Harrogate Autumn Show 12th Sept 2014

   Harrogate places heavy demands upon exhibitors in that it is held when the seasons are starting to change. For me, the week is usually one of driving rain, or frost or heavy wind. It was a rare occurrence this year to be able to cut flowers in bright sunshine rather than a raincoat. However, the early season meant there wasn't much left to cut. I am normally reduced to floret box exhibits and the odd later seedling anyway and having entered Huddersfield, Southport, Ramsbottom and the Midland, I was very lucky to have a half-decent spike of Huron Silk left and some other bits and pieces. 

What is always enjoyable at Harrogate is the fact that many exhibitors bring more unusual flowers for the public to see and baskets and floret boxes give added interest. There were a couple of nice baskets on display as can be seen below.  

My seedlings were mostly under-flowered, and I was rather disappointed that a green one that I had brought steadfastly refused to open. Apparently it did so on the last day of the show.
Here it is just showing colour on the Friday:

The seedling class is always well filled at Harrogate and there were some nice colours on display:

The floret boxes presented a wide range of flowers. The smokey below that I'd brought didn't get anywhere but provided a talking point amongst the public. At least the florets were all single lipped.

The other box I put in wasn't up to much but all that I had.

I';d brought two prims which I had hoped would 'stick' and not open further, as most of my stuff does at this time of year, but of course they went and opened another floret just before judging so didn't stand an earthly.

Mick Jones can be relied upon to bring some good looking glads to the table at Harrogate and this year I really liked his 'Warpaint', a tall, rangey 200 in yellow and red that provided a great splash of colour in an otherwise totally boring class of mostly dumpy spikes.

My Huron Silk managed a yellow card third out of twelve in the single 300 class below. It is encouraging that 300s were more numerous than usual here this year.

Thanks to Maureen Jones for running the show and to Nigel for sorting out the judges.

The BGS National, Poynton, 23rd August, 2014

   Ken Bacon and myself judged the National this year. It was interesting to judge: there were few really good prims, probably because of the weather, the 300s continued to be under-represented but there were some good 200s. Above all, there were some awesome spikes in the bigger sizes.  Twisted tops were a feature of some exhibits, giving the impression that staking had been left a little late. 

  Best 500 was this beefy Of Singular Beauty from Mick Jones. It had apparently been in a cooler for a week, but it held well at least until the end of the judging and deserved the award. There were some good samples of this cultivar at the show.

Grand Champion was Nigel's August Days. It was a very close run thing between this and Nigel's Babsbill, another yellow with fabulous form that was just a little young.

Best 300 was this Cream of the Crop which the camera has decided should be yellow when it isn't.

Best 200 was this Psolum. It had some faults but still beat the opposition.

Best British was this Mac from Graham Anderson. He had some excellent spikes at the show and deserved to be among the awards.

Best Primulinus was a real headache for the judges. In the end we went for the middle one of these three Marina below by Trevor Fawcett.

The Best Novice went to Len with this very clean and well-grown Rotary. His other spikes were also very good.

This is the Babsbill which was also  in contention for Grand Champion.

Graham Anderson produced a very fine exhibit with these six George's Choice. It was very nearly best exhibit but the back left spike was rather under flowered. An impressive set of spikes.

The three 200s below were another very good exhibit: two Petite and one Black Lash from Nigel.

In the seedling section, this new yellow from Trevor was close to winning

but in the end the award went to a new primulinus whose colours don't show up well in this photo.

Another very impressive spike was this Legacy from Colin Parkes. I hope to see more of this in the future.

In the 200s both Mick Jones and Peter Forrow exhibited a spike of Lauren, a pretty flower with potential.

As you would expect, there were plenty of spikes of Of Singular Beauty and these were better in my opinion than those I saw at other shows this year.

Graham Anderson's exhibit in the Blake was extremely good and very close to the winning three by Nigel. 

Colin Parkes produced a great exhibit with these four.

Mac from Graham Anderson certainly has the wow factor and it is good to see very good spikes in this colour on the bench.

I would say this National produced better spikes than last year's and the public had plenty to look at. Thanks to Poynton Show for accommodating the BGS National and thanks to all the exhibitors who made the judges' job a pleasure.

Southport Flower Show 14th August 2014

My first glads show of 2014 was Huddersfield where I forgot to take photos but managed a rosette for  Best Seedling. Nigel Coe won the Best Exhibit prize.  Then it was on to Southport.

I was pleased to see Peggy Roseby (above) on the bench staged by Jim Moore. Named after my late mother-in-law, this can be a useful 400.

In the single prim I tried out one of my own, Kitty Rodely, which managed a third.

I was struggling in the six class, having to use these two seedling 200s in the front,

 then a couple of under flowered Felicita in the middle,

and two over the hill Decadents at the back. Luckily, others had much better flowers that saved the class.

The above photo is of one of Graham Anderson's fabulous whites. For some reason, the judges completely overlooked this spike and awarded first in the class to the little runt of a Serena to the left of it which was not only very short but also had one off the bottom. The other classes were well judged.

Yet more of a struggle for me in the six prims class where I couldn't even get six the same but had to sneak in a look alike seedling in roughly the same colour. Not my finest hour!

Despite all this, I love Southport as a show. It's an opportunity to meet other exhibitors of different flowers and discuss with them how they have fared since last year. One year I will perform the miracle and get flowers on time for this show but it's a little bit too early for my plots really. No matter. It's good to see others' glads in good shape.

Yorkshire Carnation Society Early Show 20th July 2014

  So after Atherton on the Saturday, it was Doncaster on the Sunday. More borders than at Atherton but still not as good as some years as a lot of us had almost flowered out.
There were only two entries in the Championship class with Phil Cross coming first and Bill Stokes second. Phil's are on the right below.

In the vase of twelve, it was between Phil and myself. His 12 Alice Forbes Improved were first and my Welton White and Eudoxia Sport were second.

Bofield Emily was in evidence, and here's a nice vase of seven of them.

The vase below was the talking point of the show. Was it a border? Were they really PFs? Who cares. They had the most fabulous scent. Barrie Gamble has called this new cultivar Welton Kathleen Booker. It's the strongest clove I've ever met.

I was lucky enough to get first and second with my Lord Nuffields, one of which is below.

Billy Boy, bred by Bill Stokes, was on the table, looking good.

As was Crimson Comet:

In the white classes, the newer Welton White below put up a good fight against the older White Champagne.

Here's a single White Champagne. I fancy it's not so creamy as Welton White.

But here are three Welton Whites looking very white.

And here are three White Champagne.

Lucy always gets some admiring glances from the public, though we all know it's not a true picotee.

An enjoyable show in which Phil Cross came out top in the Borders section.