AGS East Anglia Show 2016

[tonyg]

A show excellent in every way .... apart from the number of visitors

Short of time for words, I will let the pictures do the talking.

Allium shekovnikovii
Anemone ranunculoides
arisaema amurense
Calanthe striata
Primula ....... name not recorded 

[tonyg]

Arisaema thunbergii Urashima
Asarum maximum
Calanthe discolor
Lewisia cotyledon Birch Hybrid
Sarmienta repens

[tonyg]

Miniature garden
Narcissus wilkommii
Nassauvia lagascae lagascae
Tchihatchewia isatidea

[tonyg]

Trillium grandiflorum and bicolor form
Trillium flexipes x erectum
Androsace vandellii
Pleione 'El Pico'

[Bernadette]

A show excellent in every way .... apart from the number of visitors

I thought both the quality of plants on show and for sale were excellent, and
really enjoyed it.  Plus bought far too much.  Though you can never have too many plants...

I think you need a real advertising push, sending the edp photos of exhibits,
using the crossover plant heritage connection with members and trying to
stress the woodland plants as I think people have totally the wrong impression
of what's on offer there, it's a shame as I don't think people think of trilliums, erythroniums,
corydallis etc as alpine plants.  So they never go and never realise what they are missing.

[Alan_b]

I don't think people think of trilliums, erythroniums,
corydallis etc as alpine plants. 

Surely that is because they are NOT alpine plants!  Personally I like spring bulbs and other woodland plants.  I like alpines in their native environment but I have no desire to grow them in my garden which is about 20m above sea level.  The Alpine Garden Society does not limit itself to alpines any more than the Scottish Rock Garden Club limits itself to rock gardens.  I could still marvel at the plants on show, despite the fact that I would not want to grow all of them.  And there were plenty of special plants on sale that did not require alpine conditions; I was particularly pleased to buy a flore pleno form of the bulbous buttercup, something I did not even know existed.  But I can understand why people might be deterred from an 'alpines' event if they think that that is all there is to it and the show yesterday did not seem terribly well-attended. 

[Tim Ingram]

Alan, this is one of those ongoing, never concluding, comments that we all say when we try to explain why gardeners no longer seem attracted by the 'Alpine Garden Society' - the word 'Alpine'! It is difficult to get round... The same could really be said for a 'Rock Garden Club', but the plants somehow are oblivious of all this and remain completely wonderful!! I'm rather lost for ideas for how to convince people of the fascination and importance of these plants, having grown and studied them all my life and regarded plants as having some relevance to us all in all their aspects. I've concluded of late that large scale monopolies (of which there is at least one, paradoxically, in horticulture, and which actually I've also belonged to for most of my gardening life) can sometimes swamp the smaller scale. It is simply the profile of gardening with these plants - alpines, woodland species, succulents, a whole lot more - in a more personal and educated way, that comes with long experience and fascination - which is lost to view and could become more visible by articles and media coverage. Many of us are plants-people really, not 'Alpine Plant' buffs, even though that can be the impression gained from the Shows. Or maybe they are not the place for us if we don't contribute to them - but many of us do so in different ways. Bernadette is quite right - it is personal commitment to what we do and find interesting that can reintroduce some of the small scale and more individual nature of 'gardening' over the commercial and overly authoritarian. These could be the words of someone who just regards 'alpines' as being another sort of plant, but a very very interesting sort, that you meet after walking through the woods and being captivated by woodland plants on the way! 😉. What's in a name indeed?

[Alan_b]

Yes, Tim, we talked about this at the show.  If I was in charge of the Alpine Garden Society I would rebrand it as the Plant Collectors Society (or a snappier name if I could think of one).  Within this society there would be specialist groups like the Alpine Group and the Bulb and Woodland Plant Group and others.  I would negotiate a merger with the SRGC (who could become the Scottish Plant Collectors Society) and make a takeover bid for Plant Heritage to gain control of the National Collections and swell the membership.  I would then lay claim to the high ground vacated by the RHS who are rushing down-market in some misguided attempt to appeal to the masses.

Of course, I'm humming the tune of 'If I ruled the world' as I write this.  I don't think Leslie Bricusse can have been a gardener or he would have seen the flaw in having every day be the first day of spring. 

 

[Bernadette]

Well I'm sure there is a technical definition of alpine, wood, rock plants,
but that wasn't really the point I was trying to make.


However it does puzzle me why plant addicts who I see at every event
in Norfolk don't go to the alpine show.  I think it's just getting them past
their idea of what's on offer there and once they have been there, they
would go again.

[Brian Ellis]

...and make a takeover bid for Plant Heritage to gain control of the National Collections and swell the membership. 

Thankfully the National Collections are, on the whole, in the hands of good horticulturalists and National Plant Heritage has an overseeing rather than controlling role - or goodness knows what would happen to them.  Parties in breweries comes to mind

[Maggi Young]

Members of our societies, the AGS and SRGC, know that each is a broader church than their name suggests .... and the SRGC asserts that in  its strapline - "for people who love plants". I would hope, however, that we are also rather more than just "plant collectors" - as our name suggests, we are  more about  GARDENS and this is demonstrated in the lesser prominence of showing in the SRGC.  Anyone reading our  info will find out that we are really more a group of lovers of "wildflowers" than "florists flowers"  - but with a name that is known world wide it is certainly  tough to work out what sort of change might help. 
It is for the very reason that "alpines" and "rock Gardens" may be unfamiliar to the public that most of our shows are advertising themselves as  simply "flower shows" - which have a more universal appeal!

[brianw]

The names of both societies refer to gardens, not plants. What you grow in your rock or alpine garden will depend on your local climate and habitat, its size and your personal choices, and may contain some woodland or water plants. "Alpine" or unheated greenhouses are also covered by the AGS rules for showing.

[ian mcdonald]

My opinion, for what it,s worth, is that the word "alpine" tends to put gardeners off from growing these plants. It seems to infer that some special knowledge is required to grow "alpines." Like any plants it is a matter of putting the plants in the ground and hoping they grow. Experience either takes time or you ask someone with experience of growing alpines. As to what is an alpine, that is a difficult question. In the UK we are not in the Alps so strictly speaking we have no alpine plants. On the other hand, we also have plants that are found in the Alps. In the UK alpine plants can be found on the high tops and the same species can be found at sea level. Perhaps we have the best of both worlds? No wonder we are confused. Plants more usually found in lowland areas can also be found on mountain ledges. How do we classify those? Answers on the back of a postage stamp.

[ian mcdonald]

By the way Alan, I am nearer sea level but grow alpines in the garden.