Kim Wilde at Southport Flower Show

Kim, whose love of gardens has seen her lifestyle change dramatically since the days of her hectic music career, will join Gay Search, gardening editor of the Radio Times and show patrons Professor Stefan Buczacki, Professor David Bellamy and Roddy Llewellyn at the three-day August event.

Kim, who has just launched her new gardening series ‘House and Garden Invaders’, will be present on the Saturday with Professor David Bellamy, the busiest day, when thousands of visitors attend the Victoria Park showground.

Michael Ascott, show chairman, said: “We are delighted with our celebrity line-up this year and that Kim has agreed to make a guest appearance on the Saturday. I’m sure many of the thirty and forty somethings will remember her strutting her stuff on another stage singing her first hit single, "Kids in America" and the American number one hit "You Keep Me Hangin' On".
'Kim now has a huge love of gardening and her passion coupled with that of our other celebrities will ensure the question and answer sessions planned for each of the three days of the show will be a huge success.'

Show-opener Gay Search is also gardening editor of Sainsbury’s Magazine and contributes to Gardeners World magazine. She also devised and produced Gardening from Scratch and Gardening Scratch 2 for BBC2 and devised and executive-produced Virgin Gardeners for Channel 5.
She has written a selection of books including Front Gardens, Perfect Plants for Problems Places, More Front Gardens, Instant Gardening and The Healing Garden.

In addition, the show will be honoured with the presence of the three distinguished show patrons.
Most famous for his record-breaking unbroken run of more than 600 programmes in 12 years as a panellist on BBC Radio Four’s Gardeners’ Question Time, Professor Buczacki, who will attend on the Friday, believes he has probably met more gardeners in the country than anyone else and has answered on air more than 15,000 gardening questions.

David Bellamy, most well-known for his enthusiasm as a television presenter of children’s wildlife programmes, is an international consultant, author of 43 books, writer and presenter of 400 television programmes on botany, ecology and the environment.

Roddy Llewellyn, who will be at the show on Thursday, filmed his own series for Granada Sky Broadcasting last year and was co-presenter for both series of The Gardening Roadshow. He has created beautiful indoor gardens for stores Selfridges and Hertie in Munich.

This year’s Southport Flower Show carries the theme Fine Art and more than 120,000 visitors are expected during the three-day event on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, August 16th,17th and 18th.

Tickets are available from most Tourist Information Centres in the UK, selected HMV stores or from Ticketmaster.