Dianthus Shows: Part Four

   As we come into August, in most years the Borders are coming to an end and then the PFs take over. The Pinks keep on going too of course. My last show for Borders was Bakewell, staging on Tuesday 1st August. I didn't have much of anything really, just a few PFs and maybe 15 to 20 Borders and they were only just hanging on in the heat. I wanted to support the new Borders Section which I hope in a better year will be well supported.

As it was I was the only entrant in the Borders. I put five Bofield Emily and two Show Girl in the seven class. In the three selfs I had two entries of 3 Rita Lilian May and Bradshaw Beacon. In the single self I put in two entries, Bradshaw Heartblood and Eudoxia Sport. In the three Fancies I put in 3 Show Girl and a mixed vase of Irene de la Torre, Mystic Mel and Mystic Dawn. In the single fancy I put what was probably my best bloom, a Bradshaw Sunset. I used Lucy Hogg for the three picotees and an Ann S Moore for the single picotee. Apart from the Sunset, these were not my best flowers, but all I had left.

I staged even less in the PF Section with just single blooms of Red Lips, Schubert, Nick Woodfield and Clara's Choice. I had two of the last one so one went in the the Yellow Ground Fancy and one in the Grower's Choice. Ivor Mace and Bill Bonas and the men from Stoke were also in the PFs so I didn't expect to win anything there, though at Tatton I had managed a red card against the big guns.

The glads exhibitors were there with Peter Forrow from Chesterfield having a hatful and Nigel showing some very nice seedlings. Unfortunately the best laid plans go awry. Peter was going back on opening day to get the results and let me know (I couldn't stay for the actual show). However, such was the rain that the car parks were closed and Peter queued for two hours before being told he couldn't park. A shambles really. You would think that such a show would have a Plan B for wet weather but no. Ivor posted a few results about the PFs but I will only know when the prize money and Borders Section silver medal arrives whether I got a placing in the PFs. Peter was also going to take the photos so that never happened. I only took two: one of my vase of seven and one of the Bradshaw Sunset but unfortunately reds and apricot ground fancies don't photograph very well.




5 Bofield Emily and two Show Girl

Bradshaw Sunset.

So I've now started taking my cuttings, mostly Borders but also a few PFs that have cutting material on them.  I don't have electricity at the allotments so I just take them early, shade from the sun and spray with water every day for three weeks. I add some Maxicrop to the sprayer from the third week. The cuttings mix this year  is three Perlite to one grit sand. Nothing else. They are usually rooted in four or five weeks.

No shows for me this first weekend of August. Next weekend I'm judging the Yorkshire Gladiolus Show on the Saturday and then I'm over to Doncaster on the Sunday for the Yorkshire Carnation Society second show with just a few PFs if I'm lucky. I think there will be a presentation of the awards from the Early Show and I'm in line for some fancy cut glass and hopefully a medal for something. It's been a lucky year for me so far with six medals for Borders and PFs. I'll be fortunate if I do so well in the glads as, like many,  I have suffered from late emergence after the dry spring. Southport is only 11 days away and I don't seem to have enough to compete in the big classes but the luck might hold and a few might open dead on time. And pigs might fly, I suppose. Still a bit early for my plot that only really gets going around the time of the National in late August. The seedlings are keeping me busy but most have been also rans so far.

Danthus Shows: Part Three

So, Sunday Doncaster, Tuesday Tatton and now Saturday 22nd July at Atherton for the Lancs and Cheshire Carnation Society Early Show. This is only half an hour away for me, so I was there bright and early and helped put out the tables. It ended up being a very good show for the PFs, but typical for this year, not so many Pinks or Borders. As usual for this year, I was the only entrant in most of the Border classes as others had flowered out. 

In the Borders, Phil only had a few singles but he still won with Golden Cross, beating this new one of mine below which I think was too small for the judge.

A shock  in the single fancy class where Phil had a lovely sport of Mystic Mel, plus a very good Mystic Mel itself plus a nice Forest Glow, three entries but the judge gave the class to me with this Lord Nuffield below which isn't even round.

I put three entries in the five class but didn't have five of the same for one vase so I put this seedling, now called Bradshaw Beacon, in with four Ann S Moore. The other two vases were five Lucy Hogg and 5 Bradshaw Heartblood. The Heartblood got the Best Exhibit in the Borders.

Here are my three vases of five.

Show Girl was still very young and on the small side but I didn't have anything else so that was my vase of three fancies. This is the middle bloom.

Another shot of the five Bradshaw Heartblood.

One Bradshaw Beacon and four Ann S Moore:

Five Lucy Hogg, the front right was a bit wangy.

The three Show Girl.

In the three selfs, I put in two entries: three Bradshaw Heartblood below

and the second entry was two Crimson Comets and a Heartblood.

 In the PF section I was happy with my results though I had mostly single blooms to put together. These three were Lavender Schubert, Crompton Princess and Unfinished Symphony, second in the Grower's Choice class.

