A Weekend at The Newt – Forest at The Great Garden Show

In May, we were invited to take part in The Great Garden Show at The Newt in Somerset, a nine-day horticultural festival set across an estate with 250 years of history. The show opened the grounds to the public for a celebration of country crafts alongside conversations on biodiversity, and we spent the weekend immersed in their stunning grounds.

The Newt is best known for its luxury hotel estate, spread across 2,000 acres that take in woodland, formal gardens and working farmland. It's here that the estate produces its own farm-to-fork dining, grown and reared within sight of where it's served. Spending time in a place built so entirely around the natural cycle of growing felt like the right setting for us to do a pop-up shop.

The Show

The Great Garden Show brought together growers, makers and gardeners from across the country. Days were structured around demonstrations and talks, with biodiversity running as a constant thread throughout the weekend, a reminder to us all that biodiverse ecosystems are so important to a sustainable future. 

Forest Terrarium Workshops

For our contribution to the show, we were invited to host two workshops alongside a pop-up shop across the weekend. Our succulent bowl sessions asked visitors to think about planting in miniature, building self-contained worlds of various succulents. It's a different way of working with plants, considering drainage, soil requirements and how to plant each succulent so it sits harmoniously with the others and it can be a rewarding practice to learn and master.

Hand-tied Posies

Alongside the terrariums, we ran posy making workshops using fresh, seasonal stems sourced from local Somerset growers. For many visitors it was a first attempt at hand-tying, so we worked through the basic floral design skills, including prepping your fresh stems, arranging the flowers in a way that balances colour, texture and composition, and tying your bouquet securely without damaging the stems.

The Pop-Up

Throughout the show, we also ran a pop-up in The Newt's Home & Garden shop, in addition to a large installation piece that brought together a variety of tropical plants, transforming the space into an indoor rainforest that sat alongside the estate's collection.

The Newt described the weekend as a chance to bring a curated edit of greenery into the shop and a considered way of bringing nature into the home. It was a pleasure to be asked, and a rare treat to spend a weekend working with plants somewhere so devoted to the same idea.