What’s new for 2023? The gardening tips, tastes and experiences you can expect to find at this year’s spectacular RHS Malvern Spring Festival

RHS Malvern Spring Festival, in association with My Pension Expert, will make a triumphant return to Three Counties Showground from 11 14 May 2023 and is set to be bursting with new experiences for visitors to enjoy.

The festival will open the 2023 RHS floral show season with an abundance of flowers and plants, a mouth-watering food and drink offering, a star-studded line up of special guests and expert horticulturalists, plus lots of entertainment for all ages.

In celebration of the 2023 festival theme ‘Gardening for Everyone’, there will be a brand-new Tips & Tricks Area where visitors can learn how to creatively upcycle or reuse items to make stylish features in their own outdoor space, and pick up plenty of handy cost-saving and sustainability tips. The new Tips & Tricks Theatre will be hosted by skilled designer/upcycler and TV presenter Max McMurdo, whose creations have featured on BBC’s Dragon’s Den and currently on the new series of Channel 4’s George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces. Max will be joined throughout the weekend by special guests (full festival line-up to be announced in February) sharing their own top tips for upcycling, reusing or cost-saving.

Max McMurdo commented: “I’m delighted to be hosting the new Tips & Tricks Theatre at RHS Malvern Spring Festival in May. This year’s festival is all about making gardening accessible to everyone, regardless of their age and ability, with an emphasis on sustainable, environmentally-friendly practices, which are so important in helping to look after our planet in the future.”

A fresh new Bloom & Grow Area will offer visitors the chance to pick up tips from horticultural experts and TV gardening personalities on growing vegetables, flowers, herbs and other edible plants at home or in an allotment. The new Bloom & Grow Theatre will be hosted by horticultural broadcaster, author and wellbeing advocate, Ellen Mary, who will be joined by a host of expert special guests from the world of floristry and gardening.

In the exciting new Fire & Feast Theatre, hosted by cooking expert and founder of Otter Farm, Mark Diacono, and BBQ and open fire cook, Adam Purnell (a.k.a The Shropshire Lad), visitors can pick up ideas to improve their alfresco cooking with live demonstrations from talented chefs, outstanding local food producers and special guests. There will also be a range of sensational international cuisines on offer, alongside some of the best food and drink from across the three counties of Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.

This year the unmissable Festival Theatre will behosted by RHS Vice President, Design Ambassador and Gardeners’ World magazine columnist, James Alexander-Sinclair, who will be joined by a stellar line-up of TV gardening personalities and leading horticulturalists, including BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Frances Tophill.

Jon Wheatley, an award-winning landscape designer, based in Avon, will be creating a new Grow, Gather & Sow feature garden at this year’s show. This garden will be used as a space to teach visitors about growing vegetables outdoors and undercover, fruit and trees, flowers, foraging and container growing. It will reflect the current trend in creating edible gardens and making spaces greener.

The Potting Shed Theatre – new to RHS Malvern Spring Festival in 2023 – will be hosted by expert horticulturalist Martin Fish. Located within the impressive Floral Marquee, a range of green fingered professionals will be on hand to share specialist gardening knowledge in a series of interesting and informative sessions.

Tickets for the RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2023 start from just £25 (with under 16s free of charge) and can be purchased here https://www.rhsmalvern.co.uk/