THE Royal Horticultural Society's Malvern Spring Festival will really have a royal flavour today as the show is preparing to welcome Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal.

Princess Anne will arrive at the Three Counties Agricultural Society’s Showground home on the outskirts of Malvern, later this morning and is expected to remain on site until early afternoon.

She will be met by the Lord Lieutenant for Worcestershire, Lt Col Patrick Holcroft and Mrs Annie Holcroft, and will tour the event with Three Counties Agricultural Society President, Dame Janet Trotter.

The RHS Malvern Spring Festival (formerly the Malvern Spring Gardening Show), which started life as a small regional flower show, and is now one of the big top five gardening events in the country, has undergone a complete transformation this year.

Aside from a brand new name, the event has a new layout, and a greatly enhanced food and lifestyle content, with a view to attracting a wider audience.

Her Royal Highness last visited the Show in 2010, in its 25th year, and met some of the exhibitors who have been with the event since its beginning.

It is hoped that this year’s visit will include a tour of the beautiful show gardens, including the school gardens, the Spring Festival Theatre, the new ‘Get Going, Get Growing’ workshops, the Royal Horticultural Society floral exhibits and local food producers.

The Princess Royal first visited the Showground in 1976, and served as TCAS President in 1981.

In 1986, she was in Malvern again to open the new Members Complex overlooking the Main Arena, and more recently, in 2006, she attended the National Pony Society’s 100th Summer Championship Show and the National Sheep Association Show, both taking place at the showground on the same day.

Show manager, Doreen Smillie, said: “HRH The Princess Royal is no stranger to the Three Counties Showground, and we are naturally delighted that she should choose to honour us with a visit to our new-look show.

She recently became the Patron for the Royal Three Counties Show.