Ticket Deal Update - Important!

Over the weekend I wrote to everyone eligible for our ticket deal* about the arrangements for obtaining your ticket. The process is now much simpler than originally planned and you need to call the ticket office and quote the special promotion code when making your booking. Details of the number to ring and the promotion code are in the email.

If you haven't received this, have a look in your Spam Inbox as it might have gone into there - I wrote to you using the Malvernmeet email address. If you still don't have it, then please contact me and I will resend it to you.

I've sent your names along to the booking office so they know who should be giving them a call. Note that the closing date for bookings is 20th April. You should be able to include booking tickets for friends and family or for any additional days you need at the full price if you haven't done this already.

I will be getting tickets on behalf of Ewa, Frances, Gail and Yolanda :)

* = except Frugilegus whom I can only contact via her blog and tweets - here's hoping my message gets through in time...

Update 11am 12/4: Yay! Frugilegus has been in touch and Malvern have confirmed they're ready to go with taking your bookings :)

Spring Cleaning?

And now for a brief word from Anna...

Don't worry - despite the title of this post you're in the right place! Will you be having a spring clean before you come to Malvern - rationalising your stash of seeds, pruning your surplus gardening books (if you can have a surplus) or possibly even have the odd plant to spare? If you are and are prepared to donate these to a good cause, we thought it would be fun to raise some additional funds for the National Gardens Scheme, which is the charity that the Malvern Show is donating to this year.

Originally the plan was to a have a grand bring and buy at Malvern but this idea was shelved for various reasons. The idea of a virtual bring and buy was floated about but again it was difficult working out the logistics as folk will be at the show at different times and different days.

So we went back to the drawing board and wondered how about selling your surplus goods on eBay, at a car boot sale, at your garden club plant sale or through whichever method suits you. Once you have disposed of your goodies donations can be made by clicking on the JustGiving button which you can see on the right hand side of the blog.

If you do sell on eBay why not inform fellow Malvern bound bloggers by sending an email to Meet@Malvern letting us know when your listing will be up? Details can then be included on the blog (and tweeted) so that we can bid too.

Come on folk dig deep and let's see what we can do!

NB Any funds raised in this way and notified via the JustGiving button on this page will also be eligible for the Yellow Book/gardenersclick T-shirt draw announced previously - Ed

Celebrity gardener threatens to eat chick unless audience buys new book shocker!*

"Go on... what's 15 quid compared to the priceless life of a small chick?"*

*No - not really. Joe was overcoming his chicken phobia. I can report that he is most definitely a Very Nice Man.

[It looks like chickens will also feature in this year's show. And Joe of course. Though not necessarily together this time - Ed.]

Text and pictures courtesy and copyright of The Inelegant Gardener.

Remembered Hills

My Malvern goes back to well before the Spring Show was a twinkle in The Three Counties Agricultural Society's eye...

I love Malvern. It's a place of good times and memories as it was our family's premier choice for a day out when I was little. It was like magic - the number 144 Midland Red bus from the end of our road would whisk us away from the dingy outskirts of Birmingham and we'd arrive in a sparkling new world full of hills and fresh air. We'd climb up Worcestershire Beacon, unpack our picnic and drink in the view as well as a welcome cuppa brewed up by dad on a tiny camping gas stove. The rest of the world was spread out below us like a map and it was easy to spot the Three Counties Showground from our perch atop the hill.

For me the Malvern Hills represented freedom. My mum's disabled and there were few places safe enough for her to have a good walk on a day out. The path to the top of Worcestershire Beacon was one of those and for once I'd be allowed to run and wander pretty much as I pleased, rather than having to keep hemmed in to my mum's side and pace.

I also had other freedoms there: in the summer holidays before starting secondary school my parents sent me off on a children's holiday for a month. I'm an only child and there were very few children where I lived, so a whole month's rough and tumble with my peers was absolute heaven.

