A giant rhododendron problem

Chris Beardshaw and team unload 18 plants in an hour and a half.

Unloading rhododendrons for Furzey Gardens is no easy job - it takes time and not an insignificant amount of patience. It took an hour and a half to unload an arctic of just 18 plants including three giant rootballed rhodos each about 20-years-old.

Chris Beardshaw, the garden's designer, said this is the first time he's used rhododendrons in a show garden, and he's keeping his fingers crossed that they come into flower right on time. Not currently a plant of fashion, these beautiful giants might just change a few minds during show time.

Two smaller trees worth looking out for are Tilia henryana with its soft-yellow, barbed leaves which turn green with age and the elegant Acer carpinifolium, also, for obvious reasons, known as the hornbeam maple.

Some of the other plants to be found in this garden are nursery grown but many larger specimens, and some smaller perennials, were identified growing at Furzey Gardens in Hampshire last year, and containerised in the autumn. After the show, the plants from Furzey will be returned to the garden.