RHS Flower Show due to return to South Yorkshire

A woman with curly auburn hair and wearing a blue t shirt smiles as she trims back plants in an organised flowerbed with many types and colours of flowers. Wentworth Woodhouse, a stately home, is blurred in the background.Image source, Dominic Lipinski/RHS/PA Wire
Image caption,

Garden designer Pip Probert adds finishing touches to the border display ahead of the show

  • Published

A prestigious annual flower show which was held near Rotherham this year is expected to return to the area in 2028.

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Flower Show was held at Wentworth Woodhouse last week, in a move from its usual home at Tatton Park in Cheshire.

Sarah Poll, head of shows development, said the RHS hoped to return to the property in future after what she called a "completely unique" show.

"The use of the house is really unusual for us," she said. "It enabled us to bring new content to a new show – we had floristry competitions, botanical art, it was fabulous."

The 2025 show, which had promised to "hit a different target audience", featured a miner's garden, a teenage dirt park with a BMX track, and an urban pollinators space.

The photo is taken from below showing a cyclist fly through the air on a small bike. He is wearing jeans, a blue t shirt and white helmet. The stately home is in the background. It is a grand, sandstone building with rows of windows at the front and pillars ahead of the main entrance.Image source, Dominic Lipinski/RHS/PA Wire
Image caption,

Jack Waller performs a BMX jump at the RHS Teenage Dirt Park garden

Sarah McCleod, CEO of the Grade I listed property's preservation trust, said she would like to ensure "positive impacts are spread to other businesses in the area" during any future show.

"It was so wonderful to have thousands of people not just come to Wentworth Woodhouse, but to Rotherham and South Yorkshire," she said.

"It's a really good way of raising the profile of our fantastic region."

Both organisers described the show as a success, despite issues with coach space and traffic congestion.

Some customers missed stalls as a result of excessive delays, and one attendee's expected 20-minute drive to the property took an hour and a half.

Ms McCleod maintained that the RHS did a "fantastic job" managing traffic given the volume of crowds.

Before its return to Wentworth Woodhouse, the show is due to go to Badminton, Gloucestershire and Sandringham, Norfolk, then back to its home in Cheshire.

"We have been so delighted to venture to a new area, and we are delighted with how the show went," Ms Poll said.

"We would love to be back in South Yorkshire again in 2028."

Get in touch

Tell us which stories we should cover in Yorkshire

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North