The BGS National at Poynton Show, 26th August 2107

This was one of those Nationals which was perfectly o.k. with lots of spike on the benches, but I personally did not think that the very top quality spikes were there this year. It was a great show for the public and there was much to see but there are some years and some glads that just leave you in awe of their glowing magnificence and maybe those were a bit thin on the ground. 

Trevor Fawcett won almost everything and deservedly so. Some of us had clearly suffered from the delayed emergence problem following the dry spring. People who would normally put in a hatful of entries were only able to bench three or four entries. To be honest, if we had been up to our full complement of spikes ,it would have been hard to fit everything in.

The show ran smoothly, thanks to all the hard work that Nigel put into its organisation. 

Here are four shots of some of the benches to give you an idea of the wow factor.

In a hotly contested three prims class, it was Peter Forrow who came out on top with these Little Jude and a Kathryn.

My main efforts were aimed at the seedlings classes and I was lucky enough to win the 4/500 Seedling class with this big white one.

I had hoped that I might do all right with this pink one in the prim seedlings class as it scores very highly on novelty. However, it didn't even get a card, that honour being reserved for rather more conventional seedlings. The winner did have some very sharp markings and looks to be an improvement on Shalimar. The photos of it are on the BGS Facebook page.

I didn't put much in the floret boxes, just this box of my new 200, Firelight. Peter and Nigel fought it out in the prim boxes. 

The floret boxes made a good display.

It was good to see more than one basket in the two classes for them. Trevor won this section as well.

There were a few examples of
Kathryn here and there, exhibited by Karen Bell, Peter Forrow and myself. Theprim below sone of my newer ones, Mira, exhibited by Nigel.

I have two peachy creations which have been seen recently. This is Panier and the other one is Sophie B which is earlier and smaller. The venerable judges were not even a little bit impressed.

I was pleased to see a number of my babies in this prim colour class: there was a Bounty, a numbered seedling, Kathryn, Mira, Lesley Swinnerton and maybe one more.

As long as I can hang on to one of the seedling cups each year, I shall be very happy.

The BGS Northern Show, Hartlepool 19th August.

After Southport I had a day's rest before going up to Hartlepool to judge the Northern Show on the Saturday. The 150 mile drive is proving a little tiring these days. I might even catch the train next year. I arrived about 7.30 pm. I went to the show hall to see old and new friends. My first conversation was with Bill Bonas, an excellent carnation grower. Unfortunately, as has been the case this year, there wasn't a huge amount of opposition for Bill to go up against but we had a good chat as he had almost finishing vasing his flowers. I noticed that, in his larger vases of six or so, he 'scotched' every stem. This is an old technique that I was taught by Brian Dean. It involves positioning each stem where you want it and then wedging two other pieces of stem either side of the stem at vase level so the stems can't move out of place. When the judge picks up the vase (unfortunately these days it's sometimes IF the judge picks up the vase) nothing can move out of place.  It takes more time, but Bill has that kind of attention to detail which has led him to beating Ivor in the Gold Cup at Harrogate, a feat few would even attempt. A thoroughly nice bloke, especially when you consider that at Harrogate last year I accidentally poured water over his carnations. We are still speaking which is a measure of his character.

Anyway, I then met up with all the usual 'suspects' - Nigel, Brian Bland, Phil Orley, Malcolm Read, Tom and Tracey Leck, John Davies, Peter Forrow and so on. Of course I didn't look at their flowers but just had a chat.

I slept badly at the hotel, as the seagulls started at 3.20 am and seemed keen to keep me awake. I had breakfast in Morrisons with Nigel's wife and daughter, Alison and Nina who just happened to appear in the queue with me, and then I made my way to the show. It was a very good show in terms of entries - some classes had more than a dozen entries so I had my work cut out to do them all justice. Brian Bland was my steward and John Davies came along to learn the ropes. I suspect that the Southern Show, which is held on the same day, had far fewer exhibits as there are less exhibitors down south.

It's a little bit disconcerting when glads that you have bred appear on the bench. I'm always overly harsh on ones that I've bred: I've seen other judges not be like this and don't know what they have for a conscience. I was at pains to point out to John the faults in those bred by me and a little relieved that none of them actually won a class. Lots of seconds and thirds. There was Kathryn, Panier, Leslie Swinnerton, Sally's Orange II, Diane Phibben (named after my lovely cousin), Seedling 002 which Peter Forrow has kept going, Bonzo, Mira and a few others. I think I have named 50 different prims now so I'm trying to breed 200s and 300s this year and next and maybe for much longer than that.

The class for three prims took some sorting  

As did the single 400 with Babsbill winning.

There were a couple of entries of this Panier in the single prim class. I wrongly identified this as Sophie B, another one of mine but the latter is earlier and more peachy and Nigel rightly said it was not Sophie B. Eventually I remembered what it was.

This prim, Leslie Swinnerton is named after the owner of the care home where my mother-in-law, Peggy Roseby, spent her last years.

