As well as the usual alpine plant stalls, there was a variety of Garden plants available – Cactus, Gladiolus, Dahlia, Begonia, Hellebore, Auricula, Epimedium etc.

Specialist societies had stalls: Plant Heritage, Bonsai society, Hardy Orchid Society, National Garden Scheme, Hardy Plant Society, Essex Wildlife trust, Hebe Society. I was particularly interested to see the Orchid Societies display of raising orchids from seed.

The sales and display area went far further – selling food and drink – cheese, Chutney – Wine – Flavoured Vodka and a particularly popular Luxury Cake stall. It was all a bit like a Christmas market; or more correctly a Carnival Market (It was Carnival weekend.) Beyond that there were interesting talks and a question-and-answer session.

Moving on to the competitive show, there was an attractive display of bulbs and other early plants. As so often this early, the weather had delayed the appearance of many plants, February had been cold and grey, and many plants had stopped growing for about three weeks (At least in England and Wales; there were a few visitors from Scotland who had no such complaints.) In this context, the display of plants was excellent, though it was more a show of well grown familiar plants, rather than new or unusual plants. We had seen most of them before but still awarded 5 Certificates of Merit.

The plant which led to a sharp intake of breath from a number of judges was Tulipa regelii from Bob and Rannveig Wallis, grown from seed from Gothenburg. There was a general feeling that it is an achievement to have it on the bench at all, though Bob Wallis, who had grown it from seed 20 years ago, didn’t reckon it is harder to grow than other Central Asian Tulips. It comes from the steppes of South East Kazakhstan. The solitary flower was not very noticeable when closed; the outside of the outer tepals was a dark maroon. But as the sun came out, the flower opened white with a yellow centre. The unique feature, however, is the leaves, with distinctive ridges on them. There is more detail in the article by Frazer Henderson in The Rock Garden, January 2025.  A Certificate of Merit for Bob and Rannveig.

It would be good if we could encourage more of our members to help to make this even a special occasion by exhibiting, even if they are new to it, or only recent exhibitors. There were a number of exhibitors in the Novice section, with neat but straightforward entries. For example, Lou Nicholls brought a number of pots of Crocus, Narcissus, Galanthus and Cyclamen, entering several classes in the Novice section and a few in the intermediate and open. The plants in the Intermediate and Open all got coloured stickers, and enough firsts in the Novice section to get the aggregate trophy for the section, the Essex Award. If you don’t enter you can’t win.

At the other end of the scale, the Farrer medal went to an old friend, Diane Clement’s plant of Helionas thibetica.  If you don’t recognise it by this name you may recognise it under its previous Ypsilandra thibetica. It is a plant of the Melanthiaceae with evergreen strap like leaves and white tassel like flowers. If, thanks to Diane, more people are growing it, they are discovering that it does take patience to get it to this standard and size. It is fair to say that it was looking better than ever. I felt that the plant this year was heavily flowered, with inflorescences on relatively uniform scapes. It is generally grown in shady, moist, humus rich soils.

For those fascinated by new names, Juno Irises make a happy hunting ground . A pretty pure yellow Juno, with shiny upper and matt lower side to the leaves, was shown by Bob and Rannveig Wallis under the name Iris chrysopetala. This new species had previously been treated as part of the well-known species Iris bucharica, but whereas this has a white stigma and style, Iris chrysopetala has a yellow style and stigma, Bob and Rannveig grew this from wild-sourced seed; on the show bench it was about 6inches tall, but as flowers continue to open in leaf axils, it will continue to grow to double that height.

Fritillaria stenanthera appears frequently on our show benches, but a particularly nice plant gave Bob and Rannveig Wallis another Certificate of Merit.

This pink flowered fritillary is one of the Rhinopetalum group, and is widespread across Central Asia, particularly in the Tien Shan and Pamir mountains, widespread in Uzbekistan, but also found in Afghanistan and Iran. It is a snow melt plant from high screes, with lots of water in growth, but very dry in summer; which indicates the growth regime.

Bob pointed out that your reporter’s plant of Gymnospermium albertii, which was very close by on the show bench, would often be growing with the Fritillaria stenanthera in the wild, with a similar habitat and distribution. It is noticeable how many of our show plants at this time of year come from this region (we could immediately add the Juno Iris to the list).

Normally emerging from the ground quickly, the Gymnospermium had been sitting as a little hook of red stem just at ground level. When the weather began to warm up this stem straightened up to bring the yellow inflorescence – tinged with red – above the ground. More inflorescences  were emerging above ground during the show. Like the Fritillaria, the plant dies down in early summer, and the tubers need to be kept dry until late autumn. I usually plant them in deep pots, with the top half of the pot pure grit. Gymnospermium is one of a number of genera of Berberidaceae with yellow flowers (in Gymnospermium albertii they look superficially similar to Berberis flowers), perennial tubers and summer dormancy.

Still in Central Asia, though further west, the regular growers continue to grow Dionysia successfully, and several received awards. Those who imagine that Dionysia means yellow, lilac or pink flowers are now getting used to hybrids that may be white or buff coloured, as well as the Marmite like “Rhubarb and Custard” colour shade.

If we associate these pink and yellow mixed plants with an earlier generation of hybrids, it is also found in wild hybrids. Two different growers had plants of the same natural hybrid, recently sourced from cuttings collected in the wild, with strong pink petals around a bright yellow centre. I understand that these flowers open yellow and then turn pink; (rather like many Androsace and also Primula henrici.)

The hybrid had been found in the wild by Jiri Papousek and Michael Mauer. It is surmised that one parent is Dionysia esfandiari; one of the plants was labelled Dionysia esfandiari x D.revoluta, and the other  Dionysia esfandiari x D.jamzadiae. It seems that the first was the original proposal, but the second name is regarded as more likely now.

Plants entered in the dwarf shrub classes are often disappointing and get overlooked; there is a range of evergreen shrubs which ultimately grow rather large, and often are questionably hardy. Even so, they can still have their place as pot plants or garden plants. Michael Sullivan exhibited two different plants of Correa which would have fitted into that category, but for their dramatic flowers. Correa ‘Mannii’ has spectacular scarlet flowers, Correa ‘Alinta’ a strong but delicate pink. Both plants were fairly heavily and very evenly flowered. The genus comes from Australia, and is on the edge of hardiness, but will survive in a sheltered spot in the garden, so long as the soil is not too wet. They have evergreen leaves and flowers from Autumn to Spring. Fully grown they are about 4 feet high, but are slow growing and can be judiciously pruned. The two pot plants were about 8inches high and about 5 years old. They were growing in a loose, slightly acid, compost.

Once again, our thanks to Ann and Steve Vale, and to all their helpers, stall   holders and exhibitors, and the Staff from Chelmsford Racecourse. This show is a special event and is well worth attending. We need to maintain the standard of the show by seeing that there are as many plants on the show bench as possible, and also that members stage informative non-competitive exhibits. Incidentally, I understand that this year’s Midland show, which is to be held at Malvern, is to follow a similar format, so put that in your diary too. It is worth making an extra effort to enjoy an event like this.

Reporter: Peter Hood
Photographer: Jon Evans and Doug Joyce