Enjoy it on video: Harrogate Spring Flower Show

TREVOR Nicholson, head gardener at Harewood House, is your guide on our video tour of the Harrogate Spring Flower Show which opens its four-day run today at the Great Yorkshire Showground.

Visitors will find a floral spectacular with hundreds of colourful flowers, plants and arrangements along with everything anyone could ever want for a garden or allotment.

"Come and enjoy yourselves, forget about the election, put the long winter behind you, here the only mention of volcanic ash is likely to be a discussion about whether it will be good for the garden, " said Martin Fish, who has taken over as show director from Roger Brownbridge.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"We can offer the complete garden experience from tips on how to grow fruit and vegetable for beginners to information on rare plants from specialist growers and societies."

The North of England Horticultural society has already had one reason to celebrate the new gardening year with, Prince Charles becoming its first Royal Patron in 50 years.

"He is well known for his love of gardening and I am sure his association will only be good for the NEHS and the Harrogate flower shows, " said Mr Fish.

Increasing numbers of people want to grow their own fruit and vegetables and to cater for that demand for the first time the show will have Kitchen Garden Live, where experts such as Hilary Dodson, chair of the Northern Fruit Group and horticulturalist Joe Maiden will pass on their knowledge.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"We want to encourage people to grow their own whether its just in a pot or bucket or starting up an allotment, " he said.

The Daffodil Society's annual show, run by its northern group, could see one of its biggest entries for years with exhibitors staging as many as 1,000 blooms because of this year's late flowering.

But there may be fewer tulips, as growers have been willing their blooms to open in the recent sunshine in time for the Wakefield and North of England Tulip Society show.

"They are flowering very late compared with other years, " said chairman Malcolm Hainsworth. "We have our fingers crossed for the entries coming in."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

However, the society will definitely be showing a beautiful arrangement illustrating the use of flowers, particularly tulips, in paintings.

The weather has also meant that some plants and flowers which are normally past by Harrogate will be on show this year.

"We have some early flowering primulas in our display that are normally finished in February, " said Sue Huntley, of Hartside Nursery Garden in Cumbria, "but we have had the hardest winter for 30 years."

Roger Proud of East of Eden Nurseries is unveiling a new range of Geums at the show while Bulldog Tools are celebrating 230 years of tool manufacturing with the world's largest spade on view.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Visitors are also being asked to bring along their own photographs for competitions which will be on display and judged at the end of the show – one called "vision of spring" for adults and another for children on "nature's beasties".

Another innovation is the appearance of a cookery theatre by the award-winning Fodder shop and caf on the Showground where chefs will cook up treats using local produce.

The regional food group Deliciously Yorkshire is hosting a specialist food market with 25 producers including Botham's of Whitby showcasing a new ginger parkin.

AGAPANTHUS grower Steve Hickman hopes his floral display "Brassed Off" will hit the right note with the judges.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Hickman, from Hoyland Plant Centre, in Barnsley, played the cornet for years in his local brass band so has a special feel for the subject of his entry in the innovative display competition, which this year is on the theme "It's Show time".

"I've played since I was a little lad and this combines both my interest in plants and music, " he said.

The double bass that his father played in the Hoyland Town Band is at the centre of the display, which is aptly sponsored by Strata Brass Band from Hoyland.

The display competition was introduced to allow nursery exhibitors the chance to be more adventurous while still featuring their flowers and plants.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Three more pages of reports It's "show time" in more ways than one for exhibitors at the Harrogate Spring Flower show because that is the theme of this year's innovative display competition which has attracted entries as diverse as Mary Poppins and Swan Lake.

Chris Cole, from Heirloom Tomatoes Ltd of Baldersby, Thirsk, found Pygmalion an ideal choice to display some of the 90 varieties of tomatoes which he grows.

He and Neil Pearson only started up their business last year selling seeds and plants. "It's been a real rollercoaster of a year. Very good at some points but we never anticipated the kind of winter we have just had.

"We grow the plants from seeds under lights then move them to a tiny heated glasshouse and then on into the main units which are not heated.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"We lost thousands on one night at the beginning of March because the fleece is designed to protect up to -4C but the temperature dropped to -6.5C, Topcliffe was the coldest place in the country that night."

Some of the rarer tomatoes on offer at the show includes Violet Jasper while another was specially developed by Heinz and the flavour is the one associated with its soups and sauces, but if you want to be really different in your street you could try a Chinese variety Xiaoyangzao.

"We really enjoy trying something different when we come to Harrogate, " said Lorraine Hart of Hart's Nursery in Cheshire who chose Bombay Dreams as the theme for their colourful display of lilies.

"It can get boring doing the same display all the time, this show started us thinking differently and now the RHS shows around the country are following the example."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The themed competition has attracted 19 entries – including red shoes planted with Sempervivum in White Cottage Alpines' Wizard of Oz and lacy underwear in Hillview Nurseries Moulin Rouge.

Students who build gardens from scratch in the College Garden Design section always provide visitors with interesting talking points at the Spring Flower Show.

One person can love what another would hate to see in their garden.

"It's a great way of getting new ideas to try for yourself, " said show director Martin Fish.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Six colleges were assigned a BBC celebrity "client" who completed a light-hearted questionnaire to ensure the garden reflected their likes and dislikes. Some colleges responded with tongue-in-cheek ideas.

The designs include a number of innovative ideas such as Derby College including a traditional leat, or artificial watercourse, for East Midlands broadcaster Dominic Heale.

It reflects his early love of the Dartmoor landscape and fascination with the leat system which Sir Francis Drake is credited with introducing to bring water from the moors but, for at least one student, it involved some standing barefoot in cold water to get the plants arranged around it.

However, visitors can also pick up tips on just what plant suits boggy or woodland planting areas – watch out for the spotted dog variety of Podophyllum Hexandrum.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Askham Bryan College designed a low maintenance garden for busy Look North presenter Harry Gration, complete with a rugby ball-shaped lawn, cricket balls bouncing towards three stumps and a signpost to York, Scarborough and the Maldives.

Leeds City College made sure weather presenter Paul Hudson's young family would feel right at home in his garden, while Craven College designed for Christa Ackroyd, Bishop Burton College for Peter Levy and Finchale College for North East presenter Carol Malia.

Awards will be announced today with judges reaching their decision having spoken to the students as well as awarded points for the design, construction, plants and compatibility with the celebrity's lifestyle.

Florists and flower arrangers travel from far and wide to create some amazing individual entries and large exhibits at Harrogate with a couple of the furthest coming this year from the Castle Douglas Club in the Borders.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Stefa Urquhart and Moira Graham were representing the Scottish Association of Flower Arrangement Societies with their display focusing on British Fashion Show Week, while other festivals and shows featured include the Antiques Roadshow and the Ideal Home Exhibition.

Yorkshire Flower Club has Brush up Your Shakespeare as the theme of its magnificent display including Romeo and Juliet and A Winter's Tale, while the guest flower club for "Our Town" this year is Ilkley.

The Harrogate Spring Flower Show is probably one of the few places where you can see real cakes only yards away from exhibit cakes made from roses, and dresses from leaves and orchids round the corner from clothing stands.

Individual arrangements reflect amazing imagination. Floristry college students have their hands on the theme Told in Verse.