Looking ahead to the 2026 Gardeners' World Live

* I have been invited to the press preview of Gardeners’ World Live and provided with a pair of tickets to visit the show once it opens, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

As ever the Gardeners’ World team have an amazing line up planned for the show, and my plan is as always to see as much of it as I can, I’m fortunate to have been invited to the press preview again this year - and more importantly didn’t book a holiday that clashed with that this year.

There’s plenty of things returning for this year’s show, as well as plenty of new things to experience - my list is long, but here’s what I’m looking forward to:

1 Professor Alice Roberts and Professor David Stevens’ headline Show Garden - The Evolution Garden

Anatomist, biological anthropologist, author and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts and acclaimed international garden designer Professor David Stevens are creating this year’s headline Show Garden, which will trace the evolution of plants and life forms through to the present day. I’m told the highlights will include a tunnel entrance, a central path that travels through time, primitive plants and the beginnings of human life, and that Alice will host live, daily conversations from the garden. It sounds intriguing doesn’t it?

2 The Show Gardens & APL Avenue Gardens

There’s an interesting line up this year with Show Gardens by award-winning design teams including:

• The FSC®UK Forests for Everyone Garden which highlights the plight of tropical forests featuring two contrasting zones – one lush, tropical garden featuring plants under threat, and another showing the stark effects of deforestation.

• An exotic urban garden named The Heart of the Jungle,

• The Artist’s Garden by students from Derby College which blends artistic expression with the practical charm of a traditional country cottage garden.

The Association of Professional Landscapers (APL) are celebrating 10 years at this year’s show, and some of their member’s gardens this year include:

• The Umbrellas Garden inspired by the French New Wave film ‘The Umbrellas of Cherbourg’ - I’m not much of a film fan, but it will be interesting to see how this interpretation works.

• The Constant Companion interests me as it’s by a team based in Melton Mowbray, not too far from us. The garden aims to celebrate the relationship between human and garden, man and nature, and there’s some interactive elements too.

• The Mill Ruins is by another Lincolnshire team which has been inspired by the sites of old Lancashire Mills, which for many the only remaining evidence is a few brick walls, old doorways and the like. I’ve a feeling that this one will be hugely impactful and emotional.

3 The Showcase Gardens

These are always a favourite of mine for their visual impact and the huge amount of achievable inspiration they provide, this year I’ll be looking out for:

• Trains in the Garden which celebrates 30 years of voluntary railway service and a life-long interest in trains and railways.

• Dark Side of the Bloom, a nostalgic tribute to teenage years.

• The Folklorians Garden which explores ancient stories about plants.

• Greenhouse Noir a contemporary, immersive retreat that highlights how even a modest footprint can become a striking, modern sanctuary.

• And always a lover of pink, this one has me intrigued: The Power of Pink Plants!

4 The Beautiful Borders

This year there’s more than 30 Beautiful Borders for me to get round and see, and I can’t wait. The theme this year is ‘Once Upon a Time’ so I’m hoping for plenty of stories to share…

5 Adam Frost’s Tasting Table

Adam’s back again with cooking demonstrations, summer food inspiration and guests from BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and Good Food. James Martin, Si King, Lisa Faulkner, Barney Desmazery and Perry Wakeman (Rennet & Rind, award-winning cheesemongers) join him. This year’s sessions include home produce from the Packington Estate in Warwickshire, the new home of BBC Gardeners’ World from 2027.

6 The Marquee

It’s an absolute assault on your senses, even more so on show day - and it has so much to see. I’m hoping to share more of that with you over the next year, including the gallery of new plants known as ‘Hot Off The Potting Bench’ and the International Orchid Show, which is actually a ‘show within a show’. I love orchids, but I just don’t seem to be able to keep them alive for long, maybe I’ll pick up some tips from the experts.

7 The Smoke & Fire Festival

This is new for this year and the Gardeners’ World team tell me grill fans will love it. It features an outdoor cookery school, stage talks, shopping and a kitchen garden - and it will probably provide heaps of inspiration for the new barbecue MOH tells me we need!

8 The Good Food Show Summer

We always wander around this part of the show, usually when we’re hungry - and we’re not disappointed. This year’s guests include James Martin, Si King, Lisa Faulkner, The Fletchers (Fletchers’ Family Farm), and Dr. Chintal Patel.

It’s going to be a busy day out, again - and I love it!

Post Comment Love 12-14 June

Hello there, welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a relaxed, friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked, comment and share some of that love.

Please don’t link up posts which are older as they will be removed, and if you see older posts are linked then please don’t feel that it’s necessary to comment on those. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

I’m just back from ten or so days in France, and it was wonderful. We travelled to Angers and Tours in the Loire by train and it was really easy, and a lot less hanging around than in an airport. We’d built in an overnight stop in Paris on each journey, as well, why not. We also crammed a lot in, which means a whole new pile of photos to edit and stories to share - and we saw quite a few gardens along the way.

But that’s all for another day, instead I’ll share a poster for a music festival which caught my eye as we walked along the banks of the Loire. I’m not a festival goer, but I loved this poster!

Have a good week.

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The terraced borders and magnolias at Powis Castle

I ended my post on the giant hedges in this garden teasing you with magnolias and more flowers, and I won’t disappoint. But in that time I’m sure our own gardens have more than sprung into life, I really don’t know where the time goes, but anyway…

The borders are terraced with each mostly having a beautiful brick wall as their background, this immediately struck me as an ideal place for inspiration for my own garden, and I’ll share more in a separate post on how their use of plants against the wall has inspired me. These borders though are deep, gorgeous but deep and that means a lot of plants and probably in my own garden not an awful lot of room left for the grass!

They were full of fresh green spring lushness - whether that was the new growth, or the zing that the euphorbias bring.

But there were also plenty of magnolias. Their scent filling the air as we got close, such a joy.

I might have also found an euphorbia that MOH could get on board with - these orange flowering more spicy looking plants bring a less usual spring colour to the party, so I’ll be on the lookout for something like these, even though I will still continue to love the zesty lime green versions.

There was also the hint of the peonies to come, right next to the joyfulness of spring that is tulips.

And this spring these Imperial Fritillarias seem to have called my name - I’m seeing them everywhere, and they were even on the front cover of one of the RHS magazines that arrived in the post, and have subsequently become my phone’s wallpaper. So it’s safe to say that at some point I’ll be having my own plants, I just hope they look as good as these - and the ones on my phone!

Ah, more magnolias - such luscious pink flowers this time and such glorious scent.

But the irises and buddleia weren’t to be outdone and they each brought their own shade of purple to the borders.

But in springtime, it really was the magnolias at Powis Castle that stole my heart - it’s easy to see why isn’t it?