Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2012 (Part 3)

I love lupins, but to be suddenly confronted with this amazing lupin display left me speechless. Who would not be proud to have a display like this in their borders?

I had to just stand there for a while and admire these, pure heaven. The display only won a Silver Gilt Medal.

This display called "Celebrating the best Of British summertime" by Waitrose, the supermarket chain, and the National Farmers Union, won a Gold Medal. It was so clever, from the floristry with fruit and vegetables to berries and mushrooms.

From cabbages in the left photo, to an amazing display of everything from strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries to cherries, and more on the right, it was beautiful.

There was an awful lot of work put into this display to keep it looking at its best for the week of the show.

The quality of the fruit, flowers, plants and vegetables was quite astonishing. The presentation was just fantastic, so they deserved a Gold for this.

Mushrooms growing, left, and then great floral displays with Bramley cooking apples amongst them on the right.

Waitrose the supermarket chain, of course also sell fresh fruit, flowers, plants and vegetables in their outlets all over the UK.

This was a large display, but was well worth walking all the way round to see it all.

A Gold Medal for these lilies that nearly bowled you over with the scent from them.

Here are both acid and alkaline loving lilies divided, and there were an awful lot of them as well.

Trying to take pictures this close up to these highly scented lilies is not good for your health! They are quite intoxicating!

"White Gardens" are very restful and indeed beautiful if done well, this one was, and I loved it!

The combination of white foxgloves, hostas, white roses, a white hydrangea and a euonymus is just stunning.

Now let's go from the subtleness of a white garden to one with just about everything in it.

A lovely sea holly and on the right we have Aeonium arboreum 'Atropurpureum.'

Eucharis amazonica is a tender plant to us in the UK, and on the right we have a Nerine bowdenii.

Fuchsias are always everywhere, both at Chelsea and especially here at Hampton Court.

Avenues of fuchsias abound as they have the space to display them here.

You can get most fuchsias in the Marquee as some are for sale; you can order them from the stand/displays, or from the nursery online. But for hardy ones there were some for sale by the nurseries on the outside of the Marquee, in the showground.

A lovely canna lily and on the right a mass of pelargoniums for sale.

Orchids are always very sought after, and there were a lot on display and for sale.

Amazing Bonsai to look at or indeed to buy, if you could afford them!

A couple of clematis I liked.

A most stunning Gloriosa rothschildiana on the left, glowing in the Hampton Court sunlight. Then some fun bromelaids from the Amazon on the right.

Heuchera, heucherella and tiarella on display, plus a Gold Medal for this hard work as well.

Some beautiful ones here and a new one I saw at Chelsea.

Dibleys did it again! Streptocarpus on one display on the left, then foilage begonias and what used to be called coleus on the other display on the right. Two Gold Medals, how bad is that?

Just two that caught my eye amongst the mass of plants that Dibleys exhibited!

Campanulas were very popular this year, on the right we have the nemesia and diascia display!

Zonal pelargoniums on the left, or geraniums as they are wrongly called, but everyone calls them that! There was an amazing collection of Gingko cultivars on display on the right, this is just one of them.

I have one of these Japanese maples in my garden so it was nice to see them and indeed countless others on display here.

Alium and eremurus on display and of course to buy as well.

I am getting quite fond of cacti and succulents after the beautiful ones I have seen this year.

Troughs or sinks are extremely popular and everyone loves to see them. These are sempervivum heaven and I fell in love with the baby one on the right!

It is not just sempervivum that like these, for Alpines and many other plants are equally happy in troughs as well.

A truly wonderful sight to behold except the one on the right, as it is the one I want!

A different little one I like, these things are addictive and of course they flower as well!

The secret to get anywhere near the gladioli stands or anything else is to go in at lunchtime or later as the shows near the end, then you have a chance to see them.

A very cottage garden sight in the left hand photo, and some gorgeous hostas on the right.

A sea of hostas and not a slug or snail in sight!

These delphinums were nice but the heat had got to them, they only got a Silver Medal for their hard work on judge's day. More heavenly scented lilies are on the right.

Abutilons on the left and campanula on the right, how absolutely lovely!

Air plants on display and on the right what show would be complete without agapanthus?

Bat plants were for sale, although I did not buy one, as it is a bit cold for them here. Now for one of my favourites at the show as I have them in my garden, the soft Australian tree fern. Some new croziers are pictured here on the right!

From 10 AM to 8 PM I had been at the show and although tired and there was still a long journey to get home, these made my day! Royal swans with six cygnets at a Royal Historic Palace, what could be better than that?

The show was fantastic as usual and every year it seems to get bigger and indeed better, if that is possible. However I wish the R.H.S. would listen to the people who in the end pay their wages. For it is a long walk from the Palace Garden Gate entrance to the show entrance, especially with heavy camera gear as well. When you get near the show entrance we were held back in clusters of hundreds of people and made to wait! When allowed, you have to cross a bridge over the water, and then wait to get funnelled through turnstiles to get into the show. The problem is there were only six turnstiles, hundreds of people and only two people were manning two turnstiles, they were all that were open! There was clear Disabled access and exhibitors access each side of the turnstiles with lots of R.H.S. staff standing around them doing nothing. Come on R.H.S. you can do better than this, you have porters, plant finders, plant creche people and staff everywhere, put some on the very place people want to get in!

Thank you for being with me on my journey and I do hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Regards.

Neil.