RECORD numbers of entries from all over the world have landed on the organisers’ desks for a brand new Spa Gardens category at this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival in May with one of the gardeners set to secure the top prize of an opportunity to showcase their talents in Moscow.

Launched for the very first time, alongside designing and building a Show Garden at the UK’s leading garden event, one final designer will also be given the once in a lifetime opportunity to showcase at Moscow Flower Show as part of a newly introduced exchange programme.

Applications have flooded in from designers from a number of countries to compete for one of only six places.

Jane Furze, Head of RHS Malvern Spring Festival said: “We are so excited to be launching the Spa Gardens category and cannot wait to see the creativity from new designers blossom at RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2017.

“It’s a real privilege to be working with the Moscow Flower Show to offer an exchange programme that is unlike anything we’ve ever done before”.

The Moscow Flower Show ‘exchange’ will see one designer invited to build a sponsored garden at the top horticultural event in Russia. The all-new programme invites one Russian designer to build a garden at RHS Malvern Spring Festival and reciprocally, one of the designers exhibiting at Malvern will be given a grant and the Moscow Flower Show organisers’ support to display at the Russian event at the end of June.

Offering a unique platform for emerging talent, the Spa Gardens category will bring to life the new vision for RHS Malvern Spring Festival.

The festival’s new vision will reflect the thirst for knowledge, new horizons and innovative technology at the heart of Malvern’s Victorian heritage. Successful Spa Garden designs will sit alongside the festival’s iconic Show Gardens.

With anticipated visitor figures of over 100,000, RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2017 will take inspiration from Malvern Spa’s Victorian heyday as a fashionable spa resort – a place where day-trippers descended to take advantage of the clean air and to enjoy the health giving waters amongst the romantic beauty of the hills and into a town of pleasure gardens, assembly rooms and numerous eating-places.

A total of six places are available in the Spa Gardens category, giving up and coming designers a platform to showcase at the landmark gardening and food festival alongside veteran designers and leading talent in the industry.

The RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2017 will take place from Thursday, May 11 until Sunday, May. 14.