Michael Gaylard Photography

Key Facts

• Status: The world's largest flower show
• Scale: 31 acres of showground in Home Park, attracting around 120,000 visitors per festival
• Organiser: The Royal Horticultural Society, in partnership with Historic Royal Palaces
• First held: July 1990, created by Historic Royal Palaces and Network SouthEast", "the first RHS show was 1993
• Format: Show gardens, floral marquees, the Festival of Roses, trade stands, musicians and street food
• Schedule: Now biennial — the 2026 show moves to Badminton Estate in Gloucestershire, with the festival returning to Hampton Court Palace in 2027

Historical Significance

The original Hampton Court Palace Flower Show was the brainchild of management consultant Adrian Boyd, who saw an opportunity to connect two organisations facing times of uncertainty: the newly created Historic Royal Palaces, looking for revenue after the dismemberment of the Department of the Environment, and Network SouthEast, seeking to make its rail services more profitable. The first show in July 1990 drew an estimated 300,000 visitors, with special trains laid on from Waterloo and porters wearing carnations in their hats — 70 per cent of visitors used rail. When Network SouthEast withdrew in 1992, the RHS won the competitive tender, and its first Hampton Court show in 1993, sponsored by the Daily Mail, was such a success that 1994's was declared the best outdoor public event of the year. The show rebranded as the Hampton Court Garden Festival in 2019, a name the RHS said better reflected the visitor experience", "the 2020 festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Key Features and Attractions

• Show Gardens: The cutting edge of garden design, with dozens of display and show gardens competing for RHS medals, including Best in Show and the People's Choice awards.
• The Festival of Roses: A signature floral feature, fitting for a show that introduced its British Rose Festival back in 1991 with the Royal National Rose Society.
• The Floral Marquee and plant sales: More flowers are sold per square mile at RHS Hampton than anywhere else in the UK, with nursery displays and rare plants from specialist growers.
• The festival atmosphere: A laid-back feel compared to Chelsea, with musicians, street food and family-friendly spaces — on average 3,300 glasses of Pimm's, 17,000+ cups of Fairtrade tea and coffee, 11,000+ sandwiches and 2,800+ slices of cake are consumed during festival week.
• Legacy gardens: Show gardens have been rebuilt for good causes — in 1998 a Hampton Court garden was rebuilt at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, and award-winning gardens such as Davies White's 2017 Cauldwell children's wild garden have gone on to permanent homes.