Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
SRGC Shows and Events => Events => Topic started by: Tim Ingram on February 04, 2012, 01:22:43 PM
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With grateful thanks to the SRGC Forum for the opportunity to mention our Show way down in the south! This is always a good time for plants, irrespective of the weather with a wonderful variety of different things, and a little sprinkling of the best specialist nurseries from around the southern half of Britain. There is something for everyone, especially for all those gardeners who have not yet cottoned on to the wonders of the alpine world, so we are working harder to let people know about the Show and what we get up to in Kent. David Hoare is Show Secretary, and mentioned elsewhere in relation to the Saxifrage Day at Waterperry, and should be duly congratulated for running the Show for very many years.
We would enjoy welcoming anyone from round about, especially anyone who has not made it to the Show yet! Access is just a couple of miles from junction 4 off the M2:
Rainham School for Girls, Highfield Road (off Maidstone Road), ME8 0BX
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Lovely poster Tim.... but I don't think the show does open at 12am ........... :-\ :-X
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Lovely poster Tim.... but I don't think the show does open at 12am ........... :-\ :-X
You can't have 12am or 12pm it should be 12 noon or 12 midnight
http://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/astronomy-and-time/time-facts/faqs/is-noon-12-am-or-12-pm
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Lovely poster Tim.... but I don't think the show does open at 12am ........... :-\ :-X
Keep them guessing Tim!!! Excellent poster.
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I thought it was a cunning plan to allow exhibitors to stage in Kent before Midnight, drive to Blackpool and stage there early Saturday morning, drive back to Kent to pick up their plants late morning and then drive back to Blackpool for the 4 pm clear up thus maximising the potential number of red stickers in one day. :P :P
Mind you I suspect more speeding tickets than red stickers :o :o
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You know when Jack Elliott used to open his garden we all used to queue up outside straining at the bit to get to all weird and wonderful plants he had for sale (the garden was pretty good too!). I hope we don't get too many visitors at midnight but it would be great to get the same thing happening at the Show too! 12.00 noon yes, I knew there be a deliberate mistake there somewhere...
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......thought there might be a bar of chocolate for spotting the deliberate mistake...... ::)
Ah well, win some. lose some!
Blackpool show might try the midnight trick next year, eh?
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Tim i ususally arrive in Gillingham about midnight and sleep in our van till you open up at 6.30 ish. Unloading and setting up at midnight would really be appreciated, giving me extra leg room to stretch out. Could i book a bacon butty and early morning wake up call too. ;D
PS. Is Lincolnshire or North Wales in the southern half of Britain?? Maybe.
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PS. Is Lincolnshire or North Wales in the southern half of Britain?? Maybe.
It is from where I'm sitting! ;)
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It does seem a long way up to Lincolnshire and North Wales, otherwise I'd be up there all the time! Yes I placed myself in Scotland when I wrote that; it seemed the only fair thing to do. Rob, you would be more than welcome to stay here if would like a more comfortable night - we are about 20 minutes on from the Rainham turn, and right on the M2 exit at Faversham. I have had a few enjoyable nights sleeping in the van with the plants.
Maggi - I have two daughter's who always beat me to the chocolate!!
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Tim - many thanks for your kind offer. The problem with arriving earlier in the evening is that you have to fight your way through all that traffic; a 4 hour drive if taken in late evening / night becomes a 6.5 hour slog mid afternoon / early evening. The Kent show has always been worth the extra discomforts, good sales, superb varied plants on show bench, excellent bacon butties, and of course friendly folk.
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The Kent AGS Show is just a couple of weeks away. For those who like botanical art, which is such a feature of many shows, we are taking the opportunity to display some of the work of Rosemary Powis, who was a talented artist as well helping run the Show and the East Kent Group of the AGS for many years. Some examples are pictured below, finishing with the piece de resistance, a stem of brussel sprouts! It is a great delight to be able to share Rosemary's paintings with members and visitors to the Show.
