May 2024, with another outstanding line-up of expert horticulturalists, TV gardening personalities and special guest speakers.  

Taking centre stage at the Festival Theatre this year will be one of the UK’s best-loved gardeners, writers and television presenters, Alan Titchmarsh MBE. BBC Gardeners’ World favourites Adam Frost and Frances Tophill will also appear at the Festival Theatre, with Frances sharing insights into how to care for a small garden, along with a fresh approach to growing your own. Other Festival Theatre guests include RHS Vice President, Design Ambassador and Gardeners’ World magazine columnist, James Alexander-Sinclair; horticultural broadcaster and wellbeing advocate, Ellen Mary (who will be sharing her favourite indoor and outdoor edible plants and what you can do with them); BBC Gardeners’ World presenter, author and RHS medal winning designer, Toby Buckland; andAvon based award-winning landscape designer, Jon Wheatley.

A brand-new Kitchen Garden Theatre, created by award-winning designers, Stonebarn Landscapes, will offer visitors the chance to relax within an immersive kitchen garden while watching live cooking demonstrations from a range of talented chefs and outstanding local food producers. Expect lots of expert tips, clever ideas and inspiration on cooking with home-grown ingredients. Special guests include Jekka McVicar, multi-award-winning RHS gold medalist, author and organic grower, whose family-run herb farm in Bristol has been featured on TV shows, including ITV’s Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh, BBC’s Marcus Wareing’s Tales From A Kitchen Garden and Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch. Jekka will host a herb growing masterclass, sharing tips and insights for both beginners and seasoned gardeners. Marcus Bean – regular chef on ITV’s This Morning – and Si King from The Hairy Bikers duo will also feature on the Kitchen Garden stage. RHS Malvern Spring Festival regular and cooking expert, Mark Diacono, and wild food guide and author, Liz Knight, will respectively share tips on seasonal delights and foraging. Planting designer, garden writer and author, Carolyn Dunster, will take audiences through a guide to growing and cooking with edible flowers, foliage, herbs and seeds, and Joe Woodhouse – praised as one of the UK’s best vegetarian chefs – will be sharing his passion for vegetables.

The Festival of Houseplants, a brand-new feature at this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival, will host an impressive array of horticultural experts sharing their advice and top tips on everything from how to choose the perfect houseplant for your space, to troubleshooting advice for tricky specimens. Experts appearing over the weekend include Jonny Balchandani, aka ‘The Bearded Plantaholic’; Ben Newell, terrarium expert; RHS medalist and aroid specialist, Mo – The Botanical Archive; Joe Bagley, aka ‘The Houseplant Doctor’, who has shared his knowledge on BBC’s Gardeners World; Tessa from Ladybird Plant Care, an expert in organic pest control; and content creators Emma and Claire from ‘Good Growing’ will be joined by Claire from ‘The Jungle Haven’ sharing their joint passion for plant swapping.

The popular Tips & Tricks Theatre will make a return to the 2024 RHS Malvern Spring Festival, hosted by Leigh Johnstone, aka ‘The Beardy Gardener’, and a range of special guests sharing clever tips and ways to upcycle, reuse and save money in your own green spaces. Leigh is an award-winning garden designer and passionate mental health campaigner, advocating for the power of gardening to improve wellbeing. Joining Leigh over the long weekend will be James Greig, a flower farmer and former TV producer and director. After 15 years working in primetime television, he now runs a 2-acre cut flower farm in rural Hampshire. James will be sharing his tips on creating a hand-tied bouquet from your garden, while sisters Jo & Lorraine Caley from Caley Brothers Mushrooms, will share their advice on how to start growing your own mushrooms at home. Niall McCauley, regular gardening contributor on Ireland:AM, Jason Williams, aka ‘The Cloud Gardener’, and Adam Kirtland, aka ‘View From The Potting Bench’, will also join Leigh on stage across the weekend.

The Potting Shed Theatre, located within the impressive Floral Marquee, will host a range of green fingered professionals ready to share specialist gardening knowledge in a series of interesting and informative sessions. Guests include Jonathan Moseley, one of the UK’s leading floral designers, who will share his tips for getting the best out of home-grown flower arrangements, and Chris Collins, Head of Horticulture Garden Organic and former head gardener of Westminster Abbey, along with a series of nursery experts, poised to share growing tips on a plethora of plants and flowers.

