RHS Opiniones 251

This years Chelsea flower shows main sponsor was an establishment in Somerset called “The Newt”, known supporters of a fox hunting group named the “Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Hunt”, who The Newt allow to illegally hunt foxes on its land (photographic and video evidence of them illegally hunting with dogs exists, as broadcast in a recent Channel 4 investigation). It will come as no surprise then to discover that The Newt’s own Estate Manager has direct links to the BSV and the hierarchy within the Hunt. Disappointingly, after being made aware of their sponsors links to a group who murder wild animals for sport, the RHS plan on The Newt being the main sponsor of the 2025 Chelsea show. The Newt has already been presented with a 12000+ signature petition asking them to refrain from allowing the BSV to illegally hunt foxes and other wildlife on its estate, something it has thus far not agreed to do. Anyone with a modicum of conscience will vote with their feet and boycott The Newt, unless it changes its policy regarding hunting on its land, and also RHS, if they continue to associate with a business which at present is happy to facilitate the murder of innocent wildlife.

If you would like to add your name to The Protect The Wild petition, please visit their site.

The first time I went to the Chelsea Flower Show was terrific couple of years ago. It was the best experience I ever had during the pandemic; the flower arrangements were outstanding, and there were many disabled bathrooms( I have a colostomy).
The second time, I was very happy to go.
I was so excited, had my hair done to look nice and proper and even bought a dress, matching shoes, bag even matching flat shoes in case I get tired, planed everything for months excited as I had an extra ticket for a friend. We couldn’t get any tickets because the restaurant was highly overpriced and overcrowded, so we ate somewhere nearby, which was okay. I wasn’t bothered about it as we been looking for a while, and the restaurant was fully booked for some weeks online anyway.
When we arrived the entrance workers were very polite and friendly; the show was incredibly overcrowded. I had never seen so many people; it was like the New Year’s Eve fireworks in London. I couldn’t enjoy the show because it was so overcrowded. The bathroom line for the disabled was gigantic and I had to use the non disabled one couldn’t empty my colostomy bag and lucky I didn’t need that much otherwise would have been a problem, I was able to talk to a nice lady of staff after when I complained about the experience and she was quite helpful asking if I needed anything.
The show was good and the flowers were nice, my favourite and my friends were the flowery cactuses they were gorgeous but that many people was hard to enjoy, to see the jazz show was almost impossible to get a chair, we were lucky the lady sitting saw I looked unwell standing and offered her seat and her daughter seat for my friend. We were getting hungry and on the way to get some fish and chips for 17 pounds, unfortunately couldn’t get it 😄.
They have NO WiFi at the show and the phone network wasn’t working to open my bank app
( I need the internet to make my card work) my friend was fainting of hunger and lucky we were able to get him a cake that was an ok price with some spare change we had. There were no decorations around the way out as they used to and even the free wine glass was so tiny ( used to be bigger before).
Leaving the show they took our pictures and I had no idea that would happen would have changed to my nicer shoes again for the picture. Unfortunately I got very tired and was wearing a more comfortable spare ones.
The way out was incredibly busy, people bumping a lot and a nightmare to get a taxi( can’t even imagine underground must have been even worse)
We had to walk a couple of minutes outside the Main Street found a residential road to get an Uber as no cars were accepting our request around there.
Overall was a nice show. 3 stars as not sure if is worth returning as it’s not very disability friendly unfortunately, overcrowded but was a nice experience, at least I can say have been there twice . Not sure if will be returning near future but we never know.

I first went to Chelsea in 1986. Iven been about 12 times now. This year the RHS let its members down. Far too overcrowded and clearly a profit making exercise. After 20 years or more a member of the RHS, I am surrendering my membership and cannot justify paying £400 for me and my friends to go to THE show but not be able to see or experience what I and other members (members day) paid to see and experience.

** Update: the RHS rang me and resolved the situation quckly, refunding me for the plant which had come off worst. Bought a packet of seeds and four plants. The seeds were quickly posted to my home address by Crocus.

The plants were en route and the delivery was two streets away when I received a message saying that the driver needed more information. I responded immediately, as I had been waiting at home. But they were sent back to the depot and the delivery process had to start again from the beginning. So the plants were initially dispatched from Crocus to the courier on 10 April, and were finally delivered on 17 April. RHS Customer Service was not helpful - each time I messaged I received a reply from a different agent. I paid over and above the market price because I thought they were a decent organisation to buy from. I will not purchase from them again. How can the payment have been accepted if I had not provided a house number? They have not taken responsibility for this. Obviously, the plants were not in great condition when they arrived, but the RHS does not care.

Annual member for over 10 years .
Great garden, lovely views , excellent staff .

