Review | EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival Merch 2022

I had originally planned to spend my birthday this year in Disney World Florida, meaning I would have been there for the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival: a Disney/home grower's dream! Unfortunately, adult decisions got in the way and I will no longer be going to Disney but my good friend pointed out that the F&G merch would be available on shopdisney. I absolutely loved the concept and design for each of these pieces and very carefully selected a few to purchase with the intentions of them being birthday gifts for myself.

They arrived pretty quickly and even the garden apron, which was a pre-order item, arrived before I expected to. However, not everything was as good as it seemed.

The first item out of the box were the gardening gloves coming in at £14. Much more than I paid for my favourite gardening gloves (£3.99) but a little bit less than other more aesthetic brands. The quality of the gloves was very poor and without being rude is something I would compare to picking up a pair of gardening gloves from poundland: they weren't going to protect your hands from anything.
Let's be honest, we didn't expect the most high end gardening gear from Disney. It comes with the price tag because we are paying for the Disney brand and the Disney cuteness. However, even buying it for that would be bitterly disappointing. The coating on the gloves which intends to protect your hands, gives the gloves a yellowy dirty looking tinge and also blurs the pattern on the fabric underneath. See photo below. Neither functional nor beautiful.

I will get the other disappointing product out of the way: the fork and trowel set (£22). From a distance, they look adorable but once you pick them up you can see where there has been no attempt to line up the pattern. Where the handle meets the fork/spade area of the equipment, you can see a very distinct line where the pattern has been chopped in half and not at all matched up. You know when somebody does a very bodge wallpaper job and the pattern doesn't match up from piece to piece? Just like that! I would also be hesitant to believe you could dig much out with these. They seem quite poor quality and I can only imagine that when you dig in your trowel, rather than digging up the plant, you will simply bend the trowel in half as you try.

 I then unboxed the flower pot (£14) and after my previous two disappointments I was pleasantly surprised. With a hole in the bottom for drainage, the hidden mickey plant pot is exactly as you would expect. I did decide not to keep this product in the end as I was not sure where to put it and all of my plants were a bit too big to fit but if you were to buy something from this collection, this is one I could recommend. My only disappointment is that the drainage dish at the bottom is a lie, there is no separate dish and it simply designed to look like it has one.

Now, the last but not least is my favourite item from my mini haul: the apron (£28). This was by far the most expensive product but by equally as far was the most well made. I can only assume this is because Disney regularly make clothes merchandise whereas gardening utensils are not a regular feature of their website. They have perfected the art of making aprons and for £28 you were getting a quality product rather than a cheap item with the Disney branding slapped on it. This was the only item I decided to keep because I know I can get my use out of it, even if I use it more for aesthetic reasons than for its functional purpose. I would love to know if you bought anything from the collection and if you did, what did you think of it?! I think the plant markers are gorgeous but I cannot justify spending £14 on something when my boyfriend eats enough ice lollies for me to have free plant markers for life.

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