Malvern Blue

Back home after a most enjoyable day at the Malvern Show where it was great to meet so many fellow garden bloggers and put faces to so many names. Many, many thanks to Veg Plotting and Patient Gardener for all the organisation, attention to detail, love and thoughtfulness that went into making this blogger's get together such a memorable occasion. You did us most proud.

Not many photos from me with this post. Firstly I took fewer than usual as my hands were so cold, that I nearly resorted to buying some gardening gloves in the morning just to feel them again. Secondly I followed himself's advice and took my fairly new to me camera with me, rather than its reliable predecessor. Having seen the results I obviously need more practise at using this piece of technology as many of my photos were sadly quite blurry.

However here are a couple of photos of the plants that I really fell for in a big way. I am suffering from the same "You can't always get what you want" syndrome as Patient Gardener. Like her I was besotted by magnolia laevifolia ‘Mini Mouse’ which featured in a magnificent display staged by The Hardy Plant Society ~



I spent some time last night unsuccessfully trying to track this plant down on the internet and then read Patient Gardener's post today. Apparently this magnolia is only currently available from one nursery which happens to be at the other end of the country!

I was equally smitten by melanoselinum decipiens which grabbed my attention as I looked at Jekka McVicar's stand. This umbifeller is also known as black cow parsley and I think that I may have found a source of seeds but will not rest until they come through the letter box ~



So those were the plants that I did not bring home with me. The ones I did were lemon verbena (which I find hard to find locally every year), actaea 'Brunette', actaea 'Hillside Black Beauty' both of which I have been looking for) and lastly my only impulse buy ~ athyrium niponicum 'Applecourt. Photos of all will no doubt follow in due course. I resisted all temptation to come home with another hosta. Several packets of seeds also found their way into my paws - parsley peas, various salad leaf mixtures as well as some clematis.

If any of you who met me on Saturday thought that I had a discrete little blue tattoo on my left hand, I have to confess that I was still sporting the remnants of a most effective pass out stamp, having left the showground briefly for lunch. I woke up on Sunday and realised to my horror that despite several hand washes in the interim I was still branded. The scrubbing brush came out last night and this memento has now been permanently eradicated but it will be a long time before my memories of the weekend fade.