00:00One of the country's most colourful summer traditions is back on Merseyside.
00:05The Southport Flower Show has returned and there's four days of blooms, big names and hopefully sunshine.
00:11At Southport's Victoria Park, the gates are open, award-winning gardens, dazzling floral displays and bustling trade stands all open for thousands of visitors.
00:20This is the most wonderful show and it's probably the prettiest show I've ever been to.
00:26I love the tree-lined avenues with all the stalls down the side. I love the whole concept, I love the firm walkways, I love all that.
00:35There's so much about this that's good and also it is so family-orientated. I think this is the event of the year here.
00:42It's the UK's largest independent flower show and after celebrating its centenary last year, Southport is welcoming tens of thousands of visitors again.
00:51Families can meet alpacas, follow a new children's trail and even try scarecrow making or children's yoga.
00:58This year's new additions include a Waterstones pop-up book festival with several stars meeting fans for signings.
01:03Familiar faces include actor turned farmer Kelvin Fletcher and his wife Liz.
01:08There's a practical element, you know, obviously with our farm, the land is key to, it's productive in that sense.
01:15It's rearing livestock and we've got some arable crop in and we've got some spring goats in at the minute.
01:21But you've got to have a bit of a garden space, you've got to have a little bit of a tranquil space where you can relax.
01:27So there's a couple of garden spots isn't there?
01:30Cobbled together by Friends of Rotten Row, a low budget garden containing mainly homegrown and donated plants incorporate heritage and nature friendly planting.
01:38They said they've tried to portray the fun side of their friendly volunteer group.
01:43A lot of our time is spent clearing and cleaning and cutting and weeding and everything and this is just such a change for us, such a change.
01:53So, so we've thoroughly enjoyed it and we got a gold medal.
01:57Now, not even gardening can seem to escape from the clutches of artificial intelligence as the show garden from Southport U3A demonstrates.
02:04In the RHS magazine, they had a big nine page article about artificial intelligence.
02:09And we thought artificial intelligence in gardens, what a load of rubbish, but it does actually work.
02:15So when we, when we went into it, there's lots of ways that computerization, it helps certainly in horticulture, but can help in a local garden as well.
02:24On display is a retired folks tongue and cheek blend of AI and traditional gardening.
02:29The show has been held in the town since 1924.
02:32A registered charity, any profit generated from the shows reinvested into Victoria Park to pay for its maintenance year round.
02:38It is quite frankly unique and the sun is shining. It's not raining, thank goodness.
02:43So for me, this is a real treat.
02:46The Southport Flower Show is on from now until Sunday 17th of August.
02:49Organizers say the event's designed to be enjoyed rain or shine with plenty undercover seating and well behaved dogs on leads are allowed too.
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