Jane and I visited the RHS Flower show at Wentworth House in South Yorkshire today. Given the knocks and dents, I’m guessing the tubas in this display were probably past their best playing days although, with the valves and springs kept safe, you could probably just rinse them out and take them on a gig!

This was my first flower show experience and I’m not massively keen to recreate it. There was some fascinating stuff to see but also huge crowds. Even without a fair amount of heavy rain, I think I’d rather visit an RHS garden or partner garden at a less busy time and have time to explore at my leisure.

That said, there were some highlights. I enjoyed the use of brass instruments in this display and there were lots of other points of visual interest. We took in a couple of talks, for which the ‘Plot to Plate’ one was my highlight, a highly professional demonstration of cooking with lots of gardening details and random historical facts thrown in for good measure. I also enjoyed the VR bee experience, where I got to spend five minutes flying round a wildflower meadow with a headset on, although I’m still wondering if leaving my glasses on might have given me a clearer picture.

Worth a visit for the experience but probably back to regular garden visits for me in future.