New garden plants from cancelled RHS show for Northamptonshire pub owned by First Dates barman

A Northamptonshire pub owned by the barman from TV's First Dates will be the new home of 380 plants that were supposed to be used for a cancelled Royal Horticultural Society show.

Merlin Griffiths has agreed to use the plants from a garden at RHS Malvern Spring Festival at The Maltsters Country Inn in Badby.

The rehoming forms part of the show garden's sponsor Avallen Spirits' project to plant 10,000 plants over the next three years to help the world's bee population.

The Channel 4 show barman said: "I’m delighted to be supporting Avallen’s Bee Positive message and to give the plants a life beyond the show.

"I’m busy preparing the garden at the moment and we hope to plant in May when the plants will be at their best."

Avallen Spirits, which specialises in Calvados, had sponsored garden designer Jane Scott Moncrieff's display at the festival in May, which has been cancelled by the coronavirus outbreak.

Avallen co-founder Stephanie Jordan said: "‘As a small company sponsoring a garden at RHS Malvern was a huge opportunity for us to connect with like minded people who share our love of nature and our passion to protect it.

"Even with the show cancelled we are committed to delivering on our promise to save the bees one sip at a time and are delighted to be working alongside our industry friend and legend that is Merlin Griffiths and his local village pub to bring Jane’s vision to life."

As originally planned, Jane's garden will commemorate Violette Szabó, a British/French spy who operated behind enemy lines in Normandy, the home of Calvados, during World War Two.

The designer said she was thrilled to be entrusting Merlin with the plants and the design, which she described as a 'lovely permanent memorial to an extraordinarily courageous young woman'.