I had been looking forward to our visit to the Harrogate Spring Flower show 2023 at the Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate since I booked the tickets back in January. We have been visiting the flower show for several years now and always enjoy the day out, the Autumn Flower show held at Newby Hall is just as enjoyable.

The Harrogate Spring show is first national gardening event of the year and is always a very popular show with gardeners and horticulturalists alike and runs from today 20th till Sunday 23rd April.

We had a reasonably early start leaving home at 8.30am, arriving at the showground for 9.15am, I had VIP parking which saved the long walk from the car to the showground, the only problem was that I hadn’t realised I had printed off the tickets from 2022 rather than 2023 show, which caused a bit of a hic up when we arrived, fortunately I still had the correct tickets on my iPhone!! 

After parking the car, we entered the showground and made our way to the nearest café for our breakfast and cup of tea. Once suitably refreshed we headed into one of the conference halls to have a look at the floral displays from some of the country’s top UK plant nurseries. There were some excellent floral displays including displays of Bonsai plants, every variety of Fuchsia you could imagine, as well as displays of Lilys, Orchids, Geraniums, Alpines and Chrysanthemums, to name but just a few.  Even if you have no interest in plants and flowers there is always something to catch your eye. 

The spring flower show also hosted Britain’s biggest exhibition of floristry and flower arranging, including over 150 individual works of art and large-scale designs by flower clubs and colleges from across the country. There was a full programme of talks and demonstrations giving live entertainment along with expert advice across all four theatres and, with handmade crafts, lovely gifts and specialist foods.

After leaving the main hall we ventured outside to browse at the trade stands lining the main avenue, it never ceases to amaze me the variety of items there are relating to gardening, everything from plants to Gazeboes, hot tubs, every kind of garden implement, statues, bird baths, bug houses, outdoor ornaments, wicker styled animals, the variety was endless. 

Fortunately, it was a nice, pleasant day, there was a cool breeze which kept the temperature down a little, but the sun was shining and it was dry, all in all a nice day for walking round the flower show. There were numerous talks/lectures being given in the main hall ranging from flower arranging to Bee Keeping and Cooking. We continued our walk round admiring all the trade stands, stopping for an ice cream whilst we sat and watched a musician playing a keyboard in the Bandstand. After several minutes we continued our walk around the showground, calling into the food hall and then into the exhibition hall with all the floral exhibits. Some of the displays were amazing creations, vibrant and colourful, there was an excellent display to celebrate the forthcoming Coronation. Another that caught my eye was a quirky displays of toilets and cisterns. 

By lunchtime the hordes of visitors coming through the main gates was easing slightly, the main avenue was still quite passable though the main hall and other halls were quite busy. We stopped for a coffee at one of the many pop-up food outlets, before having another browse through the food hall. By now it was mid-afternoon, I think we had covered all the areas and seen just about everything, so we decided to head for the car and the journey home. This was a really enjoyable day.

The Harrogate Autumn Flower Show will be held at Newby Hall and Gardens, near Ripon, North Yorkshire, from the 15th September – 17th September 2023.