BNCS Summer Show Chesterfield 10th July

The British National Carnation Society's Summer Show was again held at Dobbies Garden World near Chesterfield and again there were problems with the season being so late. Last year I did not have a border carnation to show at this event and there were very few PFs (Perpetual Flowering Carnations)as well.  This year it was only me who had any borders and there was only one PF on the bench, so the PF Carnation growers are also later than usual. However, as can be seen from these first two photos, there were plenty of pinks for people to look at. Mrs Roberts won the big prizes in the pinks. 

So as there was only me in the borders I'll just show some of the varieties I used. In the single bloom class for one white or cream I put in a Nichola Ann and a Eudoxia, neither of which were brilliant but the judge chose the Nichola Ann (on the left below) as the better of the two.

Below is Flanders which for me is my earliest flower. This means I was able to let it mature on the plant a bit to get some size on it. Many of the other varieties I had to cut young and their size suffered as a result.

I put two different pink borders in: Mary Conlon on the left, and Mystic Sunrise on the right which Phil Cross kindly referred to as a pitprop. One was too young and small the other was rough and clockfaced. The judge did the sensible thing a gave the young one a second and the pitprop a third.

In the other ground fancy class I put in two Lord Nuffields. This was the better one.

This one below  is a yellow called Chesswood Lidgett Yellow. Some years it is useless and other years you can just about get it to show but the stems are not very strong and so it can go all droopy on you. It wasn't too bad this year.

There was some interest in the variety below which is Grey Dove. Again these were very young and small.

Mary Conlon is a nice pink but it's hard to keep the colour without shading, which is in itself quite tricky as if you shade too early or too much the stems will go weak on you.

To my utter shame I had three vases NAS'd (disqualified) because of the dreaded red spider mite which I should have spotted. There's no excuse for not having clean plants at a show. What made it worse was they were my best three vases, one of twelve Leslie's Scarlet and two vases of three White Champagne:.as the judge said, 'Should have gone to Specsavers.'

A number of growers liked this particular bloom. The variety is Show Girl, which Stan Heslop very kindly let me have a few years ago.

The best vase award went to these three Grace's Scarlet Clove whose clove scent seemed to follow me all the way to the Bed and Breakfast place.

There was a mix-up with the trophies as they'd brought the Autumn ones instead so the President, Ray Ingham, presented me with two cards instead of the cups. No matter. I never take trophies home anyway. Not that I win very many!

If anyone reading this would like to grow and show some border carnations just leave me a comment and I'll help in any way I can.