RHS Garden Harlow Carr is famed for its alpines, with a vast collection offering colour and texture in the Alpine House all year round. At this year's National Alpine Show, the seventh held at the 58-acre garden, visitors can discover an array of finely grown alpine plants, learn all about these remarkable specimens and take some tiny treasures home with them.

Specialist nurseries bring choice plants and unrivalled expertise to the event:

• Hartside: this hardy plant nursery located in the North Pennines specialises in propagating and growing hardy compact growing plants, or ‘plants with altitude’! They will have many rare examples on show.
• Aberconwy Nursery: are Welsh alpine specialists, growing unusual alpine and rock garden plants in North Wales. Gentians are a speciality and they have been responsible for a number of new varieties.

In the Alpine house, raised planting beds allow visitors to enjoy more than 2000 of these charming plants closer to eye level. All are native to mountainous regions from around the world. Landscaped beds provide year-round interest featuring varieties with a range of qualities – sculptural shapes, attractive foliage and beautiful flowers.

Outside the Alpine House the dazzling displays continue. Raised beds, stone troughs and walls of tufa (a soft, porous rock) are packed with colourful alpine plants that thrive outdoors in the UK. The gardening team at Harlow Carr have found that plants from New Zealand grow particularly well in the North Yorkshire climate. RHS Harlow Carr Alpine Specialists will be on hand doing a trough planting demonstration at 1.30pm and answering questions. Whether it’s a greenhouse, rock garden or small patio container, there are many ways to incorporate these extraordinary plants.

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