The pre Chelsea Open Days were a week earlier than normal this year so that B&L did not clash with the Malvern Show the following week as has been the case for many years. This has been done to give more staffing over the Open Days and the Langdon family were there in force backed up with our good friend, John Smith. This results in the show pots having a further three weeks to reach maturity before Chelsea, rather than the normal two.
   This did not diminish in any way the spectacle when opening the door of the show house. It gives an eager anticipation of what your own plants will look like in a few weeks time, hopefully. The opening day was well attended by the general public and numerous NBS members took the opportunity to meet up. This was no doubt an excellent spur to plan entries to local and national Society show in the coming months.