New Regent's Park flower show bids to rival

A MAJOR new London flower show, set to rival those at Chelsea and Hampton Court, is to be staged in Regent's Park by the Royal Parks Agency, it was revealed today.

Organisers are hoping for around 100,000 visitors to the Regent's Park Flower Show when it opens for five days at the end of June. The organisers of the Chelsea and Hampton Court shows, however, are concerned that the new event will over-con-burden an already busy calendar.

The Royal Parks Agency envisages the new show, which will revive a 150-year-old tradition of staging flower shows in Regent's Park, will eventually attract crowds of up 170,000 - on a par with numbers at Chelsea in May. David Welch, the Royal Parks chief executive, said: "I am delighted to announce this new date in the horticultural calendar. We have been looking for some time at the possibility of holding a flower show in one of the central London Royal Parks. "We have now decided that it should take place in Regent's Park, which was the original home of the Royal Botanical Society and the location of many magnificent flower shows in the 19th century. "Our aim is to revive that tradition and, with next year's inaugural show in Regent's Park, we intend to set the standard for future shows, combining horticultural excellence with popular appeal." Profits from the planned show will be used to help the Royal Parks Agency find the GBP 69 million it needs to repair and restore some of the capital's most celebrated open spaces. However, the decision has sparked some critical murmur-ings from the Royal Horticultural Society which runs the Chelsea Flower Show and the world's largest annual show at Hampton Court - the latter staged only two weeks after the proposed new event. The RHS has a virtual monopoly on major flower shows in the UK but is powerless to challenge the scheduling of the Regent's Park event. Stephen Bennett, shows director for the RHS, said: "We wish our friends well at the Royal Parks Agency but can't help but feel this period is already too congested. "Major exhibitors can require more than two years to create and nurture exhibits and need several weeks, if not months, to carefully remove them after a show." Mr Bennett argued that horticultural exhibitors would find it almost impossible to transfer displays from one show to the other in such a short time. He added that it would be a "challenge" for the Regent's Park organisers to pull off a successful event with only eight months to go. However, Julia Bench, director of Regent's Park Flower Show, disagreed. She said: "I believe Regent's Park as a venue has tremendous potential. Since the Chelsea Flower Show is totally pre- booked, ours will be the only major central London flower show selling tickets to the public each day." The new show will be held from 24 to 28 June 1999.

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