I really loved the display by Edulis in the Growing Tastes marquee. It featured all sorts of unusual edible plants as well as some marvellous pod sculptures.
Milkweed
In the Plant Heritage marquee the display of milkweeds (Asclepias) was eye catching with its evocation of American desert habitat.
Allium
Warmenhoven can always be relied upon to put on a magnificent display of alliums, but unfortunately I don’t find their website at all user friendly. Downderry Lavenders were, as ever, downright gorgeous and Avon Bulbs was where I finally cracked and bought some plants – 3 Ornithogalum magnum – the tall white spires in the centre of the picture.
Downderry Lavender
Avon Bulbs
The plant discovery of the show was the fascinating range of Ginkos on the big plant nursery stand.
The Big Plant Nursery.
Posted in Hampton Court Show 2010
Tagged Allium, alliums, Avon bulbs, edulis, ginkos, lavendar, milkweed
It fascinates me the way certain plants and colour themes recur in many of the gardens each year at Chelsea without any conscious communicating between the designers. Call it zeitgeist, coincidence or good marketing by the suppliers, whatever it is, I always enjoy spotting the contenders. This year’s stars were undoubtedly the tawny-hued flag iris that appeared in both Andy Sturgeon’s and Tom Hoblyn’s gardens.
Tawny flag iris
Purple alliums were big in the past few years, but although there were echoes of this planting it wasn’t a major theme.
Alliums
Single white paeonies were eye-catching both in gardens and in the Pavilion.
Unlike many of the plants for Chelsea, these are flowering naturally at the moment – on a visit to Wisley last week there were some beautiful drifts of them beneath trees and in my own garden the ‘Late Windflower’ I bought from Beth Chatto many years ago is at its peak. Horticultural curiosity of the show goes to the checkerboard plant I saw in the Green & Black’s Rainforest Garden. Check this out :
Calathea 'network' (not commercially available - yet)
Posted in Chelsea Flower Show 2010
Tagged Allium, Calathea Network, tawny flag iris, white paeonies
