Gallery: Shrewsbury Flower Show 2016 - another sweet smelling year

It has been a bumper year for the famous two-day horticultural show that has marked the pinnacle of the summer season in Shrewsbury for decade after decade.

The 29 acres of The Quarry in the town centre were packed with attractions for the 129th show, from the flower marquees and show gardens at the heart of the event, to entertainment and activities for all the family, to stalls of all stripes.

The sun shone for duration of the show, leading to bumper crowds queuing at the gates on Saturday, day two of the celebration of all things flower-related. Speaking as things got under way on Saturday morning, Nigel Pearson, of Shropshire Horticultural Society, said: "We have three entry times, at 10am, 2pm and 6pm and inevitably people come and queue before each one.

"Friday was a good day and over the course of 10 hours I think we had about 13,000 people – it was certainly more than last year.

"It was busy but with nice weather which is good. It wasn't too hot and it didn't rain so all the plants here were in top condition and everything went the way we wanted.

"There was a little bit of rain this morning, but that was good because it nicely freshened up the plants and dampened down the dust."

Shrewsbury town crier Martin Wood, also enjoying the show on Saturday with wife Sue, both in full regalia, agreed the weather was perfect.

"I think with the wet weather last year, 'it kept the dust down' is the polite way of putting it. This year is going very, very well.

"Quite a few people come year on year and everybody I've spoken to is happy about this one. With all the stalls coming back it's like a big club, you see the same people.

"But I was talking to a couple on Friday who have come from America. They had been to Shrewsbury four years ago on a tour and it happened to coincide with the show so they came back just to go to it."

The show brings people from all over, having been confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's longest running horticultural show in one location, and is a highlight of the UK gardening calender. Today it attracts some of the biggest names in the gardening and cooking world with BBC Gardener's World and author Sarah Raven and Sky Living's chef Gizzi Erskine both putting on demonstrations and fielding questions in their chosen fields across the weekend.

Also performing in the main arena on Saturday were soul pop legends The Christians. Known for a string of huge hits, such as Ideal World and Harvest For The World in the late 80s and early 90s, the Liverpool-based band are currently enjoying a revival and have a new album out called "WE".

They got the picnicking crowds moving before the now-traditional massing of the various military bands at the show before the firework finale.

Many of those military bands had been playing on the bandstand throughout the two days, including The Band of Royal Corps of Signals, The Band of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and the Yorkshire Volunteers Band, along with The Biddulph Male Voice Choir and Shrewsbury's own choir Of One Accord.

Others travelling across the country to Shrewsbury for the two-day event were a group of five school friends, Susan Hart, Helen Ephgrave, Wendy Gravell, Kathleen Sunders and Griselda Williams, all from Burry Port on the South Wales coast.

Susan, 60, said: "It is such a lovely day out. I used to live in Bewdley and came about 30 years ago because it was close by – but it's better now.

Helen, also 60, added: "We've been friends for 50 years. We all live near each other and we just decided we'd come up for the weekend.

"My favourite thing has actually been the flowers, they are the most important part after all."

With the judging done and dusted on day one, there was a relaxed atmosphere as families marvelled at the exhibits at Shrewsbury Flower Show.

The heart of the show is in the marquees, with the professionals showing off the cream of their crop with plants and flowers from growers and nurseries across the UK and beyond competing in The Quarry Marquee – which this year had a special display for Her Majesty The Queen's 90th birthday, complete with wooden horse and caravan.

Meanwhile, in the Severn and Dingle marquees, societies and amateurs showed what they could do and there was floral art and WI crafts and produce.

The marquees were buzzing this year, not least because a large section at the rear of the Severn tent was devoted to bees and beekeeping.

Peter Bound of Shropshire Beekeepers said: "We're here to encourage people to get involved with their local beekeeping societies.

"These cabinets show the internal workings of a hive," he said, pointing at a mini beehive on the counter next to him.

"They're for display purposes only really. We put the bees in a couple of days before.

"We also have a live beekeeping demonstration outside three times a day where you can see hive being taken apart, and the microscopes are proving very popular with the kids, where you can see a bee magnified 50 to 100 times, all connected to a computer screen.

"There's also a honey stand with people displaying their products from across Shropshire, Wrexham and Mid Wales."

His colleague Graham Roberson said there was even a difference in honey from opposite sides of Shrewsbury due to what the bees were using for pollen.

He said it had been a tough year for beekeepers with the cool, wet spring, but things had begun to look up in July.

"But we're very well supported here by local people who come back year after year and that's very rewarding."

Others who had found the soggy spring a challenge were the vegetable growers, though there were still monster leeks, beet, parsnips, carrots, marrows, cabbages and other edibles on display.

Mike Davies of the National Vegetable Society Midlands Branch said: "There have been some fantastic exhibits considering everyone's been reporting that it's been a very bad spring with the wet and cold."

He said the society had been supporting the Shrewsbury Flower Show since its founding in 1960 – and himself in person since he was a boy, despite hailing from Newent in the Forest of Dean.

He said: "My parents brought me up on the train, it was a day out. I got interested in exhibiting when I was a teenager, when I was 18 I had sweet peas in the village show where I lived and I got first prize – so I got the bug then and I have ever since. Now I'm into my seventy-first year."

