The rocky mountain is assembled in the nursery. Not very convincing at this stage.
We did it again! Gold - and the Alf Evans Award for the Best Exhibit of Alpine Plants. At least this year we knew what we were aiming at and how to go about it, but it was still an enormous amount of work. We envied the bonsai exhibitors, who walked in with 12 plants, put them down and sat back. We had spent days hunting rocks from our friends' stone pile in Aberfeldy and then glueing them onto frames to form a rock face. Fortunately there was no earthquake, and we were able to show our alpine treasures on the rocky mountain side of the display, and primulas and other damp-loving plants on the other side.
Because there are so many plants and they are so small the set-up time is very intensive and requires much jiggling around to get everything set. Jane has become an expert at stuffing bags of polystyrene chips under pots of primulas, and being the smallest among us had the precariously balanced final arrangements to do. It was lovely to be able to give pleasure to so many people, and thanks to those who gave us encouragement and bought our plants.
It has become a great event for meeting people and making new friends and contacts. We hope to be back in 2006, but now the pressure is on to keep up the standard.....
We hope you enjoy looking at the photos of the preparation and the display.
The rocky mountain is assembled in the nursery. Not very convincing at this stage.
After planting and transporting to the show ground at Ingliston, it looks a little better.
The lower area to the right of the mountain was planted with primulas and other moisture-loving plants.
Our display in 2004.