Evenley Wood Rare Plant Fair

 It has been a tradition that my daughter, Ali, and I visit the plant fair at Evenley Wood every year, it usually occurs on a Sunday near my birthday at the end of March, and is a perfect day out. Last year's plant fair at Evenley Wood was cancelled due to Covid and this spring's one was delayed until last weekend, so we last visited in March 2019, and saw quite a few changes have been made in the intervening time: another access road, better toilets and more great seating around the wood. The day was perfect, slight breeze, but plenty of sunshine.

I tend to leave taking photographs until a bit late when lots of people have been to the fair! This was a great stall, not sure which nursery, but they had a great selection of plants, Evenley Wood is further east than any of the other plant fairs and attracts some nurseries who don't come to others fairs, so there were some unfamiliar faces. Belowis a general view of the walkway through the stalls

I really liked this huge aster and bought it from the stall in the first photograph, it's called Barr's Blue and this is what it says when I look it up, good tip on hiding the stalks which I thought were maybe because it was in a pot.:

'The New England aster 'Barr's Blue' is a perennial plant with autumn accents and in combination with other New England asters and tall grasses it creates a beautiful background for low-growing perennials in the foreground, which hide the somewhat bare stalks. New England asters also look very nice in front of autumn-coloured trees'.

Below is a view of Cotswold Garden Flowers nursery display. They always arrange an interesting selection of plants together in a tray. Makes me want to pick up the tray and buy everything!

Having bought a selection of plants to add to my increasingly crowded garden, we had a great lunch in the cafe, and then had a look round the woodland area:

the trees with low sun shining through them looked glorious

There were some sutumn croci and some cyclamen which I haven't photographed, but nothing like the daffs and narcissi to be seen in spring.

Photo of Ali in front of the croci

Next years RPFs!!!

and back at home, I unpacked the plants I'd bought and thought about how I might fit them into the garden. Will the 'miniature' buddleja really remain small?

I've come up with a solution, dig up more lawn, obviously, and also thin out/ dig up plants which have spread over large areas with little to give like Achillea. And look forward to more plant fairs next year.