Pakistan Gardening Forum

Visited the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show in London. It is the largest flower show in the world. The show features show gardens, floral marquees and pavilions, talks and demonstrations. Erected on the north and south sides of the Long Water in Hampton Court Park, it is the second major national show after the Chelsea Flower Show but has a different character, focusing more on environmental issues, growing your own food and vegetables and cookery, while also offering opportunities to buy gardening accessories, plants and flowers. It has more space and it is easier to see the exhibits.

I had the pleasure of talking with some of the "Gardeners World" presenters including Monty Don and Carol Klein, watching them film the nights TV presentation was interesting.

I will upload more pics in due course

The rose pavilion showcasing their best

More roses displayed

Amazing Amaryllis, the best of the best!! on display with Alliums in the floral marquee, this year strangely there were not so many on display. Perhaps an invitation to you Brig sb for next year.























Next was the cactus stands

Cactus displays at the show. I have started a small windowsill collection of these in my office, I need to learn more about them as so many of them look the same to me!, to be honest I have seen better in Pakistan

Some more cactus at a different stall





I tried growing these indoors in pots unfortunately for me they failed and looked nothing more than the stones in the pot. \never tried them again and left them to the specialists.






I loved how these flowers shone like pink jewels off a cats tail, I wonder if they could be grown in hanging baskets in Pakistan

Next (time permitting) will be the
Chrysanthemums, the Dahlia, Succulent Crassulas, bromeliads ferns and numerous other plants displays.
The war gardens.
Under 9yr age schoolchildren entries,
Britain in Bloom,
Show gardens including the conceptual gardens designed around the themes of the seven deadly sins of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, rage, envy and pride, one garden for each sin.
A selection of budget and small space sample gardens,
Awe inspiring show gardens including the gold medal/best in show winners of Australia.
There will also be some pics of my time with the current BBC "Gardeners World" team of Monty Don, Carol Klein, Joe Swift and Rachel de Thame

My apologies for the snapshot quality of pics and length of postings. I felt regardless of that it may be of some benefit to the forum in due course.

Regards

Ifzal

The Chrysanthemums blooms were of good quality but disappointed that the art of multi blooming or grafting wasn't displayed this year.

What a feast for the eyes! Lovely cacti and all other thousands of flowers. It literally reminds me of this famous poem

When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

by M Farooq » July 14th, 2014, 6:30 am
What a feast for the eyes! Lovely cacti and all other thousands of flowers. It literally reminds me of this famous poem

When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

Wordsworth.

Thank you Ifzal sahib for posting the images which capture the essence of this show and it's almost as if we have visited the show.

Looking at 'Naranja Amaryllis' reminded me that there are various Arabic words widely used in Spanish language e.g. Naranja drawn from the Arabic word (Naranj) which isn't surprising as the Mediterranean region largely remained in control of Moors till the 15th century and Naranji used in Urdu/Persian seem to have been driven from Arabic. Once i was very surprised to see Portuguese chanting "Partagal" as spelled in Urdu during Euro cup 2004 held in Lisbon and the influences of Arabic language in their langua franca are still visible and i used to assume that Portugal would be pronounced as used in international media.

The Challenger Amaryllis seems to be a recent cultivar.