THE Very Hungry Caterpillar will be celebrating its 50th anniversary with a special family trail around the RHS show at Tatton Park.

Children will be invited to hunt for the caterpillar and three of his favourite bites of fruit, and there will be plenty of family caterpillar, insect and wildlife activities as the bug theme continues throughout the show.

Creepy crawlies will take over the huge Dome in one of the show’s new features for 2019.

The Bug Hub will explore how some of our insect friends and foes interact in our gardens and what we can do to live in harmony with them.

Visitors can take a look under the microscope at slugs and bugs or take part in The Slug Club to help spot and track the yellow cellar slug, which has declined drastically over the past 30 years.

The popular Back to Back Gardens make a welcome return and form the central gardens set-up this year, alongside the RHS Young Designer Gardens and a feature garden in celebration of RHS Bridgewater.

RHS Bridgewater Garden, a feature garden, will offer insight into the latest RHS Garden in Bridgewater, taking inspiration from the 154- acre site which is due to open in Salford in 2020.

Designed by Leon Davis and Peter Gregory of local company Flint Landscapes, the walkthrough garden at RHS Tatton will focus on natural play and encourage the senses, with elements living on to be reused at RHS Bridgewater itself.

BBC North West Tonight: The Sunshine Garden, a feature garden designed in memory of BBC presenter Dianne Oxberry, will be at the show this year.

The former Radio 1 host died from ovarian cancer, aged 51, at the Christie Hospital in Manchester in January.

The garden is being designed by award-winning Lancashire gardener Lee Burkhill, and following the show it will be donated to a cancer charity.

There will be 12 iconic back to Back Gardens, with some of the 6m x 4m plots to look out for include ‘The Perfumer’s Garden’ by Cheshire-based Charlie Adams which highlights how urban spaces can be transformed by fragrant planting, and Matt Johnson’s antidote to the modern world, using every inch of space to show what’s possible in limited outdoor areas.

The show will also feature the RHS Young Designer Competition 2019. The competition encourages budding designers from all over the country to create their own garden and bring their designs to life.

This year four finalists will be mentored by award-winning designers Mark Gregory and Catherine MacDonald from Landform Consultants.

Experience Dahlias like never before with a field of more than 5,000 blooms featuring five varieties, and get to grips with home turf at Mow Town, with live demos and advice on achieving the lawn of your dreams.

There will also be a new ‘Dig In’ area featuring a cookery and gardening theatre, demos galore in the Propagation Station, Edible Allotments, Vintage Tractors and a variety of herbs and edible plant displays to satisfy any grow-your-own guru.

A record number of 200 talks and workshops will take place across eight locations, with advice on everything from beer brewing to the secret language of plants and bees.

Some awards from the show have started to be announced:

  • Bruche Primary School has been awarded the best in show title at the show's school gardens competition. Teaching assistant Alicia Dignan-Smith led a team of green-fingered youngsters over six months to grow a wasp garden.
  • Tatton Park has won a silver medal for its insect-friendly ‘Very Hungry Caterpillar’ garden.
  • Wirral’s Port Sunlight Village Trust was awarded a silver gilt medal and the top back-to-back garden for its formal and romantic garden with a planting scheme of pinks and purples, featuring large topiary spheres.
  • Kristian Reay, 27, from Somerset has been awarded a gold medal and the much sought-after title of RHS Young Designer for their Phytosanctuary Garden which draws attention to the growing threat of the deadly plant disease xylella.