Virtual Flower Show

To be fair, the Virtual Flower Show (15-16 April 2023) is only partially virtual: the twenty-plus exhibitors taking part are bonafide, genuine gold medal winning growers, all attend the 'real' flower shows and all run small, top-quality plant nurseries. Our virtual show is just a different way of accessing their beautiful plants and displays.

I wondered what it would be like to take the virtual idea one step further. Having played with images created by artificial intelligence, I wondered whether I could quickly create some flower show designs and how genuine they might look.

Exhibitors - come join us!

paul.dibley@brookes.ac.uk (Paul Dibley) — Sat, 03 Dec 2022 17:30:12 GMT

Now's a great time to sign up for the Virtual Flower Show

We are really keen to get more great exhibitors involved in this year's Virtual Flower Show on 15-16 April 2023.

All I'll need for you to be involved is a photo of one of your displays (or associated products etc), and a short blurb about the nursery/business. This will then be shown in the 3D floral hall. The cost for registration is just £27.50 to cover web hosting and advertising (I just do it for the fun of it!) You'll also be seen alongside many of the UKs top horticultural exhibitors.

Here's the registration form.

https://forms.gle/ePkZ5gD7e8gztx4T9

If you want to get even more involved, then there will be plenty of opportunities e.g. live talks, Expert guides, Our plant of the year is..., Gardeners Q&A sessions, competitions and the Sales tent.

Do drop me a line using the contact page if you have any questions. I'm hoping this online event will continue to grow and to compliment 'real-world' flower show

This is an opportunity to be seen alongside the best gold medal winning exhibitors in the UK
Our videos on YouTube and Facebook have been seen over 50,000 times
The keenest growers and gardeners 'visit' the show
An opportunity to list your items on our dedicated virtualflowershow.uk website

Here's a video to show you what to expect:

https://express.adobe.com/video/G3kuCUjr18Uxk

Best wishes

Paul Dibley

VFS Press Release - April 2022

paul.dibley@brookes.ac.uk (Paul Dibley) — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 16:11:12 GMT

Join Britain's Top Independent Gold Medal Winning Horticultural Exhibitors and Growers
15-16 APRIL 2022

The nurseries are putting on another fantastic virtual show - all free content - with lots of live guided tours around nurseries, top tips for your plants, and all the latest plants and gardening gadgets.

The gold medals winning cast includes Dibleys Nurseries, Hampshire carnivorous plants, Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants, Mickfield Hostas, Ottershaw Cacti and Plantagogo Heucheras.

Last year, we reached 74,000 individuals on Facebook over the show weekend , which was amazing. The Live videos on Facebook were really well received and we'll be doing lots more of them this year. The interactive Virtual Floral Hall will be back and will allow you to navigate your own unique route through the show.

Sign up now at www.facebook.com/virtualflowershow or www.virtualflowershow.uk

Dates: 15-16 April 2022

Hosted by Dibleys Nurseries (the houseplant specialists and winners of 30 Chelsea Gold Medals)

More info: Lynne or Paul Dibley

info at virtualflowershow.uk

01978 790677

Virtual Flower Show images available below

Floral Halls

The interactive Virtual Floral Hall allows visitors to navigate their own unique route through the show.

YouTube Channel
The videos are really popular. The show round up video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_GHb8Ozo5c - has been viewed thousands of times on YouTube and Facebook. There are over 100 Virtual Flower Show videos from 30+ nurseries on our YouTube channel now:

https://www.youtube.com/c/virtualflowershow

Visitors

We would love all our keen gardening friends to join us in our facebook page. Make sure you like:

www.facebook.com/virtualflowershow

We will also have a VIP 'gala' on the eve of the show. This will allow visitors a preview of our new interactive floral hall.

hwww.virtualflowershow.u k

Blog

As well as the videos, we're putting some written content together in the blog section of our website

Giant Gardening Q&A Session

Our previous Q&A sessions and over 100 other videos are on our YouTube channel

Image resources

You are welcome to use the images in the folder below for coverage of the show

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LbWbBG6cvgZ2bjONNaaIqgOyp0dNWr4j?usp=sharing

So good to be back

paul.dibley@brookes.ac.uk (Paul Dibley) — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 11:24:36 GMT

Flower shows are back a vengeance!

