RHS Tatton Park 3

The RHS/ Ball-Colegrave bedding plant competition takes part at Tatton Park every year. Local authority's, communities, and colleges make floral displays with a story behind each one. They are arranged along the central axis of the show ground, where people can walk up and down admiring the amount of work put into constructing them, and the overall masses of colours. All the competitors use bedding plants from the sponsors catalogue...
This entry was from Lancaster city council called 23.. remembering 23 Chinese migrant workers died in 2004 as they picked Cockles in Morecombe Bay. Two bags of cockles sit on the right of the display.


This was Manchester City Councils Time For Change. Manchester is planning on becoming the greenest city in the UK. It showed the world, penguins, and piles of rubbish...

Sheffield City Council's display was called Sheffield, Forging the Future. The figure pours molten metal into the cast. The city is famous throughout the world for its steel (think cutlery).

This display was called Noah's Ark, and was from Cheshire West and Chester Borough council. Chester zoo is one of its most visited tourist attractions there. I love the wooden carved animals.

The Darlington Borough Council and Woodburn nursery entry was called Small Beginnings. The Woodburn Nursery opened in 1982 and now supplies councils around the country with quality bedding plants. The bed represents a tunnel of finished bedding plants awaiting transportation.

I love this giant honey bee, the entry from Newcastle-Under-Lyme. The Honey Bee has been in decline in the Uk, and it is well documented, this display was called The Plight Of The Honey Bee. I do like the blue flower, and the white Bee hive behind it.

My hometowns entry (Cheltenham Borough Council) was back at Tatton this year with A Big Shoplifter Caught. This display celebrates the act of pachyderm crime in 1934..

A Circus was parading through the town centre when three Elephants broke free. They went into a shop to steal potatoes. One went inside to feed, and the other got stuck in the doorway. They are banned to this day from the shop.

Dumfries And Galloway council's was called JM Barries Peter Pan. He wrote in the garden at Montbrae house in Dumfries. I love the Crocodile with his tongue hanging out ready to eat Captain Hook..

Mansfield District Councils entry was called Gold A Tribute To Mansfields Golden Duo. These were Rebecca Addlington, and Sam Hynd who herald from there. You can just about see Beijing 2008 in the photo above.

Stoke On Trent's City council entry was called Potteries To Patagonia. This remembers the ship HMS Swift that sank off Patagonia in 1770 laden with pottery from Stoke On Trent. It was discovered in 1982 with a lot of the pottery still intact. The display shows the ships hull on the sea bed with the pottery immersed in the sea floor sand. This won best Bedding plant display..

The Metropolitan Borough Of Bury's entry was called Who Was Brian Gamlin? The man who invented the numbers on the modern dartboard, mixing high numbers next to low numbers. I loved the giant darts and the dartboard in the background.

This was Partington Town Councils entry called Partington Past. There is a viking ship arriving on the river Mersey, and the rural farming area it used to be.

This colourful display was not part of the bedding plant competition. It was called Whole In One, a representation of a crazy golf course. It said that everybody has holiday memories of playing Crazy Golf and that they just added some flowers. The Ornamental Protected Association always come up with big displays at Tatton. I liked the windmill that turned.

The RHS ran another Schools competition this year called The Wonderful World Of Veg. Primary and Junior schools around Cheshire grew Vegetables from Seeds, and found some recycled containers to display them at Tatton. the public got to vote for their favourite Schools container. This was mine and cats favourite with the wellington boots used as pots on a dresser
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I loved this Rabbit in a red jacket. The schools took photos of their pupils doing the gardening and laminated the pictures. They were on display near their entry's..

This was a recycled bathroom set, bath, toilet and sink used as plant holders. I think the Schools had to use something recycled for a container, for this years green theme.

I love the bicycle too festooned with plants. The idea behind the competition was too show children where vegetables come from. A seed company supplied them with the seeds for the pupils to start dabbling in growing. some of the plants were beautifully grown despite being left in the elements. Hand painted and hand made containers adorned all the displays.

I enjoyed this use of pop bottle tops to decorate plant pots. I have a weakness for Sunflowers too..

A groovy push cart with Salad leafs growing in it, and on the roof...

This tin man was made from recycled coke cans, cut into small bits and stapled together. The figures were like scarecrows, but just as inventive as the containers, and colouring.

I have scoured the RHS Tatton Park website to find which school won the competition. If anybody knows can they tell me, so I can blog it!

The last two photos are from the Schools gardens. Three local schools got to make gardens at the show. It was designed to show the children's creativity and interest in gardening.

This was our favourite garden with the plants and figures representing nursery rhymes. We stood for ages trying to work out where each rhyme was explained, like Little Bo Peep, Oranges and Lemons, Humpty Dumpty, and so on.
That concludes my snapshot of the 2009 RHS show at Tatton Park.I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I hope to be there next year again.