These ‘instant’ gardens that pop up for just a few weeks of the year are a gardener’s paradise; they showcase the very latest plants and designs we could have within our own gardens. Therein lays the problem. Until you actually go to the show you don’t think there is anything wrong with your own garden but when you arrive, see all the beautiful plant combinations and the meandering path through scented borders of plants you think “I want that!”
I admit the lure of these gardens as much as anyone else, but - and there is a but - if you look closely at these gardens, specifically the planting combinations you’ll notice something is amiss. Many of the plants that they use for the show gardens have been carefully grown by nurseries to look their best and in full flower. Much of the flowers you see would never normally be in flower together, usually flowering at slightly different times of the year and so it gives a somewhat distorted view of how the garden would look in ‘real life’ as it were. Having said this not every garden will use this technique but it’s worth looking out for and seeing if you can spot the difference.