North of England Show Harrogate

[Maggi Young]

Sorry to hear about your computer problems, Peter; hugely annoying are they not?

Just super photos from the show and the plant displays; such a lot of work involved for all; but what a result! 

[Lvandelft]

Thank you all for showing show pictures.
Very good to see that nurseries in your country take so much efforts to make
a beautiful display. Must be an enormous job.
When looking at the many pictures, I think one will have needed the whole day to see everything.

[David Nicholson]

I enjoyed the Show very much and I agree that some of the displays made by the Nurseries were very good indeed but, I was a little disappointed at the range (and sometimes at the quality!) of the plants offered for sale. Maybe I'm getting 'picky' in my old age. I really enjoy trawling around the Nursery stands at the AGS Shows, always excellent plants; always in good condition, and always something to tempt me. At the Harrogate Show I bought only one plant, a deep orange coloured Lewisia cotyledon hybrid after searching all day for a yellow one and failed. Very few Primulas were in good condition and choice of species was very limited and I couldn't find any species Iris anywhere. It did seem to me that most Nurseries had taken the mass market option with a huge range of garden centre plants.

Or am I being unfair?

[Maggi Young]

Might the fact that the Harrogate show is a two day event, geared to the general public rather than the specialised alpine market we are used to, be the reason for the plant choice available, do you think?

[David Nicholson]

You're probably right Maggi. Maybe I was a bit unfair but on the evening before the Show I had been welcomed back to the Yorkshire homeland with numerous pints of Tetley Mild and was, ever so slightly, under the weather!, on Show Day

[Maggi Young]

You're probably right Maggi. Maybe I was a bit unfair but on the evening before the Show I had been welcomed back to the Yorkshire homeland with numerous pints of Tetley Mild and was, ever so slightly, under the weather!, on Show Day

Ah yes, it all becomes clear..... lots of beer; effect on liver   ; jaundiced view..... yes, there's often a clue!

[Lesley Cox]

We find in NZ, and I'm sure it's similar elsewhere, that when the show is a two day event, all the bestest and rarest plants go on the first day, and at the beginning of it, leaving the "mass market" stuff for the second day. Local nursery owners have this saying that "Saturday is for buyers, Sunday is for lookers."

[Peter Maguire]

I think you'll find the Harrogate show is even longer than two days - it begins on Thursday and is open until the Sunday. The vast majority of those attending will even be non-gardeners, for whom it is just a day out, so it would not make sense for most of the nurseries to carry large stocks of specialist plants to the show (although Laneside Alpines seem to do ok, just selling terrestrial orchids).
There are good plants for sale; we AGS exhibitors we're greeted at the Kevock nursery stall at 9.00 on Satruday morning with "we're glad you lot have arrived, we've brought lots of primulas down"! With a welcome like that, how could I resist opening my wallet?
Another thought about nurseries: I've always been amazed at their dedication at Harrogate - AGS exhibtors get to park near to the exhibition tent and have to drive past all the caravans and tents where they stay for the duration of the show. One year I remember leaving on the Saturday afternoon in pouring rain and passing one particular nursery's pitch, where the two owners where just returning to their two man tent for the evening - it was surrounded by water and they were moving damp sleeping bags into their car. This year I was asking Terry Hunt from Edrom nurseries where they stayed - "oh we just settle down in the back of the van"