THERE were warm words for this year's Spring Gardening Show from TV gardeners Monty Don and Joe Swift.

Gardeners' World presenter Monty said the show had been getting bigger year by year but had "not lost its local village flower show charm".

Monty, who was educated at Malvern College and now lives in Bishops Frome, said Malvern was his local show and was "one of the best".

He said the show had kept its local, friendly feel despite becoming a big national event, largely because of the support of local people.

"There are dozens of exhibitors and traders from in and around Malvern and even the show gardens have local links," he said.

"The space here at the Three Counties Showground is great and the setting by the Malvern Hills is fantastic. You can buy plants here too which you can't at Chelsea, the parking is easy and it's very family friendly."

Monty said he had been coming to the Malvern Spring Gardening show since 1989 but that he had attended his first show at the Three Counties Showground in 1969.

TV gardener Joe Swift got stuck in traffic for almost two hours on his way to the show but said he wouldn't have missed it for anything.

"It's a lovely show and I've seen some incredible plants this year. The standards are really high," he said.

Other celebrities included TV gardeners Chris Beardshaw, James Alexander Sinclair and, of course, Alan Titchmarsh, who said he simply couldn't imagine not coming to the Malvern show. Their advice was on hand at the BBC Hereford and Worcester Celebrity Theatre.