I put these in the Grower's Choice as well: Bob's Highlight, Crompton Classic and Atletico Schubert.

My best result was probably this one: first out of seven in the three fancies with three big and blousy Crompton Classics.

I was happy with a second out of six    in the Grower's Choice below.

 
PF Section.

Phil Cross won Best Exhibit with these nine Heracles which he staged for Tony Derrick who couldn't come.

Kevin Earl had some lovely flowers there. This is Meg Earl, second in the nine.

Kevin also had some lovely examples of this sport from Crompton Classic.

I also got a second out of twelve in the single self class with a nice Heracles. I got a silver for most points in the Borders but as at Doncaster, it's not so much fun when you're unopposed in a lot of classes. Let's hope next year we can all flower our borders at the same time and have some proper competition in the shows.

Dianthus Shows: Part Two

  On the Tuesday after Doncaster I was off again to Tatton Park, my first visit to the venue (to the show, that is. My wife and I often walk in the Park.) It was a bit like Fort Knox trying to get in. You had to register with a photo ID in advance and then on arrival you had to go into a Portakabin where office staff made you an ID card. This then had to be scanned by one of the many security men before you could drive in. The guy on the gate gave me the wrong directions so it took me a while to get to where the BNCS National Show was to be. The tabling allocated for exhibits was quite small but as it turned out because of the earliness of the season, it was adequate.

I didn't know that last year the RHS in its infinite lack of wisdom had supplied glasses not unlike champagne flutes in size in which to stage the blooms - a totally daft move by typically out of touch committee members who have probably never been near a carnation show before. This year, thankfully, and due to the entreaties of our committee members, there were bikini vases for us. Some of the pinks still had to go in the glasses.

Anyway, there I was. And Graham Davies, Marie Ann and Ivor and his wingman, Roy Tudor. Then Liam et fils turned up. By then I'd just about staged mine so I don't know if many others came. I think not. i was quite pleased with what I'd managed to stage. I still don't have the results but hope to get them from James Akers some time. Oddly, I didn't take any photos and remembered this when I was on my way home, so I phoned Graham and asked if someone could take some for me. Keith Mastaglio duly obliged and three photos from him are below. First a shot of twelve of my  Bradshaw Heartblood, the new crimson clove. The angle makes them look bit gappy! Viewed from higher up they looked ok.  The red is not dark enough here  but reds are a problem for most cameras.

Secondly, here's a photo of my three Lucy Hogg staged informally which Keith thought was the best vase there.

Before I came away from Tatton I said to myself that unless Liam had something outstanding, I stood chance of getting Best Bloom with an Ann S Moore. Sure enough, the judge agreed and the one below got that award.

Personally, I hope the society gets another venue for next year's National. A nice garden centre would be lovely.

Dianthus Shows: Part One

   If you grow carnations, to most people that means PFs or Perpetual Flowering Carnations that can give you blooms all year round if you want.  The other members of the Dianthus family are the Pinks, which are like mini carnations and come in a wide variety of types, and the Border Carnations or just Borders, which are as large as the PFs but smoother without a serrated edge. Borders only flower from June to August. They are not widely grown but should be as they are hardy and produce many flowers per plant. For exhibition purposes these are reduced to one flower per plant, unless you are growing two year old plants. Most of us propagate new stock each year for the most part.

This year, I've been growing both PFs and Borders for shows. Most of the PF growers who go in the shows grow a large number of plants and dedicate one or more large greenhouses or tunnels to them. I don't know the average number but I certainly know a few who grow 300 or more PFs which amounts to thousands of flowers over the year. Border growers on the other hand, especially when showing them, tend to grow the same sort of numbers of plants in pots but with only one flower per plant: you are talking maybe 300 blooms over roughly an eight week period.

Each year is different. This year we didn't have lots of frost, maybe just one or two nights. We had a dry spring, then a very hot period, then thunderstorms. At the moment in late July, my area is set to receive rain on most days. For some Border growers, this year was very early in terms of flowering and some plants started flowering five weeks early. Come the shows, there was not much left for some. In England, there are three Border areas that concern me and my fellow growers, these being the Lancashire Moors, where my own plots are, Hull and Doncaster where Phil Cross, Barrie Gamble and Billy Stokes are and the North East where Keith Mastaglio, Liam Leger and other growers live. I am usually later flowering my Borders than the others because my plots are high above sea level near Winter Hill. But that's not the only thing that makes a difference. English weather not only splits North and South but also East and West. So some years, I can flower out before the others. Mostly it's the other way round.

Many not only flowered out early this year but flower size was generally down. I have to bear this in mind as I was experimenting with pot size on some borders and the season has perhaps skewed the results a bit. Barrie Gamble had said to me in 2016 at Atherton that Borders could be flowered perfectly well in four inch pots. I tried this on some and produced good flowers. However, the stems were not as good as my other stock. What I have found generally is that plants grown outside and only brought under cover when showing colour never have weak stems. Bring them into a glasshouse earlier than that and even with some glass removed and regular damping down, it's not easy to keep the temperature down in hot weather ( I don't have electricity up the plots) and some stems suffer and the flowers droop or as I call it 'go all wangy'.  Not what you want. The temptation with 13cm pots of Borders is to think that you can stand them pot-thick and thus get more in the same space but they can get drawn up. Next year I shall go back to my 15C pots for all of my Borders except those I propagate for the society to sell at Atherton and Harrogate.