It has been so good to be back at real-life flower shows. After fifteen months of zero showing, we took part in two flower shows in the space of a month: RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival and RHS Tatton Park Flower Show. Both were wonderful, wonderfully busy and wonderfully positive. I had forgotten how much hard work goes in to these shows! Everyone just seemed so optimistic. To be fair, it was also nice to win three RHS Gold Medals and the Tudor Rose award for the Best Exhibit in the Floral Marquee!

We are planning on attending a couple more shows this year and then see what pans out for 2022.

As far as virtual shows go, we intend to keep our Virtual Flower Show in April 2022. This is before most of the major flower shows take place and gives us and our fellow exhibitors an opportunity to exhibit our plants to a wider and perhaps a different audience. We'll announce the exact dates soon, but we'll be adding to the 100 videos on our YouTube channel , we'll produce more live streaming events and reimagine our 3d show ground for you to navigate.

Happy growing!

Paul Dibley

Exhibitor List - Spring 2021

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 10:30:42 GMT

You can now see the exhibitor list here or download it.

Some More Media Coverage

paul.dibley@brookes.ac.uk (Paul Dibley) — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 11:13:35 GMT

Some more coverage: this time in Amateur Gardening and Shires Magazine

Countdown to show

paul.dibley@brookes.ac.uk (Paul Dibley) — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 16:47:19 GMT

The Latest Headline and Other News

The Sun had the above article last Saturday. As it says in the article, ‘make a note in your diary for the one flower show that will definitely go ahead this spring - the Virtual Flower Show on 17 - 18 April.

As you may have spotted, you can now see a teaser of the 3d world here: https://www.virtualflowershow.uk/3d-virtual-floral-hall - the doors are currently locked but you can peek in!

We think the video below is one of the loveliest videos from our Virtual Flower Show. Matthew from Brighter Blooms put this together for us. You can see Matthew's real knowledge and expertise, as well as the sense of camaraderie and friendships among the UK’s horticultural exhibitors:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbn-9KPgz1o

Only two weeks to go before the show. Please sign up and tell your friends to sign up too!

Garden Photography During Lockdown

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 13:00:53 GMT

Top professional garden media photographer Neil Hepworth, shares some top tips for garden photography during lockdown.

New Paragraph

Press release

paul.dibley@brookes.ac.uk (Paul Dibley) — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 12:10:23 GMT

"Our main focus will always be on working with, and sharing the expertise of, top horticultural exhibitors. Our April 2021 show is for all growers and gardeners in the UK."

After our successful venture into the virtual world in 2020 , we are hosting a Spring Show in 2021 , with lots of our fellow gold medal winning friends and colleagues joining us again - virtually. This time with interactive virtual floral halls, behind the scenes tours, Q&A sessions, Spotlight on Different Plants and much more.

We have over two dozen top nurseries taking part and together we have amassed hundreds of Chelsea gold medals. We are also hosting a number of national plant societies at this show for the first time.

Dates: 17-17 April 2021

Hosted by Dibleys Nurseries (the houseplant specialists and winners of 30 Chelsea Gold Medals)

More info: Lynne or Paul Dibley

info at virtualflowershow.uk

01978 790677

Virtual Flower Show images available below

Floral Halls

The new interactive Virtual Floral Hall and interactive Sundries and Societies Halls will allow visitors to navigate their own unique route through the show.

YouTube Channel

How to guides, My favourite plant is... and slide shows of nurseries - just some of the videos we already have online. Lots more to come!

https://youtube.com/channel/UCHjeB5uMykzUfZC_SW4dmVQ

Visitors

We would love all our keen gardening friends to join us in our facebook page. Make sure you like:

https://www.facebook.com/virtualflowershow

We will also have a VIP 'gala' on the eve of the show. This will allow visitors a preview of our new interactive floral halls.

https://www.virtualflowershow.uk/become-a-vip-guest

Blog

As well as the videos, we're putting some written content together in the blog section of our website

Giant Gardening Q&A Session

The Q&A sessions will be hosted by gardening expert, Martin Fish. Martin is a passionate and highly experienced gardening consultant and media personality featuring on radio and television.

Our previous Q&A sessions are on our YouTube channel

Image resources

You are welcome to use the images in the folder below for coverage of the show

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LbWbBG6cvgZ2bjONNaaIqgOyp0dNWr4j?usp=sharing

Spring Show 2021 - want to take part?

Sun, 13 Dec 2020 13:26:24 GMT

Fancy taking part in our flower show?

