pumpkinstrokemarrow

An interesting performance and reasonable value for money when the voucher from the RHS mag. was applied to the bill. Tea, sandwiches, mini 'Devon Cream Tea' and cake. Tea fairtrade or some such. Sandwiches with complex fillings, cut into oblongs about three inches by one (no crusts) and fresh from the chiller cabinet. The cream part of the cream tea was in little tubs from Cornwall and rather good. Jam and scone adequate, with the scone very crumbly and with BH giving an interesting demonstration of consumption. Cakes were all brown, cool, moist, heavily iced and very sweet. Not very English at all: where was Victoria sponge never mind the authentic sponge?

Followed tea by a visit to the Wisley branch of the RHS library. All very neat and tidy with the books impeccably numbered and labelled. Less grand books than the Vincent Square branch but probably more useful. Although we did wonder about the place of expensive picture books about plants in the age of broadband. And they were weak on flashy German gardens - of which I had just learned that there are lots.

Preceded tea by a visit to the gardens themselves. Lots of good looking crocuses. A wander around the pinetum. A visit to the new glass house where we liked the display of cactuses and succulents. Intrigued by the various plants, some very large, which seemed to consist of a continuously growing, single bud. Opening leaves often had strange patterns on them and were often arranged very mathematically. A lot of them were aloes. Quite a lot of displays of things which like dry, both inside and outside. Lots of pebbles and gravel. I rather like them - although I do not think they often translate well to suburban front gardens which do not have enough space and you get too much design to the square metre.

The only mistake in the new glass house was the cement floor. The design was driven in part by the need to be chair friendly and have no steps. So there was a swathe of cement floor and path, some of it gently sloping, tricked out to look a bit like the sort of flaky stone which is sometimes used for London pavements, Lambeth Bridge being a bad example. Effect rather spoilt by the joints in the real cement running straight across the grain of the fake stone. In any event, not a very successful bit of design to my mind. The problem being the gently sloping paths of gently irregular shape; they did not please this eye. No great problem with fake in general.