Hampton Court and superhero dogs

I went to the Hampton Court flower show last weekend which was great. I heard it said that this is now the largest flower show in the world, which I can believe! I have been going to Hampton since it first started and really like it as a show as it is quite accessible, and more importantly you can buy plants (you can’t at Chelsea).  Over the years it has got a lot bigger and better, in particular I think the show gardens are now a much better quality than they were with the show getting more coverage as a result.

I was going to buy this when I won the Euromillions with the ticket i forgot to buy..

This year they seemed to have re-jigged the layout, as last year there was a huge space where the Daily mail cottage used to be and it felt like a lot of nurseries weren’t there this year, I guess due to the difficult economic climate. In all it did feel well spaced, but that they were expecting to fit a few more places in.

Every show needs some random stuff

I didn’t know how I would feel about it, as Birmingham was quite close and as all my plant buying inhibitions were fully unleashed I didn’t know what I would buy..however that was all nonsense and I had a great ol time, and Steven and I left fully loaded up with plants needing a Taxi from Waterloo station to get home!

I want! why bother with lots of leaves, just have one! I want! a huge leafed Santolina

t was a good show, gardens wise it all seemed to be about sunken seating/eating areas which I liked and want to copy. Nursery displays were good....Desert to Jungle was there again with almost the same stand as at Birmingham, Amultree was also there but I thought there stand was very disappointing as it was just a few plants in their pots plonked on a table. Best exotic one was The Palm Centre which had a fabulous display of bamboos which was great to see in the flesh as they were all big thick specimens which I hadn’t seen before. Unexpected things were a developing lust for Venustrum, and a thirst quenched with buying a hardy lotus which I aim to grow in a large tub in my greenhouse

Lush (as they would say in Barry) buy me a vanload....

Sunday I actually managed to plant all the things I had bought (phew) and had some time to visit a great NGS garden in Herne Hill. This paled into significance however compared to the Brockwell Park Dog show which we stumbled across. Good lord this was amazingly amusing, as it had a superhero theme with lots of gods dressed as Batman, Superman and Wonderwoman...prettiest bitch competition and even ‘Dogs got talent’ where we were promised a dog singing New York State of mind (sadly it got stage fright)

However, we tore ourselves away and went off to the garden with two friends whom had never been to an open garden before....they were initially sceptical, but lured with the promise of tea and cake. It was a lovely garden on a slope with a bar (for drinks) at the top which was great to see. As we all sat on a table amongst the beauty, drinking tea and each eating our 2 slices of fabulous cake they were both sold on NGS, phew!

A dog in a wonderwoman outfit....who would have believed such things happened...