Cheshire success at RHS Tatton Park Flower Show 2008

The sun shone, the roads were jammed and thousands enjoyed the buzz, excitement and sheer class that is the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park in Cheshire. Gardens and gardening, flowery sun-hats and a cooling Pimm’s in the shade when it all gets too much— were the order of the day at the North of England’s premier event of the summer. Cheshire Beekeepers were in the thick of it, having one of our most successful years at the show. We may be concerned about our bees and their future, but you wouldn’t know it from the crowds around the stand, which was one of the busiest in the National Plant Societies’ Marquee.

Organisations exhibiting within the NPS marquee are considered to play an essential role in horticulture, and this year the British Beekeepers stand was located almost in the centre of the Marquee. The BBKA stand is planned, organised, set up and manned by Cheshire Beekeepers Association on behalf of the BBKA, and begins with a patch of grass, a back and a side panel measuring 6m x 2.5m. All exhibitors are required to stage a horticultural display within their stand which has to be a minimum of 90 sq ft. The dedicated set-up team arrives days before the show opens with a van and a couple of cars overflowing with bee-friendly plants, boxes of leaflets, stakes, tape measures and all the other paraphernalia required to produce what we hope will be a prize winning stand, which has been discussed and planned for months. We are allowed to promote the activities of our organisation - which means information for the public - but the plants and everything else have to be in tip-top condition and looking pristine ready for the judges, who in the NPS marquee, appear around 2.30pm on Tuesday afternoon. The Show then opens for RHS members on the Wednesday, and then for the general public through to the following Sunday.

The RHS has very high environmental standards, with strict guidelines on what is, and is not, allowed, so all the plants are hand-picked and checked over by the team. Everything has to be in flower and pest-free, as well as looking good for the five days of the show. The stand is manned each day by six beekeeping Stewards, one of whom will bring an observation hive full of bees with a marked queen: on the show days, it is the bees themselves that are the real stars of the show.

Interest this year was phenomenal, both in the bees and the plants, proving that the hard work doesn’t end with the arrival of the judges. We took the details of over 230 potential new beekeepers, proving just how aware the public are now becoming about bees, beekeeping and the environment. We completed an average of almost twenty sheets a day of signatures for the BBKA Bee-Research Campaign. Martin Smith, the new BBKA Chairman, and his wife, and the new BBKA General Secretary Mike Harris and his wife came to see us, as well as various other celebs. Part of the stand was on TV, we did a radio slot…

Oh, and did I mention that we also won a silver medal for our display, for the third year running?

Yes, definitely one of our most successful years at the show, and showing without a shadow of a doubt that all our hard work is very much rewarded by a public eager for information and very supportive of what we as beekeepers are trying to do.

Pam Hatton, Chairman CBKA

CHESHIRE BEEKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

Apes curamus et nos curant (We look after bees and they look after us)

Founded 1899

Registered Charity No. 227494

Cheshire success at RHS Tatton Park Flower Show 2008

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