Frances came along too and we three had a great time at the Carlton Gardens and Exhibition Building where the Melbourne Flower and Garden show was held. We wondered around for over 5 hours and saw most but not all.
We looked over some of the retail stands with plants of all descriptions, some I had never seen or heard of, of course. Some Russell didn’t know either. An interesting thing to record is that some stands were selling cuttings – actual bits off the plant, which you take home and plant yourself. A bit chancy if you ask me. Loads of other things for sale too – garden equipment, tools, decorations, some amazing garden mobiles, plants of course – including small chilli plants with loads o chillies on.
The Show gardens - as often at these things - were way out of our league, with vast amounts of hard landscaping and very little actual garden - well in my opinion of course. However, a thing I have not seen before was a row of “achievable gardens“ which were very small patches of simple design and with the planting schedule available. Very interesting and something you felt you could actually do yourself.
My most vivid memory outside is the wall of parsley. There was a fancy metal structure of troughs in layers each holding compost on both sides of the long tall “fence”, and the whole thing was planted with parsley. Amazing. There were several other ways of having a living wall of green on display too. I do like this idea of plants on the vertical. Must work out a way to include it in my garden at home.
Inside were all the floral displays, and very good they were too. Bright and innovative and copious. Again, many things unknown to me, and very amazing too.
My favourite indoors are the hanging basket “balls”, for want of a better expression. It was as if compost had just been tied up into a ball shape with string, and the plants put into the soil, sometimes just one at the top, but some had a full sphere of planting. They were fab, and I took many pictures to try to get the full effect in one photo at least.
Another thing that took my fancy was the vast number of brown bottles. What? you may say. Well, what is was, was this – there was a section of stands for various nurseries and so on and all around it were displays of flowers and leaves in bottles – brown bottles with one flower or leaf in each. Loads of them. It was all very effective and again I have photos to show you. We wondered what will happen to all the bottles when the event is over?
Russ and I left Frances there and took the tram home. We had a few minutes to ourselves, and then went round to see the family again.
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