Suggestions : improve the menu in the restaurants, offer discount to members .
Please don’t charge children under the age of 10. At least , reduce prices from £9.95 to £5 . This would enable us to bring children and grand children .

We’ve been RHS members for 20yrs or so and used to enjoy a day out at our local gardens at RHS Wisley where we could enjoy a coffee and a bacon / sausage roll before embarking on a nice long stroll. Not any more! The food choice seems to now only cater for vegans and the Hilltop cafe is a confusing mess where you can’t even order food and a hot drink in the same queue.

Wisley used to be so well run and the food quality much better but over the years we’ve noticed a steady decline. If you’re aching for an Nduja Roast Pumpkin polenta or Aubergine Chickpea stew upon arrival then you’re in luck, however if you just want a plain old bacon sarnie you’ll be very disappointed!

Bring back the Honest Sausage!!!

Looking at their website so many plants described as decidous when in my exposed garden they are evergreen and have been for at least 20 years. They do not know plants ,I suspect it is just a moneymaking outfit.

I REALLY WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE .I WENT TODAY TO HAVE A LOOK AROUND THE TINY XMAS MARKET AND THEY CHARGED ME £28 I DID NOT WANT TO SEE THE GARDENS JUST GOTO THE XMAS MARKET WHICH WAS SO SMALL AND HARDLY NOTHING THERE .SIUCH A WASTE OF TIME AMD MONEY REALLY WOULD NEVER GO THERE AGAIN .AND THE MANAGER WAS SO UN HELPFULL .PLEASE DONT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY GOING HERE

RHS Wisley
Very, very expensive, £33.00 to get in for two pensioners.
Cafe: 3 Sausages rolls, 1 pasty ,1 egg sandwich, 4 hot drinks 2 children's drinks
£52.50 ouch!!!
Will not be returning

I emailed RHS online to ask if I could use my National Garden Gift voucher when ordering online.
The answer was that I could …… with a list of instructions to follow:
* copy of the order form
* email address, billing and postal address, contact information
* the voucher
* a cheque to cover any difference above the value of the voucher plus postage
* recommendation to send by recorded delivery.
After hours of research, I chose my selection and duly followed all instructions.
I emailed the following week - giving time for an update - only to receive a reply that only paper vouchers are accepted and not a downloaded copy which had the barcode on it.
I registered my disappointment and the reply was that there had been misunderstandings on both sides!
No update re my spurned voucher and cheque, no offer to honour my order with a gesture of goodwill eg. % off as they were sure I’d possibly still like my ordered fulfilled and were sorry for the mistake.
I registered deeper disappointment.
The reply informed me my voucher and cheque would be returned ……. and an invitation from the customer service manager not to hesitate getting in touch with her if there was anything else she could help me with!
Ermm? 🤔 Now, let me think …… possibly provide a good customer service and experience?
If the care they devote to their customer service is anything like the care they take with their plants, perhaps I won’t ever bother again.

Someone gave me rhs vouchers. Oh my goodness. Unless you live near enough to visit a store you have to send them the vouchers by mail with a printout of your order from the online shop and a cheque for anything above the order amount!!! Snail mail and cheques when they have an online shop.

Wisley = Extremely expensive food two slices of bread a small piece of dried up chicken £5.95

What a fab garden at Bridgewater. Lovely day thank you

Too many restrictions and entry limitations. So many of the houses and gardens that give discounted entry to RHS members only offer discounts on certain days or at limited times of the year! Very frustrating and not good value. Shame :-(

Travelled over 2hrs one way and planned accommodation around this event, when we realised the weather forecast was going to be heavy rain for several days we contacted customer service and the ticket line to see if we could exchange our tickets for an alternative show as we knew we wouldn't be able to enjoy it with the heavy rain and muddy conditions.

Customer service were dismissive and offered no help or support just 'check the weather'. The ticket line explained that as it was the last day of the show and Tatton was the last show in the year therefore we were not eligible for exchange. I think this is appalling when any other day/show would have been exchangeable, the policy should apply to all tickets and we should have been allowed to exchange it for a show next year or for a voucher towards buying a ticket next year or similar.

Due to this we ended up attending out of spite of losing our money on the tickets and not being able to afford to do anything else with our day instead, as this was an expense we could not afford to waste. When we arrived the ground conditions were super muddy as it had been raining for several hours during the night and previous day. The car park was a 20-30min walk from the show entrance, through muddy fields and woodland, none of this was made clear beforehand and I felt really bad for anyone who was elderly or had less mobility as this was not an easy/pleasant trek to get to the show.

