Day one of the Suffolk Show last year

Greeting visitors in the marquee entrance will be an 8 x 6ft attractive wrought iron gazebo from Abbottsbridge Home and Garden Renovation Centre at Bradfield Cambust.

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This has been transformed into a garden focal point using a large stone urn that will be planted with flowers and plants on loan from John Woods Nurseries, Pettistree.

The Suffolk Show always attracts stunning displays and leading experts returning home from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, and this year is no exception. H W Hyde will bring lilies, Stowmarket-based Potash Nursery are Fuchsia specialists and Ken Muir of Clacton will have an impressive display of fruit trees and strawberries. Indeed, visitors may remember the highly original strawberry sculpture with hanging baskets of berries exhibited last year.

Finally as we go to press, David Matthewman’s truly incredible displays of sweet peas will arrive from SW3 via a trip home to his native Yorkshire, hopefully with medals.

This year sees the introduction of the new Gardening for All Marquee - an information hub of local and regional branches of national gardening organisations that aims to pass on invaluable information and advice to all gardeners, irrespective of the size of garden or the kinds or varieties they grow. The hope is that more gardening organisations will join the hub in future years to give a broad amount of information to visitors.

Plant Heritage of Suffolk who put together the National Collections and organise the plant sale at Helmingham Hall will be present together with Delma’s Seeds, specialists in historic, rare and unusual seeds, traditional flowers and vegetables. This well known author and designer offers individual advice for gardens great and small.

John Woods Nurseries (formerly Nottcutts) will have a new cash and carry section for small businesses and the Association of Professional Landscapers will be on hand to offer advice.

“We are conscious that many aspects of gardening cannot be displayed in flower or vegetable form, and so need discussion. This, combined with the recent increase in grow your own and a revival in allotments - creating many first generation gardeners - means there is a real need for advice and information,” said senior steward Stephen Miles.

With the rise of grow your own and proving that you don’t necessarily have to have the space in your garden to do so, the Allotment Association with members of the Ipswich Community Project, will be showing how to make the most of an allotment. Members will be on hand to not only discuss planting but also the many other aspects of allotment holding, including legal issues

Designed by Director of Curriculum for Land based Industries Rob Storer, the Otley College model garden focuses on green issues, self-sufficiency and gardening in a small plot. Rob’s students have also been involved in planting a cottage garden area with herbaceous borders which also includes a potting shed, beehive, formal path and circular centre. The College is working in conjunction with the Green Light Trust, a group of environmental professionals based at Lawshall experienced in various aspects of environmental education, community outreach, business consultancy, and helping to preserve our natural heritage.

They will be running an educational activity area for children where 5-12 year olds can get their hands dirty planting hanging baskets, sowing seeds and profiling different types of worms in the composting heap as well as identifying a seedling and its mature vegetable. The Trust will also be demonstrating how to make a willow sculpture and mud art.

Otley’s stand will also have a ‘garden clinic’ stand with experts on hand, including Alex Paull from Parham to help and give advice to specific requests and needs.

The flower stewards will once again be demonstrating how to make stunning arrangements from a mixed bunch of supermarket flowers, which proved so popular last year.

Among the new exhibits in the main marquee are Leiston florist Karen Lear’s spectacularly lively stand of locally grown flower displays. Karen trained in floristry at Otley College and has worked as a florist for the last 17 years. Most of her flowers come from L S Geaters Nursery and East Anglia Wholesale in Ipswich as well as from local growers who deliver to her shop. She is a great fan of loose natural flowers and the use of lots of foliage - her stand entitled “The Season’s Best” will demonstrate her passion and approach to letting the flowers speak for themselves. Woottons Nursery will have displays of its renowned geranium and pelargonium and there are even metal leaves and flowers and a giant steel sphere made by Nigel Kaines of Designs on Metal near Lexworth.

The Flower Arrangement Competition has attracted more than 124 entries this year. Steward Rosemary Black said she was absolutely delighted with the level of entries especially in this economic climate. “Flower arrangements are not cheap to produce. People have to drive to Trinity Park to assemble the arrangement the day prior to the Show, pay for the flowers and then return after the Show to dismantle it. We are so delighted; it seems that the theme ‘Here Comes Summer’ has just captured people’s imagination and the Heatwave class has a splendid 17 entries, that’s nearly double the number that we had for the same class last year.

“We have had far more individuals than groups enter this year with entrants from both Norfolk and Essex who must think it is worth entering. Even the children’s classes are well represented.”

The displays will be wonderful in the marquee, so people should not miss them.”

To keep up to date with all that’s happening in the Flower and Garden Experience and all areas of the Suffolk Show and book tickets in advance visit www.suffolkshow.co.uk