The West Woodhay Gardeners Fair 2018

Last year I went to the West Woodhay Gardeners Fair for the first time and I loved it.  You can read about last year's fair here.  I was very pleased to be invited back again this year and I had raved about the fair so much trusty sidekick decided they wanted to come along too.  We set off fairly early as it is a good couple of hours to get there from Leicester.
The weather was perfect garden fair weather: blue skies, fluffy white clouds and a pleasant breeze.  Now we all know that a the moment a bit of overnight rain would be welcome, but for garden visits this weather is good.
There was an excellent range of stalls again.  Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants, Cotswold Garden Flowers, Pennards, Special Plants, Edulis Nursery, the list goes on and on.  All high quality nurseries, all nurseries who are not at every plant fair.  If you want to attract serious gardeners to your plant fair, these are the type of nurseries that you need to include.
There are lots of garden-related stalls as well, sort that you want to mooch around a few times, whilst deciding what is going to come home with you.
This is Peter Dibble weaving willow on his stand.
The fair runs over three days, Friday to Sunday 2nd - 23rd June.  We went on Friday and there were plenty of people wandering around the stands enjoying the day.
For me one of the joys of West Woodhay is the ability to wander around the grounds.
Which were looking fantastic.  Here is the best use of astilbes I think I have ever seen.  I do not usually like them, but they look stunning here.
For those of you who dislike petunias -  how about this?  The deep red is just fantastic.
and then there is the rose garden.  The scent of roses on this warm day was just a delight.
This rose, The Generous Gardener, stole my heart.  This is going to have to find a place in my garden.
I went to see if the enormous pelagonium was still in the glasshouse, and it is.  This made me happy.
We also paused by the polytunnel of strawberries, what a sight!
The borders around the gardens are full and lavish.
and there is a new part of the garden to see.  There is this Italian style garden, which rills and the most beautiful 'alter' water feature.
It is simple and effective and on this warm sunny day for a moment you could believe you were in Italy.
There are many statues around the grounds, we might have stood for a while in front of this one wondering if he was so excited he could crush a grape*.
This young chap seems to have a bill hook in one hand and possibly a loaf of bread in the other.  Someone (me) might have pondered whether it was the head of crocodile.  Apparently this was a silly suggestion.

Enough statue musing, the real question of the day is of course, what did I buy?
This is Crassula coccinea, bought from the Cotswold Plants stall.
she is tempting me with that 'I'm nearly ready to flower' look.  She will live in a pot as she is fairly hardy but not very hardy.

I really enjoyed my day, it is the perfect mix of a great garden fair and great gardens.

West Woodhay Gardeners Fair is open 22nd to 24th June 2018 and is open 10 am -5.30 pm



* with due nod to Stu Francis

Comments

  1. This is great. I really enjoyed reading this. I like the village community feel to this piece. Kind of like a Farmer's Market for gardeners.

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    Replies
    1. Yes it did feel a bit like that - it made it a fun day

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  2. Great pictures - I can see a lovely day was had by all.
    I particularly like that arrangement of petunias - unusual colour :)

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