Orchids at Hampton Court

I'm not sure about these, I keep seeing little faces/masks in them...

 

South African Dias

I couldn't find anything about these on the net. Are they new? 

Are they known under a different name?

From what I remember the display cards said South African Dias.

They are stunning!

I love old fashioned flowers

For me the best place to be at Hampton Court was the floral Marquee. 

Nothing is quite like getting up close and personal with the exhibits on display there. 

Stunning, unusual  Lilies 

Polar Ice, white tinged with green looks like shards of ice sticking out of the polar surface

 and Elodie, double layers of candy pink petals looks almost edible in it's sweetness.

Dahlia Mick's Peppermint and Striped Vulcan.

Lupin Saffron, creamy, buttery and almost like popcorn. 

Not my favourite flower but you have to admire this display of Chrysanthemums, 

a deserved gold medal winner. Every flower is the same size, shape and colouring, 

in one word: perfection.

 I loved this display of sweet peas. Yes the display might look a little dated nowadays 

but it shows the flowers to their best advantage with their long stems nice and symmetrical. 

I wish mine looked like that in the garden but I shouldn't complain,
last year I sowed 4 packets and only 5 plants survived. 

This year there must be at least 50 plants flowering their socks off.

These I remember from growing them about 10 years ago on a balcony in Holland. 

They were called something like Wiltshire Ripple then, not Harlequin as they're 

known on this display. Stunning effect whatever the name.

Roses are red?

 And by the looks of it a host of other colours that give some unusual results.

The trend for the future is for old-fashioned style roses in great colours. Now if only we could

have old fashioned scent as well, combined with disease resistance, drought

tolerance, freedom from pest and aphids, strong growth, the ability to grow anywhere and in

any condition, we'd be on to a winner ;)

 

Hanky Panky is a gorgeous variety with it's foliage tinged with red/purple and striking blooms.

 

 

Burgundy Ice starts off a pale pinks and fades to a wonderful almost brownish purple. 

Low on scent this Harkness Rose is full of drama.

Peachy perfection fades to pink. Old-fashioned shape with that colour fading that

is very much on trend.

 Rose of the year 2014: Lady Marmalade

Spooky

 Chris Beardshaw is very much flavour of the year. After his win at

Chelsea, he's come up with another stunner, the McCarthy & Stone garden. I love his planting with it's mix of Lychnis Coronaria Alba, Alchemilla Mollis, Digitalis Parviflora, fennel and Rose Burgundy Ice.

Lycnis and Eryngium are combined to great effect here.

Eryngium Giganteum, more commonly known as Miss Wilmott's Ghost after

the 19th century gardener Ellen Wilmott, who used to secretly scatter the seeds of this plant 

in other people's gardens, is such a stunning plant. I love how it reflects the light back at you.

Already on my must-have list.  

Hampton Court Flower Show

My first ever flower show last Saturday was extremely hot, very busy and packed with plants I want.

 Some gardens just annoy me, the planting above was lovely with it's mix of wild flowers, grasses and perennials. Where it looses me is when it adds sculpture (we like) with bits of string hanging down off it (we don't like) which look random. It was called Spirits of the Land. Sometimes concepts can be a bit too clever for themselves, especially when you lack the cultural references of the Japanese designer. The title sounded very Studio Ghibli and while I adore the animations they produce (Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away are favourites) the Shinto representations put together in this concept garden fail to impress me. It lacks something.

 Desolation to Regeneration. I loved the planting in the desolation part of this double garden. The dead look of the grasses, the heat of the lupins, Kangaroo's paws, Heucheras, Eremurus is accompanied by smoke and sound effects and accentuated by the backdrop and rusty flames. Inspired by the Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

 Is it a garden? Slowly over the past few days I have grown to appreciate this garden. I know it looks more like something you'd drive past on the motorway and it certainly feels more like a piece of architectural landscaping than anything else. Yet it works, There is a sense of drama and mystery, it's as if someone has miniaturised and transported mountains, hills and a lake and dropped it in your backyard.

Athanasia.  I absolutely love the planting in this and the garden below. The colours works so well together with the setting, they interest, serenity and tranquillity. The garden invites you in and gives a sense of peace. 

 Less naturalistic perhaps than the garden above, this part of this garden I love. The Hostas, Hydrangea, Hebe and Veronicas(?) Foxgloves accentuate the hard landscaping materials. Diagonally across from this green and white square, the planting was blacks and deep reds and burgundies. And across from this a mix of the whites and the blacks (sadly no photo as there were lots of people standing in front of it). August 1963, I Have a Dream is about integration and equality and how far we have come since Martin Luther King's inspirational speech.

 

Lift and shift. The army wives garden, looked ready to pick up and pack up at a moments notice. Which was the whole point. I'm not a great lover of growing veg but I loved the ideas on display here. I'd probably do this with annuals and perennials.

 The One Show garden. Inpsired by a child's view of the world around them. You're meant to go in, lay down and look up as if you were in a forest. The planting was lovely, I loved the toadstool. It looked like fun. Something missing in other gardens.

Ashes to Ashes. Ash dieback, Dutch Elm disease... I question whether a garden like this can address issues like this. It's a designer's design and doesn't contribute anything to the debate or resolving the issues. 

Shape of things to come

I was just messing around with the camera and took quite a nice close-up

of this Allium Sphaerocephalon (another gift from my mom in Holland),

give it another couple of weeks and these little drumsticks will be out.