Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
SRGC Shows and Events => Events => Topic started by: Diane Clement on April 18, 2013, 01:53:56 PM
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The Alpine Garden Society Midland Show is on this Saturday 20 April 2013 at Arden School, Station Road, Knowle. B93 0PT
The Show will be open to the public from 11.30 am to 4.30 pm, but plant sales and refreshments will be open from 10am. Admission is free to AGS members, £2.50 to non-AGS members. Drinks, refreshments and light lunches will be available through the day.
Nurseries attending in 2013:
Aberconwy Nursery – Keith, Rachel & Tim Lever
Blackthorn Nursery – Robin White
Desirable Plants – Nigel Sutton
Diane's Hardy Plants – Rob and Diane Cole
Parham Bungalow Plants
Potterton's Nursery
Thuja Nursery – Simon Bond
Plus AGS seed for sale
Hope to see some of you there ;D
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The Alpine Garden Society Midland Show is on this Saturday 20 April 2013 at Arden School, Station Road, Knowle. B93 0PT
The Show will be open to the public from 11.30 am to 4.30 pm, but plant sales and refreshments will be open from 10am. Admission is free to AGS members, £2.50 to non-AGS members. Drinks, refreshments and light lunches will be available through the day.
Nurseries attending in 2013:
Aberconwy Nursery – Keith, Rachel & Tim Lever
Blackthorn Nursery – Robin White
Desirable Plants – Nigel Sutton
Diane's Hardy Plants – Rob and Diane Cole
Parham Bungalow Plants
Potterton's Nursery
Thuja Nursery – Simon Bond
Plus AGS seed for sale
Hope to see some of you there ;D
You're getting all three Levers, Diane? I thought Tim would be attending the Perth SRGC Show on the same day.
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You're getting all three Levers, Diane? I thought Tim would be attending the Perth SRGC Show on the same day.
oops, no, that's just the nursery contacts.
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Oh good - that would have been sufficient levers to stock the average railway signal box! ;D
We'd miss Tim very much in Perth so good to hear he'll be there. Long drive for him , too.
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It always amazes me how few SRGC Shows are reciprocally advertised on the AGS web site! ??? ::)
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It always amazes me how few SRGC Shows are reciprocally advertised on the AGS web site! ??? ::)
Just needs someone involved in the shows to do it.
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I am delighted that the SRGC takes its commitments to share and disseminate information on rock garden and alpine plants seriously outwith just the SRGC membership and extends this to the support of other similar organisations.
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Cliff - I'm just surprised how little mention the Alpine Shows get in the gardening media in general! After all, they are amazing and the plants you can get from some of the nurseries are out of this world. Martin of course is right, but it takes an extraordinary amount of effort to attract attention... and you like to feel that you are, which does seem rather obvious on the SRGC Forum! What we need is a roving non-affiliated reporter who perhaps views alpine gardening with a critical eye and has the pen of Farrer or Christopher Lloyd. Plus an unlimited travel pass to allow some unscheduled visits to out of the way Scottish gardens!
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Call me a miserable old cycnic but I think one reason that there is so little interest in the media for "our" type of shows/ plants is that the people supplying such plants are the very specialist- and therefore mostly very small nurseries - what the Americans call "Mom and Pop" operations.
If those plants were peddled by the chain stores and mega-businesses then I think there would be more enthusiasm for the gardening press to cover them. Big money in advertising for the gardening press and opportunities for personal appearances etc for the "celebrity" gardeners - none of that applies for our sort of plants and the specialist nursery folk, who are struggling to survive, for the most part. :-X
In Aberdeen e were fortunate in that we could draw around 200 paying visitors to the Show on an average year, up to 400 on a good one, and while the public obviously enjoyed the show, it was always clear that their main interest was in plant shopping for their gardens - both from our visiting nurseries and the club plant stall. For most folks, the perfect specimens on the show benches may be pretty to look at, but they seem to be too rarified to really engage the public.
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Superlatives fail me. It was probably the best show we have been to for 10 years. Full of plants which last year would have won Farrer Medal and this year did not even get a 1st, or even a 2nd.
Even better the place was heaving with people, ooohing and aaahing. Utterly magic.
