Hmmm ... tasty! Chelsea 2016

[Apicra]

Derek Tribble,
Harrow Branch

[Keith H]

Chelsea ?

[Harry B]

Yummy!!
I like these kind of meals.

cup of coffee to it?



greets
Harry

[iann]

Wot no Lithops? They'd make perfect hor d'oeuvres.

[Apicra]

A small part of The Room Inside (Silver-Gilt Medal) designed by Rick Mckeever in the main Plant Marquee.
"From ... exotic succulents, sedums and sempervivums ..., pixie land plantsmen have ensured that you will stare in wonder at this luscious natural haven."

Yes, this has been Chelsea Flower Show week again, for those who missed the saturation coverage on the BBC.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs ... highlights.
As usual, c&s only played a minor role. Southfields and Craig House Cacti represented our specialisation and got their usual golden reward. At this time of year, Brian Goodey's stand contained mostly their own colourful hybrids of Rebutias, whereas Stan Griffin showed a wider range of c&s (which looked more interesting to a lady on the Alpine Garden Soc. stand). I was pleased to see the large South African stand return to Gold Medal standard, although it featured fynbos plants rather than succulents, but a fine Aloe plicatilis specimen was a highlight.

Did anyone else get photos?

Best wishes,
Derek Tribble,
Harrow Branch

[Stuart]

Nice novelty use, it looks like someone has bought the plants a few weeks ago and kept them in the shade because as the display looks good, the actual plants are a bit etiolated. Anything that publicises the hobby can only be good. Even the National has a class for 'a plant in an aesthetically pleasing container'!!
Stuart

[Apicra]

In the educational section, encouraging us all to learn more about plants in general, Hadlow horticultural college teamed up with the Plant Heritage charity to publicise our national cultivated plant collections. Their stand featured Crassulas from Amanda Whittaker's National Collection.

A wheelbarrow of Crassulas

Well done Amanda for getting our plants publicity at the highest level. But sorry about the unsharp images - that area was rather too gloomy for hand-held photos.

DT

[Tony R]

Excellent publicity Derek, for one of 'our' favourite genera. Well done Amanda!

[David_K]

Great to hear that Stan & Vicki and Brian got golds and that the SA stand did also.
Great shame that out of around 20 hours of coverage by the Beeb only a few moments even mentioned C&S and that none of these three gold medals were even mentioned. I think coverage of C&S hit an all time low this year in these programmes. About 80% of the programme time was devoted to the half dozen or so show gardens designed by the reporters friends and everything else had to tuck into what remained. Out of that the reports on Streptocarpus and Hepaticus were all repeated at least three times.
I tend to watch the first few programmes in full but fast forward later ones where they are only repeating what has been shown previously, I did a lot of fast forwarding this year!!

[Apicra]

Hi David,

I know it is a national pastime to complain about the BBC, but some of what you write is not true. Certainly the main focus is on the large show gardens, but nowhere near 80%. Wed evening coverage was mainly about the Plant Pavillion and Thursday evening focussed on the Fresh and Artisan small gardens. I saw a slot about houseplants, when Vicki was interviewed to extol the virtues of c&s. They are basically reporting about what's there and there were just not many of "our plants" on show. I didn't watch any of the afternoon programmes. From what I did see, I thought the BBC's coverage was better this year, with fewer gimmicks and more nursery visits beforehand to see the preparations.

I found it was a great help to watch Chelsea on the tele beforehand and then one can better plan what to find when onsite. I volunteered to work for one of the plant charities on the Friday this year.

Best wishes,
Derek