About RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival

RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival is an annual flower show, stretching over 31 acres and attracting around 120,000 visitors.

It is a celebration of gardening set in the historic grounds of Hampton Court Palace within easy reach of central London.

As a festival, RHS Hampton enjoys a laid-back feel, with musicians and street food bringing the fun, summer atmopshere.

And of course visitors can immerse themselves in the inspiration provided by the Show Gardens, the Festival of Roses, Floral Marquee and enjoy Champagne along the banks of Long Water.

The show was first held in 1990 and created by Historic Royal Palaces and Network Southeast. In 1992 Network Southeast announced it was withdrawing and the RHS was the successful bidder to take over.

The first RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show was held in 1993, and it has gone on to become the world’s largest flower show.

For the first Hampton Court Palace Shows, Network Southeast laid on special trains from Waterloo, and the railway porters all wore carnations in their hats.

• It takes 18 months to plan each show, and 200 people to build and dismantle it
• It takes three weeks to build a show garden & two weeks to build a small garden - but just five days to dismantle them
• An average of 130,000 people attend the show every year, and most visitors spend around 5 hours there

• The Floral Marquee is 6,750 square metres, big enough to fit an FA football pitch
• 3,300 glasses of Pimm’s, on average, are consumed during Festival week, along with 17,000+ cups of Fairtrade tea and coffee, 11,000+ sandwiches and 2,800+ slices of cake
• More flowers are sold per square mile at RHS Hampton than anywhere else in the UK