Tatton Park Flower Show
Encyclopedia
Tatton Park
Tatton Park is a historic estate in Cheshire, England, to the north of the town of Knutsford. It contains a mansion, Tatton Hall, a manor house dating from medieval times, Tatton Old Hall, gardens, a farm and a deer park of . It is a popular visitor attraction and hosts over 100 events annually...
, near Knutsford
Knutsford
Knutsford is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, in North West England...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
first began in 1999 by the Royal Horticultural Society
Royal Horticultural Society
The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861 by Prince Albert...
. The show houses the RHS National Flower Bed Competition, Young Designer of the Year Award and a wide range of inspirational show gardens, smaller 'Back to Back' gardens, visionary gardens and a number of marquees displaying prize plants and flora exhibits. Other key features of the show are the floral marquee and plant plaza, the arts and heritage pavilion, and the floral design studio.
Identifying a regional RHS Show
By the mid-1990s the Society’s confidence in its abilities at staging regional shows had improved, and Council was considering the creation of purely RHS shows in the more far-flung regions. By 1996 negotiations were under way with Tatton ParkTatton Park
Tatton Park is a historic estate in Cheshire, England, to the north of the town of Knutsford. It contains a mansion, Tatton Hall, a manor house dating from medieval times, Tatton Old Hall, gardens, a farm and a deer park of . It is a popular visitor attraction and hosts over 100 events annually...
in Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, and with Strathclyde Council in Scotland. The Island, a 19 acres (76,890.3 m²) site between the River Clyde and Strathclyde Loch, in Strathclyde County Park, southeast of Glasgow, was chosen as the site for a show. Stephen Bennett was quoted as saying, ‘We have long known that Scotland has enormous potential for a show of international standing, and response to the concept has been overwhelming’. The target was 50,000 visitors in the first year.
Scotland’s National Gardening Show was launched in 1997, and billed as the largest flower show in Scotland since the Glasgow Garden Festival of 1988. It was publicised with a special issue of The Garden devoted to Scottish themes, and the first year was seen as a great success, with 260 exhibitors and 47,000 visitors. Over 40 per cent of the exhibitors were Scottish, and most of them had never appeared before at an RHS show. Exhibits included a Robert Fortune garden, sponsored by Christian Aid Scotland, devoted to plants that he had introduced; a mining garden; a small wildlife garden from Scottish Natural Heritage; and an exhibit recreating the centre of Inverness, planted with alpines.
In its second year (1998) exhibitor numbers rose to 300, but attendance fell to 43,000, largely because of adverse weather.
The third year (1999), however, was disastrous: while the mounting costs of an expanding show meant that 50,000 visitors were needed in order for it to break even, the attendance fell to 35,000 – a third of the attendance attracted by the Tatton Park Show in the same year. In August 1999, the Society reluctantly announced that it could not afford to stage the show again. Scottish horticulturists hurriedly formed a consortium to stage a replacement show, and the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society became involved in its organisation.
RHS Show Tatton Park
The first Tatton Show had been planned for 1998, but in the event it was decided to concentrate on Scotland first. Max de Soissons, an experienced organiser of trade exhibitions, who had been hired in 1996 as the RHS manager for the BBC Gardeners’ World Live show in Birmingham, was appointed the Tatton Show manager. At the first Tatton Show in 1999, there were 12 show gardens, 16 back-to-back gardens (distinct from the small gardens at Birmingham or the courtyard gardens at Chelsea), 77 nurseries in the main marquee, ten rose growers in the Royal National Rose Show (sponsored by Manchester Airport), 200 sundries stands, some 20 plant societies in a Specialist Societies Marquee, and about 30 national collections represented in a Heritage Marquee, as well as a crafts pavilion sponsored by Country Living Magazine and a separate Furniture Pavilion. 70,000 visitors were expected, and 102,000 arrived. Tatton, the RHS staff agreed, had the friendliest atmosphere of any of the Society’s shows.Robert Sweet, the former Torbay Parks Officer, now Head of Shows Development, suggested a competition among parks departments for the best bedding scheme. The plots, each a standard 6×4 ft bed so that the local authorities competed on equal terms despite any differences in their size and wealth, were laid out on either side of a principal avenue: there were six competitors in the first year, 12 in the second, rising to 24 in 2003, by which time the competition was having a decided effect on the media coverage of municipal bedding.
- The 2007 show was held 18th - 22nd July
- The 2008 show was held 23rd - 27th July
- The 2009 show was held 22nd - 26th July
- The 2010 show was held Tuesday 21st - Sunday 25th July
- The schedule was: 20th judging; 21st RHS members only; 22nd - 25th public.
- The 2011 show was held 5th-10th July
- The 2012 show will be held 3-8 July
The volume of traffic attracted by this show causes temporary road closures and one-way working in the country lanes between Tatton Park and the A556 road
A556 road
The A556 is a road in England which extends from the village of Delamere in Cheshire to the village of Bowdon in Greater Manchester. The road contains a mixture of single and dual carriageway sections and forms a large part of the route between Manchester and Chester...
, and some congestion on the A556.
Traffic flow in the area during the 2009 show was more impaired by simultaneous closure of a slip road at junction 7 (Bowdon
Bowdon, Greater Manchester
Bowdon is a suburban village and electoral ward in the Altrincham area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England.-History:...
Interchange) on the M56 motorway
M56 motorway
The M56 Motorway, also known as the North Cheshire motorway, is in Cheshire and Greater Manchester, England. It runs from Junction 4 of the M60 to Dunkirk, Cheshire and is in length. It is often busy with long-distance commuter traffic towards North Wales...
.
Recent years
In recent years the show has developed a reputation for showcasing new talent across all formsof gardening design and the arts. Indeed in 2009 the show introduces two new show garden
categories, The RHS Young Designer of the Year Award and the Visionary Gardens where designers are encouraged to break the mould.
Keen to give visitors a new experience the 2011 introduced Ladies Day which saw women dressed stylishly for a fun day out catching up with friends, whilst enjoying the fashion show and sumptuous dinner from Fortnum & Mason.
The show still however retains much of the fomat which has made it successful and friendly with
the national flower bed competition, show gardens, floral marquee and plant plaza, the arts and heritage pavilion and the floral design studio all returning each year with great success.