AGS/SRGC Hexham Spring Show 2026 Report

The Hexham Show, held in the Social rooms of the large mart complex, welcomes the distant exhibitor, whether from England, Scotland, and even on occasion Wales and Ireland with adjacent access to the A69, ample, convenient parking, a multiplicity of nursery stands and a large cafeteria with a tempting variety of hot food and drinks available throughout the day. Consequently, this is always a popular show, and the benches were packed with colour and 375 plants on this cold, blustery day, but the number of exhibitors totalled a rather disappointing 36, with noticeable lacunae both in the junior classes, and from the north on what was a ‘Scottish rules’ day.

Amongst several Certificates of Merit awarded, none exceeded Mala Janes’ monster Muscarimia macrocarpum. Your reporter spent some time trying to identify its distinctive perfume, which some find unpleasant, and, suddenly transported back to the nursery, was reminded of ‘Dettol’ (tdmk).

Mark Childerhouse’s Saxifraga quadrifaria was similarly rewarded, but I was greatly impressed by Saxifraga ‘Allendale Frost’, shown by John Dixon who had an excellent day, winning the R B Cooke Plate for the senior points aggregate. One of very many excellent hybrids emanating from that delightful village some 10 miles distant (we were pleased to welcome the raiser Ray Fairbairn, seeking ‘the darkest primula possible’ from the trade stands to add to yet another breeding programme), ‘Allendale Frost’ bears pristine large white flowers over a tight mat reminiscent of S. spruneri, although the parentage is S. marginata x (remarkably) the almost ungrowable (except on tufa) S. diapensioides.

Another intentional cross of local provenance was benched by your reporter, who had been able to cross the rather tricky Primula renifolia during its brief tenure with the deep blue-purple eastern form of the oxlip, Primula elatior ssp. meyeri. Two offspring have flowered so far, one superior to the other and arguably superior to both parents as well. The two offspring are a pin and thrum, so further seedlings may be forthcoming.

Dionysia ‘Alcyone’ represented another intentional hybrid shown by its raiser. As long ago as 1992, John Dixon crossed D. microphylla (rarely seen these days) with the late-flowering D. involucrata,  giving rise to a most attractive pink-flowered clone with short stems.

This is always a good show for frits. Fritillaria reuteri (George Young) is not often exhibited, and proved to be rather tall with brown/yellow bicoloured bell-shaped flowers, mostly two to a stem. F. wendelboi (Don Peace) is much along the lines of a chartreuse/brown-striped F. hermonis, or a dwarfer F. acmopetala, from which it differs by minutiae, but is a most attractive exhibit for all that.

Mauritania, wedged between the ‘devil’ (Sahara) and the deep blue Atlantic is an improbable home for an ‘alpine’, but has given name to Gagea mauritanica, although it is said to only grow in the Balearic Islands and Algeria. In fact, in this large, attractive and rather overlooked genus of small spring bulbs, it is very similar to G. lutea which is native to several woods near Hexham where I pay it an annual vernal pilgrimage. Bob Worsley had grown the large panful from Scottish Rock Garden Club seed in 2017. He also won the E G Watson Trophy (three plants, new or rare), and the Sandhoe trophy (best small pan) for a magnificent Fritillaria bucharica.

Final mentions to three plants, rarely seen today and feared almost lost: Primula ‘Netta Dennis’ (David Millward), one of the very few Petiolarid primulas seen these days; Epigaea repens (Alan Newton), formerly so well grown locally by the late Robin Brown for whom the Sandhoe trophy is named, and Alkanna aucheriana (John Dixon), one of Jim Archibald’s best Turkish introductions.

Reporter: John Richards
Photographer: Peter Maguire