A SURVINING relative of William Wordsworth will today give an evocative reading of the master’s poetry at this year’s RHS Flower Show at Tatton, Cheshire.

Susan Wordsworth Andrew, the great, great, great grand-daughter of the famous poet is officially supporting Cumbria’s entry into the famous floral competition - the specially-designed Lake District Poet’s Garden.

Susan will read The Massy Ways Carried Across These Heights published in 1826 and from the Complete Poetical Works.

The spectacular back-to-back garden has been heavily influenced by Wordsworth’s garden at Rydal Mount in the Lake District; his former home and now a leading visitor attraction in Cumbria. It has been entered into the Tatton competition and can be found at stands B56 and B57.

Wordsworth was a keen landscape gardener and developed the glorious gardens at Rydal Mount while living there between 1813 before his death in 1850. His wife Mary lived there until 1859 – surviving him by nine years.

The Lake District Poets Garden has been designed by award-winning landscaper Andrew Loudon from Coniston, Cumbria, in conjunction with Beetham Nurseries based near Milnthorpe.

It has been sponsored by Cumbria Tourism and entered into the competition by a partnership of Cumbrian businesses including the Lake District Historic Houses Group, the Windermere Supersix; a collaboration of different attractions; Coniston Coppermines and Lakes Cottages, and Honister Slate Mine which provided the stone featured in the garden.

Featuring woodland and shade-loving plants, native birch trees, firns and mosses, it also incorporates Lakeland slate from Honister, a dry-stone wall, a stone summer house and has been designed to offer a “secluded sanctuary for quiet contemplation.”

Peter Elkington, who manages Rydal Mount and is a member of the Lake District Historic Houses and Garden Group, said: “Wordsworth was a very keen landscape gardener and would have been a gardener had he not been a poet.

"He encouraged his son to take up landscape gardening and he did so. Wordsworth has a very strong connection with gardening and the environment and we are delighted to have relatives of Britain’s favourite poet formally supporting our garden.”

The garden has been ferried from Cumbria and then re-built brick by brick and blade by blade for the show which runs from July 23 to27.

Thousands of visitors to Tatton will also be able to hear from Cumbria Tourism’s chairman Eric Robson, who will be hosting a special Gardener’s Question Time at the event.

Mr Robson is well-known as the voice of BBC Radio Four’s Gardener’s Question Time.

Cumbria will be competing for a prestigious Tatton gold against places like Cheltenham, Manchester, Blackburn, Newcastle and Wales, among others.