This year was a particularly successful year for the zoo gardens. The weather was ‘exceptionally good’ (believe it or not!) and the many shrubs that had been planted in previous years had now reached maturity and were giving the rewards we’d hoped for.The zoo was delighted to play host to the BBC’s Gardeners’ World. Two programmes were made in Chester Zoo’s gardens and the zoo’s head gardener at the time, Mr Philip Gallup featured on the programme to discuss the various aspects of the summer bedding, as well as the gardens in front of the Fountain Restaurant. The programmes were well received too – the zoo was sent a number of complimentary letters and visitors made lovely comments about what they’d seen. 80,000 plants were used in both the spring and summer displays and the work of planting took approximately three weeks to complete. Photo credit: Kenneth Green