RHS Hyde Hall Flower Show

Back in August, Mum and I headed down for another trip to RHS Hyde Hall near Chelmsford in Essex, for their annual flower show.  Before I became a member of the RHS, I had no idea that each individual RHS garden had its own flower show - of course, we've all heard of Chelsea, Hampton Court, Tatton Park, etc, but this was a new one on me.  Because I'm a member, I get in for free and am able to take a guest with me for free also - we had no excuses not to go!

The displays were wonderful.  Each supplier had been given a mini garden out front to display their wares and they were beautiful, with so much effort put into each one. And because they were all shown off so beautifully, we were all enticed into the marquees and tents to buy our own plants!

Of course I had to take photos of all the plants we didn't recognise with their plant labels, so we didn't forget what we'd bought!

After we'd had our first look around the fair, we headed off for lunch and the new veggie garden - I'm so envious of their greenhouse!   The garden is laid out in a circular pattern around the greenhouse with each bit of the garden representing different areas of the world so you could see what grew where and then it all becomes clear as to why I can't grow chillies outdoors! 

It was just a quick hop back to find Mum then as I'd left her up by the rose garden and borders, before our final trip around the fair just in case we'd missed something!

(My RHS membership is just about to run out so I rung up the membership department to see if I could get a discount for being a RHS student and I can.  I've got pretty much everything I get now for a tenner instead of the £50 ish we paid last year - the only thing I can't do is take a free guest with me so Mum will have to pay for herself now!)