Thanks to Hoggywart for capturing this video of the RHS Spring Flower Show at Bute Park, Cardiff back in 2007. The show enjoyed glorious spring sunshine and there were lots of excellent floral displays to inspire gardeners; it is a good excuse for a spring break to Wales.
Look no further if you want Christmas gift ideas for the garden-lovers in your life. The Royal Horticultural Society has a wide selection of books, plants, gardening tools and tickets to their shows but something really special is the RHS Gift Membership. It will give someone a whole year of garden visits and inspiration.
The lucky recipient of an RHS Gift Membership gets unlimited access to the RHS gardens with a family guest, The Garden monthly magazine, which is worth £51 a year, as well as the opportunity to explore more than 140 RHS Recommended Gardens across the UK. The gift even includes a selection of gardening goodies to unwrap so you can choose to give yourself a Christmas treat or the RHS will send it on your behalf with a personal message and really make someone's Christmas.
After Christmas, the RHS show season gets of to an early start with the charming Cardiff show. This show has a real spring festival feel, full of inspirational displays. It runs 16–18 April 2010, in Bute Park with the magnificent backdrop of Cardiff Castle. And remember, RHS members get to enjoy Members’ Days and buy discounted tickets for RHS shows.
The Royal Horticultural Society in the UK, is conducting research into whether the human voice affects tomato plants. According to the Times Online, open auditions are being held tomorrow at the RHS garden, Wisley, Surrey, to find voices which can make recordings. It is proposed that the recordings will be played 24/7, via headphones attached to plant pots, for ten plants in the study.
Clearly, results will be dependant on the acoustic properties of the pot and I believe that various species may show marked differences in their preferences for the rhythmic nature of the sound being broadcast. In previously unpublished research, it has been observed by an unreliable but otherwise amiable source, that the genetically modified tomato, TOMASH, responds vigorously to Reggae.
Stuart Robinson from Busselton, Western Australia, has launched blotanical.com, a directory of gardening blogs which offer gardening tips, gardening info and heaps of ideas to help gardeners of all experience get more out of their hobby and out of their gardens. Stuart describes himself as a non-academic but passionate gardener with a real love of gardening, and observes that like most people who potter around, he gardens because it gives pleasure, a sense of satisfaction and a retreat from an insanely busy world.
Blotanical.com has some particularly interesting mashups showing the location of gardening blogs around the world. All gardeners have to retreat from their garden at some time and they will find this a most browsable resource. Well done Stuart, I am sure it will grow :-)
