AGS Midland Show 20th April 2013

[Diane Clement]

The Alpine Garden Society  Midland Show is on this Saturday 20 April 2013 at Arden School, Station Road, Knowle. B93 0PT

The Show will be open to the public from 11.30 am to 4.30 pm, but plant sales and refreshments will be open from 10am.  Admission is free to AGS members, £2.50 to non-AGS members. Drinks, refreshments and light lunches will be available through the day.

Nurseries attending in 2013: 
Aberconwy Nursery – Keith, Rachel & Tim Lever 
Blackthorn Nursery – Robin White 
Desirable Plants – Nigel Sutton
Diane's Hardy Plants – Rob and Diane Cole
Parham Bungalow Plants
Potterton's Nursery
Thuja Nursery – Simon Bond
Plus AGS seed for sale

Hope to see some of you there 

[Maggi Young]

The Alpine Garden Society  Midland Show is on this Saturday 20 April 2013 at Arden School, Station Road, Knowle. B93 0PT

The Show will be open to the public from 11.30 am to 4.30 pm, but plant sales and refreshments will be open from 10am.  Admission is free to AGS members, £2.50 to non-AGS members. Drinks, refreshments and light lunches will be available through the day.

Nurseries attending in 2013: 
Aberconwy Nursery – Keith, Rachel & Tim Lever 
Blackthorn Nursery – Robin White 
Desirable Plants – Nigel Sutton
Diane's Hardy Plants – Rob and Diane Cole
Parham Bungalow Plants
Potterton's Nursery
Thuja Nursery – Simon Bond
Plus AGS seed for sale

Hope to see some of you there 

You're getting all three Levers, Diane?  I thought Tim would be attending the Perth SRGC Show on the same day.

[Diane Clement]

You're getting all three Levers, Diane?  I thought Tim would be attending the Perth SRGC Show on the same day.

oops, no, that's just the nursery contacts.

[Maggi Young]

Oh good - that would have been sufficient levers to stock the average railway signal box! 
We'd miss Tim very much in Perth so good to hear he'll be there. Long drive for him , too.

[ranunculus]

It always amazes me how few SRGC Shows are reciprocally advertised on the AGS web site! 

[Martinr]

It always amazes me how few SRGC Shows are reciprocally advertised on the AGS web site! 

Just needs someone involved in the shows to do it.

[Maggi Young]

I am delighted  that the SRGC takes its commitments to share and disseminate information on rock garden and alpine plants seriously outwith just the SRGC membership and extends this to the support of other similar organisations.

[Tim Ingram]

Cliff - I'm just surprised how little mention the Alpine Shows get in the gardening media in general! After all, they are amazing and the plants you can get from some of the nurseries are out of this world. Martin of course is right, but it takes an extraordinary amount of effort to attract attention... and you like to feel that you are, which does seem rather obvious on the SRGC Forum! What we need is a roving non-affiliated reporter who perhaps views alpine gardening with a critical eye and has the pen of Farrer or Christopher Lloyd. Plus an unlimited travel pass to allow some unscheduled visits to out of the way Scottish gardens!

[Maggi Young]

Call me a miserable old cycnic but I think one reason that there is so little interest in the media for "our" type of shows/ plants is that the people supplying such plants are the very specialist- and therefore mostly very small nurseries - what the Americans call "Mom and Pop" operations.
If those plants were peddled by the chain stores and mega-businesses then  I think there would be more enthusiasm for the gardening press to cover them.  Big money in advertising for the gardening press and opportunities for personal appearances etc for the "celebrity" gardeners - none of that applies for our sort of plants and the specialist nursery folk, who are struggling to survive, for the most part.   

In Aberdeen e were fortunate in that we could draw around 200 paying visitors to the Show on an average year, up to 400 on a good one, and while the public obviously enjoyed the show, it was always clear that their main interest was in plant shopping for their gardens - both from our visiting nurseries and the club plant stall.  For most folks, the perfect specimens on the show benches may be pretty to look at, but they seem to be too rarified to really engage the public.

[Palustris]

Superlatives fail me. It was probably the best show we have been to for 10 years. Full of plants which last year would have won Farrer Medal and this year did not even get a 1st,  or even a 2nd.
Even better the place was heaving with people, ooohing and aaahing. Utterly magic.
Photographs may take while, I managed over 500!
Well done to everyone concerned.

[Maggi Young]

How exciting Eric- sounds just wonderful - you'll need extra vitamins to prepare so many photos!l

[Maggi Young]

Oh good - that would have been sufficient levers to stock the average railway signal box! 
We'd miss Tim very much in Perth so good to hear he'll be there. Long drive for him , too.

Turns out it was Keith who had the long drive to Perth this year, not Tim.

[Maggi Young]

Jon Evans' great photos of this very lovely show are on the AGS site. They include several portraits of Pulsatilla integrifolia  (Previously Miyakea integrifolia)- shown by the "VeteranVet" George Young .....   http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/discussion/atshows//Midland+Show+Solihull+th+April+/17114/?page=3

[Palustris]

Had my camera all focussed on that when a certain R..R. whipped the plant away and I missed the chance. GRrrrrr.

[veteran vet]

well spotted Maggi, I had hoped that Jon Evans would put up lots of pics (especially as there seems to be none coming from visitors/members at the show to this site) but when it comes to photography he is seriously good, such wonderful pictures, they give a real feel for the show, as Cliff said late Saturday, was a seriously good show. Ian Kidman (Kidders) had offered to take a few plants for me, did not expect a seriously huge trophy to be brought home via the Saxifrage...although I did think it was as good as I have grown it/seen it!! However, if Ian had only been able to take one plant for me it would have been the Miyakea/pulsatilla as I thought it was 'fantastic', even though its just a pulsatilla now, the colour etc is just a bit different....sadly the judges did not agree but such is life, if I had known in advance it was only a second sticker job I would have still sent it in a one pan for kidders to take over the sax. I had hoped to have it at Hexham the week before but takes forever to bloom, just hope it sets seed now, did a bit of tickling this pm with a brush...not sure if it will do any good.