We already have over two dozen top flower show exhibitors signed up to our Spring 2021 show. Many took part in our previous show and we have a few new nurseries too.

Also new for Spring 2021 will be our interactive floral hall along with our Societies and Sundries Halls. We have a few spaces available in these halls, so do contact us if you're interested in taking part.

Our main focus will always be on working with, and sharing the expertise of, top horticultural exhibitors. Our show is for all growers and gardeners in the UK.

It's going to be lots of fun!

> Read it about the show in Horticulture Week (December 2020) :

https://www.hortweek.com/virtual-flower-show-seeks-industry-involvement-year-two/ornamentals/article/1701151

https://www.hortweek.com/event/14838/spring-virtual-flower-show-2021

>.Read about the show in Garden News (December 2020) - at the bottom of this page

Garden News - December 2020:

Bandstand

paul.dibley@brookes.ac.uk (Paul Dibley) — Sun, 16 Aug 2020 20:21:35 GMT

We need some musical ideas!

Of course in the corner of the showground, there should be a bandstand!

Here's Warrington's Male Voice Choir singing Lockdown Blues... https://youtu.be/h68dFFXdT8Q

And while we have a Male Voice Choir vibe on the bandstand, here are the lovely Oxford Welsh singing Calon Lân.

https://youtu.be/LNr-6OlpNaA

And maybe some busking from Lucky Chops! https://youtu.be/sGENF4X3kGc

But we need some more ideas! What should be playing at a flower show?

Houseplant advice from Lynne Dibley

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 23:17:00 GMT

A series of articles from Garden News magazine.

Lynne Dibley writes about

growing streptocarpus species
introduces rhizomatous begonias
unusual impatiens species
taking impatiens cuttings
foliage begonias for showing
sinningia varieties
advice on growing African violets
streptocarpus that have stood the test of time

Plant Heritage

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 08:09:40 GMT

Plant Heritage - National Plant Collections, Plant Guardians, annual Plant Exchanges and Threatened Plants Programme.

The UK has a rich horticultural history and is home to a nation of gardeners, but this history doesn’t maintain itself. Plant Heritage aims to conserve and safeguard the UK’s horticultural heritage by keeping living examples of garden plants in cultivation for future generations to enjoy. Read more about the charity below.

Getting your flower show fix (virtually)

paul.dibley@brookes.ac.uk (Paul Dibley) — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 13:47:55 GMT

Flower Fix - we look at where to view other virtual flower shows...

We organised our first Virtual Flower Show at Dibleys way back in March/April 2020. Since then there have been quite a few!

The Alpine Garden Society listed 5 Virtual Flower Shows for Lockdown Gardeners and, very nicely, included our first show. You can read their selection of shows (including Virtual Chelsea), here:

https://www.alpinegardensociety.net/plants/3-digital-flower-shows-for-lockdown-gardeners/

Another show happening this weekend is the Virtual Shrewsbury Flower Show. As a child, the Shrewsbury show was one of my favourites - it was so much fun camping by the River Severn and I've no idea how many times I must have run around The Dingle! Anyway, do check out their show here:

https://shrewsburyflowershow.org.uk/virtual-shrewsbury-flower-show/

List of our 2020 exhibitors

Sat, 08 Aug 2020 22:13:48 GMT

Here are all our award winning exhibitors. Please do visit their websites.

Brighter Blooms

www.brighterblooms.co.uk

Walton Flats Nursery

Gillibrand Street, Preston, PR54AX

Zantedeschia, Tulips, Veg in containers

Brighter Blooms is an award-winning specialist grower of Zantedeschia (Calla). We are mainly known for our Zantedeschia displays at flower shows around the country where we sell plants and rhizomes. We have been awarded numerous Gold Medals by the Royal Horticultural Society for our displays including 5 RHS Chelsea Gold Medals.

We also display Tulips at Harrogate Show and at our own Tulip Open Weekend in April. At a few select shows we can also be found with a display of container grown salad and vegetables. All Our plants and bulbs can be purchased at brighterblooms.co.uk

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Calamazag Nursery

Calamazag Nursery.co.uk

St Martins, Looe, Cornwall, PL13 1NX

Dianthus

RHS Chelsea Gold Medal Dianthus Specialists

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Craig House Cacti

www.craighousecacti.co.uk

17 Durham Drive, West Bromwich, West Midlands B43 6LA

Cacti and other succulents

Owned by Stan Griffin and Vicki Newman for the last 12 years. 65 RHS gold medals including 9 Chelsea golds in 12 years. Known as the cactus couple and also known for our bespoke outfits. Selling feed, seeds and a cultivation booklet written by ourselves online.

