RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2011
The Royal Horticultural Society’s Hampton Court Palace Flower show (5-10July) will unfold for the 22nd time this summer, taking over the palace grounds with a lavish feast for the senses.
A yearly spectacle spanning 34 acres, it is the UK’s biggest gardening show and has grown into a British cultural institution that is sure to delight both young and old green-fingered visitors.
Visitors will be able to explore the RHS Edible Garden and witness artisanal production methods first-hand - from hop pickers on stilts to the art of bee-keeping.
Show Gardens will offer an arresting display of colour and design while this year's Conceptual Gardens will stimulate mind and body 
A literary touch will be found in the Poets' Gardens, dedicated to the works of Keats, Byron, Lewis Carroll, and other British greats.
Plant Heritage will be on hand to breathe life into selected chapters of plant history and geography in its 'Living Library of Garden Plants' and a shopping experience to make any green thumb and plant lover's heart accelerate will be offered in the Floral Marquee.
Over the weekend, 9th and 10th July, the Children's Zone will have performers and will host a range of interactive and fun activities for children of all ages.
The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2011's sumptuous bouquet of hand-picked displays and activities promises one of the summer’s most exhilarating days out.
This Year's Highlights:
The RHS Edible Garden
Presenting a fantastic range of beautiful plants which amazingly, all have an end use, 
There will be a cider orchard and cider press; traditional hops pickers on stilts and ale brewing demonstrations; beehives and honey-collecting bee-keepers; a nut orchard and nut oil pressing; an olive grove inter-planted with lavender yielding essential and edible oils and even a vineyard.
There is also a 'food for free' area, where the adventurous can learn more about wild plants that can be foraged for food such as hawthorn, hazel, elderflower and brambles.
For the slightly more traditionalist, there will also be a garden house with a fruit cage, ornamental vegetables, and a selection of herbs and edible and medicinal flowers combine to provide a crescendo of colour and texture.
Here the RHS team will be on hand to provide advice and inform visitors.
Conceptual Gardens, Show Gardens and 'Small' Gardens
Using garden design as a medium of communication, these microcosmic creations will inspire, inform and enchant. Visitors will step into another world and take a trip through the experiences of medical conditions, be given lessons on sustainability and invited to reconcile the natural world with our fast-paced technology-dominated lives.
Poets' Gardens
Ranging from more literal interpretations of the light and dark emotions of Lord Byron's Love's Last Adieu and the ocean of John Keats' On the Sea to more abstract depictions of the feeling of waiting and search for solace of Rudyard Kipling's My Boy Jack and the facing down of fears inspired by Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky, these gardens are poetry brought to tangible life in unusual and unexpected ways.
Shopping
Visitors will be able to choose from the many thousands of plants, to buy and take home on the day. As well as this, with over 600 shopping opportunities available visitors will be spoilt for choice and can literally shop ’til they drop. A plant crèche and porter facility will help gardeners to shop with ease throughout the day.
Exclusive Preview Evening
4 July 2010, 5.30pm-10.30pm
Having explored the Show, visitors can relax with a pre-booked luxury picnic hamper from Villandry and enjoy a summer garden party, culminating in a spectacular firework finale. Tickets are £55 for non members and £50 for members.
Venue: Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey, Surrey
Tickets: 0844 338 7528 or www.rhs.org.uk/hamptoncourt
RHS show information: 020 7649 1885 or www.rhs.org.uk/hamptoncourt
Ticket prices range from £14.50 to £32.50 and are on sale now.