A Visit to Scampston's Spring Plant Fair

Thanks to Rodney Anness, a volunteer here at Scampston for submitting his account of a visit to Scampston Walled Garden on our Plant Fair day in June. If you are interested in writing content, taking photos, or volunteering with us at Scampston - please contact hlo@scampston.co.uk to find out more.  The Autumn Plant Fair will take place on the 25th September. 

An incredible number of cars were in the overflow field when we turned into the car park with the plant fair taking place in the usual spot for cars. Big surprise was a happy reunion with Chris who was on gate duty and we knew from our time as volunteers at Nunnington Hall. After what had been an incredibly busy morning, there were now not too many visitors here. We were told that, as it was lunch time, most people were assuaging their pangs of hunger in the Scampston Hall’s splendid café adjacent to the walled garden. This was opportunistic for us as we could see all that was available and chat to the nursery men and women without having to feel obliged to move for others.

First up was an incredible display of ‘Venus Fly Traps’ of various shapes, sizes and colours and very attractive. But they were too reminiscent for us of the deadly plants from John Wyndham’s post-apocalyptic novel, ‘The Day of the Triffids’!

 We had both decided that we had more than enough in our garden without buying anymore-but needless to say we did. We bought a trachelospermum asiaticum a climber for a difficult spot in our garden; a gunnera for our large pond surround and some much needed herbs for the kitchen.

The stallholder kept them for us whilst we went for a walk around the lake and surrounding woodland and back through the historic parkland of Capability Brown fame. Even without the expert assistance from the superbly informed staff it was possible to appreciate the cleverness of the planting that frames the Hall with the lake enhancing and drawing the eye. Nevertheless I made mental note that I must avail myself of the kind offer of a conducted tour which one of the staff made to me when I became a volunteer.

After a super coffee in the café which was still pretty busy, (how hard those ladies work) we returned to the plant fair and picked up our purchases. The stall holder very kindly threw in a lovely pot of African marigolds - a perfect end to a most enjoyable visit.

Rodney Anness, June 2017