In 2010 over 30 garden bloggers from all over the world met for the first ever UK get together at RHS Malvern Spring Show. This blog documents the lead up to that event plus the subsequent informal get togethers we've had in Malvern. There are also insights into the events of 2009, insider views from various exhibitors and personal views of Malvern and surrounding places of interest.

Thus this blog also forms a valuable resource for anyone wanting to visit either the spring or autumn versions of the show, or contemplating a visit to the area.

Tuesday, 16 March 2010

Even More Visitors and Other News

Yesterday everyone was a-Twitter at the news that Princess Anne will be visiting the show on Friday 7th May. I hear that James is dusting off his poshest suit and frantically polishing up his shoes whilst Claire is practising her curtsy as the special 25th Anniversary show garden she's working on will be one of the highlights of the royal tour (AND it'll be the largest show garden ever seen in these fair isles to boot). As you can see the lovely Nina (Shows Development Officer) has already been out to choose her hat and the flowers for the presentation ;)

Such frantic preparations are of minor concern to us here at Meet @ Malvern HQ. The even juicier news is we have even more blogging chums joining us from over the water. I'm delighted Carrie and Andy will be joining us from Northern Ireland (so we only have Scotland to go in order to complete our set of pals from all GB countries) and Ewa will flying in from Poland and taking in the show during her well deserved break here in the UK. I'm sure they'll have the warmest of welcomes from everyone and do please visit their blogs and say hello if you need to get to know them a little beforehand.

Meet @ Malvern is also making the headlines in the gardening world. Yesterday, gardenersclick (an online 'gardening club' with around 10,000 members) sent out their monthly newsletter which includes a short piece about our get together. They've taken a stand at the show and will also be providing a gardeners' forum, where members will be on hand to answer questions. So do pop over and say hello, ask a question and even sign up if you're not a member already! They've also kindly agreed to donate enough bags for all Meet @ Malvern participants to kick-start your shopping activities. I found mine most useful last year and I'm hoping they'll also pop in an eco-friendly notebook and pen for everyone.

You may have spotted that we've been pretty excited here over Three Men Went to Mow (TMWTM) making an appearance at Malvern on the Friday and Saturday. They now have a sparkly new website which has all their TMWTM videos squeezed onto one comfy page plus news about their other scheduled appearances and any other mischief and mayhem they might be up to. Rumour has it they'll be trying out podcasting next :0

Finally the power of Twitter has alerted our activities to another participant for us all to go and say hello to. Pat Atkins is a local garden designer who's had show gardens at Malvern in previous years. This year she's set herself the challenge of not only limiting her budget to £1,000, but to also growing the plants needed. I'm hoping she'll write a special guest post for us here, but in the meantime you can catch up with how she's getting on in her show garden diary.

Picture courtesy and copyright of James Alexander-Sinclair.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh oh oh, British Royalty!!! This is proving to be almost too exciting to bear, for the dreams already hover around missing planes and trains, getting caught with illegal plants and seeds smuggled in our underwear and being sent to the brig. We needed something to send the imagination into a positive spin. This is it. We will shop for the appropriate hat, already have gloves. Gardening gloves will work, right? :-)
Frances

Helen/patientgardener said...

So if HRH & 3 Men are both there on the Friday looks like I will be taking Gail & Frances out on the Saturday.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Helen, we are even more excited at this prospect, if that is possible. More excitement I mean. :-)
xxxooo
Frances

M@M aka VP ;) said...

Frances - I think you have the appropriate hat already - the one you wear with your gardening gloves ;)

So glad we're keeping your excitement levels up!

Helen - looks like you've got it right :)