Spring Garden Festival May 4-6th 2002

Report & Photo Gallery

This is the third year of the Spring Garden Festival held at Meols Hall.  Their brochure says it is "bigger than you think, better than you imagine".  We must admit that is quite true!  To be honest we were imagining a large church fair type flower show but actually it is more like a mini Southport Flower Show.  

The marques this year display the best of Floral exhibits, a very large selection of Bonsai, and a very large selection of Expressions Floral Art Design.

It is open for the three days of the bank holiday weekend and if the weather is kind we are sure they will attract a lot of visitors to the show.  We went there first thing as the show opened at 9:30 Saturday in order to get pictures of the exhibits before it got crowded.

As well as the displays in the marques there are many exhibitor stands, both commercial and from local societies.

There is also plenty to choose from in terms of refreshments.  As well as the usual variety of travelling catering vans there are also refreshments in the Courtyard all day, and a silver service lunch in the Tithe barn from 12 noon.

When we arrived we found that the programme seller was none other than Harry Boyle, famous Southport resident.  Harry is helping Macmillan Cancer Relief who are benefiting from the programme sales.  Pictured here is Harry with Macmillan organiser Pam Walmsley.  This was a very warm welcome for ourselves as we did a special feature on our website for Harry Boyle and also for Macmillan in Southport.  

Macmillan also run a plant creche which is ideal for leaving your purchases whilst you oontinue to enjoy the show.  You never know, but Jean Alexander their patron, may be helping them tomorrow, Sunday.

Southport Tourism was represented by non other than its own boss Tom Walsh on the Southport stand.

Tickets are £7.50 at the gate, £3.50 after 3:30pm.  The show is open 9:30 am to 5 pm on all three days.

We went back on the Sunday to finish pictures of the Floral tent - and to our surprise it was a lovely welcome to be offered a programme at the main entrance by non other than Jean Alexander (as in Hilda Ogden in Coronation St and many other TV programmes).  She was manning the Macmillan stand on her own.  It was delightful to introduce ourselves as sponsors of the local Macmillan website. She is obviously a wonderful lady, a Southport resident, and a person that gladly and cheerfully gives her own time to a just cause.  Very best wishes to Jean, pictured, and the two other main Macmillan ladies in Southport - Val Martyn Beck and Pam Walmsley, photos of all those mentioned in the general section below.

The Southport Spring Garden Festival is a pleasure to attend and is good day out, especially when the weather is kind - It certainly was on Saturday and Sunday at the time of writing this.  As well as reporting and taking lots of pictures we could not help buying a few (quite a few) plants as well.  Well worth a visit.

Photo Gallery - please click the image for each section