IMAGINE the perfect garden - then imagine if the spectacular centrepiece was made from real chocolate

This year’s autumn theme for the Harrogate Flower Show celebrates plants that have given pleasure for millennia. From chocolate and coffee to wine and vines the show will explore the origins of the flora so often said to be naughty, but nice.

Among the Plants of Pleasure displays will be a special chocolate garden, showcasing sumptuous, dark planting on the outside and working towards a rich, gooey centre of real chocolate plants and flowers, complete with a chocolate fountain.

Created by Ripon designer Helen Hays, Harrogate landscaper Nick Fryer and York chef-chocolatier Ashley McCarthy, the garden is a playful horticultural tribute to a human obsession with all things cacao that has thrived for thousands of years.

The chocolate heart of The Tempered Garden will take Mr McCarthy approximately 30 days and 30kg of dark Belgian chocolate to make.

Owner of Ye Old Sun Inn at Colton, near York, he has been working with chocolate for 14 years and specialises in centre piece sculptures.

The show runs from September 14 to 16. For more visit flowershow.org.uk