Seeds are beginning to germinate freely now with the warm (!) weather, and we also aim to prepare a display of these too, showing species that have required different treatments to stimulate germination. Some fascinating plants from American collectors like Alplains and Southwest Native Seed, and others from Czech seed collectors, are coming up, providing the prospect of growing some intriguing new plants in the garden.
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An excellent display of some lovely artwork, Tim.
Innovation and East Kent seem synonymous?
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A note re the show: Ger van den Beuken is unwell and will not be attending the show to sell plants as planned.
Westonbirt Plants will attend instead.
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Wonderful paintings! Sorry to hear Ger is not well.... hope he improves soon.
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David Hoare, Show Secretary of the Kent Spring AGS Show at Rainham next Saturday, has reminded us that this is the 20th year of the Show! A great anniversary to celebrate of what has always been a most enjoyable Show... so we will have to lay on some cheap flights down to the south-east (!). I do hope Eric Jarrett's Trillium nivale will be coming, and a few other of those remarkable plants.
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David Hoare is himself well-known for his super plants at this (and other) shows... Saxifragas to drool over!
For a 20th Anniversary, I hope there will be EXTRA cake?! :o 8)
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For a 20th Anniversary, I hope there will be EXTRA cake?! :o 8)
I'll let you know Maggi ! ;)
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I'll be there as a volunteer tomorrow.
Come and say 'Hi' at the AGS plant sales table. :)
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I had to leave the show just after midday as my back was starting to complain! >:(
As usual, a brilliant show. A really really good display of alpines in tip top condition. The display benches were quite full (except for Fritilaria section that seemed rather sparse compared to previous years).
A wonderful selection of excellent plants too. I came home with a few too many new things once again to somehow shoehorn into my little bit of England :-[ .
Some random snaps I took of things that attracted my attention.
1 - Early morning view
2 - a show bench
3 - another show bench
4 - The Lucs shopping
5 - A lovely looking orchid: 'Ophrys bertolonii'
6 - Another lovely looking orchid: 'Serapius neglecta x Anacamptis morio'
7 - 'Geissorhiza inaequalis'
8 - 'Asarum trigynum Album'
9 - 'Dionysia aretioides'
10 - the winner of the Farrer medal
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Nice to see a Cypripedium winning the Farrer. :D
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Also nice to see the two Lucs helping our balance of payments problems ;D
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Hope Luc G took his camera. I enjoyed his last report very much. :) :)
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Also good to see my wife working in the background of one of the pictues ..... she's still not home either. Hope she's not run off with any strange Belgium's !!!!!
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Just got home... knackered .... after another (long) great day hopping the Channel and visiting the Kent show ! :D
Great people... marvelous plants... we had lots of fun !
I do have pix Ron, but don't know when I'll be able to post them... I'll do my best ! ;)
David, the balance of payments is ok again... ! A total of 17 bags of J.I. compost left the British Isles though... ;D Our personal balance of payments has seen better days though..... :-\ ;)
Shame on you Rob... we would never kidnap Jacky !! ;D Especially as you have her doing the hard sales work now ! ;) She was doing a great job !
Off to bed now...
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Hello Luc, my mistake now she is home :D it took her almost as long to return home as you!!!
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Hello Luc, my mistake now she is home :D it took her almost as long to return home as you!!!
I went to bed last night wondering if Jackie was home safe. Goodness knows what I thought my worrying about that could achieve? :-\ I'm glad that the travellers are all safely home, anyway!
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Let's kick off with some images of the packed benches - also a very crowded hall (even without a busload of Belgian and Dutch visitors... :D) so I guess David Hoare and his team will have been a happy bunch !
Here we go :
Filled benches with at the end of this first series the Farrer Medal winning Cypripedium formosanum from Ian Robertson ! What a potful ! :o
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Luc - Do you remember which Pieris that was?
johnw
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I'm interested in Johns comment earlier about the lack of Fritillaria at the show, compared to other years. I thought this was the same at Loughborough, and a number of people there said they had struggled with their Frits this year. Was this reflected at Blackpool also. Dunblane was a little early?
