Reckless guide to RHS Floral Marquee at Birmingham

Sandy Felton discovers the delights of the RHS Floral Marquee at Gardeners' World with glorious displays ranging from the exotic to the contemporary.

I am not a very ordered person when it comes to walking through a floral marquee - I get so excited by the array of stands, displays and smells and then go off like a beast demented which usually means that I frequently miss out on the stands I really want to see.

So this year at BBC Gardeners' World I was determined to be more orderly and to take each row one at a time resisting the urge to zigzag if my attention is diverted to another stand across the hall. In the main it worked but I suspect that I still missed out on one or two treasures.

On the Jubilee Cottage Nursery stand I found a wonderful new Heuchera (pictured above) - Key lime pie - a stunning bright lime yellow and very striking alongside the darker Heuchera's - www.Plantagogo.com

If you are a lavender lover then two new varieties from Isle of Wight Lavender might be just what you are looking for. Lavandula Stoechas 'Silver Summer' and Lavandula Angustifolia 'Thumberlina Leigh' (pictured below) were both lovely – www.lavender.co.uk

It was then I came across the most wonderful Bonsai tree I have ever seen. At 85 years old the Acer Buergerianum (Trident Maple) was to die for (pictured below). Clearly much loved by its owner Mrs C. Leigh-Walker, this wonderful tree was the star of a lovely display of Bonsai – www.bushukan-bonsai@ic24.net

Cath's Garden Plants brought along a wonderful white Peony ‘Vogue' (pictured below) – which would look handsome in any garden. Cath has her nursery not far from where I live in Cumbria and she certainly brought a lovely selection of her plants from the walled garden at Heaves Hotel, Levens, to Birmingham –
www.cathsgardenplants.co.uk

It was good to see some old favourites such as Barnsdale Gardens, Deva Orchids, Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants and Mary Green with her hostas, ferns and shade loving perennials.

You could easily spend a whole morning in the Floral Marquee, such is the variety and quality of the plants, but it was time to drag ourselves away to go and look at some of the College entries in the show gardens, which is just as well because my plastic bags full of wonderful plants, were getting just that bit heavy!