Colour is back in vogue at Hampton Court Flower Show

Across more than 15 years of attending Royal Horticultural Society flower shows at both Chelsea and Hampton Court, I've slogged through more rain and cold than I care to remember. It's a rare and glorious thing when all those magnificent gardens bask under clement skies, and with the exception of one Chelsea outing, I have never had better weather than that which blessed us today.

The tea and coffee sellers stood unloved while the Pimms salesmen ran briskly through the casks on their backs. Large, floppy straw hats seemed to be the acquisition of choice for hundreds (mine's lime green). The chemist's stand was doing a brisk trade in sun cream and everyone was in a spectacular mood.

Not all creatures, it must be said, were doing as well in the heat. Some of the show gardens were already looking ragged around the edges, the actors entertaining around the Shakespearean gardens were sweltering in their Tudor costumes and we wondered how the denizens of the rose tent were going to make it through the show's close on Sunday. The crowds and lack of air circulation in the arts and crafts tent made it so uncomfortably hot we couldn't make it more than 50 yards in. (Although that was enough to do quite enough damage. Check out the gorgeous jackets at www.shibumiguise.com; the company sells at 20% off at these shows.)

Even if the weather and the shopping hadn't delighted me, the horticultural trends would have done the trick. Last year's subtle tones and worthy themes (see 9.7.09) fell beneath an onslaught of vivid colours, humour and frivolity. A whole section of themed gardens celebrated Shakespeare's comedies, my favourite being the Twelfth Night garden, where paths were actually water, plants grew upside down, vegetables were mixed with flowers and everything was generally topsy turvy. Elsewhere Lego had sponsored a pirate's garden, with a ship and buccaneers crafted from plastic bricks, while "a matter of urgency" brought attention to the serious issue of older womens' bladder issues with a water feature of a giant pink tap seeming to hang in mid-air with no support. There was a quirky, even slightly creepy, Snow White garden with the heroine's plastic doll head and arms coming out of a body made of flowers, watched over by seven giant wooden mushrooms representing the dwarves. Amongst my favourites was an outdoor living room awash with Middle Eastern tiles, decorative stonework and ornate planting. Overall, colour schemes were mixed, bright ... even garish. And definitely about flowers. There were very few austere, modern plots all about foliage this time.

The RHS has made some major changes, swapping around the traditional layout. There are now show gardens on both sides of the long water. The main plant marquees have moved across the water and into a single, new marquee that seems to stretch forever. In their old place in the centre of the show is now a more mixed use area, with the arts and crafts tent, a cooking theatre, a model farm and plenty of shopping. It's not that there are fewer plants and gardens, but that the show keeps growing and is increasingly a lifestyle show with horticulture at its heart.

The only problem with this is that it's now impossible to see the majority of the show on one visit. We arrived around 11 and had to leave at 4; when we did, we knew we'd missed large sections and certainly hadn't lingered over too many gardens. We agreed we need a better plan of attack for next year. But there's no doubt we'll be back. The show is definitely getting better with age.