At Gardener's World Live I was keen to cover every pathway in the Floral Marquee and take as many pictures as I can, but let's just say MOH wasn't so keen on my ordered approach and on occasion headed off towards whatever caught his eye. I've shared before here how he misnames plants, I'm sure on purpose, his favourite being busy lilies (not lizzies), and so I wasn't surprised when he asked me if these were those.
They aren't busy lizzies at all, but they are a kind of lily - you might know them as Cala or Arum lilies. Usually here in South London we spot the white varieties in front gardens and I always think they're such an elegant plant. It turns out the white ones are hardier than the colourful relatives, and there's quite some colours to choose from.
The pink was so bright, that you couldn't help but be taken in by it - well a girl who's a bit partial to pink, couldn't be - and gazing at it again, I think it's the same pink as my garden trug, yes the one that had the herbs in. The purple and cream variety was much more subtle, but not uniform at all and even now I'm checking out each of the flowers and their markings.
The real star of the show was these dark red, almost black flowers - aren't they stunning?
While I like the white, I think I'd be tempted by the darker variety. We didn't leave with any though, the thought of carrying them back to London on the train didn't appeal, actually it was the part of the journey across London and out to Greenwich that didn't appeal, getting them back from Birmingham would no doubt have been easy!
I can see that driving to Gardener's World Live definitely has it appeal, but what do you think of these canna lilies?