The Plant Stall	Click here to go to our calendar
Visitors travel from far and wide to our flower shows, and many visit just for the treasures of the plant stall as the shows are the source of many interesting plants.

Service with a smile!

Those who work on our stalls are professional horticulturists or have gardened all their life and have an intimate knowledge of the plants we stock. Many of the plants grown for the stall are from seed imported from overseas, and many will not be found locally. You can always expect to find a rich variety of interesting plants, and inevitably the plants at each show will be different to those offered at the last show. All are tried and proven, and many of the blooms from these flowers are show quality and find their way to the exhibition bench at shows.

| Top |

The plants we offer have proven hardy in Canberra conditions and anything that requires special growing conditions will come with plenty of helpful advice. Our helpers will be only too happy to give you tips for the successful culture of the plants you buy, and moreover, our prices are exceptionally good. Each show commences on the Saturday advertised at 11.30am and goes until 5pm, reopens at 11.30 on Sunday and finishes at 4pm on Sunday, so we need to clear all stock by the time we close down on the Sunday.

In spring, we don’t forget the vegetable garden, and we offer a collection of tomato plants including heritage varieties and a variety of other vegetables. Our exhibitors often bring in named iris rhizomes and dahlia tubers which are sold at very cheap prizes.

Depending on the show, you might find exotic climbers such as mandevilla laxa, the white Chilean Jasmine, eccremocarpus scabus (the Chilean Glory Flower), a variety of clematis, tropaeolum tricolour and vitis vinifera (the ornamental grape). For those who have sheltered sites in the garden amongst their trees and shrubs we offer epimedium plants,

Epimedium species

trillium and dicentra plants, usually at the September Spring Bulb and Camellia show.

| Top |

Some of the plants being grown on at the time of writing (August 2006) are:

• allium carinatum ssp. Pulchellum (see Stephen Ryan’s book ‘More Exceptional Plants’

allium carinatum ssp. pulchellum

• allium cyathoflorum (pretty blue-toned alliums)
• belladonna lilies (naked ladies)

allium cyathoflorum

• allium cyathoflorum (pretty blue-toned alliums)
• belladonna lilies (naked ladies)

Cyclamen coum

• cyclamen coum (both with silver foliage and the glossy dark green leaves)
• daffodils, potted variety
• geranium palmatum
• geranium macrorrhizum ‘Snow Sprite’
• geranium oxianum ‘LaceTime’
• hellebore plants (large divisions) with rich near-black flowers
• heuchera ‘Snow Storm’ (a pretty variegated form of heuchera)
• miniature species daffodils
• muscari neglectum ‘Valerie Finniss’ (a delightful pale blue grape hyacinth)
• muscari macrocarpum ‘Aureum’ (a golden grape hyacinth)
• salvia corrugata (a shrub salvia)
• salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’
• salvia mexicana ‘Limelight’
• salvia ‘Hot Lips’
• santolina neapolitana ‘E.A. Bowles’
• sedum ‘Frosty Morn’
• veronica spicata (they are used for borders at the Xeriscape Rose Garden, and the source of many enquiries)

| Top |

Veronica spicata at the Xeriscape Rose Garden

At the Iris, Rhododendron Show in October each year, amongst a variety of plants, we always have potted irises including tall bearded irises, Japanese water irises and a variety of species irises.

At the Spring Exhibition and Rose Show we will have a collection of roses, the highlight being a collection of one rose never before offered in Australia and imported by one of our members, Dr Neil Mitchell direct from China some years ago. The rose is known as rosa chinensis ‘Ten Thousand Lights’ and we are proud to have a number of plants on offer to those who are interested in rare plants. Rosa chinensis is of course a wonderful performer in the garden and if you know rosa chinensis ‘Mutabilis’ you will know how tough and yet beautiful these roses are. ‘Ten Thousand Lights’ is a clear pink, and the descriptive name is indicative of the number of flowers you can expect during a very long flowering season.

| Top |