"On The Road Again" - Part 2.

Both body and soul suitably refreshed after our visit to Hampton Court we set off for Welland, near Malvern where we set up camp behind a hostelry, where further refreshing ensued. An early start the next morning to our final destination - the Malvern Spring Gardening Show. Here I left himself to his own devices, making a beeline for the floral marquee where I met up with Helen of - The Patient Gardener's Weblog. For me the marquee is the highlight of this show and as usual it lived up to its expectations. It was a pleasure to be in the company of a fellow plant enthusiast and to linger and appreciate the plants and exhibits. As usual the quality and choice of plants was impressive. I was really attracted to the shrub Olearia x scilloniensis 'Master Michael' (above photo) but the specimens for sale on the Grange Farm Nursery stand were in too large a pot to be carrying about. It has gone down on the wish list. Do click on the photo for a larger view - the flowers are stunning.

Emerging from the marquee sometime we then went on to the show gardens, which were being tested by some ferocious squally gusts of wind. Here I had the pleasure of being introduced to Deb- Beholder's Eye and James Alexander- Sinclair. Deb was showing at Malvern and the beautiful Lola (below) was her design and execution :



More show gardens :





From the show gardens to the specialist societies which included these displays from a couple of my favourite gardening societies, The Cottage Garden Society and The Hardy Plant Society Must renew my HPS membership.






Then off to the Design for Living Theatre where we met up with VP from Veg Plotting before going for a sit down and listen to Terry Walton in the Design For Living Theatre. Veg Plotting was one of the first blogs I started reading regularly. VP gave me some behind the scenes encouragement before my blog went public which was much appreciated and it was lovely to meet her albeit briefly. After Terry's humorous talk on the perils and joys of allotmenteering in the Rhondda Valley in South Wales, during which time the tent was flapping about rather alarmingly, it was all too soon time for me to leave Helen and VP's excellent company. I rejoined himself for a picnic lunch in the campervan which had been thoughtfully prepared by the time I got back to the van. We dined splendidly before diving back into the showground. The afternoon saw us mooching around the outer stalls and exhibits, getting soaked in a brief but dramatic cloudburst, heading back into the marquee for another quick reccie, visiting the amateur gardening competitions and also making a couple of surprise purchases - details to be revealed shortly.




We left about 5.30pm being serenaded by this fine sounding quartet on the way out.


They were rather aptly playing 'Bring Me Sunshine' ! Looking forward to Malvern 2010.