Gardening Scotland 2012

[Stan da Prato]

Last Friday some of the group who are organising the club's stand for Ingliston met up in Graham Wenham's garage. Graham has set up a baseboard the same size as the show stand will be and we began laying out some pots and crates  to get an idea how it could look; we then added a few shrubs and conifers. The plan is to have a ridge with dwarf conifers, a gravel fan and river bed with low growing plants, some rock terraces  with appropriate plants;an area of meadow and woodland plants such Primulas and Meconopsis.
Please consider whether you can contribute plants - ideally those  in flower in late May early June.
More info will follow in this thread.

[Lesley Cox]

Good idea to do this dry run before tackling the real thing. I don't see much room left though for the family car.

[Stan da Prato]

The working group had another session on Tuesday in Graham Wenham's garage. Graham has built a series  of boxes which  will hold pots of  Meconopsis, Primulas,  Arisaemas, lilies etc as well as a partially dried up stream bed down the middle which is based on three plastic basins  you can see in Peggy Anderson's photos. There will be a rocky ridge currently represented by the crates - soon to be replaced by actual rock mounted on some  blocks of insulating  type material. 

[FrazerHenderson]

I see the master craftsman, Mr Pryde, adopts a managerial position whilst Mr Wenham grafts and Dr da Prato films proceedings.

I'm sure that you'll do us all proud.

[Maren]

The all have beards

[mark smyth]

Maren, beards are fashion right now

[Lesley Cox]

The all have beards

I would have too, if I lived in Scotland.

[angie]

The all have beards

I would have too, if I lived in Scotland.

Yep Lesley those beards would be like wearing a scarf. I don't need scarfs or anything like that to keep me warm as I have my own couple of inches of insulation 

[FrazerHenderson]

Just to advise that Gardening Scotland will be held 1-3 June at the Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston, Edinburgh

Opening times are:

1000-1800 hrs on 1 and 2 June
1000-1700 hrs on 3 June

Advance ticket holders may enter at 0945 hrs

Tickets cost £14 for 1 June and £12 for 2 or 3 June when bought in advance (prior to 25 May) otherwise £16 on 1 June and £14 on 2 or 3 June. Remember children of 15 years and under are admitted free.

To book tickets online see www.gardeningscotland.com. Details also available on 0131 333 0965.

[Stan da Prato]

Another session today to look at all the work Graham has done on the stand framework. We now have rock facings added to the wooden boxes  - the stone  collected by Ian P in the course of  long coastal walks. The stick in the empty pot is to   get an idea of the height of  the bigger Meconopsis that Ian Christie will be bringing. The marks on the base board by the basins that will become the pools  will be cut out so plants  will 'grow' in the gravel of the partially dry stream bed. One point that emerged  from today is the need not just for specimen  plants but small trailing things and even  loose rosettes of sempervivums  that we can insert into  the cracks in the stonework.

[David Nicholson]

Coming on well Stan. I could do with some of that stone, must do some walking on Dartmoor!

[FrazerHenderson]

Just to advise that Dobbies Garden centres are selling tickets for Gardening Scotland at a £3 reduction, provided you purchase before 25 May.

[David Nicholson]

Every little helps

[Stan da Prato]

Graham has added more stone to the top edge of the rock ridge and we spent some time this morning trying out some plants;  some of which  you will have seen in earlier posts. We were trying to see what conifers and shrubs we can fit in to give a framework  of foliage - the spaces will be filled up with smaller, more floriferous plants. It is important to remember that this stand is smaller than the joint display with Kevock last year and quite a number of the plants we used then will be too big for 2012. At one end of the ridge will be a rocky corrie where we shall use a few shrubs eg the dwarf willow  against the rock  so the stone is still visible; this small area will be filled in with stones as in a rock fall  with small plants growing among the stones. At the other end a slightly  bigger area will have its edges defined by conifers on one side and shrubs such as Coprosmas with a red/gold look on the other. What is shown will not be the final selection. The area  between the woody edges  will have a range of flowering alpines. One side of the display will be the shady side  with ferns and any flowers that are appropriate to shade eg gesneriads, orchids. This will merge into the rock fall via  grey leaved things.
Potential contributors of plants please note the need to fill the cracks with small  trailing  things as well as Sempervivum  heads etc- we do not just want a few large show winning  type plants. Several small pots of the same  alpine  in flower will be very useful.
This post only deals with one end of the stand - there are other areas as outlined earlier.

[Lesley Cox]

All this trial and error and practice run, only to have to dismantle and rebuild it at GS. Amazing dedication.