Just beautifull, the show is marvellous as usual

Dear Muriel, thank you for your comments! It was a good show, very big and pity it rained! But such is life!
I do hope you will join me in part 3 & 4? In part 3 is something we the British are good at, growing vegetables! You know how proud the men who tend their leeks are to show standards.
Cabbages that would last you and Peter a month, amazing stuff.
Hope to see you there?
Regards.
Neil.

Neil, I loved the aliums and the orchids but the sarascenias(?SP) are one of your favouritesI know, they were very good,I bet you spent a lot of time there!! I'm glad you went in spite of the weather it really seems a good show (entirely different to Chelsea of course). Thanks for the tour. Eileen

Yes it is different from Chelsea although very good, it has not got the same prestige as Chelsea. If you said winner of a Gold Medal at Hampton Court then I would say well done. However as you know when you say winner of a Gold Medal at Chelsea that is entirely different. When I won mine I was proud to say winner of a Gold Medal at Chelsea! It is to me like the difference between driving a Jaguar and a Rolls Royce!
It has not got that awe inspiring feeling of Chelsea, or the expectancy, as you know having been with Pru on many occasions. I know it is a young show and very big, but can it beat the legend that is Chelsea, I doubt it very much.
Hampton Court is fine for the Aston Martin and Range Rover brigade from Surrey, but Chelsea is a plantsman and plantswoman show. Which has the best in the world, and nobody can ever take that away from the most famous flower show in the world. The standards at Chelsea are immense, they lack at Hampton Court!
The Harrogate show is great as it a floral town, and there are many others as well like Tatton park and Southport!
But at the end of the day, Chelsea is where names are made or lost, and celebrities or heroes born.
Regards
Neil.

Neil just read your article and enjoyed very much. Looking forward to the other parts. .I also like Sea Holly you rarely see them anymore, The Achillea in your photo might be Walther Funcke.

Dear Bob, thank you very much for your comments and the information about the Achillea. Walther Funcke sounds like a German gun to me.
You cannot write things down at these shows with over 60 pounds of camera equipment whilst holding a camera, and getting jostled by the crowds.
At Chelsea I took over 1200 pictures and did it all by knowing plants and memory!
I am glad you enjoyed it though. Not so much as I did when I got home as my wife would not let me in the house till she washed me down with the garden hose, as I was covered in mud!
Oh what fun that was, not!
Regards.
Neil.