Chatsworth flower show will match Chelsea spectacle
The Chatsworth Flower Show, an annual event that will now sit alongside the one in Chelsea, was unveiled by the RHS today, on the Duke of Devonshire’s estate.
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Hide Ad“It’s quite magnificent, if I do say so myself,” said the Duke as, behind him, Alan Titchmarsh and Mary Berry picked their way through the gardens and stands.
The show is already nearly sold out ahead of tomorrow’s opening, although today’s preview had to be shut early because of heavy rain and wind.
The Duchess said the spectacle was “thrilling”, and Mr Titchmarsh, who braved the rain to put the final touches to a floral arch across the Derwent, said a show at Chatsworth, with its links to such gardening figures as Sir Joseph Paxton, who designed the house’s great conservatory and got the Victoria water lily to flower before Kew, was “really special”.
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Hide Ad“It deserves its own show - it’s been doing things like this for centuries,” he said.
Sue Biggs, director general of the RHS, said the charity had chosen Chatsworth to increase the opportunity for people to see shows and gardens in the north.
As for the outlook for the weather over the week, with rain returning on Thursday, Mr Titchmarsh said: “You’re not born and bred up north to say, ‘it’s raining, we won’t come’.”