Plants galore at RHS Malvern Spring
This year's show was packed with glorious colour and planting ideas
So many beautiful plants to browse...
With more than 35 nurseries in the Plant Arcade, and 70 in the Floral Marquee, RHS Malvern Spring Festival was the go-to destination for buying plants this year. Visitors could buy everything from cottage garden favourites to waterlilies and airplants, lovingly grown by experts from across the country. Here are just a few of the exhibits that captured the colour and diversity of plants at the show:
Iris grown by specialists
West & Midlands Iris Group of specialists and breeders displayed around 100 cultivars and species of bearded, Dutch and beardless irises, including plants from the National Plant Collection of John Taylor's dwarf irises. The display celebrated the beauty of these much-loved flowers, both in themselves and in art devoted to them. The display included some favourites from members' own breeding programmes, such as the midnight blue in the centre of the display.
Rare perennials from the Americas
Nurseryman Chris Cooke specialises in choice, rare and unusual perennials, especially from South Africa and North America. Highlights among his immaculate display of diminutive largely woodland-native herbaceous species included the palest blush-pink, triangular blooms of Trillium grandiflorum 'Wisconsin Form', growing next to the vivid orange-red flowers of Primula japonica 'Miller's Crimson'.
Scented sweet peas
The National Sweet Pea Society staged a large, diverse and informative display that emphasised the diversity of size, habit and flower colours within species and cultivars of Lathyrus. The beautifully-scented annual selections of these hardy climbers are well-known, but it is less often appreciated that there are also hardy perennial species that are just as easy to grow.
RHS Master Grower
The Floral Marquee's central feature this year was a stunning display by the show's Master Grower, Avon Bulbs, whose team dedicated a space to display the story of the nursery, which to date, has won 30 Gold medals.
Happy houseplants
With garden space at a premium, the Floral Marquee was packed with not just outdoor plants but an amazing selection for indoors, providing ideas to green up homes. There were plants to suit every room, with experts on-hand to advise how to care for them.
