A Hampton Court Virgin

By Ann Magrath

On a chilly evening back in January, Keith, Joan and I met to discuss the business of entering a window box and hanging basket at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Although ‘invited’ to enter by the RHS, it is by no means certain that one will be accepted – a strange process of selection is involved, something to do with names and hats, I believe! It probably didn’t hurt that we had been amongst the medal-winners the previous year.

After much deliberation, we three decided to go for the ‘Wildlife Friendly’ theme. The other categories were ‘beautiful blooms’, ‘edible’, ‘low maintenance’ and ‘scented’. I don’t think we could have chosen a more difficult one! Discounting the appalling weather conditions – hot days, cold nights, wind and rain – the difficulty in growing the plants we’d chosen, which were a mix of cultivated and native wild flowers, was something we hadn’t bargained for. Still, we encouraged and cajoled, pinched and primped, nipped and tucked over the next five months learning many lessons along the way. All too soon it was time to take our project up to that hallowed showground.

On its inaugural journey from Dean Lane to Coppice Hill, the hanging basket, entitled “Free B’s” (the Bs being bees, butterflies and bugs) became a ‘sitting’ basket after parting company from its carefully designed travelling hook, as I negotiated the Bishops Waltham roundabout. This did not augur well! On arrival at Keith’s we duly ‘judged’ the three sets of baskets and boxes we had prepared and chose the pair we would take to Hampton Court.

Monday – Press Day – dawned, though not fair. Much manoeuvring ensued before we settled the two lucky ‘winners’ into Keith’s car – gingerly followed by Angela and me, plus a motley supply of ‘must-haves’ and ‘might-needs, i.e. string, tea, scissors, Geo bars, plastic sack, plus our passes and badges. We were off! My very first visit to the Hampton Court Palace Show.

First stop was half way up the Corhampton Road – for Angela and me to rearrange ourselves, one either side of the hanging basket to prevent a repeat of the earlier journey. Off we go again. The rest of the trip was remarkably uneventful, arriving at Gate D at 9.30a.m. An army of
dayglo-vested stewards directed us in more or less the right direction – right onto the site, thank goodness! I didn’t fancy carrying that window box far, it weighed a ton!

We found our numbered space on the trellis-work erected to stage the exhibit and guess what? Yes! We are number 13! Undaunted we hefted the box and basket into position and set about titivating them in preparation for the judging later in the day. Then the rain started – you could almost hear the mesembryanthemums clap shut – and a brisk breeze blew in. Our entry did look good, the blue and yellow and white colour theme was quite eye-catching. We cleaned up, watered and after a quick look at the (then) few other entries, took off the see the rest of the show.

On our way to the show gardens we passed a row of intriguingly titled “Inspired Spaces”. Imagine our surprise at seeing one advertising “Humbees of Marwell”! It won a silver medal!

Being at the show on Press Day really had advantages, no crowds or queues, no blocked views of the show gardens plus lots of opportunity to speak to the people responsible for the gardens. In spite of the weather – quite wet by now – the day was charged with excitement and anticipation. The whole showground oozed with talent, inspiration and imagination. Traditional and romantic contrasting with modern and outrageous.

We returned to the area where our box and basket sat windblown and rainwashed, flanked by all the other entries. We would have to wait until the following day to discover that we had won a Bronze medal – we were thrilled!

By now, grass was turning to mud, lorry-loads of bark shipped in and spread and our day was almost over. Time to head home. We had shared for a while that rarefied atmosphere generated when people come together to ‘Go for Gold’.