By Victoria Plum
The great plant exchange took place this month, otherwise known as The Bag Sale, at the Reepham & District Gardening Club.
Excited members peered into plastic sacks to see what rare surprises were to be had. We traded day lilies for quinces, allium for acanthus, tiger lilies for cactus.
The meeting’s talk was by Johnny Walkers of Taylors Bulbs. The top horticultural shows are the shop window for plant producers that supply garden centres and other retailers.
Johnny Walkers has won 25 gold medals in successive years at Chelsea, and we heard all about the trials and tribulations of exhibiting perfect flowers within a perfect display.
I remember a winning competitor at the gardening club’s summer show telling us that he had chosen his five prize-winning, uniform runner beans from more than 100, which he had had to pick, which emphasises the colossal number of blooms and spare flowers that have to be grown by a commercial competitor to ensure success.
To compound problems, it now seems that floral foam – Oasis – is banned by the Royal Horticultural Society. It is non-recyclable and non-biodegradable, toxic for humans and animals (but luckily you can still buy it via Amazon).
Exhibitors at RHS shows are certainly going to have problems knowing where to stick their stems to stay upright in future. I wonder what they did before 1954, when Oasis was invented?
A friend gave me this extraordinary fruit (pictured above). It is violet in colour and grew on her Akebia quinata, or chocolate vine. Although a pretty and unusual plant, it is very invasive and we really should think twice about letting these vigorous foreigners into our gardens.
Tuesday 15 November sees the next Reepham & District Gardening Club meeting, when Erica Vaccari will talk about Bressingham Gardens, at 7.45 pm (doors open at 7.30 pm) in the Town Hall, Church Street, Reepham.