Gardens
Jolly good show
Ursula Buchan
The two-day flower show which took place in the New Horticultural Hall in Greycoat Street, Westminster in mid-June was organised by the selfsame Royal Horti- cultural Society who put on Chelsea, but the contrast was striking. In the place of 20-foot pillars of tropical house plants and reconstituted stone ponds with spurting fountains, there were small, pretty displays of alpines, hardy perennials, small shrubs and pelargoniums, not to mention the annual national competitions for delphi- niums, border pinks and pelargoniums.
The difference lies in emphasis as well as size. There were no striking stands aimed at catching the idlest of idle attention, but ones designed to educate those who already knew a fair amount. There was, for example, an excellent stand of rhodo- dendrons staged by Starborough Nursery of Marsh Green, Edenhurst to show the variation in foliage that there is amongst members of this huge genus; hardly some- thing which would have made much impact at Chelsea but intriguing nevertheless. As I do not garden on an acid soil, my remarks need not carry any weight, but it seems to me as well to know which rhododendrons have attractive foliage for the 111/4 months of the year when they are out of flower. Rhododendron fulvum, for example, has brown-felted shoots and a cinnamon- coloured down on the undersides of the leaves, called an indumentum. The in- dumentum on R. floribundurn, on the other hand, is silvery-green. Also instruc- tive was the display belonging to the British Pelargonium and Geranium Society (yes, there is such a thing) which had an exhibit of species pelargoniums and the related genus Erodium. And, as ever, there was the table of sempervivums and jovibarbas, the posh names for fleshy- stemmed houseleeks, shown by Alan C. Smith of Keston, Kent. I cannot be per- suaded even by Mr Smith's excellent ex- hibits that these plants are very thrilling but at least the gardener has a chance to see the variations of leaf-colour and shape that exist.
On the subject of foliage, Hoecroft Plants of Radstock were exhibiting variegated and coloured-leaved plants, while Ramparts of Colchester showed those with silver and glaucous foliage, including a great many garden pinks, and Goldbrook Plants of Hoxne, Suffolk had an excellent display of those doyens of the foliage border, hostas, including some golden-leaved forms. Considering that mid-June is thought to be the time par excellence of roses it was notable that most stands did not feature them at all.
This show is not even big enough to spill over into the Old Hall across the street in Vincent Square, so exhausted are the nurserymen by the strains of Chelsea. To see the show therefore amounted to no more than an hour's agreeable wander, when one could buy plants and talk to those nurserymen who had decided to come. Some of these were fledgling con- cerns, which are not yet old or big enough to spread their wings at Chelsea, like Sunbeam Nurseries of Frampton Cotterell, Avon, with a good selection of unusual conservatory plants.
However grateful for the fact one may be, it is difficult quite to understand why most of the Westminster shows (the excep- tions being the Spring Show in April and the Great Autumn Show in September) are still so comparatively uncrowded, particu- larly on the second of the two days. There must be more than a few thousand garden- ers in London and the south-east able o take a day, or even a long lunch hour, off on a Tuesday or Wednesday. On Tues- days, the show is even open until 7 p.m Although I am conscious that the more these Westminster shows are publicised the less congenial they will become, it would be mean-spirited of me to keep completely quiet about them. Wouldn't it?
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