Gardening: Cuttings

Last summer I went to Holland to the country's first international plant fair, held at Bingerden, Angerlo, organised by Eugenie van Weede. It's a fine 18th-century house, surrounded by parkland and a garden, much of which has been created by the van Weedes. The fair was such a success that the family have decided to hold another one this year from the 20- 22 June. Nurseries from France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Britain will show and sell trees, shrubs, roses, perennials, unusual annuals and seeds. The fair is open Friday (1-6pm), Sat and Sun (10am- 6pm). For more details phone 0031 313 472202.

The annual exhibition of contemporary art for outside opened earlier this month in the garden of Feeringbury Manor, Feering, Colchester, Essex and continues until the beginning of August. Sonia Coode-Adams, the organiser, says the show concentrates on work that is "useful". I liked the sound of Patrick Kennedy's post-modern hen house, wired for sound so that the birds can be played the right kind of egg-laying music. Andrew Logan's candelabra are hung by the stream with a suitably Gothic background of ivy. The show is open weekdays, 8am-1pm. Weekends by appointment only. For details phone 01376 561946.

English Heritage has arranged a tour tomorrow, specialising in the wild plants and animals to be found in the grounds of its property, Audley End, near Saffron Walden in Essex. When Sir John Griffin inherited the great Jacobean house and its estate in 1760, he commissioned Capability Brown to lay out a new park round it. Brown dammed the River Cam to provide the statutory lake, but Sir John did not approve. He thought Brown had taken the wrong line in laying out the sheet of water. After an angry exchange of letters, Brown was sacked and seven years later, the owner employed a rather more obscure landscaper, Joseph Hicks, to correct Brown's work. The tours (free) leave at 11.30am and 2.30pm. Admission to the grounds pounds 3.50. For more details 01799 522842.

Mr C Jones writes from Perth to say that Cerinthe major, the glaucous- leaved plant with strange purple bracts that I predicted would be the plant of 1997, has adapted well to his northern garden. "Whereas in Greece [its home] it might be expected to flower and produce its seed between mid-April and mid-May, here it comes up in August and is often still in flower at the end of November. If you want an "in" plant for the future, try Campanula incurva. This is a species from eastern Greece, with large bell flowers of lavender blue. I've put it on the list to grow next year.