Harrogate Spring Show 24th - 28th April

   Harrogate Spring Show has a very large daffodil schedule with Novice, Transition, Amateur and Open sections. We three Musketeers are no longer novices but we can still go in the Transition section as well as the Amateur and Open classes so there is plenty for us to go at. Below is part of the single bloom classes in the Open section where we got a few cards.  

Here is some more of the single bloom Open Section. A little thin in some classes.

Here we can see the judges inspecting mostly the Amateur Section which was very well supported.

Besides the above, there were Trasition and Novice Sections, so plenty for the public to look at.
Class 1 in the open Section was won by Ken Harrop and his entry included the Grand Champion Bloom Santana seen below on the right hand end of the middle row.

In the Amateur Class 33, Aramis, a.k.a Tom Alty not only came first but was awarded the best 11a bloom with his Boslowick.

Here is a delighted Tom with his best bloom in Division 11a.

In the single miniature, the young D'Artagnan beat the aged Porthos with his Minnow gaining the red card over my Pixies Sister. There were several other classes where the Three Musketeers gained two places out of three.

Class 59 saw Porthos eventually get a red card, but alas it was by default. Initially the class had been won by Barry Hogg but he was NAS'd as you can't enter the six and the twelve and the original second became first if that makes sense.

An extremely good vase of three Netherwood Marsh saw D'Artagnan snaffle the best exhibit in the section.My unplaced Tehidy can be seen with very long stems in front and in front of them are Pat King's Sabine Hay which had really rich colour.

In the three doubles Andrew's Gay Kybo was second and my Serena Beach third to a neat vase of Kiwi Sunset.

All three musketeers were in the 6 restricted class with the young D'Artagnan again coming first and Tom beating me to third place.

The three yellows saw Andrew first and me second and the three coronas saw me get a red card but against no opposition.

Here they are: three with any colour in the corona from Porthos.

Class 90 saw D'Artagnan second and Porthos third...

Aramis got a third in 91...

...and Porthos a third in 92...

...but the most satisfying of all was class 99 for the one 11a which saw the Three Musketeers take all three top places. All for one and one for all. Two of the three red cards to the right were also won by us.

All told we managed 14 firsts 12 seconds and 8 thirds plus some diplomas and rosettes. Staging through the night as Tom and I did is pretty gruelling for those of us beyond the first flush of middle age, despite the exccellent cuisine and fortified beverages, and we shall probably get there earlier next year and work through the day. There will be more space on the benches at that time as some sections were completely full when we arrived. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so these are photos from my rubbish phone.

Thanks to Chris Bone, Rae Beckwith and his helpers for a great show: There were a few hiccups but that has to be expected with such a massive schedule. And the home-made soup was beyond compare. Last daffs show to come on 6th May is the Pie Eaters, if we have any flowers. It's the only sensible thing to do on a Bank Holiday Monday.

Tottington Spring Show 13th April 2013

This show has a good daffodil schedule and an investment in more vases meant that we were well provided for. Free grub would help but not all shows are as good as Catforth. There were some six exhibitors in all but the bulk of the exhibits were supplied by the three musketeers in the first photo: Porthos, the young D'Artagnan and Aramis of course. We didn't have bucketfuls of flowers as we can have at this time of year as the season has been so difficult and good quality blooms were at a premium. There were 53 exhibits and 100 blooms on show. Normally, we would double that at this time of the season. 

In Class 1 the Walter Lea Cup, Best Exhibit and Best Bloom went to Keith Capper for his six which were Misty Glen, Banker (best bloom) Quantum, Dust Up, Abstruse and Detector. We hope Keith will do well at Warwick next weekend with flowers of similar quality to these.

The Tom Scholes Memorial tray for the most firsts in daffodils went to Aramis, a.k.a. Tom Alty seen here with his diploma awarded for three Crowndale. Tom can always be relied upon to stage winning flowers.

I managed a diploma for these three Mission Bells

Class 2 was closely contested by Andrew Clarke and myself and I just squeaked in to win the Miniature Championship with Pacific Coast, Pixies' Sister and Sabrosa.

Close-up of Pacific Coast

Pixies' Sister

In Class 4 Tom started his series of wins with these five Pink Silk.

Tom's Pink Silk were much bigger than my five Goldfinger, showing that it is not often a good idea to grow for a second year in a pot. The central flower was nice but the others too small.