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Dibleys Nurseries

www.dibleys.com

Llanelidan, Ruthin, N.Wales

Streptocarpus and other houseplants

We are a family run Nursery specialising in Houseplants and based in N. Wales. We have received 30 RHS Chelsea Gold Medals and 200+ RHS Gold Medals. In 2010 Dibleys won ‘Chelsea Plant of the Year’ for their new variety Streptocarpus ‘Harlequin Blue’. In 2016 Lynne Dibley was awarded the RHS Reginald Cory Memorial Cup for her breeding work in Streptocarpus.

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Hampshire Carnivorous Plants

Www.hantsflytrap.com

Stroudwood nursery Stroudwood lane lower upham Southampton so321hg

Carnivorous plants inc sarracenia drosera Heliamphora nepenthes Dionaea

We have been trading for 23 years, we are the UKs largest carnivorous plant nursery inland have been awarded over 150 RHS Gold medals

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Hardys Cottage Garden Plants

hardysplants.co.uk

Priory Lane Nursery

Herbaceous Perennials

Family run nursery in North Hampshire who open to the public during the growing season. Offer mail order plants to your door. We have exhibited at shows for many years attaining 24 Chelsea Gold Medals and at many other shows.

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Hoyland Plant Centre

www.somethingforthegarden.co.uk

54 Greenside Lane, Hoyland S74 9PZ

Agapanthus, Tulbaghia, Clivia, Nerines, Amarines & Dierama

RHS Master Growers Also National Collection Holders of Agapanthus, Tulbaghia & Clivia - We are a small family run business with our nursery situated at the foot of the Pennines in South Yorkshire where we have been for the last 35 years. We are 5 minutes off J36 of the M1 Motorway and 20 minutes from J37 off the A1 Motorway.

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Labels n Things

Www.labelsnthings.co.uk

Unit 6 Shaw Lane industrial Estate, Bromsgrove B60 4Ed

Plant labels and garden sundries

Labels n Things started in 2002 and has been highly commended at many garden shows including Chelsea Flower show

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Ottershaw Cacti

www.ottershawcacti.com

78 Bousley Rise

cacti,succulents

Daniel Jackson has been growing cacti and other succulents for over 30 years, and showing his collection at the RHS shows for the last 6 years where we have won many GOLD medals. The Ottershaw Cacti team are particularly proud of our RHS Chelsea GOLD medals achieved in 2018 & 2019. We have recently launched our new website with a web shop as a way to share our succulents and all the tips and hints for growing them following the cancellation of all the RHS shows this year. Do take a look www.ottershawcacti.com

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Plantagogo

www.plantagogo.com

Plantagogo, Jubilee Cottage Nursery, Snape Lane, Englesea Brook, Nr Crewe, Cheshire, CW25QN

Heuchera, Heucherella and Tiarella

Plantagogo Nursery based in Cheshire was established in 1990

We produce a wide range of perennials but are best known for our Heuchera Heucherella & Tiarella.

We grow all the plants we sell & we bred many of our own varieties too!

We are also National Collection holders of all 3 genus.

We exhibit at various shows including most RHS shows where we have been awarded over 100 Gold medals including 11 x Chelsea Gold medals.

This year we were awarded RHS Master Grower status.

Plants can be purchased at shows (normally) or online www.plantagogo.com our mail order has been growing since 1999

Also from the nursery by booking an appointment online (see website) Booking only to ensure you get 1 hour to yourselves for safety!

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Plants4Presents

www.plants4presents.co.uk

Fletching Glasshouses, Fletching Common, Newick, Lewes BN8 4JJ (not open to the public)

Citrus plants and unusual edibles

Plants4Presents specialise in unusual flowering and fruiting plants and deliver across the UK from their Sussex nursery. Regular RHS exihibitors, this family run business has received numerous Silver and Silver-gilt awards at rhs shows and Emily also runs talks, demonstrations and workshops on growing citrus.

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Primrose Hall Peonies

Www.primrosehallpeonies.co.uk

Toddington Rd, Westoning, MK455AH

Peonies

Primrose Hall Peonies is an RHS Chelsea Flower Show gold medal award-winning British specialist peony nursery and we hold the Plant Heritage National Collection for unusual Intersectional or Itoh peony varieties. Our 5 acre nursery is based in rural Bedfordshire and run by our tight knit small team of experienced nursery men and women along with our wonderful customer service queen Angela. Our whole team is guided by owner and master peony grower Alec White.

