RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2016

The RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, where 'gardening gets down to earth', is a fantastic excuse to stray outside of the big smoke and enjoy the elaborate house and gardens of Henry VIII's old stomping ground.

Wander up the banks of the Thames from Hampton Court station and you'll find the peaceful paradise of the Hampton Court Palace Flower show which is celebrating its 26th year in style.

For the first time, the show will host a Family Saturday, featuring additional children’s activities including seed sowing, a family trail, story time, and a number of child-oriented cookery classes. The activities will have a rocket science theme to tie in with the RHS Campaign for School Gardening’s partnership with the UK Space Agency to discover whether space travel impacts on the growth of seeds. Each full-paying adult may bring two children aged 16 and under free of charge to the show on any day of the week.

Returning for another year, an enormous tropical butterfly dome will give visitors the opportunity to walk among thousands of exotic butterflies from Indonesia and South America, fluttering amid the vegetation.

No flower show would be complete without spectacular Show Gardens, and this year there's more to see than ever before with the Capability Brown Gardens will celebrate the 300th anniversary of the birth of the 18th-century landscape architect Lancelot Brown, as well as the City Garden category which aims to show just how much can be achieved in a small outdoor space.