To add to the outstanding line up of special guests, this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival will feature the very first RHS show and feature gardens of 2024, a showcase of some of the UK’s top nurseries and plant experts on display throughout the Floral Marquee and Plant Village and Pavilions, a packed programme of family fun in the Discovery Zone, and much more.

Tickets for the RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2024 start from just £15 (with under 16s free of charge) and can be bought here https://www.rhsmalvern.co.uk/

What’s New at RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2024: At a glance

1. Festival of Houseplants: (in collaboration with Green Rooms Market) step into a world of indoor greenery and contemporary horticultural wonders in the newly built Kildare Hall.
2. Kitchen Garden Theatre: new, immersive theatre experience offering visitors the chance to sit within a kitchen garden while watching live cooking demonstrations from a range of talented chefs and outstanding local food producers.
3. Garden Shed dining experience: new, cosy dining sheds accommodating between 2 – 6 people, with set menus for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea.
4. Bluebell Bistro: featuring new breakfast and afternoon tea options, alongside its popular lunch offering
5. Taster Ticket: Priced at £15, the Taster Ticket welcomes visitors into the showground from 2pm on Saturday 11 May.

About My Pension Expert – festival headline sponsor

My Pension Expert is the UK’s number one Advised Retirement Income Specialist. Founded in 2010, My Pension Expert specialises in providing independent advice to UK consumers about their pension plans – it arranges millions of pounds worth of retirement income options each week.

The RHS Malvern Spring Festival, a four-day horticultural showcase, in association with My Pension Expert, will make a colourful return to Three Counties Showground, Malvern from 9 – 12 May 2024, and organisers have some exciting new features in store for visitors.

As part of the 2024 festival theme, ‘Gardening for Change’, a brand-new Festival of Houseplants (in collaboration with Green Rooms Market) will enable visitors to step into a world of indoor greenery and contemporary horticultural wonders in the newly built Kildare Hall. This dedicated space will be a treasure trove of indoor plants, curated by some of the UK’s finest botanical businesses, with experts and well-known social media influencers on hand to provide advice and guidance when choosing plants or understanding how to care for them. Expect vibrant botanical displays from much-loved classics to rare and exotic specimens, engaging workshops and an abundance of shopping opportunities.

Another new feature for this year’s festival is the Kitchen Garden Theatre, designed by Stonebarn Landscapes. This new, immersive theatre experience will offer visitors the chance to sit within a kitchen garden while watching live cooking demonstrations from a range of talented chefs and outstanding local food producers. Expect lots of expert tips, clever ideas and inspiration on cooking with home-grown ingredients.

After working up an appetite, visitors can tuck into a delicious breakfast, lunch or afternoon tea at the new ‘Garden Shed’ dining experience, looking out over the impressive view of the Malvern Hills. These new, luxury dining sheds can accommodate between 2 – 6 people, with set menus featuring freshly prepared dishes such as slow cooked Worcestershire lamb (or jackfruit) served on flatbreads with a fresh herb salad, lemon posset dessert and homemade cakes. Pre-booking is essential and available at: https://www.rhsmalvern.co.uk/whats-on/food-and-drink/ The Bluebell Bistro (a new addition to the 2023 festival) will return for 2024 and will be offering guests delicious new breakfast and afternoon tea options, in addition to its popular lunch menu.

A new ‘Taster Ticket’ has been introduced for 2024, offering a chance to experience a first glimpse into this vibrant, popular show. Priced at £15, the Taster Ticket welcomes visitors into the showground from 2pm on Saturday 11 May. Ideally suited to those looking to visit the show for the first time, families looking for a fun afternoon out, or anyone wanting to do some dedicated plant shopping to liven up their own green spaces.

Plans for the much-anticipated RHS Malvern Spring Festival show and feature gardens – the first of the year’s floral show season – are well underway, with details to be revealed in February. Organisers have revealed that this year will include a brand-new experiential feature garden from RHS gold award-winning designer, Jamie Langlands, who was awarded the coveted prize in 2023 for his ‘The Wildlife Trusts: Wilder Spaces’ garden. Jamie’s unique 2024 feature garden will be unlike anything the festival has seen before, so look out for further information to follow!

