Garden Festival Information

The Garden Festival is firmly established as one of the foremost events in the horticultural calendar of the northwest of England. It is hugely enjoyed by all the visitors who greatly appreciate the intimate and friendly atmosphere. This year we are celebrating our 30th Anniversary show!

Our garden tours running throughout the day, lead by Gordon Baillie our Head Gardener, will be taking place and are included in your ticket. Visitor entry to the hall and gardens (and FREE parking) is also a part of your ticket. As ever there will be dedicated plant nurseries and high-quality garden accessory traders at the show as well as experts on hand from The Professional Gardeners Guild to help with any questions you may have. A programme of talks and demonstrations will also be running throughout the day.

In the Countryside Marquee visitors will be able to learn about Wood Carving and Dry-Stone Walling along with finding out about the Cheshire Wildlife Trust, Badger Conservation, Lower Moss Wood Rescue Centre and the Mid Cheshire Beekeepers. Close to this marquee will be the Cheshire Guild of Wood Turners where again you and the whole family can ‘have-a-go’ at wood turning.

Once again, foraging sessions organised by Forage Box, will be running at Arley on both Saturday and Sunday, they will be located in the Countryside Marquee when you can register for a session, £10pp with sessions taking place at 11am, 1pm and 3pm. Each session will last around an hour and are designed to get you as involved as possible – this includes identifying, picking and tasting a range of wild species that will be found on the day. There will also be samples of wild food and drink for everyone to get stuck into!

Last year we were delighted to welcome Animal Teach who brought a hands on experience to Arley and who now have over 30 species of animals and invertebrate in the Animal Team! As well as that held a fun dog show organised by Tails Animal Rescue based in Northwich. Classes will include Best Male, Best Female, Best Waggiest Tale, Best Puppy under a year, Golden Oldie and Best Trick! First class at 11.30, £3 to enter one dog into one class, cash ideal, money raised goes towards the Tails Animal Rescue charity, prizes and rosettes given. It’s a great family day out with children’s entertainment also including, face painting and our playzone including a zip wire, willow domes and picnic area. We are delighted that were such a success last year that they will be back at our 2025 show.

PLEASE NOTE you need to buy a ticket to the garden festival for entry to the show before you can take part in the fun dog show and the foraging courses.

NEW for 2025 in celebration of our 30th Anniversary, we are introducing Creative Corners Garden Design, full details will be posted soon but with the absence of The RHS Tatton Flower show for 3 years in the North West we are giving designers, both young and old, the opportunity to continue gaining experience in garden design.

There will be a selection of food outlets offering a choice of brownies, pies and pasties, chocolate, rum and vodka, oils, preserves and peanut butter! as well as our exclusive caterers who run The Gardener’s Kitchen Café on the stable yard and also provide a marquee on the showground where you can sit and enjoy a lunch of sandwiches cakes, hot food and drinks.

We will also be holding our Schools Gardening Challenge at the show, we invite local primary schools to plant an 8ft x 4ft raised flowerbed (which we provide) with some (but not all) plants that have been grown by the children themselves, the theme can be anything and we regularly attract up to 10 schools, everyone is welcome. The amazing prize for the winner, who will be chosen by our gardening judges on Saturday morning will win an actual 8ft x 4ft wooden raised flowerbed which we also deliver to the winning school! This amazing prize is sponsored by Huws Gray Buildbase in Northwich, who have provided all the materials to build the flowerbed.

There will also be a public vote taking place over the weekend with the winning school receiving free child entry tickets to Arley Hall & Gardens for use during the year.

Creative Crafts will play host to a large selection of high-quality gift and craft traders in their own marquee and can be found close to the entrance marquee.

The Wabash Jazz Trio will put you in the mood for a great day as they play foot tapping music as you arrive. Lymm Concert band will then be playing in the afternoon and all day in the Stable Yard, the band Street Jazz will be playing. We are hoping that the that iconic English Lotus cars will once again be outside the Hall on Saturday and the elegant Morgan cars will be on display on Sunday.

Tickets and pricing will be available soon.