RHS Harlow Carr

I'd like to thank everyone for their good wishes for my dad. He seems to be recovering well and I'm sure he'll be back playing bowls again in no time.

We had planned to go to RHS Harlow Carr on Sunday but my dad needed picking up from the hospital in the morning so we put our plans on hold until after we'd delivered him safely home.

The reason for the planned visit was because there was a plant sale on Sunday as well as a craft fair. It was afternoon before we arrived so we didn't spend very long looking at the gardens, though it appeared that many of the spring displays were on the way out, daffodils already having faded and tulips about to do so. There were still some containers which had lovely mixes of tulips planted in them which has given me lots of inspiration for planting this autumn.

We did visit the vegetable gardens which seem to have been planted up well, though they'll look better once the plants get established in a month or two. I was envious of all the lovely rhubarb forcing pots, they'd look great on my allotment but they're so expensive.

At first glance I thought this was more rhubarb, but a sign close by reavealed it to be Cynara cardunculus. I had to look it up when I got home to find out that they're in fact cardoons.

The plant sale was well attended and I came home with two new plants, a viola Roscastle Black and a dianthus Early Bird Stardust.

Eleanor enjoyed the craft fair and treated herself to a giraffe picture by Giles Bassett-Darby to add to her collection of giraffes. It will look lovely once it's framed.

I hope to return to RHS Harlow Carr in the near future to take in more of the gardens.