In the three Div 2s it was Tom again with his 'Tideford' (that isn't) beating Andrew's Sportsman.

Three Division 1s had to be Pink Silk this time and Tom again snaffled the pink card.

The single bloom classes were not heavily supported. Here Tom's Misty Glen won over Andrew's Sportsman and my Sealing wax.

The single Division 1 again went to Tom with his stunning Kingham, a really good flower that kept fresh for over a week.

Tom's excellent Trecarra had the edge on my Doctor Hugh  in the Division 3 class. This Doctor Hugh kept its size despite being grown for a second year in a pot.

The 'anything except 1-4 and 6' class was mysteriously won by Tom even though I staged the judge's favourite Mondragon. There is no pleasing some people.

The three Div 6s was a nice class with Andrew's Trena, a very good exhibition flower, beating my Chickadee and Crofty.

Trena did it again for the young D'Artagnan in the single bloom Div 6, beating even Rapture. I had a lot of Division 6s and put four entries in and to my surprise the shortest and fattest Cotinga got a third.

In the three miniatures, one cultivar class, Andrew beat me yet again with his Tete a tete coming first over my Pacific Coast.

Here is Andrew with a fine vase of Trena.

The single miniature was won by Andrew with Mite, a very good cultivar.

We don't have a show this weekend locally and don't have flowers to take the National apart, so our next show is Harrogate in ten days' time. Our entries may not win everything in sight but we will fill the classes with honest flowers, we will certainly have, thanks to Tom,  the best home made food and soup in the showground and in years to come people will say: 'The Three Musketeers were here.'  And Mrs D'Artagnan of course.

Ramsbottom Spring Show

  

After Colne on the Saturday it was off to Ramsbottom on the Sunday. Tom and I took the best of what we had used on Saturday and one or two more. There was a good local turnout and a fair show was opened to the public in the afternoon. Tom's Kingham got the Best Bloom  pipping a large Australian white that Keith Capper had put in.

Keith was not to be outdone and he won the nine class with some very fancy and expensive blooms. Unfortunately there was no opposition.

An unusual Div 11a was benched which I think was called Sunny Girlfriend. It's a Walkers daff so that catalogue should give the right name.

I had brought along my three Xit from Colne and was lucky enough to win that class against quit a few other entries.

Tom had some nice Crowndale which I did well with last year. Still quite dear as a bulb but hard to beat.

Here are those three Xit which won me a massive 60p.

Trena did well and won the 'other than 1-4' class with ease.

Arkle was much in evidence. This daff can be grown to a very large size and took the three Div 1 class.

Honeybourne won one of the single bloom classes but I was not that struck by the colour.

We have had some problems with daffs being misnamed by suppliers this year and this was supposed to be Tideford. It clearly isnt but was good enough to win for Tom. On the small side (in fact it might well be a Div 3 rather than a Div 2) but very neat and clean.

Colne Spring Show

Saturday 6th April saw the Colne Spring Show taking place. The season has been a particularly difficult one and many of us struggled to get decent entries on the bench. At Colne there were just four exhibitors in the daffodils: Andrew Clarke, Tom Alty, Alan Greenwood and myself. Tom and Alan had the bulk of the flowers. Andrew just put a few in and I only had miniatures and division 6.

It is frustrating when you are the only one in a class. Here's my 1 2 3 in the three miniatures with Xit and two vases of Sabrosa. Nothing spectacular.

In the big class for three vases of three it was between Alan and Tom with Tom coming out on top.

Alan's nine included Manly (D4) and Broomhill which he grew Bigger than I ever could.

Tom did it again in the six from the registered list but you can tell what a poor year it is from the fact that he used two division 4s and an 11a in his exhibit which is unusual but was necessary on the day.

Alan again was second to Tom.

I think this was Corky's Song but I could be wrong.

Alan scored with these two Strines in the single bloom Div 2.

In the div 3 it was Merlin for Alan beating Tom's Dateline.

Here is Tom's Kingham beating Bravoure and Pink Silk.

Andrew had some nice flowers and this Rapture and trena beat my Itzim into third.

Let us hope that next year is kinder and we can get some decent flowers in abundance to show to the public.

Best in Show was Andrew's Rapture, while Tom got an award for his nine flowers.