FORMER high school teacher Stella Rankin is up to her elbows in dirt, surrounded by perfect blooms, with a river to create and only a few hours left to do it.
“It’s a rocky outcrop,” she explains, standing back to take in the colourful display she hopes will win her a hat-trick of awards at this year’s national gardening show. “There’s a huge range of alpines, a slope into a woodland where there’s a collection of primulas and ferns, and all divided by a riverbed.”
Behind her are some planks of wood where the river will ultimately appear and a lot of plants still nestling in their pots, but by today her Kevock Plants stand will be transformed into a little chunk of blossoming nature. And by the end of the annual Gardening Scotland show on Sunday, she’ll know whether she’s managed to hold on to her title for Best Floral Exhibit for the third year running.
It would be quite an achievement for the onetime English teacher at Dalkeith’s St David’s secondary, who quit school life eight years ago to focus on running her expanding Lasswade-based nursery.
“We start thinking about the display in winter, we prepare the plants in the nursery then grow them in the field before digging them up again and putting it all together. It’s hard work, but it’s all worth it.”
The fruits of her hard labour will be unveiled today when Scotland’s largest flower and garden show throws open its doors to around 30,000 visitors at the Royal Highland Centre at Ingliston. For three days outdoor specialists, gardening businesses, professionals and devoted amateur gardeners will reveal their personal pick of the crop.
It will, says Beechgrove Garden presenter and Gardening Scotland chairman, Jim McColl, be a bigger and better show than the Ingliston venue has ever seen before. “The show grows every year. We’re expecting more than 10,000 through the gates every day.”
“At one end of the display we’re creating a little kitchen area to show all the things that can go into a compost bin,” laughs Waste Aware’s national team leader Tim Morton.
Across the showground, Cameron Elliot and son Simon are checking the progress of their Tuscan garden display. But can it be recreated in Edinburgh?
“Definitely,” says Cameron, who runs Morningside-based Primo Landscaping. “The Scottish climate is actually fine for growing an olive tree.”
His company has been overwhelmed by new customers seeking a professionally designed landscaped garden – one recent project for a city lawyer cost almost £50,000 to complete, another took the company to JK Rowling’s home to create a Mediterranean-style corner in her Merchiston back garden.
But there’s more to the show than just plants. This year’s event has expanded to cover other elements of garden life. The Big Back Garden is crammed with barbecues, patio furniture and garden games while the Living Garden section is where experts in garden nature will gather to offer their advice. Non-gardeners can retreat to a massive craft area or refuel in the International Village food court.
But it’s the Floral Hall exhibition area where most visitors will linger. Among the exhibits is the Scottish Rock Garden Club display featuring a collection of stunning Meconopsis – papery blue poppies – which are direct descendants of plants brought from Tibet to Scotland in 1934.
Japanese student Atsuko Akabane travelled to Scotland via college in America to learn more about the delicate plants.
“Many of the plants on the display are from the Far East countries,” says Atsuko. “It might seem strange to come here to learn more about them, but I have already found out about plants that I never knew existed.”
Bringing the show up to date is a fascinating computer image at Scotland’s Gardens Scheme display, where 65,000 photographs captured over four days shows the gradual flowering of a royal blue peony. It’s part of a garden created by Billy Carruthers of Binny Plants, near Broxburn.
But one of the most striking exhibits isn’t even a plant – it’s a three-metre high stainless steel thistle, crafted by sculptor David Wilson at his West Calder studio using a welding torch. The impressive result features craggy copper flower heads, each one the size of a football.
Organisers hope the show will be a record-breaker, with more crowds expected than ever before. “Everything is perfect,” says Jim McColl. “All we need now is the weather.”
The event runs from today (Friday May 30) until Sunday June 1 at the Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston. Ticket prices are £14/£12 and children go free. Further information from www.
gardeningscotland.com.
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See tomorrow’s Evening News gardening page for ideas on how to make your own garden grow.GREEN STYLEIT might not sound so comfortable, but at least the latest in gardening wear – essentials made from nettles – is as green as fashion can get.
Heriot-Watt students will unveil their collection of biodegradable outfits at Gardening Scotland, in a range of fabrics made of hemp, nettles and potato starch.
Which means that when their working life is done, they can go back to the garden and on to the compost heap.
The students at the university’s School of Textiles and Design were challenged to come up with such an eco-friendly range clothing for a series of fashion shows at the Ingliston garden festival.
The full article contains 943 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
