The Royal Norfolk Show 2016

Evolution Show Garden

The garden as its title implies has been designed and constructed to symbolise the development of plant from thousand of years ago to the latest varieties available today. It centred around a modern interpretation on of a Bronze age round house. The walls of the structure would have been made of woven branches covered in mud, this is replaced with woven steel which has been allowed to rust to give a more earthy colour. It has a living roof that replicates the turf roof that would have been common with this type of building. The Sandstone paving has fossils of plants within it, mainly ferns, linking to the ferns at the back of the garden, may have been around thousands of years ago.

As well as ornamental plants in the display, there are also herbs, vegetable and fruiting plants, symbolizing the hunter gatherer way of life that was common throughout the world prior to the establishment of farming. As the garden moves from the rear of the paving, the plants become more floriferous, as over time plants evolved and used flowers to attract insects for pollination to create their seed. At the front of the border planting contains up to the minute new hybrids which have developed using the latest horticultural breeding and propagation techniques.

Sponsors: Marshall’s Seeds, M & B Distributors, Norfolk Quality Plants, NRS Landscape Centre & Unwins

Evolution Show Garden Construction

Here are some of the flowers that are in the garden: Alchemilla mollis, Athyrium niponicum metalliicum, Chard Bright Lights, Cosmos Sonata mixed, Dryopteris affinis Cristata, Dyryopteris filix-mas, Epemidium Pink Elf, Eryngium Big Blue, Eryngium Blue Star, Foeniculum vul. Purpureum, Hedera helix Goldchild, Lavender angustifolia, Lettuce mixed leaves, Matteuccia struthiopteris, Penstemon, Rosemarinus officinalis, Salvia nemerosa Kate Glen, Salvia Super Trouper, Scabiosa, Strawberry EM1592, Verbena rigida, Verbena bonairiensis, Zaluzianskya ovata Star Balsam. This is not an exhaustive list of what is growing in the garden, so if you have any questions about the plants, please ask.