The second time I have seen my Mira on the bench: there was one at Huddersfield as well. Quite nice form.  Mira is one of the Albanian students in my English class.

These three Kathryn exhibited by Peter Forrow were not as good as the ones he won with previously which appeared in the BGS Annual a couple of years ago.

Bonzo which I hope will be a 500 smokey, was named after a late friend of mine Dennis 'Bonzo' Roberts.

This is an old garden prim in  bright orange which was actually shown on TV years ago in a programme called The Flying Gardener. Named after my daughter, this is Sally's Orange II.

A good entry in the two floret box classes. Best overall was Murmansk, a lovely white Russian glad.

Only one or two classes had low entries, largely in the different colour classes.

Grand Champion and best 400 was Cream Perfection. The other winners can be seen in photos on the BGS website. the honours were well spread across the exhibitors but Peter Forrow had the lion's share of the firsts. 

So the judging was over. Deals were done over exchanges of plants and requests for the same. Then it was the long drive back home. I had to stop for a power  nap not far down the A19 but then it was all plain sailing. That's my judging done for this year so I can relax and enjoy the remaining shows. Next up is the National where i won't have as much as last year but I hope to have some novelties for people to look at. Poynton have asked me to enter the PF Carnations section so I hope I can do that justice for them. The forecast here is rain all week so I may well be getting the bags over some of my spikes to stop them from being spoiled. As I have other things on on Thursday afternoon  it's going to be a mad rush to cut the glads on Thursday morning  and on Friday I'll dress them before I get them over to the show. I was thinking today that most winners are made at home in the way that people look after them before the show. 

Here is the best floret box: Mirmansk, all the way from Russia.

Footnote

My apologies for getting John Davies and John Jones mixed up in an earlier version of this.

Southport Flower Show

   Southport is always just a little bit early for me in terms of the bigger glads. Some years I don't have anything to take. This year I thought I'd take some short prim and 200 seedlings that maybe had some novelty value for the public though they wouldn't win. I  also took three good sized early 200s of a variety that I'd bred, one decent prim, some PFs and a few Sweet Peas. Because of the large number of shows I'm doing this year, I decided to not stop overnight but came home arriving back after midnight.

Peter (Forrow) texted me with some news and photos on  the morning of the show. I was shocked to find that my single prim had won its class. I had spent quite a time trying to twist the second floret into shape. Anyway, win it did and I contacted the person it is named after, Anne Milton, and she was very pleased. You can see what I mean about the second floret below.

'Anne Milton'.

I didn't have any others with that kind of bud count but I sneaked three out of a cormlet tray and stuck those together and managed a third with them. Again 'Anne Milton' was the cultivar. Of course, I don't know. There might only have been three entries! Desperate times: if I'd had anything else I wouldn't have put these in. A right ragbag of short, underflowered prims.

So the only other glads I had were short seedlings and more spikes from the cormlet trays. I put these together in the six class. I'm sure the judge only gave them a passing glance but I'm also sure that plenty of people coming to the show wouldn't have seen these sorts of colours before. I might even make a thing of doing this. An entry for the public's delight. So, here is my 'novelty entry'.

 Graham Anderson had said to me as we were staging that the spike at the top right was the most interesting one in the show. Informal, gappy but very different. The others were all prims or pseudo prims. The middle right one is called 'Mari Lowri' (when it's got some buds) and the bottom left is 'Sally's Orange' (when it's got the buds and more than one open). The others are out of my seedling pots or beds.

The judges didn't give me anything for my other entries and rightly so. I had bred an early 200 that I put three in, in the three of one variety class but apart from being early it has no real redeeming feature. I might just cross it on, onto something like' Ever So Sweet' which is going to be flowering in a couple of days. We'll see.


I was only able to do two entries in the PFs as I didn't have enough in flower. I was lucky enough to win the Six Grower's Choice class with two Schubert, two Lavender Schubert and two Unfinished Symphony, below.

I don't know whether any of the big PF growers turned up so I'll have to wait to see when the results are published by Southport.

No such luck in the three Grower's Choice class where I was unplaced with these two Heracles plus one Olivia. They were uneven and certain judges don't like the modern commercial varieties like Olivia. I was happy with one first from my two entries.

I

I also put in a vase of nine mixed Sweet Peas, the first time I've grown these for maybe twenty years. I know I didn't get anything for them as the other entries were miles better. As I put my one humble vase in, John Robson, one of the best growers,  was selecting nine white ones from about thirty under the beady eye of his main adviser, his wife. And all thirty of these whites were fours. Not just fours, perfectly opened fours. He must grow thousands.

There were some surprises in the glads classes. I was very surprised that Peter only got a third in the nine class. Graham Anderson I imagine won it. He had in his nine a very impressive white called 'River Dove' which was spot on. But Peter had some quality flowers including three big Pink Elegance, and three nice Our Les.  I'm surprised that stuff like Secret Lady and Careless got the nod over these. But I wasn't judging and no doubt when you got into the detail of it there was more than met the eye.

