Hampton Court Flower Show: the plant stalls

I must say the constant rain did curtail my plant buying. Conditions didn’t encourage one to linger, especially at the outside stalls. I ended up with four plants, five bulbs and a packet of seeds - a feeble effort by my usual standards. The Digger had a brainstorm and bought three cacti which makes a change from his usual purchases, perennial plants which turn out to grow six foot tall and five feet wide.

The show is held in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace in London. Here are some pictures of stalls inside the Floral Marquees to give a flavour of what was available. There were also over a hundred stalls outside, displaying plants, garden furniture, sundries etc. Also outside were a number of show gardens.

There were many nurseries showing perennial plants. Here are three of them. I don’t know the name of the first one but the second is Foxgrove Plants then Hardy’s.

There was a stall from Fernatrix selling, you’ve guessed it, ferns. I’m beginning to get interested in these. There are so many textures and shapes.

There were five stalls with Carnivorous plants. Fascinating and so beautiful.

Then there were cacti and succulents of various shapes. These were shown by The Plant Lovers, Cacti & Succulents. They always show to advantage when grouped together. That’s when you realise how varied they can be, much better than the single cactus forgotten on the windowsill.

A touch of the exotic comes with the orchids. I love the spidery ones but can’t give them the humidity they need. This was Burnham Nursery’s display.

Bonsai. Some of these trees are extremely old and are works of art in my opinion. Years of care are lavished on these specimens.

Oaktree Nursery showed one of my favourite plants, the grasses. These look like shaggy hairstyles.

I smelled these lilies before I saw them. The fragrance was very rich and powerful. I prefer lilies singly, in pots or borders so this sort of display is too over the top for me but obviously unavoidable in a show context.

As I run out of space in the garden some alpine plants are becoming more and more attractive because of their small size. They are particularly good for pots and troughs like this one by Rotherview Nursery

There was this fine display of herbs with lots of thymes in the foreground from Jekka’s Herb Farm.

Finally the Horticultural Society Of Trinidad and Tobago produced this astounding display of tropical plants. I could have looked at them for hours.

As you can see there was lots to look at. Unfortunately all the plants on display aren’t always available for sale. Just as well really as I’d need a truck to get home. I’ll do a second post showing some show gardens.