Events

RHS October London Flower Show
3 - 4 October 2006

Show report and images: Tim Sandall

Theme: Variegated plants

The RHS Great Autumn Show was a true harvest festival of a flower show, with displays of fruit and vegetables and a feast of autumn colour. There were also displays of variegated plants - some with stripes, some with margins and some with blotches.

The show took place in both the Lawrance and Lindley Halls and was a delightful introduction to autumn. In the Lindley Hall visitors were met with a spectacular apple display put on by the Fruit Department from RHS Garden Wisley (left). The RHS Trials Department's display of pumpkins and peppers (right) was another highlight of the show.

Along with floral exhibits visitors could enjoy a photographic competition, a carnation competition, fruit competition and a superb display of vegetables in the vegetable competition.

The judges awarded four Gold Medals to the floral exhibits and three Golds to the photographic competition. Cairnsmore Nursery won Gold for its impressive display of heucheras and heucherellas. Bluebell Arboretum & Nursery won Gold for an exhibit of trees and shrubs. Edrom Nursery, who travelled from Scotland, was rewarded with a Gold Medal for the display of autumn-flowering gentians and Gerald Edwards' exhibit of organically-grown top fruit was another worthy Gold Medal winner. Talking about the displays from Wisley, president of the Society Peter Buckley said, "It was a marvelous achievement for the home side."

Bluebell Arboretum & Nursery's display of trees and shrubs (left) won a Gold Medal.

The Gold Medal winning display from Cairsmore
Nursery (right) of heucheras and heucherellas.

A Gold Medal was awarded to the display of autumn-flowering gentians from Edrom Nursery (left).

Gerald Edwards from Middlesex won a Gold for his exhibit of top fruit (right).

The winners

Gold

Bluebell Arboretum & Nursery: Trees & shrubs
Cairnsmore Nursery: Heucheras & heucherellas
Edrom Nursery: Autumn-flowering gentians
Gerald Edwards: Organically grown top fruit

Silver-Gilt Flora

Barnsdale Gardens: Perennials & shrubs
Choice Landscapes: Conifers
Churchtown Nurseries: Restios
D'Arcy & Everest: Sempervivums & alpines
Devine Nurseries: Gladioli
Dibleys Nurseries: Streptocarpus, foliage begonias & unusual houseplants
Fibrex Nurseries: Hederas & hardy ferns
Mary Green: Autumn colour & evergreen foliage including ferns
Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants: Autumn-flowering herbaceous perennials
H W Hyde & Son: Lilies
Newlands Nursery: Herbs & sempervivums
Oak Tree Nursery: Ornamental grasses & grass-like plants featuring dianellas
Westdale Nurseries: Bougainvillea

Silver-Gilt Grenfell

Somerset Postal Flowers: Flower arrangements

Silver-Gilt Knightian

Cookoo Box Nursery: Capsicums

Silver Flora

Culm View Nursery: Herbaceous perennials
The Old Walled Garden: Plants from the Southern Hemisphere
Rougham Hall Nurseries: Asters
Southcombe Gardens: Ferns & plants for shade

Bronze Flora

Jacques Amand International: Autumn-flowering bulbs
The Botanic Nursery: Lime-tolerant, variegated evergreens, woody shrubs & perennials
Country Roses: Roses
Pennard Plants: Pittosporums & foliage plants

Photographic awards

Gold

Nigel Chapman: Trees in their landscape
Derek Harris: Botanical portraits of English florists' tulips
Debbie Monique Jolliff: The genus Galanthus

Silver-Gilt Grenfell

Adam Clutterbuck: Floral photography
Laurence Hill: Fritillaria portraits
i-4-Art: Exotic plants
Andrew Lawson: The gardeners at Highgrove

Silver Grenfell

Blackpool & the Fylde College: 'Explosion'
Takeshi Kemmochi: Wild flowers of Japan
John McCormack: Close-up & macro plants & flower anatomy
Allan Pollok-Morris Ltd: Search light

Bronze Grenfell

Magda Truszkowska Photography: The English Beauty

Sundries exhibitors

Carpenders Park Nursery: Gardening sundries
International Camellia Society: Information
Pepe Garden Furniture: Wooden garden furniture
RHSE Ltd - The Wisley Shop: Gardening books & gifts
Wells & Winter: Plant labels, ties & supports