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.