Gardening Scotland 2016

[ChrisB]

Bravo everyone!

[Stan da Prato]

This morning the joint rock lot met in the hall starting at the club stand then on to Kevock

[Stan da Prato]

some other nurseries

[Stan da Prato]

and more

[David Nicholson]

What were the Joint Rock lot doing? From what has been explained to me before (ad nauseum) they are about awards to individual plants. Since this wasn't a show about individual plants but a show about display of collective plants and the design of their environment at the show.

[Maggi Young]

The Joint Rockers are looking to see if any individual plants on any of the stands are worthy of award or further trials ....- people had submitted plant names to the committee for consideration and instead of looking at the plants in a pot (carted to them in a room somewhere, away from the show bench) they go to the stands andlook at the plants in situ.

[Maggi Young]

Good to learn today that Hartside  won Gold and  J.Amand  silver gilt.

[angie]

Well done team. Really lovely display. Not long back, had a nice day out a managed to buy a few more plants. Where I will find space to plant them I don't know .

Angie 

[TC]

David
On a slightly different tack, I have been to many shows to find certain plants have been removed for "consideration" by JRC and despite hanging about for an hour and a half, have never appeared back on the bench when I have been there. The only time I may get to see them is if they are later posted on the Forum.

[Stan da Prato]

The morning after the show before.

At close of show yesterday an energetic group  dismantled the stand and bagged up all the bark and gravel. This morning  Liz, Rob and self met up in the no longer Floral hall, Liz to take away the plants  we had bought in for eventual sale, Rob and I to take the materials  back to the club hut at Binny Plants.  Adding the crevice  garden has inevitably meant even more  stone to shift! We finally left the show ground at 1pm.

[robg]

Well it's all done and dusted, and as one of back-room boys I would like to pass on my compliments to the front of show staff, particularly Stan, Liz, Peggy, Ian Christie and Sam - I'm sure there are others that I should mention  .  It's a team that achieves without really any order from the 'heady'.

Stan de Prato is the manager par eminence - always there, but never seeming to issue an instruction (I did have 'order' there, but that's certainly not Stan).  The hours he has put in are well beyond just duty.  I did a bit on the woodwork front this year for the lower crevice bed and the stream bank; straightforward enough joinery, but I didn't really have the confidence that what was in my mind was plantable so Stan was dragged across from East Lothian a number of times to pat me on the head and say yes that's going well !  Thanks Stan.

I'm not sure that the final crevice thing was quite what I'd hope for - yes it was good enough for the judges, but the interface to the grass bank was not good, and if someone could produce the lovely cerise primula hirsuta next year for the grass bank, some gentiana verna and some soldanellas that would be really good.  I've photos of these in the high alpine meadows from a trip to the Italian Alps at this time of year.  Unfortunately I don't have anything that shows how the screes blend in with the meadows so that's a guessing game.

I've just found a picture on Google of soldanellas coming through snow - can we do a snow-field next year please ?

Rob

   



 

[Stan da Prato]

- can we do a snow-field next year please ?


 

Thanks Rob - just  keep taking the tablets.  There  will be a post show meeting soon about the future  as not everyone  who helped so  much this year will be able to do so again.

[Maggi Young]

SRGC's Gardening Scotland Gang have excelled themselves  - yet again. what stars - we are so lucky to have such members. 
Thanks to Rob for taking the time to mention the extent of Stan's role - of course those of us  who  rely on his superb show reports are already much in his debt.
Just thinking - if you were to be short of help next year, a snow-field might be the perfect answer - thick layer of snow - couple of rocks sticking out, three small plant at the edge - sorted- sounds like a low-maintenance solution! 

[Liz Mills]

A Big Thank You to all the Club members who helped make our Gardening Scotland display the best in recent years.  Here's a list of everyone involved – and my sincerest apologies if I've missed anyone out.

Suppliers of Plants:  Stan da Prato, Ian Christie, Sue Simpson & George Watt, Sheila & Neil McNulty, Cyril Lafong, Sam Sutherland, Alan Gardner, Sandy Leven, Jean Wyllie, Liz Mills, David Millward, Richard Green, Peggy Anderson, Anne Chambers, Ardfearn Nursery, Rumbling Bridge Nursery, Macplants.

Suppliers of Seeds: SRGC surplus seed beautifully packaged by Ian Pryde, Ian Christie

Building the Stand:  Stan da Prato, Ian Christie, Rob Graham, Peggy Anderson, Sam Sutherland, Richard Green, Trina Rogerson.  Chief 'Titivators' on Thursday:  Peggy Anderson, Alan Gardner, Ian Bainbridge. 

Manning the Stand (promoting the Club to the public attending the Show, giving information about the plants and their cultivation, selling lots of seeds):  Jackie Thomlinson, Helen Donald, Anne Bush, Liz Mills, Richard Green, Ian Bainbridge, Alan Gardner, Ann & Ian Christie, Maureen Wilson, Ann Steele, Ken East, Peggy Anderson, Linda & Sam Sutherland, Rob Graham, George Watt

Display Supremo:  Stan da Prato
Administration:  Liz Mills