Gardening Scotland 2011

[Liz Mills]

Oh dear, I couldn't spell pallett right!  Sorry, folks, I must have been thinking of Monet and his garden at the time.

[fleurbleue]

Wonderful display  ... I'm so far away from it 

[Brian Ellis]

Well done to all concerned, it looks a really good stand - I hope it gets just reward.  Most of all thanks to Stan for all the time taken to share this with us.

[Maggi Young]

As we could see from Stan's excellent photo report, the stand for Kevock in collaboration with the SRGC was looking very smart indeed... and the Judges agreed!

Kevock in collaboration with the SRGC  has won a Gold Medal and the Alf Evans Award for the best commercial alpine exhibit.

Huge congratulations to the Rankins and all the SRGC helpers who have made such a super stand.  Well done for your hard work in preparation for the show and for all the efforts many of you willo be puitting in to man the Club stall throughout the event.

Just hope everyone helping out at Ingliston is not melting in the heat.... Scotland seems to be having a two day heat wave.... though we are threatened with only  14 degrees C tomorrow and perhaps rain and fog... oh joy!

Other major show awards were:

"A Celebration of the 90th Anniversary of Poppy Scotland" to highlight the relevance of the Poppy Scheme for Servicemen today  won the best floral exhibit and best new floral exhibitor at Gardening Scotland.

"Resistance is Fertile" - Guerilla Gardening- won the best show garden and best new show garden  award for Great Gardens Ltd.

Perth Garden Club won the best Floral art display and the Penicuik Garden Club won the "best innovative award" .

[Liz Mills]

It's been great to be a part of the team for Gardening Scotland and the Gold Medal was the icing on the cake.  Our display was next door to the Poppy Scotland exhibit so we could see what a great display it was - well worth the Best in Show Award.  I was blown away by the size and beauty of the vegetables that they showed on one side of their huge display - amazing - why can't we grow veg like that in Saline?  Fortunately my husband doesn't look at the Forum for this remark would definitely not go down well.

We were all roasted today even inside the Floral Hall - but we met lots of friends and made many new ones. (We = David and Carol Shaw, Graham Wenham, Ian and Carole Bainbridge and myself.) We sold lots of seed - some was surplus seed from the Seed Exchange and some was specially packeted by Ian Christie for the event - Nomocharis aperta, Lilium mackliniae, Lilium monadelphum, Meconopsis baileyii, Meconopsis napaulensis, Codonopsis Grey-wilsonii, Codonopsis Himal Snow, Trillium rivale, Trillium chloropetallum, Ranunculus lyalli and Allium sikkimensis. I went outside and had a look at the pallet (note the correct spelling at long last!) gardens.  There must have been at least 30 and they are truly amazing - many are by primary schools and the range of designs that the children come up with is breathtaking.

I know I haven't really told you about the best plants as shown in Stan's photos but if I manage to get home a bit earlier tomorrow night, I will.

[angie]

Well done to everyone, what a display and it really deserved its gold medal.
Great show a bit to hot today for me but had plenty of ice-cream to keep me cool 

After the show I went to see Graham Catlows garden and what a sight, it also deserved a gold medal. I have never seen so much treasures in one place that I would love to have.
It just finished my day of perfectly. Like Liz says it was the icing on the cake for me 

Angie

[Graham Catlow]

Congratulations from me too. The display was well worth its two awards. I also enjoyed seeing the construction through Stans photos. Have always wondered how it was done. As you walk round it everything fits together so well from Stans dwarf conifers through the meconopsis and primulas to the real alpines. The collaboration must have been so much more difficult than Kevock going it alone not knowing what plants the SRGC members were going to bring and then fitting them in.

Angie - thanks for your kind comments I am pleased you liked it.
Just to let everyone know though - I visited Angies garden last week and thought it was one of the most wonderful gardens I have ever seen. It has been said here before - 'she is far too modest'.

[ichristie]

Hi everyone I visited the show today and had time to look around was lucky to get upstairs and take a picture of the Gold winning stand by Kevock and SRGC picture is through a glass window but shows how good it was, Many congratulations to all, cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[Stan da Prato]

I see the Gardening Scotland website now has a list  of all competitors with the points they were awarded. Stonebarn who did the Poppy Scotland  stand received 93, Binny Plants and one of the bonsai suppliers each received  90 with  Kevock/SRGC  on 89. All other gold medals were below this.

[Carol Shaw]

Perhaps I should have wielded a camera instead on a scoop at the breakdown! It was amazing to see the stand coming apart in front of my eyes! We all zoned in and grabbed our own plants then set to to help folk like Stan who had a car load or two of ferns and dwarf conifers. You would not believe the amount of 'junk' and 'rubbish' that was used as infill in Ian P's boxes.

On a totally separate note David & I were horrified that all the veg. on the Poppy Stand was thrown into the skip... If it had just been removed and left near the stand with a 'free veg. help yourself' sign most would have gone! I 'rescued' two heads of calabrese and we have just eaten one  we're not dead yet!!

We always need willing workers on the stand on the show days please let me know if you can help 

[mark smyth]

Sadly Hardys are not mailing Anemone Wild Swan outside of England, Scotland or Wales 

[Maggi Young]

Carol, that is shockingly wasteful of the Poppy stand's folks to toss the vegetables. I would have thought better of them.


Mark, having seen the plant on Elizabeth MacGregor's stand in  tv pictures from Ingliston I think it's not as good as we might have thought... taller and more flimsy.

Have a read on John Grimshaw's blog about how the voting happened at Chelsea... seems the Kevock Saxifraga 'Anneke Hope'  a glorious frothy creature like 'Tumbling Waters') got one more vote than the Anemone but the Chairman called for a vote-off between those two and the anemone then got the vote. 

[mark smyth]

THanks for the explanation

[David Shaw]

None of the pictures that I saw in the media did Wild Swan justice. 'In the Flesh' it is a really nice plant with a well coloured reverse to the petals. I would not think that is available on mail order anywhere at the moment; Elzabeth sold out on Friday morning

[Anthony Darby]

I would say that's a lovely picture David.