ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY SHOW LONDON, SCRUM TO SEE THE EXHIBITS

FEBRUARY 21 and 22 - HORTICULTURAL SHOW IN CENTRAL LONDON

I went to the RHS London Plant and Design Show yesterday, which gave me the chance to spend more money, this time on two lots of potatoes, Sharps Express and Winston, both 'earlies'.
You can buy  a wide variety of seed potatoes at the show, including some unusual ones.

SKETCH OF THE HORTICULTURAL SHOW - BLACK PEN
Here is the sketch I made of the hall, sitting on the balcony at the end at the top of of steps.

RHS Plant and Design Show, February 21

You can see that there were crowds of people milling around, admiring the snowdrops, irises, begonia, bulbs, shrubs -  all the things which seem full of promise at this dark end of the winter. It was difficult to get close to the plants sometimes because of the eager crowds.

Everywhere I looked I saw people clutching carrier bags with their leafy purchases.  Yes, I succumbed to temptation as well.

LILY

I love lilies and I bought a bag of three lily bulbs from the stand of H. W. Hyde and Son, the Lily Experts.  The stall holder advised me that on my sandy, acid soil I should  plant Oriental lilies and I bought a little bag with three nice lily bulbs, of Speciosum alba; they look lovely in the illustration on the stall,  white with curled petals, and they have a scent.  They have to be planted soon, so hope the sun returns next week and dries the soil a bit.  The Asiatic lilies do not like acidic soil so I plant them in pots.  This year I bought some more Asiatic lilies at the Pound Shop, only £1 for three, so it will be interesting to see how they compare with the more expensive ones.

Lily and spider, London garden