The Gardeners’ Weekend show in Birmingham is to return to the park where it was staged for almost 30 years.
The popular event was controversially moved to the city centre last year after it cost the city council almost £90,000 to stage it at Kings Heath Park in 2010.
The relocation sparked outrage among fans of the show and a 2,000-name petition was handed to the authority last October demanding it returned to the park.
Now the council has handed control of the event to the city’s gardening and allotment groups and given them a £20,000 grant to help.
It will be staged as the Birmingham Annual Gardening Show in Kings Heath Park on September 1 and 2.
Chairman of the new organising committee Jonathon Jaffa said: “It was held in the park for 28 years so we are taking it back to its roots.
“It was a giant thing in its heyday but now we are turning it back to a garden show for Birmingham.”
Mr Jaffa, who runs York Supplies hardware shop in Kings Heath, said the show would include stalls and displays by 14 flower and gardening societies, allotment groups with large vegetables, a craft fair and other attractions.
He said the council had been supportive in offering advice, the use of facilities, and the grant.
The show was replaced last year by an event called Flowerfest and the budget absorbed by the city’s Artsfest celebrations.
It was held at the City Centre Gardens, off Centenary Square, after plans to stage it at the former Municipal Bank in Broad Street fell through.
City leisure chief Martin Mullaney (Lib Dem, Moseley and Kings Heath), who took the decision to move the show, said handing it back to the gardening community was the best solution.
He said: “We have several events, such as the St Patrick’s Day Parade and Gay Pride, which the council supports but does not organise and we are adding the Gardeners’ Show to this list.
“We are getting the interested groups to organise it and run it and we will give them a financial contribution.”
