Czech Spring Exhibition 27th March -2nd April

[Maggi Young]

It is that time ofyear when our friends in the Czech Republic are working hard on their Spring Exhibit .
It opens tomorrow,27th March 2011  (Sun)  and lasts till 2nd April 2011 (Sat)

You'd think that would be enough for those folks, but no, they have other gems lined up... on Wednesday 30th March 2011 they are hosting a talk by forumist  and photographer extraordinaire
Olga Bondareva  who will talk on  "Plants of Caucasus"


http://www.soldanella.cz/eng/index.php?page=akt1&PHPSESSID=31512c2d10bf556ee51811e45b99715e

A wonderful time awaits any visitors.... there is not only the exhibition of plants but also many plants... quality plants, for sale!

[mark smyth]

I had plans to go this year but money is too low

[Maggi Young]

I do hope the event went well.... wonder if we'll be lucky enough to get any photos?

[Stone Rider]

PRAGUE SPRING SHOW 2011
By Zdeněk Zvolánek

  Famous Saxifraga and Company one week long show ended last Saturday and my pleasure is to make short report for SRGC Forum. I have excellent excuse for being not active in this busy exchanger of information: I forgot how to write into it. But even if I know the trick I am too busy oldie for keeping pace with your busy Forum. Please, do not judge me as a not friendly Czech high nose rock gardener; I try to do my best. All pictures are taken with my Pentax K 20 camera with 35 mm Macro Limited lens; no tripod (Pentax body antishake technique) and old trembling hands of old lover of beer and wine. I had the privilege to take labels away, stand the pods out of benches into natural cloudy light, so there is no artificial light involved.
  Weather was not suitable for many plants so the display was not so rich as the last year. I do not know how many visitors come to our show (usually it is more than one thousand) but I have information from Milan Halada, that the plant sale gave our Prague Rock Garden Club 4000 Euros

  Two pictures shows brave combination of rock garden cushion plants and Erica carnea cultivars. Author of this design is builder of rock gardens and chairman of our strong Show Commitee Ota Vlasák.

[Stone Rider]

 The biggest amount of Awards went to our breeder and nurseryman Karel Lang.
 You can see his very compact Caucasian Saxifraga columnaris.
This species is pollen parent (mother is Turkish S. kotschyi) of three Karel´s cultivars (Group Expressus): Saxifraga x ´Czech Karst´(photo with old flowers in paler red tone), S. x ´Moravian Karst´and S. x ´Berounka´. S. columnaris is pollen parent of S. x ´Czech Paradise´, where mother plant is S. cinerea.

Another picture is showing complicated hybrid where is S. columnaris involved as pollen parent (mother is S. stribrnyi) called after our English friend S. x ´Beryl Bland´. All above-mentioned hybrids are from Karel Lang breeding effort.

[Stone Rider]

  Jiří Novák, saxifraga expert from Pardubice obtained his price for older Czech cultivar (breeder late M. Kraus) S. x megasaeflora ´Humoreska´ and you can compare its flower colour with my false top dressing with marlstone.

[Stone Rider]

  New Prague club chairman is David Stádník (his wife has small nursery) and he got prize for English white Saxifraga x ´Allendale Ghost, where mother plant is Iranian unknown S. ramsarica, Linc Foster´s  American cultivar  S. elizabethae ´Mars´and good Nordic form of Saxifraga oppositifolia.

[Stone Rider]

  Another Czech breeder Jan Burgel showed his new cultivar S. x ´Polka´ where the mother is S. dinnikii and popular hybrid for tufa stones S. x ´Laka´.

[Stone Rider]

  Last pictures show bulbs awarded prizes :
Zdeněk Řeháček : Corydalis popovii (seedling from 2001) and Iris winogradowii.

Josef Hlavatý is Czech bulb collector who showed compact Iris x ´Katherine Hodgkin´.

[Maggi Young]

Well, no sooner wished for than that fine report arrived, complete with photos!
Many thanks, ZZ          

Some of these Saxifragas are just lovely. I do like Beryl Bland... the woman
and the plant...I must  look out for her sometime for my troughs!

It is so exciting for those of us far away to be able to see something of
the show and I know many of us really do appreciate the time taken by busy folks like ZZ to supply us with these delights.

Good to know that the Prague Club has earned such a fine sum of money , too... that has to make  the Treasurer happy- and that is always important!

Many, many thanks!

[mark smyth]

Thanks Z.

[Lesley Cox]

Thrilled to see these Czech saxifragas but now I'm moping around the house knowing full well that we'll NEVER see them here. Breaks my heart!

[Olga Bondareva]

Don't cry Lesley! Who knows!.. 

[Maggi Young]

Hi Olga! Did you have a good trip? Did they enjoy your lecture? I'll bet they did!

 Did Susann find you?!! 

[Olga Bondareva]

Hi Maggi!

Everything is excellent! We met with Susann and had a very good time.