The Show season is well under way in the UK and now, when the Kent Show is held just down the road from us, is an especially good time with a marvellous mix of plants. So with apologies for some incredible plants that would be impossible in the garden, here are a few examples.
Aberconwy Nursery always bring beautifully grown and diverse plants, and these examples are a collection of saxifrages and Soldanella 'Spring Symphony', a fine hybrid raised by Robert Rolfe. The third picture shows a nice selection of plants from Choice Landscapes. Some of the plants in Show are extraordinary - the huge pink Dionysia, probably 15 years old - was grown by Nigel Fuller. They are a group better suited to the dry south, but even so the people who can grow them like this you can count on one hand! Quite a few Fritillarias including the soft-pink stenanthera, which had come a couple of hundred miles from the west in Cardiff, South Wales. The Show Secretary David Hoare specialises in saxifrages to great effect (there is a limit to pot size by the way!).