AN ARTIST who helped decorate a presentation area at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Malvern Spring Festival met several TV gardening stars, including Alan Titchmarsh.

Anneliese Appleby, who lives in Pontshill near Ross-on-Wye, provided some of her ‘Lupins’ hand-printed wallpaper to decorate the ‘Plant Finders Parlour’ in the Floral Marquee, which was the brainchild of TV garden designer and presenter Joe Swift.

She was also commissioned by RHS gold medal winner Mark Eveleigh to produce three hand printed posters for his Malvern ‘Tree House’ Show Garden.

The hand-print artist said: “The parlour was used during the show as a presentation area for many talks and Q and A sessions by growers and garden experts, and the highlight of the show for me was to be introduced to Alan Titchmarsh, Carol Klein and Joe Swift.

“It was great fun to be introduced to these huge celebrities of the gardening world.”

The theme of this year’s RHS Malvern was Victorian Spa Towns, of which Malvern was one of the most famous, alongside Harrogate, Cheltenham and Bath.

“Mark gave me three quotations by three very famous historic figures, Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale and Alfred Lord Tennyson, who had each visited Malvern to ‘take the waters’,” she added.

“With these quotes in mind I designed and created posters that incorporate hand cut lino and original letterpress, and printed the posters with master printer Martin Clark at Tilley Printing in Ledbury using a Wharfedale press which dates from the 1900s and using traditional wooden poster type.

“The organisers of the show were hugely excited when they saw the posters in Mark’s ‘Tree House’ Garden, especially as they were printed using a traditional press.

“It was also fabulous to meet Peter Dowle from Howle Hill Nursery, who is virtually my neighbour, who won a gold medal, ‘Best in Show’ and ‘Best Construction’ for his stunning ‘Meditation Garden’.

Further details about Anneliese’s work can be seen at www.anneliese

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