More Border Photos

As promised in the last post, here are some more photos of Borders, starting with an old classic, Cluny (above) a lovely apricot self.

These three above are all Grace's Scarlet Clove which has more scent to me than any other Border. I bought a number of named Cloves last year and attempted to cross them but like many growers didn't seem to get much seed this time. Of these other Cloves, some had no discernible scent at all while others were very feint when compared with Grace's Scarlet Clove.

This next one pictured above is a sport of the white Eudoxia and is called imaginatively Eudoxia Sport. It is a very rich colour and goes in the Self, Any Other Colour classes.

This white ground fancy is Alfred Galbally which at times has a heavenly clove scent. It produces a good round flower.

A personal favourite above, but one which not all growers get on with, is Show Girl, a yellow ground fancy. I find it responds well to feeding while others say it is too small. Mine were small until I gave them plenty of feed.

Another yellow ground fancy above is Ken Stubbs. Again it can be small without enough food. Very different from Show Girl in that it has a picotee edge as well as the splashes of red.

Above is a true picotee, the famous Ann S Moore. My stock of this is a bit weedy this year for some reason although almost all picotees are on the small side compared to the selfs and fancies.

I was lucky to be second in the Border Championships at Doncaster in 2010 with the above exhibit of 3 Annie Conlon, 3 Eudoxia and 3 Chesswood Lidgett Yellow and much to my amazement I was also placed first with the nine below.

Chesswood Lidgett Yellow, Julie Peverley and Chesswood Phil Dalby.

And then the worst thing possible happened in the hard winter of early 2011 and I lost a lot of stock including the very rare Julie Peverley, Annie Conlon and goodness knows how many more. The plants were frozen for too long. Borders are extremely hardy but I suspect a succession of mild winters for say 20 years means they may have lost some of their ability to cope with minus 10 to 15 for three months as they had to this time.

Fellow exhibitors came to my rescue and I was able to beg or buy some mother plants in the summer which provided cuttings and layers. Fingers crossed, I now have about 250 plants and a few two year olds which hopefully will let me put some on the bench in 2012. Having a good cut of say 100 blooms is what I like for a show like Doncaster but the weather can ruin one's plans. You can only delay flowering for so long (by using a secondary bud instead of the crown one) but I would much rather not have to do this. Ivor Mace's 'turbo feed' as I call it, was designed for PFs but works very well on Borders. You can find the recipe in one of the BNCS annuals but essentially it's a 2:0:1 sort of feed including calcium nitrate which gives good stiff stems and excellent blooms.

Border Carnations

Phil Cross's vase of 12 Yellow Alice at Doncaster 2011.

Border carnation exhibitors are a rare breed. I would think not more than 60 people grow borders for exhibition in the UK. Their season is short - July and August - and they are a labour intensive plant in that you mostly grow them one up, that is one flower per plant. A few people grow some as two year old plants with more flowering stems but for the majority it is a labour of love whereby layers or cuttings are rooted in August and then potted up for flowering the following year. I only know of one grower who grows his plants in beds in the garden. The rest of us grow them in pots, either one to a 2 Litre pot or two or more to a larger pot. We either grow them entirely under cover or bring them in under cover at flowering time.

Border growers think that PFs - the perpetual flowering carnations - are not as refined as Borders. PF growers think that the flowering season for borders is too short. The Border pictured above is Robert Smith, a lovely white ground fancy.

This next photo of class 16 at Doncaster shows three Kathleen Sharpe a very striking fancy, while below is a photo of Jean Knight. I have been fortunate enough to acquire some Jean Knight from the breeder himself, Ray Knight and I look forward to growing them.

I will post some more photos of borders in the future.

The main shows are now over for 2011 except for the late chrysanthemum shows which go on into November. However, there is a lot of work to do to prepare for next year. I have just finished potting up my exhibition daffodils in 10 litre pots ready for their plunge period of ten weeks or so in the sandpit. Then there are the gladioli to lift and clean before storing; the border layers and cuttings now growing away which will soon need potting on into bigger pots; some late pinks cuttings to be potted up. Now is the time as well when the planning and ordering takes place for next year. Rotation of beds has to be decided on, and which vegetables to grow where. Beds need turning and manuring, a task which can last several months depending on the weather.