Good sculpture should be under cover and bad sculpture should not spoil gardens.  (William Robinson, often referred to as 'The Father of the English Flower Garden.')

A quotation that popped into my head looking at some truly dire examples on the sculpture trail at Wisley this afternoon, where it was the last day of Wisley Flower Show.

There was a preposterous Victoria sponge made from 1000 carnations, filled with roses and with a whipped cream topping of hydrangeas, that was sliced by Mary Berry earlier in the week. It looked like something that might grace the funeral cortege of an East End gangster's mum. 

The 'stunning floral art arrangements' in the glasshouse (theme: the circus) proved ... well, that the spirit of Joyce Grenfell lives on. In the words of Miss Jean Brodie, for those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like. Under the auspices of the National Association of Flower Arranging Societies. Aka CAMP-MA'am or the Campaign for Real Middle Aged Ladies. (President Mary Berry.) 

Floral art proved a little too earnest for me. But I did go home with a splendid bunch of peppermint toothpaste-striped dahlias. A wasp in my handbag. And managed to wrestle a sheaf of alliums and fox-tail lilies nearly as tall as myself onto two buses. Joyce Grenfell can say what she likes. But no middle aged lady walks away from all that for £1.50. It looks quite splendid ... perhaps rather tall for the kitchen windowsill, and rather precarious when opening the oven door, but splendid.