Tottington 1st April 2017

With the demise of what used to be our first show of the Spring, the Catforth Daffodil Show, it was not until April 1st that I showed any daffodils this year. I had hoped that Tom Alty (a.k.a. Aramis) was going to join us as the third musketeer but he didn't have enough flowers to warrant the trip and indeed was unhappy about his particular daffs from Scamps this year. D'Artagnan, in the shape of Andrew Clark, turned up with some excellent material while the humble Porthos had some but not what I would have liked. Dianne Mason brought a hatful, and Jim Foote and Tom Tinkler were also about. At first, it looked like the six class would be a tussle between the two musketeers and I noticed D'Artagnan's face drop when he saw that the humble Porthos had included leaves in the vases for the first time. However, his flowers even without leaves were a bit better than mine so I thought that would be that. How wrong can you be! Half way through the morning, Ken Harrop, renowned National exhibitor, and his accomplice were spotted in the car park with some quality blooms. I ended up unplaced in the six, though D'Artgagnan got a creditable second. I didn't have enough ammunition to go in the three threes, of which more later, but unleashed my best in the other classes.

In the three Division 1s, I won with Bell Rock. Aramis had commented that this, a substitute for Pemboa from Scamps, was small but very smooth and he was right. (Photo below)  

In the vase of five, I won with five Crackington (below), though one, the top right bloom, was deeper coloured than the others.

Another three Crackington gave me a first in the three Division 4s:

and three Loch Assynt saw me home in the three Division 3s.

A single Loch Assynt also did the job in the single Division 3 class

Back to the six in Class 1. I noticed that this time, I staged mine (on the left) a bit lower than the other entries. I had a bit of a faff with getting the leaves and stem into the Oasis I was using. When I later went to Harrogate the night before it opened, I noticed that John Peace was using moss rather than Oasis and he put his leaves behind the stem and on the edge of the vase. I need to work on this.

Here you can see my six on their own. The facing was rubbish on the front left and the back two should have been swapped over to give a better balance. And Bell Rock (middle right) is just too small for this sort of class.

These are D'Artagnan's six with a lot more weight to them.

And here's Ken Harrop's six on the left, with Evesham (front right) as Best Bloom in Show and a pretty good Ombersley behind that.

I didn't go in the three threes, but Tony Bracegirdle did and got a Diploma for his efforts.

My five Crowndale were judged to be be better than five Pink Silk and some other stuff.

I ended up with the most firsts in the daffodils with five and Dianne had four. For this I won some huge silver tray which I promptly returned as I don't take cups and things home.

To finish, here are some general shots of the daffodils section. I think most people got a card for their flowers in the various classes. There were some good novice entries.