Wednesday 6 March 2013

The RHS Plant & Design Fair

Tues 19th Feb
Weather: Beautiful again.

We went on an outing today to the RHS Plant and Design Show held at their own halls in Westminster.


Highlights were Hellebores with frilly middles, plenty of snowdrops of course.

Hellebore hybridus 'Tutu'

Hellebore hybridus (Bradfield hybrids double)

A lot of care & consideration was put into arranging the displays & stalls. Woody scenes created with things like tree root stumps, dried leaves & moss. Often furnished with good looking ferns, my favourite was Polystichum setiferum (Divisilobum Group) with great tints of bronze and green.

This was the first time I have actually seen Ophiopogon planiscapus look good in an arrangement.  

This was one of the best looking Streptocarpus I have ever seen

There was a good display of begonias of different shapes, colours & patterns.


Avon Bulbs was one of the gold medallists, they had some Lunia annua with interesting foliage including this purple tinged one and a very dark purpley red one. 

Pachysandra axillaris 'Crug Cover'

Crug Farm Nursery were also gold medallists not surprisingly, as avid plant hunters they had some of the rarest & most good looking foliage plants, a lot of them hard to grow. Our own lovely volunteer Liz have been out on expeditions with them.

One of my favourite displays were from gardens around London like Chiswick House & Gardens and Myddleton House exhibiting their best winter interests including plants unique to them. Offering more than the usual fare of what can look good around this time of the year.

Stachyurus himalaicus

Pieris formosa

There were also lots of other niche stalls that specialised in succulences, potatos, vegetable seeds, agapanthus, epiphytes (air plants) & dry loving australian plants.

A firework of Agapanthus


Some of the Dixter crew underneath a Prunus tree (left to right) - Hajime from Hokkaido, Bruce from Kentucky US   and our own dear Yannick from Belgium. Hajime & Bruce came to volunteer for about a month but sadly has gone home now. Bruce knits great hats and Hajime makes brilliant Japanese curry.

3 comments:

  1. The detailing on the petals of that Streptocarpus is amazing!

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    1. Thanks for your comment on my blog. I really like your blog at http://flourists.wordpress.com/ too. I would love to put a link of it on mine if that is alright. I was wondering from your love of plants (as well as food) what your professions are? Are you florists? New York is probably one of my favourite cities in the world.

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    2. Ah, sorry for the delay! I just thought to come check back on this post. You can definitely post a link, thanks for asking! I'm currently in law school but am dreaming about doing something more plant-inclined. We'll see. I graduate in May and my post-bar exam plans are hazy... Anyways, I agree, NYC is the best. It keeps me going! - Amy

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