Gardening Scotland from a Scottish Rocker

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This member of the Scottish Rock Garden Club (Scottish Rocker) arrived home from Gardening Scotland yesterday after a week working on the show. Being there all the time allowed me to take a few pictures when it was not quite so busy.

As has been said on other blogs, the pallet gardens always attract attention for the work put into them by members of small clubs. The near pallet was the overall winner whilst the second, with the windmills, was constructed by Nairn Garden Club, just along the road from me.

The outdoor show gardens were excellent this year. The first one, designed by Lesley Watson and Dougal Phillip, was great. The brick and stone wall at the back were built in-situ at the beginning of the week and looked as if they had been there for ever.

The second was titled ‘Reinforcing Nature’ and used huge swirls of reinforcing rod to give effect. It was well planted and, rightly, was judged best outside garden.

The third was a seaside garden and reminded me of a local one in Findhorn.
Even though the pictures were taken late in the day on Friday the outside plant sales avenue was still very busy with customers.

Inside the hall the displays were just as wonderful as ever. This display of lilys by Harts Nursery was judged the best indoor exhibit. It was very colourful but just not my sort of thing.

More to my taste was the commemorative ‘Billys Garden’ by Binny Plants in memory of a recently departed friend and jammed full of plants, and the rock garden by Harperly Hall Nursery. Some lovely plants and the realistic rocks that you see are fibre glass and were made for a James Bond film set.

Local authorities are encouraged to put on display gardens and this rather fine example was built by Glasgow City Council. I could easily imagine it being copied for a formal corporate office garden.
Jaques Amand had his usual captivating display of Arisaema. These are woodland plants and are not carniverous as is sometimes thought. We grow a number in our own garden and this time we were very gratefull to Jaques for the ones that he gifted us as an anniversary present.

I cannot finish without showing our own stand, can I? Troughs and Mecanopsis seem to be our trade mark and, yes, that is Moongrower discussing plants with a couple of members.
We bought few plants this year but we did buy a trout. Actually it had an osprey attached to its back so we brought that home as well.

• 8 Jun, 2010
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