Garden Shows 2013

   Its raining again outside so I'm making some chicken stock from the bones of the roast dinner from yesterday.I love how my Aquilegia regrows each year from the ground.Mine seem to be perennials not annuals?These are the Dragonfly Mix colours,big blooms with long spurs trailing behind them.

 The Chinese Tree Peony has regrown spectacularly from the stem that sticks out of the soil.There is one flower bud that I can see.It should be a shocking magenta bloom when it flowers.It has been growing for two years with no flowers.Lets hope 2013 is its first year of blooming.

 The Rose Darcy Bussell is miles ahead of all the other roses.She has grown masses of healthy new leaves.Her pot sits by the red brick of the conservatory. I wander if this keeps the pot a few degrees warmer than the surrounding border and pots on the pathway.

I watched Gardeners World on You View and saw a man talking about his favourite Hybrid Tea Roses.He said one was called Scent Sation and smelt like Turkish delight.I have ordered it from Fryers Roses to join my other collection.I still have two bare root Roses on order from David Austin Roses.
  The Internet is terrible (or good) for gardeners.you can read Blogs (like mine),get advice about clematis, or sowing vegetable seeds,peruse seed merchants,and look at thousands of plants which you can buy with just a few clicks.The world is brought much closer from the comfort of your own home.
  I had a look today at the dates of the Harrogate Spring flower show (25th-28th April), RHS Chelsea flower show (May 21-25th),Great Yorkshire Show (9th-11th July), and finally RHS Tatton Park flower show (25th-28th July).For me the shows are a good way of breaking the year up into highlights
 I have booked two tickets already for the Great Yorkshire show.
   I'm hoping to go the Harrogate spring flower show in April for one of the days.They are going to build a greenhouse using canes and 2000 pop bottles.It has much more going on than in previous years.
   http://www.flowershow.org.uk/
     It the 100th anniversary RHS Chelsea flower show.It was started in 1913.The daily telegraph had good sepia photos of some of  the earliest Flower shows.It was still popular in the early days as what it is now.
   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/chelseaflowershow/9927783/Chelsea-Flower-Show-100-years-in-pictures.html
I love the Queens visit,and the Press/celebrity day on the Monday before it opens.How many new flowers will be named after famous people?Will Alan Titchmarsh show the Queen around again?
  Prince Harry's charity in Lesotho has a Chelsea garden this year so i wander if he will dig a few plants in.His Dad (Prince Charles) is already famous for his horticultural/organic interests so i wander if any of the green fingers have passed down in the genes?
   http://www.rhs.org.uk/Shows-Events/RHS-Chelsea-Flower-Show/2013
 The RHS Chelsea flower of the year 2010 Steptocarpus Harlequin is still growing here in Wakefield on our kitchen windowsill.When ever it flowers it reminds me of Chelsea.Gardening trends and plants start off here,and are broadcast around the world.One day i might actually go to it (instead of watching it on the BBC).