In October 2010 Kent Group members went on a trip to the Autumn Plant Fair at Beervelde Park, near Ghent in Belgium. Many requests for a repeat visit have resulted in another trip being planned for May this year. Full details and booking form are in the Winter 2012 Newsletter but if you’d like a reminder of what a great time our members had, here’s a report, which was published in last winter’s newsletter.

Whilst waiting for the Shuttle to depart from Calais on the way home, Karin enquired over the coach intercom, “Who would like a repeat trip?” The response was a unanimous, “Yes”, such was the enjoyment of a very well organised day, a wonderful venue and splendid sunshine.

The practicality of the day depends, of course, on the millions spent on the tunnel and motorway system. Although it is an early start, the journey in a comfortable coach across lowland Flanders does not demand one’s attention so a packed breakfast and some missed sleep can both be taken, plus a hot drink dispensed by the relief driver, to set you up for the plant hunt to come. We arrived about noon (Belgian time) to see people leaving laden with purchases, and parking fields well filled. Would we get in? Would there be anything left? No worries, the site was enormous and swallowed thousands without feeling crowded.

This report is very much a personal account because Linda and I, not noted for speed at events like these, realised about four-o-clock that we had only seen a small part of it. The fair was in the grounds of a large house with flower borders, mature trees and a lake that would be visit-worthy in their own right. Screened from the road by trees and shrubbery we had no idea of the scale except for the stream of visitors. The entrance walkway beneath large trees, lined with stalls whose wares immediately impeded our progress, opened onto a large field with all manner of plant stalls, some set up on tables, others on the ground, some large businesses and many individual and sometimes specialised ones. There was a host of possibilities from the commonplace to tree seedlings that not even Jeremy had met before. Linda and I were very pleased to get several perennials we had not seen before but resisted the temptation to buy any of the new-to-us oak trees. As Colin commented afterwards, “So much of interest at such reasonable prices.” Someone had said that the fair was like Hampton Court and a village show rolled into one; and it wasn’t being unkind, there was a very friendly informal atmosphere.

Having concentrated on the plant section, with only a brief stop by the lake for a hot pancake and a Jupiler beer, we suddenly realised that we had only seen the half of it. There were ornaments and statues (fortunately the three metal giraffes were sold), sundries, artworks, other refreshment possibilities and who knows what else, though we did have time to admire the herbaceous border and watch the butterflies making the most of the hot sunshine.

Having been unable to go on previous occasions we had been looking forward to this since it was first mentioned and became very concerned when the numbers seemed to stall. It fully justified our expectations and the five hours flashed by and were time very well spent. Having been, we are looking forward to the next opportunity and David has already reacted to this visit’s success by offering to organise a trip to the spring show in May 2012. So make a note in your diaries.

Our thanks must go to David for his trademark impeccable organisation and to Karin who made sure all was well on the day. They even arranged for a cold misty start to dissolve into a shirt sleeves sunny afternoon, much better than conditions in Kent that day.

I managed to squeeze a reference to my enthusiasm for train travel onto an earlier write-up; well, there is a station at Beervelde within sight of the show……..Forget it, how would you carry all those plants home!