We were based at the Abbey College for the duration. We walked the entire length of the hills, visited Elgar's grave, walked to Eastnor Castle, rolled down British Camp, played wide games and hide and seek in the bracken and discovered a disused bottling plant in Malvern Wells. It must have only just closed down and had been using the famous Malvern Water to create all kinds of concoctions bearing brightly coloured labels which we collected: American Cream Soda, Sarsaparilla, Sparkling Lemonade and their version of Cola amongst dozens of others I can't quite recall. A couple of times we walked to the top of Worcestershire Beacon at night and sang songs round a camp fire whilst roasting potatoes in its embers. It was a truly magical time which I still treasure.

I have one particularly distinct memory from then. We'd just climbed the hills on a very hot day and had stopped to catch our breath. I looked down to the plains below and asked what the clearly visible large site was directly in front of us. The Three Counties Showground was the reply and I can remember thinking Well, that's one place I'll never go to then. It must have been its perceived remoteness to a city dwelling child which made it seem such an impossible place to visit.

It just goes to show how wrong you can be :)

Photo courtesy and copyright of James Alexander Sinclair.

A Curiosity for you to check-out

As I have mentioned in a previous post Malvern has quite a few historical connections but it also has another claim to fame - well maybe not so much a claim to fame but it is in the Guinness Book of Records. The photo above gives a clue to its claim to fame - can you guess?

No its nothing to do with the double yellow lines though they do seem to dominate the photo above.


Its the Theatre of Small Convenience The theatre was created in an old public convenience in 1999 and regularly puts on various performances. Do look at the link to see some photos of the interior. In 2002 it won its place in the Guinness Book of Records - see below

I'm not sure if they will be having any performances on while the Spring Show is on but its well worth checking out just as an oddity - you may even pass it on your way from the car park to ASK is you are joining us for the meal on Saturday night.

This is my Malvern Post...

...and now for a simulcast(ish) with the legendary Award Winning Blogger Mr James Alexander Sinclair...

This is one of those weeks where I am not at all sure what I should write about as nothing particularly fascinating has happened. I have driven to Cornwall and back to collect my daughter from University, I have ordered an enormous number of plants from various places and we went see the legendary Patti Smith in concert in Leamington Spa. This last was actually quite fascinating: she is always good. My wife is mildly obsessed with her (and has been for many, many years) so this was her second Patti smith concert in a week.

So (in the words of Marriott Edgar in Albert and the Lion), “seeking for further amusement” I have decided to write about my first visit to Malvern - as the show is looming and everybody else seems to have had their say over here.

I was first asked to talk at Malvern Spring Show in, and I get a bit fuzzy over this, 2004 on the back of a television series I presented called Small Town Gardens (it was the third and last series, in fact the last series of garden makeovers that the BBC produced). It was also my first proper lecturing gig - I had done a couple to local horticultural societies but this was different. I had never been to Malvern before so had no idea what to expect.

I was put up in a hotel in Malvern that was also being occupied by all the RHS Judges who had convened in Malvern in their official capacities. One of the things about RHS Judges in general is that they do like to let their hair down a bit whenever they are together. As a result the joint was jumping until the early hours: I didn’t really know them terribly well so merely observed from round a corner (at my lonely table for one).

Next morning I rocked up at the show ground and reported for duty. I was shown a large echoing barn that had, until recently, been the site of the fattest ewe or glossiest cow contest (the Three Counties Showground is not just about gardening: there are a lot of other things ranging from agricultural shows to meeting of the VW Camper club). I was junior end of the bill after Nigel Colborn - who did wise things chatting about plants that he had just picked up on his walk around the showground: I don’t know whether he paid for them or not. I was rather too intimidated to ask. And Joe Swift who drew things on an easel and talked about designing gardens on the diagonal - yeah,yeah. The whole thing was compered by a cheery fellow called Mike from local radio.

