A Grand Day Out - Malvern spring gardening show 2009
By madmum
10 comments
Before last summer I would never have dreamed of going to a gardening show, but now I’m a bit obsessed with gardening! This is the second show I’ve been to, the first was Shrewsbury last August.
First impressions of Malvern – huge, and very exposed which meant the strong winds whistled through the showground, almost lifting the huge floral marquee off the ground at times. There were huge crowds, most prepared with those little trolleys to carry their purchases.
This was one of my favourite stalls, sculptures made from scrap metal by African people. The company was called “African Creations” and is a fair trade company.
A nice display of alpines
I soon discovered that my dear husband had ignored me when I’d asked him to get some cashback before we left home, so we had a grand total of £3.42 to spend…… thank heavens we found the cash machines later!!!!!
Some of the show gardens, like others I found some disappointing
I love these metal alliums, but at £60 each a bit too rich for me this time.
A familiar face?
From the floral marquee
Mecononpsis “Lingholm” – I couldn’t resist buying one of these.
A colourful display of geraniums and fuchsias
Alliums and amaryllis
Interesting allium
An unusual sundew
Tree peony “Rockii” – I coveted this! Sadly it was out of my price range at £50 for a small plant :( Maybe next year! ;o)
Gorgeous lilies
I bought three of these – Dimention
and three of these – Bonbini
I might regret the Bonbini – they could grow up to 8ft!!!!
I also came away with a Pattys Plum poppy and a packet of Verbascum Violetta seeds. I’m sure there would have been more if we’d had cash from the start! lol
All in all a very enjoyable and interesting day, but on balance I think I prefer the Shrewsbury show as a day out because there’s more to break up the day.
11 May, 2009
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Comments
This poppy is meant to be fertile so maybe I'll get seeds eventually!
Yes, the tree peony was expensive but he said that was a special price because the plants weren't very advanced - the normal price was £150!!!!! Yes, I almost choked LOL!
11 May, 2009
I've never been to such a show but they seem very interesting events. I'm glad you enjoyed. :o)
11 May, 2009
Thanks for this blog .The scrap metal sculptures are great...and Fairtade too.Very impressive alliums and lilies !
11 May, 2009
You might have bumped into a lady from our village there! She told me that the prices of plants were very high.
Some of those show gardens look a bit odd! I don't think I'd want to copy them.
11 May, 2009
Thanks Madmum- you took some lovely pictures :-) Some of these I don't recognise - I kept saying when I was there that I thought I was missing stuff lol Tree peonies always seem expensive - but £150, well, just sounds silly....mindyou, did you notice the flash motors in the carpark!! I counted about 3 Bentleys on the way back to our car and we didn't even park far from the road crossing!! I wanted to buy some Aquilegia seeds from one of the stands, but they were I think £4.50 for 25 seeds! And then there were those little 1 yr old Acers for £18............. And, yes, I spotted ol' Joe Swift too ;-)
11 May, 2009
Thanks for taking us round malvern, i go to loads of shows, i've got one of those trolleys but as i go to quite a lot of shows i dont take it with me, then i usually just buy one thing form each show.
11 May, 2009
I did a quick google of Tree peony 'Rockii' and found this:
http://shop.telegraph.co.uk/gg-twa84443/tree-peony-rockii
also:
www.plantoffers.com/product.html?code=tree-peony-rockii
Which I'm sure you'll be interested in Madmum!!!!!
12 May, 2009
Wow Sid, that's a big price difference!!!!!! Thank you!
We travelled on the train so we didn't see any of the expensive cars, but I could tell many of the people there were well-to-do by the way they looked down their noses! lol
12 May, 2009
Can't blame the sellers for jacking up the prices for the show really - if there are people there willing to pay. Just a shame for the rest of us! I can remember when this used to be just a big local show and you could get some real bargains...
13 May, 2009
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Lovely photos Madmum, £50 for a tree peony!!!! crumbs LOL, i love the blue poppy i'd have bought that too, saw it on the programme, remember the gardens too, the one with the poles and willow hoops won a Gold i think. The Aliums are stunning. Nice blog thanks
11 May, 2009