I put this on that place that you once visited David (Facebook), but following your prompt here are a few pictures - it was an enjoyable and very friendly day, but still not really enough people outside the AGS discovered it (we brought back quite a few plants, speaking as a nurseryman). Jon records the plants wonderfully - maybe I should make reference to his pictures on Facebook too? At some point I aim to write about the various AGS Shows we have been to this spring on my Kent Diary on the AGS website - especially at Rosemoor and Sutton Valence:
'THE MOUNTAINS ARE CALLING AND I MUST GO' (John Muir).
The quiet and gentle nature of a 'society of friends', inspired by visiting the East Anglia AGS Show at Wymondham yesterday... and a look back to 80 years ago...
(In 1935 the Society had some 1200 members of which only 4% exhibited plants, though then as now reports on these formed one of the strongest features of the Bulletins. Then as now there was always the plea for new people to become involved in showing plants leading to this rather nice spur from the Editor, F. H. Fisher:-
"There is a tendency for members to regard the Shows as set meals served by a few expert chefs rather than as bottle parties, or an Irish fight, to which all are welcome."
The idea of an AGS Show having the attributes of a 'bottle party' or 'Irish fight', though, is hard to imagine. By contrast the Plant Sales often involve a lot of elbows! Later Fisher wrote:-
"One criticism frequently levelled at the AGS Shows is that the same plants are brought up time after time. Naturally amateurs are limited in the quantity of plants they can grow, and it is up to the hitherto non-competing members to remedy this defect, if defect it is, by knocking out the old stagers with something new and strange.")
'Expert chefs' must have always led the way, along with the judges who enjoy the meal. So what do us other 96% do?