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Roualeyn Fuchsias

www.roualeynfuchsias.co.uk

Roualeyn Fuchsias

Trefriw

Conwy

North Wales

LL27 0SX

Fuchsias

We are a family run fuchsia nursery based in the Snowdonia National Park, North Wales, and have been growing fuchsias for over 35 years. We grow over 500 varieties in a range of sizes from 6 cm pots for early mail order, 9 cm pots for main season mail order as well as fully grown baskets and standards. Our web shop is open and stocked from January through to end of September each year. We are also open for visitors from 10 am to 4 pm, 7 days a week from March till the end of September.

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The Botanic Nursery

www.botanicnursery.co.uk

Coombe Lane Atworth Wiltshire SN12 8NU

Foxgloves, Salvia, Holkyhocks, Intersectional Peonies and Woody Shrubs.

Family run nursery since 1985 has been showing at Chelsea and many other enjoyable exhibitions for over 25 years.

We hold the National Collection of Digitalis (Foxgloves ) for Plant Heritage and have a passion for propagating woody shrubs and anything we love growing.

The nursery grows plants in harmony with the wildlife that shares our site. Our garden contains a wide range of interesting woody shrubs and is underplanted with some of the more obscure perennials we like to grow.

We are excited for 2021 and re-launching this Autumn are our Garden School Workshops in a newly created building where you can come and enjoy a couple of hours learning about propagation, planning, pot work with succulents, seasonal floral arranging and lots more. With painting and other crafts in 2021. So look out for more information or contact us.

To visit this year we are open Tuesdays to Saturdays 10am to 4pm

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The Culinary Herb Company

Culinaryherbco.co.uk

The Barn, Nightingale Farm, Hailsham Road, Polegate East Sussex BN266RE

Herbs ��

We specialise in over 200 varieties of culinary, medicinal and fragrant herbs.

The nursery has been going for over 10 years and we are regular exhibitors at various RHS shows around the country.

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The Norfolk Olive Tree Company LTD

www.thenorfolkolivetreecompany.co.uk

104 Bowthorpe Road NR2 3TR

Olive trees, Agave, Palm trees

Gold - Gardeners World Live 2019

Silver Gilt Gardeners World Live 2018

Silver RHS Cardiff 2017

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Tinnisburn Plants

www.tinnisburn.co.uk

Upper Millsteads, Canonbie, Dumfriesshire,DG14 0RY

Truly hardy perennials including Meconopsis & Primula

Tinnisburn Plants is an RHS Gold medal winning nursery specialising in truly hardy perennials, many of which are choice and unusual. Nursery founder and owner, Helen Knowles, has a lifelong passion for plants and has built up an extensive collection of stock plants which she propagates for sale in the nursery, at plant fairs or via mail order.

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Tissington Nursery

www.tissington-nursery.co.uk

The Old Kitchen Gardens, Tissington, Ashbourne, Derbyshire, DE6 1RA

A wide range of mainly pollinator friendly perennials including Salvia, Helenium, Geraniums, Nepeta, Leucanthemum, Astrantia, Campanula and Sanguisorba. All 100% peat free.

We are a small family run nursery in the beautiful village of Tissington which is on the edge of the Peak District National Park. Run since 2006 by Mairi Longdon. We have 3 RHS Silver Gilt and 2 RHS Silver medals from the 5 shows we have attended since starting them in 2017. Our passion is perennials, particularly those which are pollinator friendly. We grow using no pesticides and are 100% peat free.

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Todd’s Botanics

www.toddsbotanics.co.uk

Co6

Canna, Dahlia and Olives

A family run nursery in North Essex growing all manner of plants but with an emphasis on drought tolerant perennials and exotic style plants plus certified xyella free olive trees

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Wack's Wicked Plants

www.wackswickedplants.co.uk

Scampston YO17 8NG

carnivorous plants, sarracenia, dionaea muscipula, drosera, pinguicula, darlingtonia, nepenthes

We are a Chelsea gold medal winning North Yorkshire based nursery specialising in hardy carnivorous plants. We started in a backyard in 2012 and are now the largest carnivorous plants nursery in the North of England. Our nursery is open for visits by appointment, and we sell a large range of carnivorous plants online

Top tips from our exhibitors

Sat, 08 Aug 2020 12:12:12 GMT

These are just some of the growing tips from our expert flower show exhibitors.