As sustainability forms a key part of 2024’s ‘Gardening for Change’ festival theme, the pot amnesty will make a proud return to this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival. Visitors can opt to take any purchases home in a compostable/plantable pot, rather than a plastic one (which will be recycled after the festival), with free pot swapping stations dotted throughout the showground.

Following huge success last year, the Tips & Tricks area will return with buckets full of advice, upcycling and cost-saving tips from experts. The Floral Marquee, alongside the Plant Village and Pavilions, will return fully stocked by more of the UK’s top nurseries. The Festival Theatre will once again feature a stellar line-up of expert horticulturalists and TV gardening personalities, and there will be plenty of family fun for all ages in the Discovery Zone, with arts and crafts sessions, science-based activities, workshops and entertainment.

Tickets for the RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2024 start from just £26 (with under 16s free of charge) and can be bought here https://www.rhsmalvern.co.uk/

Three Counties, organisers of RHS Malvern Spring Festival (9-12 May 2024), is delighted to announce that My Pension Expert will be the headline sponsor of the event for the third year running.

The theme for this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival is Gardening for Change, which showcases the benefits of gardening on individuals, communities and the planet. It seeks to inspire a new wave of green-fingered individuals, equip visitors with knowledge of resilient gardening techniques and celebrate gardening and community initiatives.

Visitors can expect to experience new sights and sounds as well as the return of some long-standing favourites. Shop and gain valuable knowledge from over 50 leading nurseries in the Floral Marquee, explore stunning show gardens and learn from talks hosted by a range of influential figures in the world of gardening.  

New features include the Festival of Houseplants, in association with Green Rooms Market, a botanical wonderland filled with premium quality houseplants, the Kitchen Garden Theatre and an immersive show garden designed by RHS Gold Medal winning garden designer, Jamie Langlands.

This year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival will be more sustainable and planet-focussed than ever before, including a plant pot amnesty. Visitors will be able to take home any plants bought at the festival without the plastic pot, made possible by swapping plastic pots for compostable ones which can be planted directly into the ground.

At last year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival, the My Pension Expert team provided expert guidance and advice to customers from a private garden room with a view of the bustling Festival Green. Brand ambassadors traversed the showground, distributed bee-friendly seed packets to all attendees. Now, for the third consecutive year, My Pension Expert are committed to championing regional and local talent, contributing to the festival’s enduring legacy of horticultural excellence.

Lily Megson, Policy Director of My Pension Expert said “The horticultural excellence, the fantastic food, and the celebration of community; RHS Malvern Spring Festival is always the highlight of the year for My Pension Expert. We’re thrilled that we continue to be a part of RHS Malvern Spring Festival, and we’re excited to see what this year has in store.”

David Prescott, Chief Executive at Three Counties, said “My Pension Expert have engaged with thousands of visitors to the RHS Malvern Spring Festival over the first two years of their Headline Sponsorship. In the main Festival Theatre, which hosts many gardening, cookery and lifestyle celebrities, My Pension Expert welcomed visitors to their stand and also gave out fabulous prizes to anyone who was brave enough to ask a question at the end of each talk. We are delighted to be planning for our third year together!”

Tickets for RHS Malvern Spring Festival (9-12 May) are available to purchase at https://www.rhsmalvern.co.uk/buy-tickets/

Are you a passionate creative that is looking for a new challenge to showcase your stage dressing and interior design talent?

We’re on the look-out for someone who can inject some added brilliance into our Festival Theatre and Tips & Tricks Theatre for the 2024 RHS Malvern Spring Festival, setting a beautiful foreground for our special guests. The stages at the show are a key focal point, where your work is sure to be seen by thousands.

Because of time constraints during the setup phase, we anticipate having one applicant assigned to dress each stage. However, applicants are welcome to express interest in dressing both stages if they wish. If there is one stage you would prefer to dress then please make sure to clearly indicate your first choice in your application.