The first show was on Sunday 16th July at Doncaster, home of the Yorkshire Carnation Society.

Entries were down on last year and growers who would normally think nothing of bringing 200 pinks turned up with very few. Borders were thin on the ground as well and the very few PF classes weren't exactly overflowing.

In the Borders I won the grandiose sounding British Border Championships with three vases of three but I was unopposed as the others didn't have enough left, always a disappointment.

The above seedling of mine was admired by those present. It has a strong clove scent and is to be called 'Bradshaw Venus'. I took some others that I have been bulking up and the one below is a rough example of one which has done well this year, a crimson clove type to be called 'Bradshaw Heartblood'. I'll have some better photos from other shows later.

Below is a rather wangy example of another seedling which I used in the scented class, called 'Bradshaw Blessing'.

The best bloom in the Borders went to Phil Cross for this lovely example of 'Clunie'.

In the PFs, I had no competition in the three selfs or the three fancies. For the fancies I used three Clara's Choice like the one below. I don't grow as many PFs as I do Borders - I only have sixty this year in a 10x8 greenhouse which I have to keep on top of because they are quite tightly spaced and sprayed regularly to keep off the red spider mite.

This was my 'station' at the show. The box on the left holds 28 Borders and the crate a further 20 Borders or PFs with a few more flowers in the white tubed bin.

Below is a shot of five Mystic Mel bred by Phil Cross.

Below are three Winter Wonderland with which I won the three selfs in the PFs against no opposition.

One class they have at Doncaster and nowhere else as far as I know, is the floret box for any dianthus.

Apart from the Mystic Mel I didn't take any other varieties except my new ones. I also took 'Bradshaw Beacon', a light red self that can have very good form.

Phil Cross beat me in the seven and the five but neither of us could find enough blooms to do the 12. 

May Update

Most things are now planted or sown. Because of previous calamities with chrysanthemums being ripped to shreds by winds or hammered by the heavy rains up here on the moors, I've planted these earlies in a small tunnel. the space on the left has been sown with zinnias as I'm hoping to exhibit these at Southport. 

Outside glads beds are almost all seedlings this year. The trouble when you have lots of seedlings is keeping them all labelled properly as you can see from all the canes. These are mostly 400s and 500s but there are two or three new 300s that I have about ten each of, besides what I'm bulking up in trays and pots.

In this bed pictured below the left hand side is full of 3/4/500 size seedlings that haven't yet flowered whilst the shorter space on the right, below some flowered out daffodils, contains new prim and 200 crosses that should flower this year plus some that I have bulked up.

This bed below has all my other prims on the left-hand side and my 400s and 500s on the right-hand side.

I have a lot of border carnations in pots now, most of which I have bred myself and they are almost all clove-scented.

These are trays of glads -small corms at about twelve to the tray. A couple of pots of flowered daffs at the front. Larger pots of smalls and cormlets on the floor.

These are my PFs which I hope to exhibit at some shows this year. I stopped growing them for a while as I was so keen on the borders but there aren't many border shows so I decided to grow some PFs again. This is only a 10 by 8 greenhouse so I will have to keep on top of the spraying to avoid the red spider mite.

In the larger greenhouse, yet more pots of cormlets of my most recent selected seedling glads.

And more again. Note the beverage facility.

Outside, at the back of this greenhouse I have some pots of new maiden prims that should flower for the first time this year plus yet more borders.

elsewhere there are yet more pots of cormlets:

and even more on this outdoor staging.

Finally, yet more on the other side of the 10 by 8 greenhouse.

My sweet peas are very late this year so I'm going to be using them for the September shows maybe. I haven't even sorted out the trench yet. All those other pots and trays took up a lot of time earlier in the year.

Ramsbottom Spring Show

The next day, Sunday 9th April, I was off to Ramsbottom for another show. With the same flowers, but in slightly different order, I managed to win the Championship three vases of three (see below). 

I was lucky enough to win the six class (note the leaves Andrew!)

The one Division 4 came my way with a Bala.

There were only two entries in the threesomes class and of course I was second.

The Loch Alsh and Loch Assynt did well

and the Bell Rock came second.

My two entries in the three Div 4s came first and second. Seagrave above

and Bala.

I got a third with these  Trecarra which have yet to get me a first anywhere as they are a bit rough.

There were some nice baskets

and some nice Pacific Rim from Ken Ellis.

Here are a few close-ups of some of the better blooms.

Not the biggest entry I've ever seen at Ramsbottom as the season has been an early one and some had flowered out but a fair show of daffodils. Jim Foote deservedly got the medal for the most points. Well done, Jim. I think he had something like 12 firsts to my nine.