Shows are the place to pick up ideas
There’s always something useful to bring away from a visit
Whether it’s a local or national flower show or garden open to the public, we can always bring something useful away from a visit. Occasionally it’s tangible in the form of a potted beauty picked up at a plant stall, but there’s something else that’s equally important – ideas.
Recently boldly mixing with crowds once more at Chelsea, we came across the gold award-winning Dibleys house plant stand which provided our tangible memento – six rooted cuttings of streptocarpus. Securely presented in a package capable of withstanding the return journey north, the £20 cost will be regained 100 - fold when we get propagating from leaf cuttings as they mature. The firm is based in Wales which partly accounts for the ladies’ name borne by some of those we bought, viz. Nerys, Cariad, Seren.
At this outstanding show the number of ideas far outweigh our purchases and the epitome of this is Plant of the Year 2022. It’s a competition that encourages nursery exhibitors in the Great Pavilion to enter new plant cultivars they are launching, in a competition judged by an RHS panel. Twenty entries are short-listed and first sight of them was enough to get this fellow planning a must-have strategy.
A new rhododendron caught the eye with hot-pink, star-shaped flowers and long narrow leaves. ‘Starstyle Pink’ was the appropriate name. Ideal for pot culture or garden with spring and autumn blooming potential.
This year three roses made the short list. One from Peter Beales, and two of David Austin’s. Rosa ‘Loyal Companion’ (Beales’) was fragrant with colour changes from apricot buds to peach blooms, turning pink then white. It flowers throughout summer.
David Austin’s offerings were ‘Bring Me Sunshine’ and ‘Elizabeth,’ the first having flowers with deep cupped rosettes of sunset orange-yellow paling to light apricot in maturity. There’s a signature fragrance of strong myrrh, repeat flowering, and a healthy plant as you’d expect of the firm.
Given the timing of release, name, and impact of the blooms, you’d think that Rosa ‘Elizabeth’ had an outstanding chance of winning ‘Plant of the Year.’ Offering clusters of large, repeat flowering, apple blossom pink rosettes, with a moreish sweet fragrance of lemon sherbet and old rose, It’s on my wish-list. Will it have the same impact as the vigorous Americanbred, cluster-flowered (polyantha) ‘Queen Elizabeth’ rose, named after Britain’s new monarch in the 1950s? Time will tell!