Flowers, flowers everywhereExhibitors in the Floral Marquee had a bumper year, with more than a quarter of exhibitors winning gold medals. Elizabeth MacGregor, from Kircudbright in Scotland, won Best Exhibit for her stunning display of perennials, in which she contrasted zingy yellow-and-orange combinations on one side, with cooler white, green and blue planting on the other. The sinister but fascinating flesh-eating plants from Hampshire Carnivorous Plants won Most Creative Exhibit and a gold. This year saw the biggest-ever Floral Marquee, stretching right down one side of the 29-acre showground. There were dozens of new plants to discover, including an amazing 11 new varieties of Hosta from Mickfield Hostas (silver), as well as plenty of ideas - and plants! - to take home. Colours were rich and sumptuous, with deep purples and reds used widely on stands such as Cath’s Garden Plants, from Cumbria (gold). Here scarlet Achillea millefolium ‘Red Velvet’ looked particularly lovely alongside Agastache ‘Black Adder’ in darkest purple. Cairnsmore Nursery (silver-gilt) also had a vivid colour scheme, but with barely a flower in sight: their purple, amber and acid green heucheras are a lesson in what you can achieve with foliage.  With a truly spectacular, if brave, use of colour, Dave Parkinson Plants (gold), showcased the South African orchid, Disa. Magenta pink Disa watsonii ‘Sandra’ rubbed shoulders with vivid orange D. ‘Foam‘ and yellow D. kewensis in a psychedelic riot of a display.
There were plenty of great ideas for planting combinations, too. Poppy Heads Limited, from Stockport (silver-gilt), had underplanted masses of Eucomis bicolour with the ostrich fern, Matteuccia struthiopteris, for a cool green pairing, while in a herb garden by Green Garden Herbs (silver-gilt), from North Yorkshire, darkest purple Actaea simplex ‘Brunette’ made a pleasing contrast with the silver filigree of Helichrysum italicum. |
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