Photographs may take while, I managed over 500!
Well done to everyone concerned.
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How exciting Eric- sounds just wonderful - you'll need extra vitamins to prepare so many photos!l
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Oh good - that would have been sufficient levers to stock the average railway signal box! ;D
We'd miss Tim very much in Perth so good to hear he'll be there. Long drive for him , too.
Turns out it was Keith who had the long drive to Perth this year, not Tim.
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Jon Evans' great photos of this very lovely show are on the AGS site. They include several portraits of Pulsatilla integrifolia (Previously Miyakea integrifolia)- shown by the "VeteranVet" George Young ..... http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/discussion/atshows//Midland+Show+Solihull+th+April+/17114/?page=3 (http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/discussion/atshows//Midland+Show+Solihull+th+April+/17114/?page=3)
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Had my camera all focussed on that when a certain R..R. whipped the plant away and I missed the chance. GRrrrrr.
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well spotted Maggi, I had hoped that Jon Evans would put up lots of pics (especially as there seems to be none coming from visitors/members at the show to this site) but when it comes to photography he is seriously good, such wonderful pictures, they give a real feel for the show, as Cliff said late Saturday, was a seriously good show. Ian Kidman (Kidders) had offered to take a few plants for me, did not expect a seriously huge trophy to be brought home via the Saxifrage...although I did think it was as good as I have grown it/seen it!! However, if Ian had only been able to take one plant for me it would have been the Miyakea/pulsatilla as I thought it was 'fantastic', even though its just a pulsatilla now, the colour etc is just a bit different....sadly the judges did not agree but such is life, if I had known in advance it was only a second sticker job I would have still sent it in a one pan for kidders to take over the sax. I had hoped to have it at Hexham the week before but takes forever to bloom, just hope it sets seed now, did a bit of tickling this pm with a brush...not sure if it will do any good.
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but takes forever to bloom, just hope it sets seed now, did a bit of tickling this pm with a brush...not sure if it will do any good.
George, a little bit of hopeful tickling never goes amiss - in my opinion..... ;)
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Maggi - you should have been on Gardener's Question Time down here in Kent today (hosted by the Kent HPS Group). There was a good bit of tickling between the team and Eric Robson, and a lot of hilarity in the serious world of gardening - but if you had said Miyakea to anyone they would probably have looked around for their spouse! Just imagine a Gardener's Question Time on Alpines; it would be more like University Challenge!
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Sorry about the lack of pictures from the Show from me, but it is NOT raining and the garden is desperate for attention. Sadly processing the pictures will have to take a back seat until either it rains or my back collapses!
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Maggi - you should have been on Gardener's Question Time down here in Kent today (hosted by the Kent HPS Group). There was a good bit of tickling between the team and Eric Robson, and a lot of hilarity in the serious world of gardening - but if you had said Miyakea to anyone they would probably have looked around for their spouse! Just imagine a Gardener's Question Time on Alpines; it would be more like University Challenge!
When Ian has been on Gardeners' Question Time the other panellists have tended to be a bit , how shall I say, uncertain about alpine queries :-\
It was the same for the most part in the Beechgrove Potting Shed - for instance, no recognition of alpine species of things like Clematis or any idea about things like Asarum europaeum.
Mind you, that was from the self proclaimed expert who thought Euphorbia pulcherima are native to the Med. :-X
Plenty scope for tickling of all sorts in those situations!
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Sorry about the lack of pictures from the Show from me, but it is NOT raining and the garden is desperate for attention. Sadly processing the pictures will have to take a back seat until either it rains or my back collapses!
I'm sure we wish your back no harm, Eric - so we'll just hope for rain..... ;D ;)
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I will say one thing about the plants which makes life hard for me at least. There were a large number where the plant name was placed in such a position as to be not visible, or so badly written as to be unreadable or so dirty as to be illegible. That's ok for the experts who can look at a plant and say what it is, or for the official photographers who can touch the plants to look at the labels, but a bit hard for folks like me. I did follow a new visitor around (sounds odd, but you know what I mean, the Alpine show shuffle) and she kept asking me if I knew what a particular plant was, as we could not see the label. Frustrating to say the least.