ESTABLISHED in 1999 by a group of volunteers passionate about plants and horticulture, Gardening Scotland celebrates its 20-year anniversary at the end of the month with three days of workshops, displays and exhibitors at the Royal Highland Centre at Ingliston, west of Edinburgh.
Intended principally to spread the simple joy of being in a delightful garden or green space, the centrepiece of the event, which calls itself “Scotland’s festival of flowers” is the Floral Pavilion, a display of beautiful plants such as peonies and azaleas from specialist nurseries from across the country.
Be inspired
If you’ve lost the plot with your garden, get new ideas at the show gardens avenue where exhibitors including YMCA Scotland, Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh and Lynn Hill Garden Design share trends in party gardens, exterior cooking spaces and gardens for well-being.
As well as workshops, question sessions and talks by leading growers and gardeners, members of the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society will be on hand to offer answers and advice to your gardening conundrums.
Teams from groups such as Scottish Bonsai Association, the Carnivorous Plant Society and Glorious Gardens of Argyll will also be poised for your more specialist queries.
Bring it all back home
Hundreds of species of plants and flowers will be available for sale at the Plant Village from nurseries such as Caulders, Gateside and Down To Earth and Scottish growers including Binny Plants, Glendoick and Macplants.
If you are looking to fill your garden space or home with new plants, be there on Sunday June 2 when exhibitors sell off the plants at reduced prices from 4pm.
Greenfingered gods
The new holders of the titles Gardener of the Year and Young Gardener of the Year will be announced at the festival.
With £200 of Caulders Garden Centres vouchers on offer, entry is open to all, from
professionals to home-gardeners, previous winners include Sallie Sillars, head gardener at Horatio’s Garden in Glasgow and Louis Wall of the South West Scotland Rail Adopters Gardening Group, which maintains the gardens at more than 20 stations between Gretna and Glasgow.
Not just child’s play
Family area the Big Back Garden offers a place to play and relax on bouncy castles and inflatables as well as the opportunity to see birds of prey and bees up close, or have a round of mini-golf at the Scottish Association for Mental Health’s Redhall Walled Gardens.
There’s giant garden games for all the family and a programme of football-related activities led by the West Lothian Youth Foundation.
All ages and abilities are catered for, from intergenerational games involving adults and children to sessions for younger players where they improve their skills while the coach keeps them engaged with a story.
Go green
Leave the car at home: with space on board for plants, Lothian Motorcoaches are running dedicated routes from 19 locations including Ayr, Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow and Stirling, while Lothian Buses will offer a shuttle service from Edinburgh city centre.
It’s the first time the festival has partnered with the bus companies and is part of a plan to make Gardening Scotland more accessible and sustainable, organisers say.
May 31 to June 2, Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston, Edinburgh, 10am to 5pm, £15, £17 at the gate. www.gardeningscotland.com
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here