Tatton Flower Show to stop being an annual event

Rotherham sounds promising. I wonder what the venue would be. All I can think of at the moment is Wentworth.

 

We (my gardening friends and I, not OH, he's not interested) did think about going the first time they had a show at Chatsworth, but decided it wasn't worth the prices they were asking. If I remember rightly the members discount was only a few quid. I went to Tatton once when I happened to be over that way for something else the day before so there wasn't extra to spend on transport and accommodation, and I don't remember it being so pricey.

 

@KT53 - I noticed your comment about the Malvern Spring Festival, so had a look at the prices as we were thinking of going this year. I’ve never been to an RHS show before, and and was surprised to see that it is so much cheaper at the weekend. Why is Thursday so expensive, and Friday not much better?

 

I think the RHS shows have always done this @Emerion . I suppose the thinking could be that the displays etc. are "fresher", also that weekdays could be cheaper as they are quieter (in theory).
If you are an RHS member you can buy a taster ticket for the Saturday afternoon (limited availability).
"NEW FOR 2024 – TASTER TICKET. For 2024 we are introducing a Taster Ticket which permits entry to the Showground on Saturday 11 May from 2pm, for £15 (plus service fee). Only available to buy in advance. With this lower-cost ticket, you can get a taste for RHS Malvern Spring Festival and see what all the fuss is about! This ticket is also for visitors who would like to focus their day on shopping, gaining entry to the Showground for a few hours to buy the best plants before heading home."

I will say that Malvern is a lovely show in a beautiful setting and the parking is well organised. We used to get there early around the time the show opened and l would head straight for the floral marquee before it got too crowded (there are also outside stands for various nurseries but they can get quite crowded so get to those early as well). Being in quite an exposed situation it can get very wet/cold, but plan accordingly.
I once wandered round the show gardens and outside nurseries virtually on my own in a torrential downpour. People looked at me as if l was mad, but it was brilliant .

 

Thursday was originally a 'Members Only' day so I presume it's so expensive to try to discourage the riff raff. Prices drop day by day presumably because most of the unusual plants for sale have gone by the middle of Friday.

 

It is at Wentworth, @JennyJB

 

Thanks @Punkdoc. It was the only place I could think of around here that would have enough space.

 

I am quite excited to have a show local to us, I thoroughly enjoyed it when it was at Chatsworth.

 

I don't know whether I'll go, but it's nice to have something in this area for a change. It would be nice if the prices were such that local people in what is quite a deprived area could afford to go.

 

I agree, but sadly the RHS is not about affordable.

 

In many ways it is tho.

Membership gets you a monthly magazine with better content than, say, GW magazine and for a simlar subscription price las time I looked which was, admittedly, years ago. You also get free entry to all 5 of its gardens and its partner gardens which are many and varied.

They run a seed distribution scheme for members with seeds collected in its gardens and you can get free advice and info from its many experts from plantsmen and women to pest and disease experts and soil scientists.

The main gardens also run events such as apple days, plant fairs and activities for children in school holidays. The big shows can be expensive but tckets are cheaper towards the end and even Chelsea tickets can be had for about half the price if you go from 3:30 to 8pm rather than all day.

Bear in mind also that many of its active members are gardeners and they're the ones who end up on the various plant committees - not posh at all given the average gardener's salary! The RHS has a staff training scheme which starts people off in good careers all over the world and it has a schools programme to get children interested but also learning otdoors in non conventional ways which are very effective.

What's not to like?

 

I can afford my RHS membership (and have made use of all the aspects that @Obelix-Vendée mentioned except the advice service), and I can afford to go to shows if I choose to, but I think the shows are expensive, and I think while RHS membership is good value, it's a luxury that many people just can't afford.

 

Has any one else noticed that the RHS have recently changed the My Garden feature on their website? It is a feature where you can list all your plants and it used to show monthly care tips for those plants. Now you can still list your plants but to get the tips you have to download an app and pay £3.99 a month, even if you are an RHS member.

 

I hadn't noticed about the app. I tried using the plant list for a while but I found that the care tips were quite generic and not very useful. And because I put quite a lot of plants in (different varieties of Salvia for example) there was a lot of repetition in the tips.

 

I'm sorry, but if you think RHS membership, and show tickets are affordable, you don't have much idea about how much many people have to live on.