This weekend I visited the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show for the first time and I can safely say it’s one of the best days out I’ve ever had. I wasn’t sure what to expect but that’s what the show is all about – the unexpected, the unusual and the unbelievably creative.
I attended with my friend Katie, who is the only person brave enough to let me loose on a sewing machine, and we decided to make a full day of it heading to Harrogate bright and early.
One of the main events at the flower show, and the first area we visited, is the flower pavilion which is home to the competition arrangements. There’s a handful of different categories in which flower arrangers can enter – examples from this weekend included ‘Buttons and Bows’, ‘Club Tropicana’, ‘Going Up In The World’ and ‘Wood You Believe It?’, the latter being my favourite part of the show.
A large part of the event is centred around gardening, but this doesn’t stop at flowers and foliage. There were competition categories for onions, carrots, marrows, tomatoes and every other vegetable you could possibly imagine. It was a massive highlight of our day and I would recommend taking your time to look round this section in detail if you visit the spring or autumn shows in 2018.
Although there is a lot to look at, it really is the people that make the event. We got talking to a lovely lady at the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS) area who gave me lots of information and leaflets about different groups and classes in Yorkshire and the north east. The next event I’ll be heading to is the NAFAS Festive Food and Flower Show in Blackpool later in the year so hopefully I’ll see some familiar faces there!
There were so many groups to sign up to from the Yorkshire Bonsai Society to the National Chrysanthemum Society, I took home a few leaflets and will definitely be taking at all the websites and get myself signed up to more groups and events. The flower arranging and florist community is so much bigger than I first thought and I’m really looking forward to attending more classes and getting to know more people in the industry.
