Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2016: which gardens to see and who to watch out for

This year the world’s biggest horticultural event celebrates Beatrix Potter and encourages city dwellers to create their own green space

(RHS)

Taking over Hampton Court Palace, the RHS show brings a mammoth 47 gardens across 34 acres, with floral displays of bursting colour, sumptuous texture from a host of horticultural lovers.

Running until Sunday, the show has a focused on roses with a Beatrix Potter – it's 150 years since she was born – thousands of exotic butterflies, and the introduction of the city garden category to inspire the city dwellers among us. The poignantly themed garden category marks the 300th anniversary of landscape architect Capability Brown, who at the height of his career was chief gardener at the palace.

As well as the show gardens, there is the flora marquee and plant village, where you’ll find flora from bold alliums to hardy Japanese maples.

A major highlight is the wonderfully scented Festival of Roses marquee, which this year has taken its cottage garden inspiration from Beatrix Potter’s garden at Hill Top House.

Split into Show, Summer, World, Water, City and Conceptual gardens – a category unique to Hampton Court – some of the must see gardens include the gold medal winner, John Warland’s World Vision Garden.

The Cancer Research garden is the show's first virtual reality garden which celebrates more than 100,000 people who left a gift to the charity (RHS / Neil Hepworth)

The undulating flow of green turf amid a populated daisy meadow represents children of the world and the mature trees show the support we can give them. Giving a flavour for world design, Rose McMonigall uses pretty pink scalloped shells to draw in visitors, in a design that is symbolic of a pilgrimage in her Route of the Camellia silver gilt medal entry.

Asian Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio lowi) (RHS / Julian Weigall)

Topping the schedule for this year and adding another facet to the show is the butterfly dome. Inside are some 1,500 butterflies from 30 different species of the beautiful insects, including Indonesia and South America – none of which can be found in Britain.

The dome houses plenty of nectar-full plants bringing a taste of the tropics to Hampton, with the hope to inspire Brits to welcome native butterflies to their gardens, as over the past decade, numbers have dramatically declined. Anna Platoni, RHS entomologist said 57 per cent of butterflies have been declining in abundance since 1967. “We hope the excitement of the dome will inspire visitors to want to encourage native butterflies into their gardens," she said.

Cancer Research UK's Life Garden. Designed by Antonia Young (RHS)

A first for the show is Cancer Research’s virtual reality garden, called the Life Garden. Designer Antonia Young used echinacea, alliums, geraniums and hemerocallis as its core flowers, while in the centre visitors can put on an Oculus Rift headset which will transport them to the virtual garden.

Another first for this year is the city gardens, proving the urban dwellers among us can still be creative even if they are spatially challenged. New talent to look out for includes 20-year-old Will Williams who has embraced the additional category. His design, named Summer in Sussex, which won silver, was inspired by his hometown and incorporated local materials from the area, such as the flint.

Will Williams' entry into the city garden category (RHS)

“I took inspiration from walking along the South Downs, but my garden is not an attempt to replicate them,” he said.

"The roadside hedge inspired my choice of flowers such as the fox gloves and lots of grasses, which show the curviness of the downs and the box hedges frame the garden which is centred around the two flint sculptures.

“Lots of people in cities don’t realise you can do something beautiful with such a small area and I want my design to encourage other people into wanting to work in the industry.”

Dogs Trust: A Dog's Life Garden. Designed by: Paul Hervey-Brookes. Sponsored by: Dogs Trust. RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2016. COPYRIGHT: © RHS CREDIT: RHS / Neil Hepworth (RHS / Neil Hepworth)

The show has also unveiled its very first dog garden. Made specifically for man’s best friend, the garden celebrates the Dog’s Trust 125th year. Designed by Paul Hervey-Brookes, A Dog’s Life includes sniffer tracks and places to dig as well as water features and sculptures of the animals themselves.

In a further bid to make gardening and horticulture more widely appealing, the flower show will run its first Family Saturday and will include sowing seeds, storytelling activities and family trails.

Dave Green, Show Manager for RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, said: “Every year we try and pack in even more exciting and interactive content to excite and inspire.

"Visitors will have the chance to experience the amazing gardens by walking through them and getting up close with the incredible designs, as well as the best, newest, finest and most unusual and colourful blooms imaginable in our floral marquees.”