I was pleased that Ron and Glynis Taylor had travelled up from Devon. I should have spent more time with them but I was a bit pushed for time. Len, Terry, Jim and Karen all turned up while I was there and no doubt others did later in the night.

I enjoyed myself with these and with Peter whom I cooperate with the most in our selection of spikes etc. We did say that it's about time you were able to put more than one entry in the glads (in fact in everything). Peter had lots of very nice spikes but couldn't put them all in which is silly.

I'll have to try harder to get a hotel for next year. My usual place was full when i tried to book a few months back.

Tomorrow (Friday) I will be pootling up the motorways to Hartlepool where I'm judging the Northern Gladiolus Show on Saturday morning. I'll have some plants for Brian Bland in the car as he's going to try a few Borders and I'll be returning some pots from stuff I was given last year.

It's a really great show Hartlepool, though this year we will be missing  Paul Webster and Bill Grahamslaw, two of my favourite exhibitors who passed away recently. Let's hope the other exhibitors bring plenty to fill in the gaps left by those two lovely men. I've no idea how many years I've been judging this show but it's always a great honour and a real pleasure. I'll post some photos on here soon.

Yorkshire Carnation Society Late Show, Sunday 13th August.

  Another early start for the second show at Doncaster the day after Huddersfield.. I had very little to take, just four PFs but had to go anyway as I'd promised some plants to Phil Cross and I also was presented for my British Border Championship win in the early show with an engraved glass tumbler. The PFs were a bit thin - only about 96 blooms and sixty odd of those were from Brian Duffy who swept the board in most classes.

Peter Gurnhill showed an interesting bloom with this Mojace.

The Championship class entry from Brian Duffy with Jess Hewins, Max Helliwell, Crompton Princess and Solway Star.





A nice nine from Brian Duffy.

His seven comprised Crompton Princess and Max Helliwell.

My unopposed single yellow ground fancy, Clara's Choice.

I scraped a third with these three unmatched Schuberts.

Liz Earl put in an appearance to win the same class for Brian Duffy.

  There was some consternation at the fact that one of the pinks exhibitors had all of their 25-30 entries removed because of red spider mite. I had some exhibits removed once because of RSM and you don't do it twice but it seems some people either miss it or don't worry about it.

Not the biggest of shows at Doncaster but it was good to catch up with people again. i hope next year we will all have more blooms for the shows.

The Yorkshire Gladiolus Society Show, Kirklees, Huddersfield Sat 12th August

 Leading up to this show, an issue on social media arose which gave me food for thought. One of the exhibitors posted on the BGS Facebook page photos of the glads he had cut for Huddersfield. He knew that I was irregular contributor to the BGS site but obviously didn't connect that to the fact that I would be judging the show for which his flowers were destined. This puts any judge in an unenviable position. Anyone could say that cards were given because the judge knew whose flowers they were in advance etc etc. As I see it there are two solutions: a) exhibitors don't post before the show or b) the judges stay off the social media until after the show. I'm not sure which to recommend but I won't be looking at the BGS site in the days leading up to Hartlepool as I'm judging there and sure as eggs is eggs some exhibitor will unwittingly post something about their flowers before the show.

Anyway, I love the schedule at the YGS show. There are thirty odd classes for glads: something for everyone. The only thing that stops it from being a really big show is that it's a bit early in the season for some.

I was flattered that some of the glads that I had bred were present at the show. I'm always particularly hard when judging these so that no one can accuse me of favouring my own varieties. 

Peggy Roseby was named after my wife's mother. This one had lost the colour in the bottom floret.

Kitty Rodely is a friend of my wife. The flower has lovely sharp colours but in this case  it didn't win because, amongst other things, there's no gap at the back of these florets where there should be one.

Mira is named after one of my Albanian students.

Best 400 and grand Champion was this Pink Elegance exhibited by Peter Forrow.

Best prim was the right hand spike of Shalimar, again by Peter Forrow.

Skalka is a newish 300 that may fit the bill if it's shown well.

This Star Performer was overflowered but held well and was admired by the public.

There was a fair amount of Snazzy in evidence.

The public also liked John Pilbeam's Angel's Kisses above.

In the prims we also had some Ruby

and some Lady Penelope.

Not loads of 200s, but these Hawaiian Sunset were nice and informal which makes a change.

A little surprised to see some Priscilla on the bench. Lack of height was one of its problems.

Some overflowered Dion were benched

and this is turning into the year of the giant sized Pink Elegance.

The odd Cream Perfection was seen.

I had no hesitation in awarding the best exhibit to the winner of the florist's class with these very evenly matched Lady Helen.

Plenty for the public to look at. The 500s and 300s were mostly overflowered and I had no option but to award the best 300 to an Emir / Purple Prince / Purple Flora  and the best 500 to a Flevo United which normally would not have been in the running.

A very enjoyable show. My thanks to Kirklees Council and to David Willoughby and his wife for running this show.