Blue Daisy Blog

Had a lovely day at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show at the weekend.  It was my first time there and first impressions were good.  Thankfully they stayed good too.  If you've never been the site itself is impressive... (well, if it was good enough for Henry VIII...) and as you approach the flower show you are allowed glimpses of Hampton Court Palace and some of its gardens - it definitely looks worth a visit in its own right. 

The show ground feels immense - we were there all day and we still felt that we hadn't covered everything but by the time of our departure our senses were well and truly saturated.  Around every corner there was something to grab our attention and to say that we all regressed to 'kids in a candy store' mode it will probably give you an idea of our response!  Here are some of our favourite bits... (click on the thumbnail images for a larger view!)

Here at Blue Daisy we’re really passionate about saving our humble British bumble bee and other pollinating insects like the hoverflies, moths and butterflies.  The decline in our pollinating insects especially bees has been noticed through various studies over the last 50 years or so, the reasons are far reaching but one been the reduction of our wild-flower meadows through the use of chemicals.  Recently it has become a hot topic with the many organisations including the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) taking up the mantel led by Sarah Raven to help gardeners identify the best plants in garden centres.  They have introduced a badge called ‘Perfect for Pollinators’ which will be on plant labels all good garden centres.

Why are we interested in pollinating insects?  Well in brief, they transfer the pollen from one flower to the next allowing it to be fertilized, which means it will have the ability to set seed or produce fruits.  This is really important for us all, if plants aren’t able to set seed we risk reducing the amount of plants we can have as theycould become endangered or extinct. The worst case scenario is that the pollinated flowers don’t turn into fruit which means it could have a huge impact on what we are growing and eating, or not eating as the case may be!  The pollination would need to be done by hand, it would be such a laborious task taking so many hours that the products themselves would be so highly priced the average person in the street may not be able to afford them.

I entered a Garden Design Competition last month and last week have received the fantastic news that I have got through the first stage!

It is the Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholarship Programme sponsored by Bradstone and in conjunction with The Three Counties Show Ground.

To enter I had to design a small show garden for the 2011 Malvern Spring Gardening Show (May 12 -15 2011).

The brief was that it had to reflect the theme of the Atom which celebrates UNESCO's International Year of Chemistry which happens to be in 2011. So I busied myself and tried to come up with something a little different which was pretty hard as an atom is an atom and there are very few things you can do with it!

Now I have to complete another set of application forms for the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) judging panel to decide whether my design is good enough to be constructed for the Malvern Spring Show.  If I am lucky enough to get through the second stage I will get a small bursary to help with the materials and plants but I will have to try and find a sponsor(s) to enable me to build the best show garden I can.

Having never been to RHS Wisley before I wasn't sure what to expect, I was hoping it would be pretty amazing and inspiring - it was that and a whole lot more!  After a full day there we'd only really seen half of it so we just had to go back the next day!!  I know, you're probably thinking how on earth did it take you so long to get around it....well plain and simple for me, there was so much to see.  I could easily write lots on the different areas we walked through but instead I'll just tell you my three favourite areas.