When taking cuttings keep your cutting material humid, either misting them or putting the cut edge in water, until you are ready to plant them.

Dibleys

Agapanthus LOVE a high potash feed to encourage amazing blooms!

Hoyland Plant Centre

Remove any old Sarracenia leaves during the summer, when the plants are at their most sticky, to discourage aphids and other sap suckers - air movement is key

Wack's Wicked Plants

Cut back hardy perennials such as Geranium, Centaurea and Polemonium once they have finished flowering to promote a flush of fresh new growth and more flowers.

Tinnisburn Plants

Always make sure you plant your Tiarellas in a shady position.

Plantagogo

Paler leaved Heuchera and Heucherella prefer shade as they will scorch in strong sunlight.

Plantagogo

When planting your Heuchera, Heucherella and Tiarella never bury the crown, as they can go rotten in the crown.

Plantagogo

To make your Heuchera, Heucherella and Tiarella flower for longer, dead as soon as the flowers fade.

Plantagogo

Sowing seed of Foxgloves and Hollyhocks now will give you excellent plants that will flower beautifully in 2021. But stop ! Don’t sow the seed in the greenhouse, temperature fluctuations will stop the seed germinating. Sow outside in a cool light place.

The Botanic Nursery

When labelling your plants use the right pen make sure it is waterproof and lightfast

Labels n Things

Try to leave old pitchers on the plants as long as possible at the end of the growing season , this will help your plants produce large robust growth the following season

Hampshire carnivorous plants

Cut back your Achillea to 10cm to get reblooming in the autumn

Hardys Cottage Garden Plants

When planting hardy fuchsias outdoor in the ground ensure that you plant them deep so that the crown of the plant is covered by a few inches of soil. This protects the plant from frost and encourages the stems to root thus giving a much more substantial shrub.

Roualeyn Fuchsias

Your peony may start to turn brown from July, this is perfectly normal. Do not cut back the leaves until the Autumn though once the plant has fully died back, the leaves are still absorbing nutrients which help to form buds for the following season. The more nutrients the plant can take in means you will have better flowers the following year.

Primrose Hall Peonies

Tips on pruning your Olive Tree Pruning your olive Pruning Like most evergreen trees Olives respond very well to pruning, in fact the more you prune, the happier they grow. It is best, however, to prune your Olive after the last of the winter frost ( March onwards) and before the first autumn frosts ( late October early November) If you prune back your Olive tree ‘hard’ it will result in a dense growth or a light ‘formative’ prune will give your tree a natural shape. As with many fruit trees, olives fruit on new wood, so if you’re going to try for fruit a regular prune will increase your yield. The most important fact to bear in mind when pruning your Olive tree is that the tree usually bears fruit on the previous year’s new growth, and never bears it in the same place twice. Your tree will usually flower from late Spring. The flowers are self fertile and olives will readily set during the Summer months. The olive tree produces fruit mainly at the periphery and top of the canopy. This is because these parts of the tree are fully exposed to sunlight and in turn improves fertility. Pruning for fruiting purposes focus on the removal of any part that shades other younger parts of the tree. Note If your tree is looking a little unhappy in its pot, reduce the canopy by a 1/3. Let there be light Light and more light is the overwhelming principle of pruning. Letting the light into the tree improves fruit production. Letting in the light also keeps the tree under control. If the tree is dark and dense branches will race up and out to find more light. Due to our colder climate, if you wish to eat your olives you will need to harvest them in October

The Norfolk Olive Tree Company LTD

The vast majority of plants tend to suffer more from over-watering than from under-watering

Brighter Blooms

Dianthus need to be planted in a sunny spot in well drained neutral or alkaline soil.

Calamazag Nursery

Cacti and other succulent plants should be watered and fed regularly from March to October. Use a high potash feed.

Craig House Cacti

In the height of summer, make sure your plants do not dry out. Overwater with rainwater, rather than under-water

Wack’s Wicked Plants

Perennial - Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society. Helping people in horticulture since 1839

paul.dibley@brookes.ac.uk (Paul Dibley) — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 14:36:08 GMT

Perennial - Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society
Our charity of choice for this Virtual Flower Show

Perennial is the UK’s only charity dedicated to helping everyone who works in horticulture, and their families. Perennial provides free and confidential advice, support and financial assistance to people of all ages working in, or retired from horticulture. This help extends to spouses, partners and children.

