Blankets…

Show gardens are hugely dependant on plants – this goes without saying really. Early shows (such as Malvern) are linked closely with what good old Mother Nature is doing in the first quarter of the year and plants you thought would be fine could easily be over in a warm spring or nowhere near in a cold one.

Snow? Then you really have to worry.

Longer dormancy periods, frost damage, even death. Spring show garden plants are not pals with old Jack Frost and his mate Frosty the Snowman, so you can imagine our despair as we gazed out of our windows onto blanket upon blanket of clean and crisp snow.

But there was still time to go. The snow would clear (eventually) and we would be able to assess some of the damage.

I tend to shut myself into a semi state of dormancy over the winter, and I could see no real reason why any of our selected plants would ever want to wake up at all, let alone for the beginning of May.

Would we have any plants at all?

This is the second of Claire's latest about the development of the Anniversary Show Garden. Tune in tomorrow for part 3...