RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2023

I had been to the more famous Chelsea Flower Show a few times but had only been to Hampton Court Palace Flower Show once before, and then only for an afternoon.

I was tempted back this year by my sister who was going with a friend of hers who is a member of RHS and so could take us all on a members' day.

My all-day pass cost me £38.85 each.

The three ladies went there by bus while I took the opportunity to both get a few steps under my belt while also checking out the best way to get in; the RHS instructions were good at showing the ways into the show grounds but less good at showing the ways into Hampton Court which you have to pass through first. 

In the end it was probably the wrong decision to go in via the main gate, the river gate would have been a shorter walk.

Hampton Court is different in style to Chelsea with less emphasis on show gardens and more on selling stuff. That meant that there were fewer things of obvious interest to me and I made getting ideas for ponds in my garden my priority.

There were several ponds though most of them were either too large, too formal or lacked the planting I want in my wildlife-friendly pond. 

That said, there were some nice things that I could copy, such as the way that the water flows down the big rock in the centre of this picture.

I found enough ponds that between them had the elements that I was looking for to convince me that the idea will work and to suggest how it could be implemented.

A short sharp shower forced me in to the Country Living marquee where I was swamped by all sorts of clothes, decorative items, foodstuffs and art that I would never dream of buying.

The show gardens were pretty, as you would expect, though they were relentlessly traditional with loads of wild flowers and I saw nothing strikingly modern that Chelsea is famous for.

Two things made getting around a little difficult, the layout and other people. 

There were site maps in several places but the site was quite fragmented and there was not an obvious route to take that included everything once and only once.

Despite being a members' only day the place was unbelievably packed and many of them where pulling small carts so moving around was like trying to cross Waterloo Station in rush hour.

It rained again too, only for a short while but enough to disrupt things. I was sitting down eating a vegan burger at the time! The burger was fine if a little pricey at £16.

After lunch we did the Floral Marquee and the stalls on the other side of The Long Water. Again Chelsea does this better, I liked the flowers on display but Hampton Court is a shop whereas Chelsea is a showroom.

Tired and having seen all that we wanted to see we left around 4pm reasoning it would be quicker, cheaper and nicer to have tea and cake at home.

With the pond project firmly in mind RHS Hampton Court was useful and with the show gardens it was also pretty but it felt like a lot of hard work and I suspect that it will be another few years before I am tempted back again.