Perennial’s vision is for every horticulturalist in the UK to know about us and be confident to get in touch if they need our help. We are working hard to increase awareness of Perennial and as a result, the number of people coming to us is growing. Regular donations give us confidence to recruit the caseworkers and debt advisors that are needed to ensure that everyone we help continues to receive the bespoke personal service we currently provide. We receive no government funding. Our work depends entirely on the support of the horticultural industry, its suppliers and the garden loving public.

2020 has of course been an extraordinary year. Given the loss of income we have experienced through the cancellation of all our events this Summer and the increase in calls our Services Dept has had to field during the current crisis your support now would be invaluable. We anticipate the increase in calls for help will only continue as we move through the year when the real consequences of the Covid-19 Pandemic will start to bite.

Visit the Perennial website HERE .

Please donate to this worthwhile charity HERE .

Botanical Art

Sun, 26 Apr 2020 13:17:01 GMT

Botanical Art

We do love to see some botanical paintings at the flower shows. Here are just a few pieces of work from some botanical artists.

Open as a PDF document >>>

Coronavirus: Millions of garden plants set to be binned

Thu, 02 Apr 2020 08:30:23 GMT

Keeping things going with the virtual flower show

As this BBC news article shows, the closure of 2,000 garden centres and nurseries is a huge shock for the horticulture industry. The Virtual Flower Show is just one small way we can keep things going #virtualflowershow

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52098436

Gardens Illustrated Virtual Garden Tours

Thu, 26 Mar 2020 16:24:57 GMT

Gardens Illustrated Magazine's Virtual Garden Tours

Here are some lovely gardens to visit (virtually). A nice guide to virtual tours:

https://www.gardensillustrated.com/gardens/gardens-to-visit/virtual-garden-tours-best/

Growing up with flower shows

paul.dibley@brookes.ac.uk (Paul Dibley) — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 11:50:30 GMT

Rose-tinted memories of growing up in the 1970s in a nursery.

My sincerest apologies for the following dose of rose-tinted random recollections of growing up around plants in the 1970s.

We had a large garden. Both my older siblings, Gareth and Lynne, and I spent a lot of time in this garden, in the poly tunnel or in a greenhouse. By the time I was a toddler my father had a commercial greenhouse. This forty- by sixty-foot Hancock house was a central part of my childhood. Initially it was full of big blousy begonias and flowing fuchsias but the groundsman at my dad’s school (both our parents were teachers) happened to give him a Streptocarpus Constant Nymph – the large ‘original’ blue hybrid that many people had in the seventies – and this serendipitous gift led to the whole greenhouse being taken over by these plants. Originally, when I was very young, the cellar in our house (which had a stream running through it) was where the original ‘propagating and growing room’ was. I also remember packing plants for mail order in the large south-facing wooden structured conservatory.

At this time, the John Innes Institute, now best known for developing their four compost formulae, had been working on a breeding programme of Streptocarpus hybrids. This was led by a lovely man called Gavin Brown. This programme produced some wonderful plants including one of my favourites, Streptocarpus Tina, a variety which is still going strong. Gavin and Winifred (Win) Brown became close friends of my parents and they would come and stay each year. This always involved wonderful day trips, visiting gardens and eating al fresco in sunny Snowdonia. These picnics always included Mrs Brown’s shortbread. We still have the recipe. Gavin Brown, an unsung hero of horticulture, did a lot of work on fruit breeding at the J.I. Institute, but to me as a child, his crowning glory was that he managed to cross a pear tree and an apple tree. This was just remarkable.

The long school break meant that holidays consisted of the whole family going to flower shows. For many years, this included the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show, Shrewsbury Flower Show and Southport Flower Show. Each show required much preparation, the same dog-eared checklist ticked off each time (black cloth, tick; drawing pins, tick; nursery signs, tick; black pots, tick; brown paper bags, tick) and plants carefully packed into tomato boxes. These was placed into the back of a local light removals van hired for each show delivery and we then trundled off to the show in our ancient converted ambulance.

