Local shows

[Stan da Prato]

...........are fun in themselves though they rarely cater for alpines. However they  can offer opportunities to publicise alpine plants. At Dalkeith this weekend  unused  space at  the end of a bench allowed a small  display of  plants I had at Dundee show the weekend previous. The plants  aroused quite a bit of interest.

[Stan da Prato]

some snaps  of the show.

[Stan da Prato]

The tallest exhibit was the giraffe made from junk in the children's section. The catering  by club members is a feature of local shows and here are the ladies of the Dalkeith team - who insisted  on  feeding me cakes all afternoon -it would have been rude to refuse.

[Brian Ellis]

...........are fun in themselves though they rarely cater for alpines.

The best thing to do is have a word with the show secretary and ask if they would consider having a couple of classes, perhaps one for a single alpine in a pan and one for three pans.  We often find that there is a lone exhibit in a class like this and hope that perhaps more might turn up... after all they are gardeners so they should be interested in a variety of plants

[Stan da Prato]

I did so and they kindly  changed the class for 3 greenhouse plants to 3 pot plants to allow me to show 3 autumn alpines - however as I  do grow on a few plants on the greenhouse floor over the summer I just entered these!

[Brian Ellis]

I did so and they kindly  changed the class for 3 greenhouse plants to 3 pot plants...

They are quite amenable these show secretaries!  I think it is worth trying some 'common' alpines another time such as sempervivum or colchicum to encourage general members of the gardening clubs as they probably also grow these.  Of course we are fortunate that the Norfolk and Norwich Society is sometimes blessed with exhibits from Cecilia Coller if there is not a clash of dates with an AGS show that she is going to enter!