Perth SRGC Show Saturday 21st APRIL 2007

[Maggi Young]

I thought that pot of Uvularia looked large in the close-up shot, then I see it is very nearly as big as Fred!  I'd guess, it's a Rankin plant ? They do huge! It could have been Bob Maxwell, of course, he does huge, too! Witness his fab pots of trilliums, which at this rate will all be over before the Aberdeen show! Drat! Uvularia is just growing up and thinking about flowering here in Aberdeen ! Still, at least we are getting some rain...could do with plenty more, though.

[DaveM]

Maggi. If my memory serves me right the Uvularia was David Boyd's.

[Maggi Young]

Was it indeed? I thought it was just his hepaticas that were fat! He's some grower that Boydy, isn't he?
I wonder there was room for him in the car with plants that size! Really super that the Scottish shows are getting these Northumbrian visitors, isn't it?  Gladdens a show secretary's heart... and for more than one reason !!

[DaveM]

Indeed, especially as he AND Alan Newton travelled up together with a stack of good looking plants!! They also came to Edinburgh last week; let's hope they keep showing with the Club!

[Maggi Young]

let's hope they keep showing with the Club!

Yes, indeedy! I'll second that! They've been to every Scottish show so far this year I think... bless 'em, I say!

So, if you're a Scottish SRGC member, and your local group hosts a show, there is really no excuse for YOU not to support it, is there, when these Guys make such an effort over a long distance?

[Maggi Young]

In the absence of any close-ups ( so far) of Rhododendrons at the show, I have pinched this portion of one of Dave's pix ! It seems there were only six Rhodos at the show...the first two, left to right in this photo are Anne and Viv Chambers two pan entry. The third from the left, the fat little yellow number, is the plant that won the Cox Trophy for Best Rhododendron for Lyn Bezzant. It is R. keiskii 'Yaku Fairy' and Jean Wyllie brought it along first thing to the show, since Lyn and Ron were not able to be there till later. Jean's good deed for the day turned out to be a very successful one!
I'm not sure what Anne's plants are, perhaps she'll read this and tell us! The fourth plant in view looks like another Yaku Fairy and I don't know what the others were.

[Maggi Young]

News from Anne  and Viv about their two Rhodos:
" the one nearest the camera is the delectable Plover (edgeworthii x dendrocharis) of which I enclose this morning's pic back in the garden  taken in the rain - the scent is so heavy that one struggles to transport it in a closed car. The other one is Phalarope (pemakoense x davidsonianum)"

Rhododendron 'Plover'

I MUST get this plant, I am a scent fiend!

[Anthony Darby]

I take that these plants, 'Plover' and 'Phalarope', were bred by the same person, who likes wading birds?

[Maggi Young]

Plover and Phalarope come from the Cox, Glendoick "stable", or should that be "aviary", of bird-named rhodo hybrids. There's Wren, Quail , Snipe , Curlew, Merganser, oh, lots of them, and nearly every single one a really good garden plant!
See this page: http://www.glendoick.com/content.php?page=hybridising   

[Anthony Darby]

Sandy Leven has put a fabulous selection of pics from this years show onto the SRGC web site (see http://www.srgc.org.uk/shows/perth/report.html). I particularly like Primula aureata .

[Carol Shaw]

Thanks Anthony - so do we