On arrival at the show, there was always the same routine: check stand was right size (‘oh no, it’s 35 foot and we only have enough plants for a 30 foot display’), the backdrop was correct height and enough compost had been delivered for our display (it never had). As the hard work was about to start, I would run off to the nearest playground. These days, children under the age of 16 aren’t allowed onto showgrounds during set-up. Back then, as a six-year-old, I used to wander off on my own to the far end of the showground – navigating fork lifts, tractors, artic lorries and other big machinery – without incident. We ran free during the shows too. This meant visiting the fairground and watching what was happening in the main ring. I remember sitting for hours watching the children’s entertainment: this usually involved the Wombles and guests like Rod Hull (with Emu of course), and Worzel Gummidge. I do understand health and safety, but I sometimes wonder these days how essential a hi-vis vest is when putting up a display of plants.

As I got older, I became the ‘expert’ in creating water features. This meant I got the stream and pond looking right, made sure there were no leaks and basically played with water. This could take a full day of titivating. My brother built a mean stump and my sister was in charge of colour combinations.

Fashions change. Municipal-style bedding was all the rage in the ‘70’s. I recall the outdoor gardens either being a blaze of colour or consisting of giant pieces of granite. Inside the floral marquee (with a proper old fashioned flammable wooden structure) there were some huge displays. The Bells brothers always had 40-foot displays of perfect cut flowers – the Bells were some of the nicest larger-than-life characters on the show scene, always joking, always laughing. The Owen Bros (I never could understand how brothers was shortened to bros) of Worcester always put on two displays. I loved spending times with the Owens. I used to ‘help’. This involved standing at their sales table, being made to feel helpful and important, until the wonderful and patient Mrs Owen gave me a shiny fifty pence piece to go away and buy ice cream.

I also used to help Joyce who grew cacti, sausage dogs and bunnies. I remember her having baby bunnies in nappies under her sales table. The BBC came with their giant TV cameras to film that one. My payments from Joyce were slightly strange shaped succulents. I kept a bent eonium for many years.

Perhaps more nostalgic flower show thoughts some other time…

Virtual Flower Show

Schedule 15-16 April 2023

Here are all the videos from April 2023

Recommended Reading

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Exhibitors list - April 2023

Support all these wonderful award winning exhibitors

How Virtual is the Virtual Flower Show?

Do we still need a human garden designer?

Exhibitors - come join us!

Now's a great time to sign up for the Virtual Flower Show

VFS Press Release - April 2022

Join Britain's Top Independent Gold Medal Winning Horticultural Exhibitors and Growers 15-16 APRIL 2022

Join Britain's Top Independent Gold Medal Winning Horticultural Exhibitors and Growers 15-16 APRIL 2022

So good to be back

Flower shows are back a vengeance!

Exhibitor List - Spring 2021

Some More Media Coverage

Some more coverage: this time in Amateur Gardening and Shires Magazine

Countdown to show

The Latest Headline and Other News

Garden Photography During Lockdown

Top professional garden media photographer Neil Hepworth, shares some top tips for garden photography during lockdown.

Press release

"Our main focus will always be on working with, and sharing the expertise of, top horticultural exhibitors. Our April 2021 show is for all growers and gardeners in the UK."

Spring Show 2021 - want to take part?

Fancy taking part in our flower show?

Garden News - December 2020:

Bandstand

We need some musical ideas!

Houseplant advice from Lynne Dibley

A series of articles from Garden News magazine.

Plant Heritage

Plant Heritage - National Plant Collections, Plant Guardians, annual Plant Exchanges and Threatened Plants Programme.

Getting your flower show fix (virtually)

Flower Fix - we look at where to view other virtual flower shows...

List of our 2020 exhibitors

Here are all our award winning exhibitors. Please do visit their websites.

Top tips from our exhibitors

These are just some of the growing tips from our expert flower show exhibitors.

Perennial - Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society. Helping people in horticulture since 1839

Perennial - Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society Our charity of choice for this Virtual Flower Show

Botanical Art

Botanical Art

Coronavirus: Millions of garden plants set to be binned

Keeping things going with the virtual flower show

Gardens Illustrated Virtual Garden Tours

Gardens Illustrated Magazine's Virtual Garden Tours

Growing up with flower shows

Rose-tinted memories of growing up in the 1970s in a nursery.

Join Britain's Top Independent Gold Medal Winning Horticultural Exhibitors and Growers
15-16 APRIL 2022

Join Britain's Top Independent Gold Medal Winning Horticultural Exhibitors and Growers
15-16 APRIL 2022

Perennial - Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society
Our charity of choice for this Virtual Flower Show