Tottington Show 9th September, 2017.

I don't think that many people know that the name of this show actually appears in the Wallace nd Grommit film The Curse of the Were Rabbit. There are about eight classes for gladioli and in normal years I would fill it but this year the weather and season combined to wipe out most entries and as I'd been in Spain during the week my flowers had got battered by the elements. I just managed these three poor quality, underflowered prims: an Anne Milton on the left, a Marie Sandham in the middle and a new seedling on the right. They didn't deserve much but got best exhibit and a medal. If I had been judging I don't think I would have awarded a medal for these. The other glads at the show all had the bottom two or three florets gone and looked a bit bedraggled by the weather.

 I just about managed to find six Sweet Peas from the bed and put in these which came second to a better six that had been staged without water and looked sad by the end of the show.

A gentleman called Derek Brooks, who sometimes writes about his garden in Garden News, is the main exhibitor in this show. Without him there would be no roses, no chrysanthemums and not so many other flowers.  How he gets everything in his car is a mystery. He had some nice chrysanthemums on display. Mine had gone over so I couldn't bring them.

Above is Gillette and maybe Yellow Billy Bell and below is Matlock, one of my favourites.

His vase of five contained two different sorts of Matlock.

There are two classes for PFs in the show. I put three entries in the vase of three and one in the single.

These three Crompton Classic got the best in general flowers, although they are hardly well matched. It's a variety that appeals a lot to general judges. 

I also put in a vase of two Lavender Schubert and an Unfinished Symphony.

My third vase had two Clara's Choice and a Heracles in it. 

In the single class I put in what I think was my best Crompton Princess of the year. I'm not too keen on this variety. It's a short grower and many of them seem to have too much petal for me. This one was big and round.

Lancs and Cheshire Carnation Society Premier Show 2nd September 2017

Last year, this show had been very poorly supported and I was showing elsewhere at Liverpool on the day. I promised myself that I would try to support it this year. Then Liverpool Show fell through, which made it even easier to go to Atherton.

  As it turned out it was a repeat of the previous year with only myself and Keith Horton in the PFs and maybe three entrants in the Pinks. My intention had been to just go in one or two of the big classes, as I didn't have much but when I realised the situation at the venue, I split my blooms up to make more entries and at least give some semblance of a show. The crazy thing was that not only was there mountains of food, but the two judges travelled all the way down from the North-
East to do the judging and didn't have much of a job to do.

The one Heracles that I had wasn't very round.

This Lavender Schubert caused some confusion for the judges as I don't think they'd seen one before. At the moment it's classified as both self and a fancy which can't help matters. One of the judges thought it had sported from being self. In fact it's always like this.

The ever-reliable Crompton Classic gave me my white ground fancy.

Another that I've used a lot this year has been Clara's Choice. I don't think it has anything to do with Clara at all as it repeats fast like a Dutch variety. The late Brian Dean was of the same opinion. The stock came from him.

More consternation from the judges over this Unfinished Symphony below. It's a red ground fancy, classified as a pink ground fancy, another Schubert Sport. Mine got more and more red as the season progressed. The judge removed it from the Any Other Fancy class, put it in the red self class and judged it as a self.
 

To add to the judges' misery, I put in an Olivia, a commercial green variety which judges loathe with a passion. Compared to Elsie Kitchen, it has too much petal according to the arbiters of these things and after a similar one at Southport had been totally ignored it was hardly surprising that it only got a third from the judge.

Two Crompton Princess and a Winter Wonderland gave me my three whites.

Three Lavender Schuberts gave me another three selfs.

Best in Show went to these three Clara's Choice.

The Pinks saved the day and were probably of higher quality than my PFs.

It's a job to know what to do about this show. This year, I was unopposed in lots of classes at many venues. There is very little pleasure in receiving awards when you're the only exhibitor in those classes. I didn't have the luxury of choosing another show on the same day.