After spending all day on Saturday last taking photographs at Exeter, followed by a wild trip back across Salisbury plain in a torrential thunderstorm on Saturday, I spent Sunday in the Lindley Hall in London putting the art exhibits from Exeter, with others, back up. On Monday I arrived mid-morning to sweep the cloths and lay out the classes, and then on Monday afternoon the plants started to arrive.

First was Cecilia Coller's little white van. That's not a traffic warden there, giving her a ticket; that is the very helpful George from the RHS, taking her details for a temporary parking dispensation while we unload. I was sorry to find that two exhibitors got parking tickets on Wednesday afternoon, when they had apparently paid correctly; even if they succeed in disputing the charges, that sort of thing does not encourage people to support the show.

Here is a very flattering view of the show secretary (you can tell my wife Helen is taking the pictures), and a better look inside the van. The back row of cardboard boxes have already been removed.

Playing pass the parcel with Cecilia. I may have helped unload, but the amount of time and effort she must have spent preparing for the show, cleaning the pots and packing the van must have been tremendous.

Thank goodness for RHS trollies. One of the doorstaff decided to give us a hand. Thanks to all of them for their help during the show.

It was good to see a few plants appearing on the tables. These pictures give a small impression of the art display, though the boards were zigzagged so you can only see half of them from each direction.

The show secretary's most important job on Monday night is to ensure copious tea is available for exhibitors; this year my wife came to help with this.

By 11 o'clock the next morning the show was open; the benches look much better now. Although there are a few faces you can recognise (John Noakes doing his best to sell the society to a visitor), the vast majority of people in these photos are potential new members, and the hall was busy like this throughout Tuesday, and to a lesser degree, on Wednesday. That is why it is so important to us that everyone supports the London show.

The bookstall (and surplus seeds) was so busy you couldn't get near to it on Tuesday lunchtime. In the first picture you can see Christine McGregor working hard, assisted by John Fitzpatrick, Sue Clements and Elaine Barr. On Wednesday, I caught these two jolly fellows manning the stall (Bob Charman and Doug Coldwell). Sadly, the best picture I might have taken of them suffers badly from camera shake, I was laughing so much. My thanks to them, and all the other helpers for their hard work over the days of the show.

I don't have any pictures of the plants from Tuesday - it was too busy - and the hall got so hot on Tuesday night that many of the plants, for example the Farrer-winning iris, were no longer in good condition. The air-conditioning may have been broken; it was certainly totally ineffective at our end of the hall. But even when it works, the flowers suffer with cold dry air blowing across them constantly; this hall is a difficult place to hold an alpine show. However, here are a few plants which caught my eye on Wednesday, snapped with my Fuji compact camera as I walked round the tables with a watering can, stakes and string. Note that many of the images are close-ups, to reduce the level of background distractions when plants are on the show bench. Unfortunately, the quality isn't great; they were taken a bit too casually, but I was busy doing other things at the same time.

First of all, the Novice Section. Audrey Dart won the class for three pans of rock plants (and the Henry Hammer Cup for the aggregate) with a delightful little pot of Narcissus bulbocodium, Anemonella thalictrioides, and Hepatica Millstream Merlin.

James Lintott entered just one plant, but was first with Primula Coolock Yellow. John Fitzpatrick included a nice Pulsatilla vulgaris among his entries, brought down from Pershore in the van along with the books, and Colin Rogers produced a lovely pot of the tiny Narcissus rupicola.

Colin took the message to support the show wholeheartedly, and entered plants in the Open and Intermediate Sections, including some lovely irises, as well as the Novice classes. Here is his Anemone x fulgens and a nice salmon form of Anemone pavonina.

In the open section, the Asarums were very prominent. Not only are they in peak condition, but they appear to be able to completely ignore the inhospitable heat in the hall. Here we have Asarum delavayi and Asarum maximum from Cecilia Coller, and a further plant of Asarum maximum exhibited by Colin and Elaine Barr, lifting its skirts like Marilyn Monroe to allow visitors to study the flowers. Flash was still necessary to capture all the details.

Further on, in the new and rare section, Ray Drew exhibited the Asarum heterotropoides v. mandshuricum that I was supposed to photograph at Harlow. Once again it escapes with me being unable to do it justice. Accompanying it was a plant Ray has staged in previous years, Primula petelotii.

Cassiope Beatrice Lilley was another plant which came down from Pershore, this time exhibited by Richard Clements, and winning the George Gable Memorial Trophy for the best pan of Ericaceae. Further along the bench we come to an old friend; this Cyclamen repandum, exhibited by Joy Bishop, has been on the bench at London many times.

Ray Drew was another exhibitor who went to great lengths to bring as many plants as he could; here are his Cymbidium goeringii, Dicentra cucullaria and Erythronium Eirene. I have admired the latter before at this show, but have never found a source for it.

Fritillaria tortifolia v. citrina, here exhibited by Cecilia, is always one of my favourites, but not easy to photograph. Accompanying it was Fritillaria yuminensis v. roseiflora, which seems to open its flowers more widely than F. yuminensis. Finally, I used flash to peep inside F. tubiformis; I have so many photos of the smooth glaucous outsides of the flowers.

Colin Rogers brought several lovely pots of irises, but the two which I photographed on the Wednesday were Iris babadagica from Cecilia Coller, and Iris sari ssp. manissadjianii exhibited by Joy Bishop.

The lewisia season is starting. Clive Dart produced a twelve pan entry of lewisias, featuring this huge white form of Lewisia tweedyi. Elsewhere, more familiar pink and apricot forms were exhibited by Jim McGregor, Joy Bishop, and Joy Bishop again.

Ray Drew produced a super pan of Narcissus bulbocodium; in the adjoining class for a cultivated hybrid, my Narcissus Tiny Bubbles produced a wonderful cloud of perfume, and won me a first prize. Hurrah, 2011 is a red ticket year! Sadly it wasn't fit to photograph on the Wednesday, so I am hoping the show pictures taken by Doug Joyce come out all right.

This nice blue pulsatilla, grown from seed by Cecilia Coller, seemed worth photographing against the yellow Narcissus cyclamineus in her six pans from seed.

Elsewhere, Cecilia brought several pots of pleione. Here are Pleione Bandai-San and two pots of Pleione formosana Snow Bunting. Ray Drew staged the lovely, but much smaller Pleione rakata Shot Silk.

Finally, my stepfather David Philbey brought a few primulas (six crates full!). Though he won the large twelve pan class with these, pride of place on the way home went to six small pans of yellow seedlings, which made up a winning entry in the class for six pans from the same genus. Also here was a larger plant of his Primula seedling named Jonathan, second in the class for one pan raised from seed.

By 6pm on Wednesday the tables were clear, by the grace of kind and helpful exhibitors who removed their own plants, then stayed to help move plants for others who were arriving later, and all the artwork had been removed carefully from the boards by Doug and Bob, and was waiting for me to work out which belonged in which packaging. Thanks to everyone who was involved in helping make the show a success, including the dedicated exhibitors, and if you didn't show plants there this year, try to support the show next year. Above all, thanks to my wife Helen, and two boys, for letting me devote 4 full days to the show, leaving first thing in the morning and getting back late at night (not to mention Helen's essential help on Sunday and Monday during setup).