As the 2020 RHS Flower Show Tatton Park was due to take part this week, we’re looking back at our time at last year’s event and winning a Silver Medal for our garden “Petrus’ Paradise”
This time last year our team and volunteers at PIER were preparing their garden at the 2019's Royal Horticulture Society (RHS) Flower Show Tatton Park.
The garden called “Petrus’ Paradise” had been designed by our service users, volunteers and staff to reflect a service user’s journey through life with Petrus.
It focused on their experiences of homelessness and how Petrus had provided a sanctuary for them to reflect and grow.
Having been awarded the Silver Medal and won the People's Choice Award, we were all excited and ready to return this summer!
But the event that was due to take place between 22nd and 26th July has been cancelled for 2020 and we’re hopeful to get involved in 2021.
Service Manager Rachael, who led our team and volunteers at Tatton in 2019, reflects on her experience of taking part in such a wonderful show:
“Leading the team at Tatton was without a doubt the most exhausting yet absolutely brilliant project I’ve ever been a part of.
From the creative and exciting processes of co-designing the garden with our service users, to witnessing our sheer determination as we rose to the challenge of something that brought us out of our comfort zones – it was incredible to show the world what our people at Petrus are made of!
We were genuinely happy to be given the opportunity to be there, so after winning a Silver Medal and the People’s Choice Award we were all ecstatic! I have never been part of something that has made me feel as proud and it was so clear to see the positive impact it had on us all.
The sense of comradery and support from everybody pulling together – our service users, sponsors, staff and volunteers – was just amazing. The garden demonstrated exactly what we intended; that anything is possible with the right support in place.
As soon as the 2019 show was over, our team got to work on our plans for this year’s with an aim to be even bigger and better. We had the Tatton bug! So we were of course sad to hear how understandably the 2020 RHS Flower Show Tatton Park had been cancelled.
We’re turning this into a positive – as it just means we have more time to plan, grow even more plants ourselves at PIER and engage even more people from our community in the process!
I can’t wait to experience that impact taking part had on everyone again. While it was a huge challenge with lots of new experiences to navigate, everyone involved had a sense of achievement like no other and grew in confidence.
Everybody had a voice and chance to share their story with thousands of visitors who came to view our garden. We will never forget this experience and all the people who supported us along the way, and are looking forward to meeting the designers and staff at the show again.
While I can’t yet tell you what we had planned for this year’s garden, hopefully we’ll be able to show you this time next summer!”