Tottington Show

The week after Chipping the weather always takes a turn for the worse and the autumn rains usually set in with a vengeance. I thus struggle to get anything in glads that is worth showing as I don't grow them in a polytunnel as some do. But my local show is at Tottington and I like to support them when I can. Above we see the eternal optimist, Derek Roscow, pondering in which class to put this Drama with most of its florets removed. It should be noted that at The Pie Eaters Daffodil Show which despite the name has a very high quality entry, there is a class which Derek has won many, many times, for the worst daffodil. Say no more.

Class 1 was for one spike, as in many of these local shows. I was lucky enough to win a silver medal for best exhibit with Romanka 545LM seen in the centre here, a new one from the Czech Republic. Second was Derek with a Sophie you can just see on the far right and third was my Golden Fringed 514LM, the yellow one on the left, which hails from Russia. The only reason these two spikes made it is because they are very ruffled and thus water resistant.

In the three spike class you can see the weather damage on the glads at the back. I only had these three underflowered ones at the front but the judge preferred them to the weather beaten stuff. Two Extasy (the Dutch spell it that way to differentiate it from Ecstasy which is an older American glad) and one Blue Isle. You can get Blue Isle anywhere and normally I would not have grown it but I was breeding blues amongst other things this year so I grew a few and it surprised me with its health.

After that I was struggling so went in the floret box classes. Above is Mallorca another new Czech glad. It got beaten by Marie Roscow's Drama after Derek and I pointed out that one of the florets was not the same as the others.

In the other floret boxes there was only me. This little gem above is Amelie. The photo doesn't show a lovely pink flush to the florets.

In the prims floret box I had three Maxton and three Gillian Brown of my own breeding but not a very good exhibit.

There were less pansy boxes than at Chipping but the blue is a nice colour.

I also had an uncontested win with three Flevo Primo in the 200s but any other three 200s would probably have beaten them. It's a bit short and big for an exhibition type.

Derek was awarded the Bronze medal for his two Video in Class 2 and he also had an NVS medal for his veg.

Mr Brooks who always bring a carload of stuff deservedly won the most points in the show.

I shall look forward to the Spring Show here on Saturday 25th April, having just planted daffodils in pots in preparation for this event.