The UK’s largest harvest season celebration, the Malvern Autumn Show, is set to return from 25th – 27th September 2026 at Three Counties Showground, Worcestershire, and will be bursting with the very best seasonal flora, from fruits and veg to flowers and plants.
The 2026 Malven Autumn Show will feature record-breaking vegetables and fabulous flowers, to a veritable emporium of plants, bulbs and seeds, as well as gardening tools and equipment, plus top tips from some of the best-known personalities and experts in horticulture.
The CANNA UK National Giant Vegetables Championship returns to the Malvern Autumn Show this September, with over 100 eager competitors expected to enter their supersized crops in the hope of winning gold. Each year the contest sees new Guinness World Records broken, and in 2025 six records were broken at the show, including the world’s longest radish (7.848m by Joe Atherton) and the world’s heaviest celeriac (8.01kg by Chris Marriott), as well as a UK and EU record for the heaviest tomato (4.39kg by Douglas Smith). The competition has gained international renown and is a firm highlight for visitors to the Malvern Autumn Show. Entries are now open and CANNA UK is encouraging anyone to have a go at growing their own supersized veg. The ‘Giant Clash’ aubergine class will see first time growers as well as experienced experts go head-to-head with CANNA’s own growing team, battling it out to see who can grow the UK’s heaviest aubergine and win the £1,000 prize. Register online and receive free seeds to plant your own aubergine and enter the competition.
As well as a jaw-dropping display of enormous fruit and veg, the Malvern Autumn Show is bursting with quality plant nurseries and bulb merchants, and visitors can pick up everything needed to add some rich autumnal colour to their gardens or plan ahead for spring blooms. The Plant Village will be bursting with hand-picked nurseries and bulb merchants selling a spectrum of specialist plants and flowers, from dahlias to asters and acers to salvias, providing the chance to grab some seasonal bargains and inject some colour into gardens over the autumn and winter period. Expert growers will also be on hand to share their knowledge and planting advise. Alongside the nurseries, bulb merchants offer every kind of tuber, bulb and corm for next year’s blooming pots and spring borders. The free plant creche and porter service is on hand again this year to look after purchases while visitors enjoy the show.
The RHS Flower Show (in the Floral Marquee, sponsored by HSBC UK) will return to Malvern Autumn Show this September with a blaze of vivid autumnal colour. The impressively large marquee will be bursting with fabulous floral displays and rare and unusual plants. Each year, a selection of the UK’s top RHS medal-winning nurseries will display their finest bulbs, plants and flowers to compete for recognition from the esteemed RHS judges. Growers will be competing for a coveted Gold Medal, and there is an opportunity to buy from stands alongside their magnificent arrangements. Visitors can get top tips from the RHS Gardening Advisory Stand, who will even offer help and advice for problem plants if visitors bring along a photograph to the show.
The Harvest Pavilion hosts the UK’s largest Grow to Show competition, and is a true celebration of growing your own, attracting over 1,700 entries of cut flowers, vegetables, fruit, alpines, succulents and pot plants. The Harvest Pavilion also plays host to National Plant Societies, who are keen to share their passion and give tips and advice on growing the perfect specimen.
A brand-new feature garden, designed by award-winning Wilson Associates Garden Design from Cheltenham, will celebrate the abundance of rich, beautiful colours associated with the harvest season. ‘Malvern’s Marvellous Harvest’ feature garden will immerse visitors in a vibrant autumnal landscape, with flowing borders brimming with seasonal plants, jewel-toned foliage and bountiful displays of homegrown produce, from pumpkin pyramids to crates full of juicy apples. The garden celebrates the field-to-fork journey, highlighting the connection between growers, food and the changing seasons.
The Orchard & Hopyard Pavilion celebrates the best of the great British harvest. Discover the rich heritage and modern innovations of cider and perry production, which the surrounding three counties of Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire are renowned for. Sample a wide range of single variety perries, as well as blends and international perries, at the Three Counties International Perry Competition. Taste vibrant fruit juices, from crisp apples to rich berries, at the Commercial Fruit Juice Competition. Find out more about the region’s important hop-growing process and the role it plays in British brewing at the Hopyard Pavilion.
As ever, the Malvern Autumn Show will welcome special guests and familiar faces from the horticultural world across the long weekend, including BBC Gardeners’ World presenter,Monty Don OBE on Saturday 26th September. Hosting this year’s Autumn Theatre (formerly known as the Garden Theatre) will be husband-and-wife duo Martin and Jill Fish, both experienced gardeners. Martin (who is also an esteemed RHS judge) enjoys passing on his knowledge through practical demonstrations, writing and broadcasting. Jill combines her passion for gardening with her love for cooking and creating seasonal dishes using home-grown produce.
Also joining the Autumn Theatre line up on Sunday 27th September will be Jekka McVicar, an organic grower of herbs, horticultural author, consultant and judge. Jekka has received 62 RHS Gold Medals for her herb exhibits, appeared in many TV programmes and authored nine best-selling books.
Kate Bradbury (a horticultural writer specialising in wildlife gardening), Emma Jo Real-Davies (a TV presenter and gardener), Jon Wheatley (a horticulturalist and RHS award-winning garden designer), Rekha Mistry, (broadcaster, author and horticultural consultant), is a passionate advocate for sustainable gardening, and will share her expertise for kitchen gardening for complete beginners to experienced growers, and Jonathan Moseley (an award-winning florist, broadcaster and writer) will all feature on the Autumn Theatre stage across the long weekend, each sharing entertaining anecdotes, fascinating insights and top tips from their work, lives and passions.
The full special guest line up for Malvern Autumn Show 2026 is available here.
 | Tickets for Malvern Autumn Show 2026 start from £22 in advance, with children aged 16 and under free of charge, and are available to book here: https://www.malvernautumn.co.uk/ |
