The Hampton Court Flower Show

July 27, 2015


I guess you must know how much I love flowers if you've either been reading this blog for a while or follow me on Instagram?! I've talked about my love for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show here before, but this year we decided to try Hampton Court instead. We bought late afternoon tickets so that we could stop off on the way back from our anniversary trip to Dorset. Everybody had told us that we'd love it more than Chelsea, that it was less crowded and more relaxed although I disagree..


We parked in Bushy Park, which is full of stags. I've posted about it before here. I love that area of London - Richmond, Richmond Park, Bushy Park, Kingston upon Thames and of course Hampton Court. We've been a few times before, cycling there along the river and for the spectacular gardens.


Location wise it probably is better than Chelsea for being a bit bigger but in fact I found it too big and weirdly spaced out. Chelsea is compact and easy to follow, all the show gardens are grouped together as are the sellers as are the smaller gardens. Whereas at Hampton Court it was all mixed into one, we didn't know which way to walk!



Of course, it's still a lovely day out complete with pimms, a brass band and full of flowers and all things garden. But we actually found it more crowded than Chelsea. Maybe it's because it was a hot friday afternoon? And we normally go on Members Day at Chelsea but after so many people had told me how it would be quieter, we found it to be the opposite.



The flowers were all beautiful, if not a little wilted from the crazy heatwave at the start of July. But I think May, when Chelsea debuts, is more of the peak time for flowers. And the standard just wasn't Chelsea. The show gardens, the David Austin rose garden for example was about a quarter of the size of Chelsea's show tent.






I don't want to be negative on this blog, it was still worth going to but if you want my honest opinion then I'd say Chelsea is better.




One thing I really did love though were the dahlias and hollyhocks. Chelsea is a bit too early in the year for them.





And is there anything better than David Austin roses and bunting?!












We didn't stay for all that long in the end, partly from the humidity and heat and partly because we were tired from our stay in Dorset. I guess next time we should plan to just come to a flower show and not as a stop off on the way home. We headed into Richmond for dinner and a quick visit to the Whole Foods store, it was the day before 4th July hence all the stars and stripes! And of course a visit to Richmond isn't complete in the summer without Farmery Fro-yo! 





Have you been to either RHS show? 

R <3 xx 

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2 comments

  1. This was so interesting to read. It just goes to show how tastes differ. Having been to both shows Hampton Court is by far my favourite. I would not however enjoy trying to cram it into an afternoon. I always think that Chelsea is a day out in London whereas Hampton Court is more about real gardening. Even the RHS can't please all of the people all of the time. X

    ReplyDelete
  2. This was so interesting to read. It just goes to show how tastes differ. Having been to both shows Hampton Court is by far my favourite. I would not however enjoy trying to cram it into an afternoon. I always think that Chelsea is a day out in London whereas Hampton Court is more about real gardening. Even the RHS can't please all of the people all of the time. X

    ReplyDelete

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