I was very scared: like rush to the loo petrified but by the end of the second session I was having a ball and realised that this was actually quite a good way to pass the time. Joe and I had a great time being very well looked after by the fabulous Nina. She was driving us around in some sort of golf cart at one point and as she slowed for some slow moving people we leapt off the cart and disappeared into the crowd. She didn’t notice for a while and then realised that she had lost us and an expression of panic crossed her face. We were forgiven.

I also decided that Malvern was actually rather a wonderful place run by jolly people and I wanted to come back again so started plotting...

Since then I have returned every year: the theatre materialised the following year - the first at any RHS Show - and has got bigger and better.

I have cavorted with Alan Titchmarsh,

pranced with Monty Don, (sorry, couldn’t find a picture with his donship)

dallied with Diarmuid Gavin

and debated whether Men or Women were better gardeners with various eminences gris (women won: mostly because there were more of them in the audience).

The weekends are usually spent with my friend, Joe Swift. We are given a pretty free rein by the show organisers especially when it comes to competitive flower arranging. He is winning at the moment, but then he always plays it very safe while I am more avant garde: my “Bridge over the M6” was a conceptual triumph, although sadly no photographic evidence is available.

I have presented fashion shows with the gorgeous Sabrina Duncan International (a firmly muscled Drag Artiste).

I have been boiling hot and absolutely soaking wet.

I have interviewed a whole string of supremely knowledgeable and talented nurserymen and designers

And a chicken has laid an egg on me.

Outside the theatre the gardens have got better and better. And there are more and more of them: the idea is that Malvern is a first stop for young and emerging talent. Especially since the elfin Chris Beardshaw has started his scholarship scheme: a chance for a young designer (designer, not Sock) to spend a year stalking Chris and building gardens at both the Malvern Autumn Show and the Chelsea Flower show.

It is a friendlier, less frantic show than say Chelsea, there is room to move around whether you are building a garden or just visiting. There are loads of excellent nurseries selling plants, food stalls, Arts and Crafts and every sort of garden sundry you can imagine. Including fibreglass gorillas and massage chairs.

This year will be fun especially as Joe and I are joined by Cleve West. We will be trying Botanical Art, more flower arranging, interviewing designers, grilling nurserymen (not literally) and generally jollying around.

See you there.

Meet @ Malvern will return after the Easter break. Have a good holiday everyone - Ed

The setting of the scene…

Show gardens are very funny creatures. They take enormous amounts of energy and attention to the smallest detail. You have to be able to speak to landscaping contractors, schedule deliveries, source both plants and the most random of items and still be able to pull it all together at the end to enthral the public at an event which passes in the blink of an eye. And don’t get me started on the stress that is the judging.

So with all that to deal with, why do designers subject themselves to the ordeal?

Sometimes it is because you have a spectacular idea you cannot allow to sit and fester on the desk any longer. Sometimes you have a bee in your bonnet about a subject and want to educate through design.

Sometimes you have such a wonderful team to work with that you cannot pass up the opportunity. And so it is with us and the collective brought together for the Malvern Spring Gardening Show 2010.

The Three Counties Agricultural Society are wonderful people to work with – highly passionate about what they and others do – the ideal clients. They understand what it takes to put on the show, the importance of excellent horticulture and they are open to new ideas. Very rarely do you have such an open client team who really want to challenge both your own design skills and the boundaries that have been seen in past years.

And the rest of the design team, well, we sort of know each other from past shows, and being such diverse designers and characters, we were confident that each of us could bring a different viewpoint to the table.

And so the scene was set. Alex Bell Garden Design, James Steed of Outdoor Living Space and myself from Claire Potter Design as the central design team, supported other Malvern devotees such as Martin Clark Trees and Chris Greenwood from Poultry Park.

But would so many heads be better than one, or would too many designers spoil the broth?

To be continued... [Well, it is according to Claire's email when she sent this: it's entitled Guest Post 1 - Ed :)]