RHS London Autumn Harvest Show highlights
5 October 2010
From tasty heritage fruit and veg to spectacular plants, there was a host of seasonal treats on display at the RHS London Autumn Harvest Show (October 5-6).
Chris Smith, of award-winning Somerset nursery Pennard Plants, stocks heritage apple trees that are perfect for growing in containers on your balcony or patio - and he even demonstrated how to prune and train the trees throughout the show.
Chris, who won a silver-gilt flora medal for his seasonal display (pictured top), is one of several nurserymen on a mission. "We want people to make the connection between the plants they grow and the food in their kitchen," said Chris, who offers heritage and heirloom flower, herb and vegetable seeds as well as fruit trees and produce. You can even buy one variety of apple - 'Pitmaston Pineapple' that provides small yellow fruits with the aroma and taste of pineapple!
Go potty for gardens
Show debutants Clifton Nurseries won Bronze Flora for a delightful container garden that can be grown anywhere - including grasses, flowers and seasonal bedding. But it was their container demonstrations that attracted the most attention. Guy Pullen (pictured left) put together several examples of easy-to-grow winter containers in the Lawrence Hall.
Dahlias strike gold
Over in the Lindley Hall, Hampton Court Gold medallist Jon Wheatley, together with Winchester Growers and Bulldog Tools, put on a spectacular show of dahlias, complete with silver sombrero to highlight the plant's Mexican origins.
Featuring several new plants that will be launched at Chelsea next year, including Dahlia 'Bulldog', Jon's Gold medal-winning stand included a host of dark-leaved dahlias and the unusual flowers of 'Akita'.
Also in the Lindley Hall, the veg growers did themselves proud with collections of tomatoes, root vegetables and potatoes of the highest quality.
But it was back in the Lawrence Hall that possibly the most exotic collection of plants drew the crowds. Show debutants Trewidden Nursery, from deepest Cornwall, won Silver-Gilt Flora for their display of plants from the southern hemisphere, including the tall, deep-red stems of New Zealand's Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset' and the highly unusual Aloe polyphylla (pictured). This aloe, with its spiral-patterned leaves, grows in the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa, and is hardy down to -5C in the UK.