A new generation was also getting the bug, said Martin and Naomi Heffernan from Bridgnorth, there with their children Alfie, 15, Finn, 13, and Ava, seven. Martin, 52, said: "I think Alfie has got marrow envy. He's growing a marrow in the garden at the moment but it's not as big as the ones we've seen today."

Naomi, 45, added: "We've been looking at the veg, we've tried some honey and had a look at the bees, and the scarecrows were amazing."

The results of the original scarecrow competition were on display outside the Severn Marquee, this year an array of Roald Dahl characters in celebration of the children's author's 100th birthday.

"It's a lovely family day out," she said. "We didn't make it last year, but we've been to a few."

For children not so enamoured with vegetables there was plenty more on offer, with shows from internationally renowned clown Dingle Fingle in the main arena along with falconry displays and show-jumping, as well the eight-foot tall stilt-walking and top-hatted Professor Crumb wandering around, plus Victorian-style magic and variety from Mr Alexander's Travelling Show.

There was also an entire children's area tucked away at the far end of The Quarry with a huge array of activities for children of all ages.

Sue Bryant, children's area organiser and committee member, said there had been magic, songs and comedy on the area's very own stage, and craft activities from soap carving to plant pot decorating – which the children were then able to take across to a planting area to learn to pot a plant, which they could then take away for free.

Walford and North Shropshire College had also brought snakes, lizards, tarantulas, guinea pigs and hedgehogs and Chucks and Ducks had brought birds of various types, while The Edge Adventure Activity Centre had brought along a climbing wall and were leading junior archery sessions.

"Peter Rabbit is also hidden somewhere around the showground which is all part of the 150th anniversary of Beatrix Potter," she said.

"It's been a fantastic turnout, it's been better than last year and the year before that.

"We've been busier in this area from earlier in the day – and you get people of all ages, from toddlers to their grandparents."

Next to the River Severn on the edge of The Quarry, all ages were also enjoying a ride on a genuine antique steam train brought to the show by Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways, with track laid along the path next to the river.

Chris Parry, marketing officer, said: "The locomotive is a Quarry Hunslet, it's 130 years old, and the two carriages are original Victorian quarryman's coaches.

"We keep them at the railway and bring them here every year to show off and give the kids rides.

"Historically we're quite friendly with Shropshire Horticultural Society, so it's a sort of arrangement we have. We've been doing it for the past four years."

Shrewsbury town crier Martin Wood was among those admiring the mini steam train.

He said: "It's just great to have this for the kids. Every year the line seems to grow a little.

"It's something the council could do with having here all year round.

"You can't beat the sound and smell of steam."

Nearby among the trade stands there were more vintage vehicles, with one used car on sale in the middle of the show.

Bob Stevens, a property dealer from Meole Village, had brought along his 1983 Rolls Royce Spirit I and was open to offers, with a price tag of £11,000.

But the 1920 Model T Ford next to it was not for sale, he said. "This was the last one that came off the production line in Manchester. I bought it in Melton Mowbray 20 years ago," he said.

Just up from Mr Stevens, in the western part of The Quarry, was a village of eye-catching stalls with many first timers.

Jason Fernandes had stands of his Fernandes Designer Macaroons on display.

He said: "I only started in February, so this is my first flower show.

"I'm an interior designer full time, so this my sideline."

Louise Campbell and Muriel Grey were there selling plants from Ox Eye Daisy in Preston Brook, Cheshire.

Louise said: "We've never been before, but everyone's been very friendly and it's been very busy."

Gardening is, of course, also at the heart of the show, and this year saw University Centre Shrewsbury bag a large gold medal for it potager garden which incorporated the UCS badge and three Salopian heads with a backdrop of Rowley's House and bunting, in a nod to the Queen's birthday.

The Queen was the theme, with another garden by Hornby Garden Designs laid out in a red, white and blue Union Jack design with a laden table at the centre to evoke a Great British tea party.

Nextdoor the Hope House Children's Hospice and British Ironwork Centre garden was catching eyes with a large iron man sat on the edge of it, designed and made at the Oswestry metalworking centre.

Garden designer Stuart Francis, also based in Oswestry, said: "The garden is in aid of Hope House.

"This year the theme was 'hope and glory' so I went for a cottage-style garden which is formal layout with informal planting.

"If the weather had been kinder there would have been a band of patriotic colours around the centre too." Mr Francis added that the garden was designed for a warmer climate to show what British gardens may become in 40 years if climate change predictions are right.

"The metal man is a conversation piece, people either like it or they don't, but they all stop to have a look at it," he said.

The day was capped with a soulful and hit-packed set from The Christians.

The band was stopping off in Shrewsbury as part of a 30th anniversary tour, before the military bands massed in the arena once more to bid a rousing farewell to another successful year.

And as daylight turned to dusk Kimbolton Fireworks did the two-day festival of flowers proud once again, with a storming display that has become a hallmark of the summer in Shrewsbury, seen both by showgoers and people across the wider town, who congregate on bridges, in beer gardens and at bedroom windows every year.