Perth Show 2007
------give them an inch and they'll put on a show
Report by Sandy Leven

Congratulations to the Perth team who brought together colourful flowers, old friends, plenty fine plants to look at and to buy all together with good food in one big hall. Photography at Perth suffers from the fact that the hall has no natural light so that flash is always necessary but at least you are not tempted to try shots without flash which at some other shows just end up being shaky and blurred. Once again there was a good entry in Section 2 to compliment the big plants in the open Section.

The Forrest medal was won by Fred Hunt's plant of the Californian Fritillaria liliaceae which he has grown for at least 20 years. He was one of the first to exhibit it at an SRGC show and over the years he has built it up into this magnificent panful. Fred has an eye for a potentially good show plant which he then sources and grows on into a good specimen. He also knows which plants to discard! If Fred grows it you can be sure it is a good plant.

Like some other Californian Frits it grows well in Scottish alpine houses. I like especially the green tops to the pagoda style creamy flowers.


Fritillaria liliaceae

Other good American Fritillarias at Perth were


Fritillaria affinis


Fritillaria affinis tristulis and a close up of the Lewisia cotyledon, both from Margaret & Henry Taylor

I love the dark form Frit affinis tristulis, which is specifically excluded from some classes at Perth. Apparently one year they were overwhelmed by it. Now there are not many pans on show! Since the 'tristulis' derives from the Latin word for sad , gloomy, dismal, forbidding, harsh They just want to keep Perth happy by excluding it. Here it looks good with the pink Lewisia cotyledon behind.


Fritillaria affinis 'Sunray' probably discovered introduced to counter all the gloom from the above sad one!


Fritillaria purdyi, grown from seed by Perth Group Convener, Susan Band. It has wonderfully shiny bells.

The Eurasian frits were also superb


Fritillaria graeca


Fritillaria whitallii



Fritillaria acmopetala in two forms


Fritillaria pyrenaica


Fritillaria lusitanica


Fritillaria tuntasia



Mike and Lyn Almond enjoy the show

American plants start come into their own at this time of year and our gardens are the better for them. Here are a few Americans which did well at Perth


Camassia leichtlinii


Trillium albidum which does very well in Perthshire


Trillium grandiflorum and variety ?roseum'


Trillium rugellii


Trilliums in the show


Erythronium' Johanna' whose parents were American


Uvularia grand flora known as Merrybells in Connecticut where it is now rare


Anemonella thalictroides Oscar Schoaffe

Anemonellas are Eastern American plants but I doubt that you would find the range of varieties which we now see at the shows I you hiked along the Appalachians


Dicentra cucullaria, from Indiana woods, a refined ?Dutchman's britches'---- the flower not the Dutchman!


Erigeron ?Canary Bird', introduced by Jack Drake many years ago


Townsendia alpigena, a wee Rocky cowboy star from Wyoming whose range stretches up to Idaho and over to Washington state.


Penstemon arenicola another cowboy from Colorado up to Idaho. You can't mention American plants without a Penstemon.


SRGC sheriffs on the lookout for cowboys


Lewisia columbiana wallowensis from Oregon's Wallowa mountains


Kalmiopsis leachiana from Southern Oregon


Hesperochiron pumilis from Eastern Oregon

Other parts of the world an other genera were at Perth in abundance so I will start with two wonderful orchids from Tony Darby


Cypripedium Sabine a hybrid between Cypripedium fasciolatum and C. macranthos



Serapias neglecta, shown in Section 2 was awarded a Certificate of Merit. Well done Tony



Jeffersonia dubia from northeastern Asia is a member of the Berberis family


Pteridophyllum racemosum, beautiful, endemic to Japan and seen increasing more often at our shows.


Cyril Lafon'g Pleione ?Shantung' was awarded a Certificate of Merit


Pleione ?Tongariro'


Pterostylis curta, an Australian orchid

Another important factor in the Perth show is that local members visit Glendoik, home to three generations of the Cox family, Rhododendron breeders and plant hunters, to see the gardens and visit the garden centre. When there, inevitably they are tempted by the new Rhododendron introductions [as well as by cakes and cups of tea!]. Many of the Rhododendrons at the show were Glendoik introductions.


Rhododendron ?Plover'


Rhododendron ?Curlew'


Rhododendron ?Crane'


Rhododendron ?Phalarope'


Rhododendron keiskii ?Yaku Fairy', looking absolutely fabulous exhibited by Lyn Bezzant won the Cox Trophy for Best Rhododendron in the show. Kind of ironic that it is not a Glendoik hybrid.

It is always satisfying to see a Forrest plant on our show benches. Here Primula forrestii was flying the standard. Show secretary at Perth is Julia Corden who is in charge of the Explorers' Garden in Pitlochry. Here she is exploring with Hon. Pres. Bette Ivey. She is self catering on this occasion despite there being wonderful cakes, teas and coffees at the eating end of the hall.



Primula forrestii , introduced by Forrest from the Lichiang range in NW Yunnan in 1906 and reintroduced by Roy Lancaster in 1986.



Primula sinolisteri, new to me. How about those eyes when they turn red! The spellchecker renamed it ?shinplaster'! It is related to Primula obconica and it too was introduced from North-western Yunnan near the Tibetan border by George Forrest.



A fine Primula aureata from David and Carol Shaw


Primulas on the show bench


Susan showed a superb plant of the red Primula maximowiczii, from Northern China, which won Best Primula. Susan cultivated it entirely in the open. It was the best example of the species which we have seen.



A fantastic plant of the Gold Lace Polyanthus.

There were countless other delights at Perth but if want to see them all go along yourself next year!


Tristulis and Sunray! [see above]

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