Malvern Autumn Show

Medways Vegetable Display

Today I went to the Malvern Autumn Show where I met up with Anna of Green Tapestry.  We started off in the RHS halls which, although not as vast as at the Spring show, still had plenty to interest us.  We were particularly taken with the cherry tomato and brussel sprout trees on the Medways Vegetable display – those are the red, yellow and green balls you can see in the above picture.  I thought it might be a novel way of serving the brussels on Christmas Day but I suspect cooked brussels wouldn’t work so well!

Picton Nurseries Display

I have been meaning to visit Picton Nurseries in Colwall (about 10 mins from me) for a couple of years now.  They have the national collection of asters and everyone I know seems to have visited it and are amazed that I still haven’t been.  I have to admit that I can take or leave Asters so this is probably why I haven’t visited but maybe its because at this time of year life is so busy I just haven’t time.

There was a small selection of show gardens all relating to growing veg etc, as I have said before not my favourite occupation but I was particularly taken with the one above.  We met up with Deb from Beholders Eye and Claire Potter of the Eco Spot who had designed one of the gardens.  She was less than happy with her award as she felt that the RHS judges hadn’t read her brief and so couldn’t have judged the garden properly.  She had also done the planting around the stage with was a lovely display of vegetables and other edibles and looked stunning. 

Anna and I then went to the Harvest Pavillion which strangely is no where near the rest of the gardening stuff.  Here we saw gigantic vegetables which were just ridiculous.  I did take some pictures but they just dont convey the scale of the things.  The winning pumpkin was 276kg in weight!  We both decided we preferred the veg that were to scale and I was particularly taken with this prize winning basket of produce. Not only was the pavillion full of gaint veg but also gaint Dahlias and in fact every sort of Dahlias.  I don’t think I have seen so many Dahlias in one place.  I’m sure there were more than last year.

We went back for another look round the RHS Hall and for me to pick up a very tall Salvia that I had succumbed to, along with some other plants.  On the way we had a quest for a certain Tulip that Anna was after which we finally secured at the fourth bulb merchants a rather interesting company called Rose Cottage Plants.  In the hall we found the Lily that Anna also had on her wish list and a grass I had dragged her round the Spring show looking for so we were definately happy bunnies.  While waiting for Anna to buy her Lily I took the picture below of a delightful display of Gentians.  We parted company at lunchtime and I came away very happy with my morning and purchases.  Definately a good day.