For me, it’s always the plants that are the most interesting bit of any gardening show and the RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2023 was no exception.
There was plenty to see both on the show gardens and in the Floral Marquee and I came home with a number of things to add to my wish list.
My favourite plant of the whole show also happened to be on the top garden – The Wildlife Trusts: Wilder Spaces by Jamie Langlands. It not only got gold but also Best in Show, the Best Construction prize and the People’s Choice award.
I was captivated by the delicate pink poppy in the planting. Also known as ‘Beth’s Poppy’ after plantswoman Beth Chatto, it was simply beautiful.
Verbascums are something I used to grow and spotting the rather lovely ‘Petra’ in Jamie’s planting made me realise I really ought to get some more.
Emily Crowley-Wroe had based her design for The HomeAway Garden on northwest Brittany and combined two of my favourite colours in the planting – blue and limey-green.
The echiums drew a lot of admiring looks from visitors to the RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2023 and I loved the combination with the euphorbia.
The Bee Positive, Bee Kind, Bee Aware garden by Rick Ford and Katie Gentle showed how a family garden can combine plants for pollinators with a kitchen and dining area with lots of ideas for growing herbs and veg in containers.
It was another garden that reminded me of plants that I used to grow, this time the delicate Lamprocapnos spectabilis ‘Alba’, which I seems to have disappeared from my border. I’ve also decided I need to find space for the rather lovely yellow aquilegia.
And it was great to see one of my favourite wildflowers on Laura Ashton-Phillips’ Greener Gloucestershire NHS Garden. Cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) has long been a May highlight for me.
Of course, the main place to go plant-hunting is the Floral Marquee and the RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2023 had a great display despite recent weather making growing a challenge. The freezing winter, which led to losses in many gardens, also hit many nurseries hard and that, coupled with the slow start to the season, saw some miss out on gold medals.
I can always rely on W&S Lockyer to have something of interest and this year’s display did just that. I was mesmerised by the colour of this osteosperumum.
East of Eden Nursery had three new geums on show with the orange available next year.
I grew parrot tulips for the first time this year and rather liked them so a striking variety on the Pheasant Acre Plants’ display caught my interest. The combination of pink and green was certainly dramatic.
Hare Spring Cottage Plants had some fabulous camassias on show – they hold the National Collection – including this new variety, which is a little different to the usual blue or white.
This isn’t new but was new to me and seen on the Kitchen Garden Plant Centres’ display. Also known as garlic cress, it is a perennial with a garlic-mustard flavour.
And my autumn bulb list has also got longer having spotted this on HW Hyde and Son’s display. Dainty, multi-headed and with a lovely graduated colour, it’s a definite winner.
You can read about more of my visits to gardening events here.
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