About the stages

The RHS Malvern Spring Festival theatres are home from home for our horticultural experts and celebrity special guests. Here, visitors can hear tales from decorated careers and behind-the-scenes stories as well as gaining valuable, practical advice and inspiration from the best of the best.

Festival Theatre

The Festival Theatre welcomes gardening royalty and celebrity favourites to the stage to inspire visitors with expert advice, lively talks and fun and informative demonstrations. Visitors will also be able to take home expert advice from the much-loved Gardeners’ Question Time Sessions.

Tips & Tricks Theatre

The Tips & Tricks Theatre features a range of expert demonstrations that include how to fix, make and create things for your home and garden as well as discussing topics around growing, harvesting and maintaining flowers and vegetables.

A key theme for this stage is upcycling and reusing, this should be translated into the stage dressing design.

Find out more about the Festival Theatre here.

Important information

As the RHS Malvern Spring Festival is a true celebration of all things gardening and greenery, we require the design to have strong horticultural elements that will last for the entirety of the four-day festival. The build up will begin on Monday 6 May and must be completed by Wednesday 8 May. Breakdown will begin at 6.15pm Sunday 12 May and must be cleared by Monday 13 May.

All exhibits must be maintained with watering and fresh plant material. Replenishing times are 7am – 8.15am each morning and 6.15pm – 8pm during Show Week (Thursday 9th – Sunday 12th May).

How to apply

We’re asking all those eager to apply to submit their designs to Shows Executive, Charlie Gwynne charlie.gwynne@threecounties.co.uk

This should include:

• Proposed furniture and props
• Flower/plant list including colours and/or themes
• An explanation of how you will achieve a design without floral foam
• Sketch/moodboard (optional)

Please ensure no banned plants/flowers are included in your design. The banned plant list can be found here.

If you know someone who would be ideal for this opportunity, or you think you could be the perfect fit, then click here to download the full factsheet.

The RHS Malvern Spring Festival, afour-day seasonal showcase of pioneering new gardening trends and creative outdoor living spaces, in association with My Pension Expert, will make a triumphant return to Three Counties Showground, Malvern from 9 – 12 May 2024, with a brand-new theme: ‘Gardening for Change’.

The RHS Malvern Spring Festival has an outstanding reputation as the trailblazer of the RHS Floral Show season. The 2024 festival will showcase the country’s best-known expert horticulturalists and TV gardening personalities, the crowning of the very first RHS award-winning gardens of the year, the latest in horticultural trends, plus lots of tips and advice to put into action in your own green space. 

The theme for 2024’s festival, ‘Gardening for Change’,will celebrate evolution in the world of horticulture, embracing the positive impact it has on the environment, people and wellbeing. The Festival’s carefully considered programme for 2024 will look to inspire a new wave of green-fingered individuals, equipping them with practical knowledge of resilient gardening techniques to cope with the changing climate. Some of the exciting new features of next year’s show include celebrating the accessibility and versatility of houseplants, insights into planting for the future, plus interactive demonstrations, thematic zones and immersive feature gardens.

Following huge success last year, the Tips & Tricks area will return with buckets full of helpful advice and handy upcycling and cost-saving tips from experts.

The RHS Floral Marquee, alongside the Plant Village and Pavilions,will all return fully stocked by more of the UK’s top nurseries, providing the opportunity to seek advice from expert growers and to buy choice plants and rare gems to fill gardens and homes.

This year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival will see even more pioneering Show Gardens than last year’s festival. Each garden will be meticulously designed by leading and emerging horticultural talents, and scrutinized by the RHS judges for the coveted gold medal prize.

The Festival Theatre will once again feature a stellar line-up of expert horticulturalists and TV gardening personalities, including Alan Titchmarsh MBE – one of Britain’s best-loved gardeners, writers and television presenters – whilst the new Kitchen Garden will host mouth-watering demonstrations from some of the country’s most talented chefs, with details to be unveiled in early 2024.

A visit to RHS Malvern Spring Festival makes an excellent day out for families, and there will be plenty of family fun for all ages in the Discovery Zone across the long weekend, with arts and crafts sessions, science-based activities, workshops and entertainment.

