My Garden

Well, that's it for another year. I've finished mopping up the bits & pieces needed for the online show coverage and I think it's time to go home. I just hope the car's cruise control can steer me home!

Michelle & Dean are beavering away in the office working on the rest of the show coverage - including the live video clips - so there'll be more going up on the site during the day

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One of the exciting spectacles at this year's show is the first ever Thai Floating Market to appear in the UK.

It's a colourful sight with floating market boats, Thai girls dressed in traditional dress and a whole host of Thai cooking ingredients and souvenirs

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Sorry I haven't posted earlier today than now - it has been one (two?) of those days.

Yesterday, due to unforeseen circumstances (mainly the weather), the Online team got a bit behind in our live coverage of the show. This meant staying on the showground longer than planned then working away in our hotel rooms until late last night

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 Have you seen this tree?

Anyone who has ever been burgled or mugged can sympathy with John Trott of Mendip Bonsai. Last month while he was exhibiting at the NEC, thieves broke into his nursery and stole seventeen of his precious trees.
These are not just plants, or even precious plants, for John they are part of his psyche, part of a lifetime's work and totally irreplaceable.
No doubt the thieves regarded them as a valuable commodity and chances are they were stolen to order, but they were never for sale. It's sad to think that they may end up in the hands of someone who doesn't know how to care for them properly, and even sadder if they end up at a car boot sale where they will realise just a fraction of their worth.

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New plants are the life blood of the floral marquees and the RHS flower shows. For real plant enthusiasts it is the anticipation of what is new that keeps them fired up with interest. What I love too are the characters who come rain or high water continue to battle with the elements to display fabulous arrays of specialist plants and as often as possible, new, rare and delightful specimens too.
You can't miss the stand of Fernatix as these charismatic gentlemen simple ooze persona and frondliness.

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I don't know how she does it but Jekka McVicar's stand within the floral marquee simply glows. You can literally spot it a mile off. This year the herb queen has done it again and created the most amazing display of mostly purple plants and to complement the effect she has a matching purple Trug Tub.

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So Hugh and I have been scouring the countryside looking for more scrummy plants to include in Floral and Hardy's Back-to-Back "Urban Hideaway" garden.  We've done well but I guess we knew there were always going to be a few gaps which will just have to be filled nearer the time of the build.  Right from the outset, we were advised by previous successful Tatton garden builders that we'd always need twice as many plants as initially thought.  That's potentially a lot of plants for a 6m x 4m area!  And they've got to look comfortable, not all scrunched up next to each other fighting for space.

Having never built a garden at an RHS show before, it's difficult to know what's waiting for us.  Hope for the best, expect the worst!

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It's official, it doesn't matter who you are or how much you know about gardening, there's bound to be something to inspire you at this year's Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.

As head of Horticultural Advice at the RHS you'd think there wasn't much that would impress Guy Barter. But you'd be wrong.
"I've seen everything at the show," he quips, "and I'm absolutely knocked out by the Growing Tastes Marquee. It's fantastic. The garlic in there is the most extraordinary I've ever seen. I thought I'd had a good year for garlic but their's are about four times the size of mine. And those Marshall's strawberries have resolved me to dig up my own strawberry bed and start again."

The giant garlic is sure to be a showstopper. There are baskets full of freshly harvested bulbs, some complete with flower stems and all ready for use. So whether you are cooking with garlic, using it for medicinal purposes or have a few vampires to banish, head for the Garlic Farm stand in the Growing Taste Marquee.

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Well known for his love of the outdoors, Sir Ian Botham pitched up to the rainy flower show this afternoon to support a Yorkshire Business. His vantage point for the afternoon was a capacious wicker effect giant ball complete with comfy cushions and room enough for two. He looked suitably at home in the Nest from Ampersand Lifestyle Garden Furniture, and confessed that he might actually invest in one for his garden at home.

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There's no denying it, us girls love to shop. For Rachel de Thame Hampton Court Palace Flower Show is the perfect excuse to go shopping "I love the opportunity to spend money. It's great to see something, fall in love with it and then buy it," she says.
She's been at it already and has purchased a child's bed, part of the display on The National Year of Reading Garden. "it's a metal bed for my youngest daughter," she says, "and when she's outgrown in I can plant it up with flowers."

Despite the rain Rachel was looking extremely elegant and graceful as she waited patiently to film her next slot for BBC Gardeners' World. But she'd still had time to look around the show. "I'm particularly interested in the Climate Change Dome, I think it will be popular, not least because people will hide from the rain in there. And I'm dying to get into the rose marquee."

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