Getting it wrong

Being preoccupied with other things going on in life, it is so easy to miss messages from the plants who tell you they are not well by behaving differently in their growth , colour and so on. This year my borders were much poorer than usual and clearly suffered from a nitrogen deficiency - weak stems, small flowers, split calyces etc etc. I rashly continued using an old stock solution from the year before and I think the nitrogen had weakened. The solution also didn't have any Magnesium or Boron in it and the plants certainly showed their dislike for the mix. So, come the border shows I struggled to put anything worthy on the bench and was rewarded with a number of seconds and thirds and not very many firsts. Others have found this a challenging season with the low light values but my flowers were even worse than theirs. 


The joy about gardening, whichever way you choose to do it, is that there is always next year and we are always planning ahead. The plants are the best teachers and every so often they teach us a little humility.

The first show was at Doncaster - the Yorkshire Carnation Society early show. I managed two 1sts 14 2nds and 5 3rds and as there were only two or three entries in most classes you can see how poor this is. Phil Cross thought the quality was down on his stuff though it was miles better than mine. Bill Stokes had a few in and one or two others.

The following Wednesday was the BNCS Summer Show at Chesterfield, a new venue in a new garden centre. For a National show this was very poor and reflected the poor season we've been having. I didn't take any flowers but went along for a look. Only Phil Cross had any borders in quantity and not that many, and Graham Davies had one or two in. In the PFs only Ivor Mace covered the classes, with just a few singles from others. This shows how poor things are this year.

A nice three Braeside Boy from Phil Cross at Glapwell.

Mary Conlon from Phil Cross at Glapwell.

Phil Cross (left) talks to judge Ray Knight, breeder of  Nichola Ann and Jean Knight.

The following Sunday was the Notts Society show at Glapwell near Mansfield. A similar tale to Chesterfield though Bill Stokes and his mate Peter had a few more in. I got 2 1sts 4 2nds and 8 3rds and whilst I would say it was a bit better than Doncaster and clearly better than Chesterfield the quality was down. Phil had some very nice blooms but generally we still didn't see a top quality show. The pinks were better and filled their section. It's still a bit early for PFs for most and the section was thin but not too bad.

We are into a very busy time now: pinks cuttings, border layers and cuttings, tying up glads, keeping on top of the weeds. I hope to enter several of the earlier gladiolus shows this year but it all depends on the amount of sunshine we get in the next three weeks. Even if I don't make it to these early shows, I have some 300 glads seedlings flowering for the first time so there is plenty to look forward to. I will be putting a lot of photos on here next month. Enjoy your flowers!