When we arrived all we could see were food/drink stalls and stalls selling trinkets, the kinds of things you'd see at a regular craft/food market. We had booked our tickets based on the reputation of shows like Chelsea and Hampton Court and expected to see gardens, plant displays etc, not hundreds of tents trying to get you to buy things you don't need. When we had already spent £30 to get in, we were certainly not planning on doing any shopping once we got there. We could have easily gotten the same experience for much cheaper at a food festival or artisan market whose entry fees are usually under £10. The big tent with the floral displays was packed to the brim due to the heavy rain so we did not even attempt trying to enter let alone look around and speak to stall holders, this was a major disappointment as this was part of the show we were looking forward to seeing.

Then the gardens were practically non existent, we kept looking on the maps and going in circles looking for show gardens only to find tiny plots that couldn't have been more than 1metre square filled with wildflower planting. None of these smaller plots looked particularly curated or themed or inspiring, they just looked like a section of wild plants at the side of a road that had been cordoned off. The one 'garden sized' show garden that we did spot had a queue of over 20 people waiting to walk through and in the pouring rain we didn't fancy queuing. Other than this we did not see anything that made us feel like we were at a flower show, a huge disappointment compared to TV coverage we have seen of the other two large shows which were too far for us to travel to. I can't understand how the show can justify such a large entry fee when the whole things is then centred around you spending at every food and trinket stall. There was one small row of artist stalls which was the only part that felt justified, supporting local creatives who create work inspired by nature and plants.

Overall, for something we had always wanted to attend, it was a complete waste of money and total disappointment, awful customer service and support, we would never consider attending in future and will have to stick to just watching Chelsea on TV. I'm sure that for people with more money than sense, they will have had a lovely time buying overpriced cheeses and fudge, drinking expensive coffee and eating overpriced fish and chips. But not for me and my partner who saved up for the petrol money, the tickets and the accommodation so that we could attend the show and that we will never get back. We planned our whole weekend away around the show, and we will not get another weekend away this year due to work so feel robbed of what should have been a wonderful weekend. We spent less than 40minutes inside the show trying to find something worth the ticket price only to trudge back to the car wet and muddy and to drive back home. Had we been refunded then we could have used the money to salvage our weekend away and go to a museum/gallery or other indoor attraction.

We have visited RHS Tatton for the past seventeen years. The show gardens were often jaw-dropping - exciting and aspirational in equal measure. We have so many photographs and videos of designs we loved, and wanted to emulate. The financial crisis of 2008-9-10 clearly had an impact, however, and the big-ticket sponsorship dried up, but the show adapted, and the ‘back-to-back’ gardens, for example, and the Young Designer of the Year competition, ensured that the sense of energy was maintained. For a while. Over the past few years, the soul of the show has been lost, and this year was simply dreadful. The show gardens have been reduced to banal essays in the clichés of ‘sustainability’, - deeply ironic in the light of the oceans of over-priced imported tat groaning from the stands around the site. For this, we were charged in excess of £30 a ticket. My partner commented that we could have spent a few hours at Cheshire Oaks, called in at Bridgemere on the way home, and had a better experience - free. We are cancelling our membership. Will it make the slightest difference to the RHS? Of course not, but it’ll make us feel better…

I became a member and purchased 2 show package for tatton at Cottons hotel.
We were in the same room and I could have paid the same for 2 rooms on booking .com. we also were taken from a nice breakfast to be given a cheap buffet breakfast.
The package was a very expesive dissapointment and you could book it cheaper even directly with the hotel.
The rhs website is difficult to use and I find google easier.

RHS flower show Tatton park 2023
Very disappointed. Difficult to see anything due to crowds Loads of stalls selling clothes, homeware, arts and crafts plus overpriced gardening gear and plants. Very few gardens and plant displays. A nice but small floral marquee.
Hugely overpriced food (£10 for a sausage in a bread roll, £13 for a small chucken wrap). Huge queues for coffee as most food vendors don’t offer hot drinks. Then nowhere to sit and not enough shaded seating.
False ‘show price offers’ - not any cheaper than shops and when checking bank account, more money taken than shown on receipt - £129 on receipt but £140 showing on statement….now have to try and get it back (beware if you buy from the hozelock stand!).
Took almost an hour to get off site at the end of the day!

The parks are not fit for the amount of visitors at both Harlow Carr & Bridgewater. Just bring your own food & refreshments then you will be able to enjoy it. Queues for food were worse than in the Soviet Russia. In Disney resorts you can get food in 5 minutes! In RHS I was in the queue for the ice creams for 40 and then for 30 minutes for the food. Venues need more staff, more food/drink/ice creams/coffee stations! And better management of those beautiful places!

Chelsea Flower Show May 2023
Overpriced, overcrowded and far too commercilalised. Extremely disappointed as had been wanting to go all my life.