Spring flower show

Lots of interesting things have been happening in our world, although not as much has been happening in the garden – we can thank the weather for that!

Last weekend I visited the Harrogate Spring Flower show.  This years winner of the RHS show garden was Askham Bryan College, well done to the young designers!

I’ve included a few images in an album, the Overall flower arranging winning display and also a selection of the miniature arrangements titled “Sea Creatures”, they were very inventive and definitely worth a look.  Click here to see the whole album

 

The Auricula below is a new variety I spotted from Drointon Nurseries it is called “Robbo”.  I love these plants and the recent fashion of the grey shaded and dark purple mixed single petals and double flowering versions are very beautiful and I’m pleased they’re experiencing a revival.   My grandmother grows hers in very little soil, just enough to stop them falling over.  It is said that in the Victorian era, at the peak of Auricula’s popularity, people grew them in bags of coal dust or in shallow dishes of tissue paper on a sunny window ledge. 

Now back to our garden.  The Leeks are just poking through, although all varieties of beans are not and have very strange grey fungus spores growing underneath and on top of the pots.  Needless to say, they have been discarded and new pots planted up...take two.

Unfortunately the early runner and broad beans I planted out at the beginning of April have all died after being eaten by birds and/ caught out by a frost.  I will replant at the end of May with some I have growing at home, the ones growing in the greenhouse are very slow this year, probably due to a lack of sunshine.  I’m not sure when or if they will start to show so I may have to plant some more seeds in the coming weeks to cover the loss.

In the picture above I'm standing next to a couple of Angelica's we've been growing for 4 years; this is the first year they've flowered!  From the picture you can see they are my height (5ft 2in), no comments about the overalls thank you :-)