The Wisley Spring Plant Fair 2016

I made a quick trip to the Wisley Spring Plant Fair yesterday, it was mainly to look, but inevitably I bought a few plants, because they were on my list anyway – well mostly- so I thought, why not just get them?

The thing I love about these events at Wisley is that the plants on sale are grown by the people selling them, so they have all the information that you could possibly need. Lots of plants there aren’t usually available from local garden centres, so you can get someting a bit different.

Some Plant Societies are there too, you coudn’t meet a more passionate group of gardeners. I had a good chat with the man on the Delphinium Society stand, who explained how delphiniums germinate at low temperatures early in the year, they had a couple of dishes of seedlings that were sown in January.

They are dreamy plants, I’ve never grown them but it seems that they’re easy to germinate. I’ve been reluctant to grow them because slugs love them, they travel from miles around to devour the soft, new growth. The man uses slug pellets, which aren’t allowed through our garden gate …. but I suppose I could use nematodes?

In the end I bought some of those polyanthus that you see at the top of the page, a lovely pelargonium with scented leaves and small white flowers, and some herbs from Pepperpot Nursery, who grow all their own herbs just a few miles away from me.

Find out more about the Fair here.

Jill

all photos: Jill Anderson