Gardening Scotland Show Part 1

What everyone needs when visiting a garden show (apart from stamina) is a plan of action. In past years we have wandered aimlessly around like a couple of spare parts and missed some of the best bits. This time I was prepared with a map taken of the Gardening Scotland's website.

We were meeting a friend for lunch (picnic in the car park) and decided to look at the various show gardens and  other stands and leave the serious plant hunting until the afternoon.

We wandered round the part that is called the Big Back garden. Stuck our heads in the tepee and the yurt admired the Birds of Prey (I'll bet they were bored) heard a talk about bee keeping, ate ice-cream  and listened to the Pipe Band. We are in Scotland after all. We have to have some bagpipes.



The Show Gardens
These are much smaller then anything that you might see at Chelsea. They also cost less. On the plus side the ideas are probably more transferable than the more expensive show gardens. And There was one we didn't see!. Would you believe it? So apologies to Lesley and Dougal of Hopetoun Garden Centre.
To be honest the Show gardens at this year's show didn't set the heather on fire (not my patch anyway) but there were elements that I liked or were a bit different.

The Floral Hall
This is the place I most look forward to visiting. The best plant displays are here, often from nurseries that have been at Chelsea Flower show.  Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants with their gold medal and introduction of a new anemone were one of the new additions. Here are some of the displays:

Bright colours and delicate leaf patterns on the Heuchera and tiarella display.

Some stunning leaf patterns on the hostas. Someone in the Hosta world is also a Trekkie. The smaller one is the middle is called Captain Kirk.

It may not be to everyone's taste but there is a lot of work and expertise in these immaculately displayed vegetables.

An imaginatively put together display featuring air plants and bromeliads. They deserved their gold medal.

Some very beautiful Cornus Kousa especially the pink one in the middle.

Stunning purple/blue campanulaat the back of the stand.

Peonies, Salvias and alliums feature in this display.

So What did I buy? I'll share that in the next post Gardening Scotland Part 2.