I will buy the occasional cucumber over the next few months. As usual I will temporarily forget that shop bought ones  are tasteless during the winter months. I get cucumber amnesia every year so I’m sure this one will be no exception.

Last of the cucumbers

On a more cheerful note there is the Digger’s success with red cabbage. Usually they refuse to heart up so for us so we are very pleased. Have you notices that a half a  red cabbage, finely sliced, mysteriously expands to twice the size of the original. I think this must be why cabbages evolved a tightly folded solid heart – otherwise they would grow to be the size of a small bush.

Cabbage 'Marner Early Red'

The garden is looking wet and miserable at the moment. It forms a gloomy backdrop to some of my planting mistakes. What was I thinking when I positioned this fern in front of the garden seat. The popular name of ‘King Fern’ should have hinted that it would grow fairly large.

When I planted it I had a picture of the fern brushing my ankles as I strolled to sit down. Now it’s more likely to tap me on the shoulder. In addition Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ has leaned over and blocked the tiny gap I might have squeezed through.

Dryopteris affinis 'Cristata'

I wonder if “Think before you plant” could be my New Year’s Resolution? As if that would ever happen.

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.

The garden is looking good at the moment and I noticed this cheery flower which always makes me think of sunny days – Halimium lasianthum subsp. formosum. It’s a small shrub about 3 feet tall and covered in these bright yellow and red flowers It loves sun and dry conditions. A candidate for any Mediterranean garden.

In contrast there are the opening fronds of Osmunda regalis, the Royal Fern. I grow it in a pot with a saucer underneath as this fern likes damp conditions and flourishes near water and in bog gardens. It’s also known as the Flowering Fern because the tightly folded young fronds, green at first fading to brown, look like flowers rising above the older foliage. A quiet beauty.

No doubt some of you readers out there are knee deep in tree ferns and find them quite run of the mill. Me, I find them quite exotic and they do grow well outside in some sheltered parts of the UK. There was a wonderful display of tree ferns at the Lost Gardens Of Heligan in Cornwall where I took this photograph. Please note that mine has some way to go before it catches up with these specimens.

It is not true that a tree fern has no soil based root system (a sort of gardening myth that has grown up because the plant is often sold as a short section of trunk, like a log). It actually absorbs water via an extensive under ground root system as well as via fibrous roots in its trunk. When the “log” is planted in soil, roots develop as normal. It is important to water the trunk in dry weather because of the root system there.

While it can tolerate some sun it prefers dappled shade and protection from strong winds which can damage the fronds and cause tall ferns to topple over if their underground root system is not well developed. The crown should be protected with fleece and bubble wrap during winter, especially if the plant is relatively small like mine. Sensible precautions really as you don’t want to lose a plant which grows so slowly. The fronds are likely to be damaged in the winter but I’ll aim to include mine in the general winter wrapping, then cut off the tatty ones when I unwrap in the spring. It is best to retain them as long as possible possible as they provide food for the plant. The new fronds are so beautiful as they slowly uncurl in the spring.

I hope all this goes to plan and my tree fern survives. Talking of which here is my little fellow roaming free in the border. Don’t you dare laugh and hurt his feelings. He’ll be grown up one day.