Gardeners World Live Show 2010

bottleblonde

Is anyone else going to the GW Live Show this year? I'm going up on Sunday. If anyone has been, would you care to share your tips / best bits / etc?

It's such a large show, i'd hate to miss anything! (esp as it's such a long drive up!!)

Thanx

lily-ella

Lucky you! I would love to go! have a great day

I was wondering if the plants were expensive...

dawn1974

We are going tomorrow :j

We are setting off from Manchester in a couple of hour's and we are staying over tonight

Penelope_Penguin

bottleblonde wrote: »

Is anyone else going to the GW Live Show this year? I'm going up on Sunday. If anyone has been, would you care to share your tips / best bits / etc?

It's such a large show, i'd hate to miss anything! (esp as it's such a long drive up!!)

Thanx

You might find some tips on this thread from last year I'll merge this later.

mrbadexample

Managed to blag my way in on Thursday. :money:

Haven't been before, so didn't really know what to expect, and only had a couple of hours. I thought it was mostly flower-orientated, and as I only really do veg, a lot of it wasn't of interest to me. I got a few tips on how to save my faucaria, bought a couple of small lavender plants (£3.00 each - no idea if that's a good price), an onion hoe (£5.00), a couple of tiny bags of compost for my Venus Fly Traps, and some nice fat olives stuffed with garlic cloves. :drool: Well, the Good Food Show was on too.

bottleblonde

Thanks for the replies. I'm driving up from Southampton so it's going to be a long day, but I'm really looking forward to it ( & I like driving, fortunately!). I booked the last day because I thought there might be some bargains

I really wanted to go on a day when Alys Fowler was talking but her shows were booked up so I've got a ticket to go in to the 'Theatre' - hopefully that might be interesting.

So, it'll have to be an early night for me - camera & ipod are on charge, water bottles cooling in the fridge and alarm set for 'silly o'clock'!

I'll let you know how it goes...

elsien

I went yesterday - it was bigger than last years. The outside area with the show gardens was about the same size I think, but a bit more seating. I didn't get into any of the talks as I decided to go at the last minute.
The central plant area was mainly the usual flowers, and perennials, nothing much on the shrub front. Spent more money than I originally planned as some of the plants were newer ones that my local nursery probably won't get in for ages so I decided it was worth paying for them. Some of the more ordinary plants/herbs were slightly more expensive than my local nursery. The prices on the different stands are very similar, but it doesn't hurt to shop around. Smaller pots for £4-£5 seemed better value than the bigger ones for £10 which weren't twice the size. Also mum and I bought some between us, and found plants that it looked possible to split fairly easily. But take a note of where you've seen something. I spent ages trying to find a stand with a particular plant on that I decided to go back for, and never did track it down. ( And there's a plant creche if you do go a bit mad.)
The main difference was the inside halls - they were huge. I spent some time getting tiddly in the food hall, and had a bit of a wander round the other bits. A slightly odd mixture of plants and gardening stuff, some displays, then the jewellery, hand creams etc that you get at most craft type shows.
I got there at 10ish left at 3.30, didn't get time to see everything but I'd got "show fatigue" by then.
I enjoyed the day, but at £22 per ticket plus £8 parking, it's not a cheap day out!

LJM

didnt manage to go but have just watched it on iplayer there were some lovely displays there

thifty

I went on wed with my mil and 2 small kids- big mistake! :rotfl:Wish I had sent my 5 yr old to school as he was a bit bored (until we found the free ice cream and pizza) .

I have been for the last 6 -7 years and tbh I think it is getting very samey. I enjoyed the food bit a lot but thought the gardening hall was disappointing or maybe we just missed some? The RHS marquee was nice but virtually exactly the same as last year with many of the exhibtors in exactly the same positions! Bought a few plants but didn't go mad tbh.

My main gripe, and what I think spoilt the show for me, was how ignorant people have become. I am 36 so not a really old wrinkly moaning about the "good old days" , but I got really fed up of moving out of people's way only so they could get through, with no acknowledgement from them whatsoever:mad:

bottleblonde

Well a very tiring day but thoroughly enjoyed it. The weather was glorious & I was a bit like a kid in a sweet shop! I went straight out to look at the show gardens, which were lovely & quite inspiring. Took plenty of piccies. Then I went in to the Floral Marquee, and this is where I made my first mistake. I've got a thing about purple / bronze plants and got drawn in to a stand selling Heucheras. I ended up buying 4 straight away. It wasn't until later I bothered to look at the programme guide and realised they were also selling plants in the Halls, which it turned out were cheaper & larger. However, the chap I bought mine from was really friendly and very helpful. Some of the plants were quite unusual and the displays really eye-catching.

The 'rage' at the show were these plastic crate trolleys and I did buy one and it was really useful. But they really should have come with instructions as some people were a downright hazard with them! I totally agree with Thifty on the attitude of a lot of the visitors.

I had booked to see the last ‘Magazine’ show with Adam Pascoe and about Patio Veg. Quite interesting but didn’t really learn anything new. I did feel there was quite an emphasis on gyo though and there were 4 veg gardens on show – a bit arty though, nothing like mine!

I didn’t get enough time to look round the Good Food section, but that’s because I kept wandering around the trade stands outside. I could have bought just as much ‘stuff’ – ornaments etc – as plants! It did strike me that throughout the event it was extremely commercialised. I know the world revolves around money & business, but maybe cos it was the BBC, I suppose I thought it wouldn't be so in your face.

Then at 4.30pm the final sale started and it took me back to the jumble sales my mum used to take me to when I was little! I bought a couple of large potted aliums for £5/pair, and 5 x ginormous Astilbes which should have been £15, but he threw in 1 more. The frenzy in the Floral marquee for the display plants was manic, and I think some people got some great deals. But £10 for a bowl of potted lettuce was taking the mickey!

All in all a fab day and I will go again, but next time I’ll wear rubber socks to combat the trolleys, and remember to have a really good look round at every stall before I part with my money!