I Have Split Today's Post Into Three Parts,

as we have so many pictures,

in the first two we visit a plant and flower festival, in the third we go to a fiends house warming, so on to the trip to the flower festival, it is on from the 6th till the 10th of February, so be quick if you want to visit it, it is held on some ground near the the Wat Yansangwararam complex, take the Sumkivitt Road going towards Sattahip and turn left when you see the sign for the temple, go over the first round about and then look out for the rear entrance of the show or take a left at the second roundabout and park on the road or in the showground car park, above the road leading to the rear entrance,

the view across the lake looking towards the Chinese temple,

and looking towards the complex itself,

 there are many things for sale here as well as plants and vegetables, like this gift stall,

 or shoe shop,

I am sure we have all seen dragon fruit before, those strange looking fruits which have a white interior with black seeds, OK sometimes some new varieties have a couriered interior, but in any event this is where they come from, a type of cactus,

 Diana back to the outer stalls for a moment,

 many of the stalls are placed around a central growing area,

 with a huge range of produce, like these natural herbs,

 and plants,

 like these water lily's,

 so many coulours to chose from,

 we bought a few tomato seeds for a friend as we were here,

 I just love bonsai trees,

 and I was surprised to see a couple of stalls here,

 they all looked so nice,

 and tempting,

 but not wishing to condemn another one to a long lingering death I did not buy one, 

 back to some of the other stalls, this one selling all manner of fruit trees,

 this one some orchids,

 and a mushroom stall,

 basically you buy a pack which has been seeded with mushroom spawn,

add water and wait for your crop to grow,

 or like us you can buy then pre-grown,

 lots of desert rose plants, (Adenium obesum) , for sale,

 as I mention before,

 there was lots of produce for sale,

 as well as orchids,

 when we neared this stall they was the most delicate fragrance in the air, this was the orchid that produced it,

 where as these are best known for their colour,

 and the shape of their petals,

 but one stall had almost fields of small orchids,

 each one so delicate,

 we then chanced upon another bonsai stall,

 I was so tempted,

 we had made our way along one side of the central area,

 past a few bromeliads,

 for those people fortunate enough to have a big garden and a lot of time you can even buy a young coconut palm here,

 we past a stall selling hand crafts and furniture,

 next was a display of instructions of how to grow your crops,

 with examples,

 if only our citrus tree fruited like this one!

 back to the central section,

 marigolds, 

 and lots of them as Diana strikes the pose,

 we then continued through the display giving advice to farmers,

 on how to maximize their crops,

 with some stalls giving practical demonstrations,

 there were also some cages with birds from the local government breeding station,

 I am not sure what this one is but he certainly was not shy!,

 now this I thought was rather neat, insects,

 I could be wrong but what I think happens is that you buy some harmless to your crops insects, that will then eat the ones that are eating your crop, at least that is what it looked like to me,

 more fruit tees, if only I had a big garden!

 we had been seeing a few stalls selling roses,

this two colour one particularly nice,

 now why are amaryllis not flowering like these?

 more water lilies,

 at 3 for 100 baht,

 which did not seem excessively expansive,

 and they certainly looked nice,

 as did these huge red ones,

 the flowers were several inches across,

 we had another quick look at the central section,

 when the show is not here the whole area acts as a training center and functioning farm,

 there were a few stalls selling cactus,

 35 baht each or 3 for 100 baht,

 I do not have a clue what this plant is,

 but it certainly has a good show of red berries,

 a few more desert rose plants,

 and some flowering cactus,

 it is really quiet neat the way the flowers form a circle,

 and if you are lucky you can even find pots with three plants in,

 there was also the option of buying a painted cactus,

 the painting,

 a work of art in itself,

 the stalls are in no particular order, so we are back with some bromeliads,

 then more roses,

pretty in pink,

 another bonsai stall,

 with a nice selection,

 the owner keeping himself busy training another tree,

 these flowers looked almost unreal,

 the colours so bright,

 so bright and vibrant,

 now another favorite, grass, or to give it the name we all know it by, bamboo,

 there were so many varieties out here,

 it would be difficult to chose,

personally I always like the ones that have coloured stems, like these yellow ones,

but then I spotted these, a type I had never seen out here before,

black stemmed bamboo, common enough in the UK where it gets cold in winter, but unusual out here as it does not have a cooling off winter period that the black bamboos seem to prefer,

 we made our way to the far end of the central section,

 where this years crops are being grown,

 to a section that I always find fascinating,

 you would think that a banana is a banana,

 but there are so many shapes,

 and colors to chose from,

 some unusual,

 in the extreme,

 the good news is that once you have decided on which variety you want to grow,

 you can buy a plant,

 to take home with you,

 a bit difficult to judge the size, but these were huge, the seller in the background,

 this was quiet nice, 

 students were taking advantage of the shade and were painting,

 and resplendent in its plumage of peppers,

 a peacock, as we have lots of picture please look at the next post if you want to see more of our day out.