AGS Caerleon Show Feb 14th

[ranunculus]

Wonderful photos, Rob ... many thanks for taking the time and the trouble to post.

[mark smyth]

I thought 'Sophie North' also

[johnw]

White gravel looks good nowhere, not even in fish tanks.

johnw

Looks superb in the Dolomites, John!  

Got me.

[Rob]

I've found a last set of photos.

Hopefully I'm not repeating any from the first page

not sure but has 'wisley' as part of the name.
habenaria tridactylites
cyclamen persicum
3 pan
daubenya marginata
crocus cvijicii
galanthus nivalis flore pleno
crocus reticulatus
galanthus ikariae snogerupii
galanthus artichenkoi

It should be possible to check the names on the AGS site in a week or two.

That's my posting done for the year!

[Dionysia]

Hi - I'm sorry some of you did not appreciate the reason behind the grey (not white) material between the inner and outer pots on our show plants. During the show season the plants are out of the plunge bed for two or three weeks. As I never water the pots directly they need to be kept moist particularly in a show hall. The material is 1mm pumice which retains water and maintains the moisture level in the pot whereas grit would not. I realise I could add a thin level of grit on top but at £30 a bag don't want to get the materials mixed together.

[ranunculus]

You are up early, Paul  ...  I hope the 'pot' filler question didn't keep you awake?  It certainly didn't worry the judges by the look of it!  Beautiful plants, superbly presented ... as always.
Regards from East Lancashire. Hope you can make it up to our show in it's new venue in Whitworth on 21st March?

[Lvandelft]

Thank you for showing Rob!
So many interesting plants to see there, that's what we miss overhere 

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Thanks for taking us along the benches Rob ! 
Great plants as usual - at least it makes us think Winter is over now... 

[Maggi Young]

Hi, Dionysia.... are you Paul or Gill? Great to have you here ---it has been a pleasure to enjoy your fine plants at this distance from the comfort (?) of home. Hope this is the start of a good show season for you ....the omens are good, anyway!!

[Anthony Darby]

Hi Dionysia. Welcome to the Forum. Don't worry about the opinions of some of us regarding the gravel. I'm sure it looked completely different on the show bench, and whether some of us like it or not, it certainly draws attention. Reminds me of the effect in Japanese gardens.

[Maggi Young]

That's my posting done for the year!

Oh, Rob, surely not? You've made such a good job of this report, I was envisioning a great future for you as a Forum photo journalist....

[johnw]

Hi - I'm sorry some of you did not appreciate the reason behind the grey (not white) material between the inner and outer pots on our show plants. During the show season the plants are out of the plunge bed for two or three weeks. As I never water the pots directly they need to be kept moist particularly in a show hall. The material is 1mm pumice which retains water and maintains the moisture level in the pot whereas grit would not. I realise I could add a thin level of grit on top but at £30 a bag don't want to get the materials mixed together.

Please don't let us put you off.  It's the stark white big chips that people mulch their front beds with that drive me particularly crazy.

The Dionysia look great no matter what the colour and I have done the same thing trying to save my best grit.

Wish we could get pumice here it's amazing how things root in it.

johnw

[Dionysia]

Hi. It was me,Paul who posted the previous note. I'm new to this and don't know how you get your name to appear at the bottom of the note. I should perhaps have mentioned that as well as maintaining the moisture in what can be warm showhalls there are a couple of other reasons for double potting. Firstly although the diameter of the pots is small they are often long toms so are intrinsically unstable. Secondly they just don't look right especially in a multi pan class. Overpotting is not a good idea and as they are often slow growing (one of those on Saturday was only 3cm in diameter after 5 years) many stay in small pots for some time. If possible I do bury the inner rim but often that is not possible without also burying or damaging the plant as well. Cliff, much as we'd love to visit the East Lancs show it once again clashes with Kent. Although there isn't a huge difference in distance there are more classes at Kent for which Dionysias are eligible. We have shown at East Lancs a couple of times in the past so hopefully, OPEC willing,  in the future we shall return. I am actually a local lad having been born in Ashton under Lyne.

[Lesley Cox]

Hi - I'm sorry some of you did not appreciate the reason behind the grey (not white) material between the inner and outer pots on our show plants. During the show season the plants are out of the plunge bed for two or three weeks. As I never water the pots directly they need to be kept moist particularly in a show hall. The material is 1mm pumice which retains water and maintains the moisture level in the pot whereas grit would not. I realise I could add a thin level of grit on top but at £30 a bag don't want to get the materials mixed together.

Paul, as John says, don't let us put you off - posting! We only do it to annoy because we know it teases. (Who was that? AA Milne? or Edward Lear?) And it had the good result of encouraging you to post here. don't leave us now please. We'd LOVE to see more of the wonderful dionysias et al.

[Lesley Cox]

I thought I had done extremely well mentioning just the cake CART and not what it was carrying. 

Rob, you a nurseryman, you MUST know the first plant in the last group of images. Surely it is Saxifraga grisebachii 'Wisley?'