A brand-new ‘Taster Ticket’ has been introduced for 2024, and is a great way to experience a first glimpse into this vibrant, popular show. Priced at just £15, the Taster Ticket welcomes visitors into the showground from 2pm on Saturday 11 May. It’s the ideal choice for those looking to visit the show for the first time, families looking for a fun afternoon out, or anyone looking to do some dedicated plant shopping to liven up their own green spaces.

Jane Edwards, Head of Shows at Three Counties Showground, commented, ‘The countdown to next year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival has officially begun! Whether you’re after garden inspiration, want to be wowed by award-winning displays of blooms or want to get some top tips from horticultural experts, join us for this celebration of gardening next spring at the foot of the stunning Malvern Hills.’

Tickets for the RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2024 start from just £26 (with under 16s free of charge) and can be bought here https://www.rhsmalvern.co.uk/

The RHS Letters are an integral part of the RHS Malvern Spring Festival, serving as a captivating installation for visitors; they radiate the identity of the Festival with their vibrant display of beautiful fresh blooms. Their main purpose is to provide a preview of the floral wonders that await within the Festival, and serve as a hotspot for photography, which is featured frequently across social media.

Ahead of the 2024 Festival, we’re offering the opportunity for a talented florist or floral designer to showcase their expertise and decorate the infamous RHS letters for the 2024 RHS Malvern Spring Festival (9-12 May 2024).

About the RHS Letters

The RHS Letters are matte white painted timber structures, created with the intention for floral features to be planted into them. Each year the Letters are decorated differently to give visitors a fresh installation to admire. We’re looking for some fresh floral talent to inject their vision into the Letters.

Important things to know:

• For those eager to apply, we require your RHS Letters theme to make use of plenty of plant material to spread the key horticultural message of RHS Malvern Spring Festival.
• The budget for the build is £2,100+VAT (if registered), we’re asking all applicants to ensure their design ideas can be created within this budget and to provide a budget proposal when applying.
• The RHS bans the use of Floral Foam/Oasis. For further advice on floral foam alternatives, click here.

How to apply

We’re asking all those eager to apply to submit their designs to Shows Executive, Charlie Gwynne at charlie.gwynne@threecounties.co.uk.

This should include:

• A list of flowers/plants and colour/themes
• An explanation on how you will achieve your design without floral foam
• A sketchbook/moodboard (optional)

Before submitting please ensure no banned plants or flowers are included in your design, a full list of all banned plants can be found here.

The deadline to apply is 15th January 2024. Download the full factsheet here.

Three Counties are on the look-out for a talented artist in-situ to inject a new lease of life into the RHS Malvern Spring Festival ‘Giant Welly’ in time for next year’s show, taking place 9-12 May 2024. 

If you are an artist eager for the opportunity to showcase your expertise, or you know someone whose artwork deserves to be admired, then Three Counties want to hear from you!

What it entails?

We’re looking for a local artist to give the Giant Welly a new creative identity through the addition of their artwork. The design will encapsulate the essence of the RHS Malven Spring Festival, with a focus on beautiful blooms to showcase all the amazing plants and flowers available to purchase at the show. The primary goal of this redesign is to promote the festival throughout Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, while giving a platform for a deserving local artist’s work to be seen.

Once decided, the artist will be invited to the Three Counties Showground to show off their skills and paint the colossal 10ft tall welly during a four-hour session. The entire creative process will be documented on video and shared extensively with our Three Counties online community, including on social media and our website, in the lead-up to the RHS Malvern Spring Festival.

After the painting session, the artist will have the opportunity to make any finishing touches to ensure they are completely satisfied with their masterpiece before the Giant Welly leaves the Three Counties Showground on its “tour.”

What happens after painting?

Once painted, the Giant Welly embarks on its journey around the Three Counties, showing off its new design and popping up in a number of iconic spots around the region. Last year, it graced locations such as the Worcester Crowngate Shopping Centre, Gloucester Quays and Cheltenham John Lewis, becoming a delightful spectacle for visitors at these hotspots. The Giant Welly will go on its journey with accompanied signage that prominently credits the designer, ensuring their artwork receives significant exposure.

How to apply?

We invite all artists eager to get involved to outline their design proposals and give us a glimpse at their plans for the Giant Welly. The final application date is Monday 20^th November 2023.

Find out more details and download the full creative brief here.