Thousands of gardening enthusiasts flocked to the Cornwall Garden Society’s 2025 Spring Flower Show this weekend for a festival of springtime like no other, complemented by spectacular sunshine and brilliant blue skies.

Staged at The Royal Cornwall Showground near Wadebridge, visitors, exhibitors, traders and organisers praised the event’s happy atmosphere, wealth of growers’ know-how and glorious gardening inspiration, with a record number of visitors attending.

Sponsored by Cornish Lithium, St Austell Brewery and St Eval, and supported by the Cornwall Community Foundation, this uniquely Cornish celebration of spring welcomed horticultural experts and enthusiasts, friends and families from across Cornwall, Devon and beyond.

The Exhibition Halls were kaleidoscopic with spring colour and showcased beautiful blooms, gorgeous greenery and perfect pot plants in the Competitive Classes, with 160 categories for ornamental trees and shrubs; magnolias, camellias, rhododendrons, and daffodils; herbaceous, rhizomatous and bulbous species, pot plants, alpines and floral art, and 44 hotly-contested trophies to be won.

Four Show Gardens with the theme of A Place to Heal – The Barefoot Garden by Alford and Sowter Landscapes, The Apothecary Garden by Horticultural Apprentices from The Eden Project, Get Into Bed With Nature by The Treefern Collective with The Lost Gardens of Heligan and Echoes of Tranquillity by Cornwall College Students – not only shared their distinctive stories about how a place can heal us but also provoked thought, stimulated conversation and challenged accepted wisdom about what a garden needs to be.

Sir Tim Smit KBE, who restored The Lost Gardens of Heligan and co-founded The Eden Project, officially opened the Show, following an exclusive event for invited guests to celebrate 30 years of The Great Gardens of Cornwall, the publication of a new edition of The Great Gardens of Cornwall book by bestselling garden writer, Tim Hubbard, and the preview of a film to mark the occasion.

Tipi Talks by national names and local luminaries, co-curated by the Cornwall Garden Society (CGS) and Alasdair Moore from The Lost Gardens of Heligan, with the generous support of The Tanner Phoenix Trust through the Cornwall Community Foundation, addressed themes of climate change, embracing nature and encouraging biodiversity, whilst Gardeners’ Questions solved a selection of horticultural conundrums.

The Grow Your Own Allotment with Amelia Lake from The Real Food Garden showcased sustainable gardening practices and helped showgoers to learn all about growing delicious fruit and veg, whilst The Sustainability Hub – a collaboration between the CGS, Andrew Whittle from Beach Guardian and The Eden Project Nursery – with its greenhouse constructed from repurposed plastic bottles, lit by pedal power through Blystra Arts’ Powered Up initiative – demonstrated how we can garden more sustainably in the future as well as how plants can be grown in a low cost, low carbon manner.

The Plant Pavilion, Horticultural Heaven and Artisan Area included 130+ master growers and nurseries, garden traders, crafters and charities.

Big Pan Parties offered gourmet street food to go and other edible delights across the Showground.

“A heartfelt thankyou to everyone who supported our special weekend of spring flowers, shared their knowledge and participated in discussions about the big horticultural questions of the day,” said Show Director, Mark Holman. “It was such a pleasure to see the smiles on showgoers’ faces as they experienced everything the Show had to offer and the warmth of the spring sunshine.”

“This year’s show has been a triumph,” added Cornwall Garden Society President, Charles Williams VMH, who awarded the trophies to the winners of the Competitive Classes. “We have welcomed a record number of visitors to see and admire our show, including the four Show Gardens that added a new dimension this year, and our national judges were impressed by the unsurpassed beauty of our camellia display. These shows don’t just happen. They require a very hardworking team behind the scenes. Our Show Director, Mark Holman, has done a superb job as has the CGS and its volunteers.

“In Cornwall, we are spoilt for choice with our great gardens, plant nurseries and the enormous range of different plants that are available for sale – and long may they continue to be part of our Cornish heritage. Cornwall is the last county in England to mount a show of this stature and scale, and to have a thriving garden society with a growing membership. This reflects the unique climate, breadth of horticultural knowledge and passion for gardening that is firmly embedded within the Cornish DNA.”

Cornwall Garden Society Chairman, Martin Petherick concluded: “From growing your own and gardening sustainably, to an incredible array of plant species and nationally-recognised speakers and judges, all horticultural bases were covered at this year’s Spring Flower Show. Thank you to our sponsors for their generous support as well as to our members, traders, exhibitors, volunteers and visitors for contributing to the success of our event, which remains an iconic occasion in Cornwall’s horticultural calendar after more than one hundred years.”

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WINNERS OF THE CORNWALL GARDEN SOCIETY’S 2025 SPRING FLOWER SHOW COMPETITIVE CLASSES