If it has been a bad year for Frits ( I haven't found it to be so though I must say ), does anyone know why? Or is their a declining interest in the Genus?
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Luc - Do you remember which Pieris that was?
johnw
Sorry John... :-[
Not many Frits at Kent either Ron, though there were a few. It's not a favourite genus of mine, so very few pix I'm afraid...
Here we go with more pix - alphabetically
1) Androsace alpina
2) Androsace ochotensis
3) Arenaria alvacariensis
4) Asarum tryginum album
5) Benthamiella patagonica
6) Callianthemum anemonoides - double form ! :o
7) Corydalis curviflora var. rosthornii 'Blue Heron'
8 ) Corydalis curviflora var. rosthornii 'Blue Heron'
9) and 10) Daphne modesta + some information on the genus.
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Some absolutely cracking saxifrages on show there 8)
Asarum trigynum 'Album' is just super, really attractive colour and great shape to the blooms.
Lovely Farrer plant, looking so fresh.
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Talking about Saxifraga's Maggi - here are some better views... and remember that David Hoare told me he was having a bad season... ::)
1) Saxifraga allendale 'Bravo'
2) Saxifraga cecilia x federici augusti
3) Saxifraga 'Coolock Kate'
4) Saxifraga 'Kampa'
5) Saxifraga 'Sissi'
6 - 7 - 8) Saxifrages - some cracking 3 pan entries.
And now for something completely different...
9) Draba longisiliqua
10) Fritillaria stenanthera (For Ron!)
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Great photos again Luc. 8)
Thank You ;) ;D ;D ;D
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I would have said there were many Frits at Loughborough
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Excellent images, Luc ... many thanks for posting.
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Be sure to check out Jon Evans' pix on the AGS Site.... and read of the mishap that befell the plants of Paul and Gill Ranson on their way home from the show :o :(
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Ask any exhibitor what their worst nightmare is, they’ll probably say a catastrophic shift of plants in the car. Yesterday was our turn. On the way back from Kent I had to brake for some traffic lights on a busy dual carriageway. One of the stacking boxes took off, somersaulted and deposited it’s contents (D. bryoides, zetterlundii, gaubae, Inka Gold x 2, Primula bracteata – combined age 20 yrs+) on top of eight of our large pots (combined age 100 years+). Having been up since 3am before the show, Gill and I spent until after midnight trying to salvage what we could including removing thousands of flowers, repotting all the smaller plants and removing the sudden and superfluous topdressing which had been deposited on the larger plants.
My feeling in the initial aftermath was that all the plants were likely to be compost but having spent hours cleaning them up and teasing the rosettes back into place I am more optimistic that most may live to see another show (albeit not this year!!). The worst piece of damage was to the 15 year old Dionysia tapetodes JRDE2 which was the subject of Jon Evans brilliant meerkat photo. I had ironically joked with him about the meerkat burrows he had photo-shopped into the image. Although it has not actually got any holes as a result of the accident it does have a large crescent shaped scar with all the rosettes folded in on themselves. Definitely one for the ‘natural effect cushion’ if it does survive.
I've tried posting some images of the car contents in the morning but being a techno-phobe my posting keeps failing so if anybody wants to see them they're on the AGS site.
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Paul, I'm sure most of us have had a similar problem at some point in out showing careers :-X
Very pleased that you and Gill were none the worse for the incident and you seem to have already done a grand job in repairing the most immediate damage to the plants. I hope that in a couple of months you won't be able to see where the damage was on the plants and that next year they'll be back to their best again.
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I really enjoyed the Show too (like Chelsea it is always the best ever!). I think the absence of frits. and many other bulbs resulted from the fact that Bob and Rannveig Wallis were unable to come. Saxifrages abounded, and there seemed lots of these available for sale too, which bodes well for next year.
I, as always, am drawn very strongly to the nurseries and have now begun to convince my wife how important more plants are for the garden (!) and more seriously how many could provide good propagating material. Robin White always reaches the parts that others cannot reach and had a lovely double form of Helleborus torquatus, close to those that Elizabeth Strangman grew on her nursery at Washfield. One of the great plants of Kentish Alpinists, in this case Les Cheeseman who grows it so well, (almost uniquely) is Alkanna aucheriana. Next to Eritrichium this must be one of the bee's knees of the borages, and Robin had a few plants for sale. Well what can one do... I share with Parham Bungalow Plants a great interest in legumes, and they had many species of Oxytropis, as well as an interesting South African genus Lessertia (diffusa). And also a delightful dwarf Matthiola scapifera, which Richard Bird introduced me to many years ago, and has always remained in my memory. Rachel and Keith Lever grow such outstanding plants that the Aberconwy stand is almost a Show in its own right(!). They are an immense inspiration to others like ourselves who would like to propagate and grow plants in a similar way. They grow a beautiful yellow version of Primula 'Garryarde Guinevere', called 'Maisie Michael', much more refined than the (still very good) Wanda type hybrids. For a long time I have been tempted by that whole extraordinary variety of ericaceous shrublets that Barry Starling grows so well and used to bring to Shows, and Aberconwy have many beautiful examples - one in particular we picked out was Vaccinium nummularia. These will be a challege to grow in our dry climate, but we do have a cool and moisture retentive area alongside one greenhouse which has long been earmarked for such plants. Here we used to grow Leucogynes leontopodium, so this also was added to the box...Even more exciting was a chance to grow again Daphne blagayana, in the dwarf form 'Brenda Anderson' (who I met once many years ago and was one of many well known gardeners from the other end of the UK who came to talk to the Mid-Kent AGS and stayed with Mike and Hazel Brett, who have one of the best alpine gardens in the whole of the south in my opinion). Choice Landscapes had some particularly mouthwatering frits., including some strong flowering F. raddeana, a delicate soft-yellow relative of the Crown Imperial.
It is hard to imagine a more exciting range of plants and one reason that I think that the Plant Sales carry an important role in promoting the Shows more. The Show had around 170 visitors, so not bad; but around us in Kent there must be very many more who could become hooked on these exquisite plants.
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A few examples from the Show... Anemone biflora is one of the most stunning of these dryland species and presumably would make a good plant for a bulb frame (another project for the future). Amongst quite a few more tender bulbous species, Geissorhiza inaequalis was particularly striking. The miniature garden, next to one of the tufa plantings that creates such great interest, was very appealing. Eric Jarrett's Trillium nivale has been mentioned elsewhere, one of the most beautiful and extraordinary plants at the Show; Asarum trigynum may not be so beautiful but is certainly extraordinary! Santolina elegans, a very unexpected relative of Cotton Lavender, is a plant I have tried quite a few times and failed with, but would love to grow well. The Show is at a perfect time as spring really wakes up and the overall display gives a good impression - even to a committed gardener like myself who grows few plants in pots, it is hard not to get weak at the knees seeing a display like this. I have to give a picture taken late on in the sales area to show the real powerhouse of gardening, the nursery stands. There were some really fascinating plants available for sale, as mentioned earlier, and this is a picture of Pottertons...
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I missed out the miniature garden...
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Ask any exhibitor what their worst nightmare is, they’ll probably say a catastrophic shift of plants in the car. Yesterday was our turn. On the way back from Kent I had to brake for some traffic lights on a busy dual carriageway. One of the stacking boxes took off, somersaulted and deposited it’s contents (D. bryoides, zetterlundii, gaubae, Inka Gold x 2, Primula bracteata – combined age 20 yrs+) on top of eight of our large pots (combined age 100 years+).
Hi Paul, I am sorry to hear about your mishap, but the important thing is that no one was injured. It is always a worry about the distances people travel to attend shows, especially as it often means an early start which makes show days, long days.
Hopefully the plants will will recover without to many problems.
I know when Darren and I attend shows we try to guess how far down the road we will get before we hear the gentle cascade of gravel. ;D