The Caley and other Scottish Spring Flower Shows

[Maggi Young]

'The Caley'  - the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society - was founded 200 years ago and as well as its general membership functions,  is closely involved with the Scottish Gardeners Forum- a body which provides support services to all manner of garden and plant groups. The Caley is greatly  involved with the Gardening Scotland Show as well.

I am grateful to the Caley for this information about one of the premier competitions  held at various spring flowers shows.

Spring flower shows in Scotland – Daffodil Trophy  for competition from ‘ the Caley’

The Jim Davidson Trophy
This competition commemorates the late Jim Davidson from Banff who died in May 2009. Jim was very important in the Scottish daffodil world as he did an immense amount to improve standards and bring groups together. The idea of the competition is for people to enter daffodils from Divisions 1 – 4 in as many of the five Scottish Shows as they can. There is a points system and the winner receives a trophy provided by the Caley (Royal Caledonian Hort. Soc.).
The dates in 2014 for the Scottish Shows participating are:

•Royal Aberdeen Hort. Soc. 22-23 March

•RCHS Edinburgh 29-30 March  -schedule here Fletcher Building, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh

•Dundee Daffodil Group 12-13 April

•Keith Hort. Soc. 19 April     Longmore Kall, Keith, Moray.
Contact:  L. Morrison    01542 882449     lindamorrison9 AT sky.com

•Banff Daffodil Group 26-27 April    B.B. Hall, Seafield St, Banff.  Contact W. Copland wacopland AT hotmail.com

There are of course many other flowers and plants at all these shows beside daffodils.
More information will be on the Caley website as it becomes available. These shows take place on the same weekends as SRGC/AGS shows but as most are two day events it is possible to visit both.
The Scottish Gardeners’ Forum]The Scottish Gardeners’ Forum carries show and other local  event information  in their newsletter which can be viewed on their website . They depend on people providing this  information and would welcome more.

(edit to add contact details for Keith and Banff Shows)

[Maggi Young]

Don't miss Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society Talk, Tuesday 18th February 2014, RBGE Lecture Theatre 7.30 pm. Speaker, Richard Baines, Curator Logan BG.
    "Logan Botanic Garden:Scotland’s Most Exotic Garden”

Winter lectures (October to March) are regularly held in the Lecture Theatre at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Inverleith Row, EH3 5LR

Free to Members – visitors are welcome and requested to make a small donation

[Maggi Young]

 The Caley has made awards to three stalwarts of the SRGC, Jim Jermyn, Ian Christie and Jim Colledge : see details here : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11520.0

[David Shaw]

Only just seen this.
It is great to see this recognition of the late Jim Davidson. We knew him well through daffodil connections and when we used to exhibit at Banff. At one time in our lives we used to see 'gardens'. Then, thanks to the SRGC, we saw 'plants'. Jim Davidson taught us how to see 'flowers', individual blooms, and how to appreciate and judge the beautry and quality of each. It is a great disciplin and is still with us, thank you Jim.
Unfortunately Banff is on the same w/e as the Inverness, now Highland SRGC show. When our show was just a small event we would go to Banff on Friday everning to stage daffodils and alpines, Inverness on Saturday for the Rock garden show and back to Banff on Sunday for the presentations there - a busy w/e. As our own show grew larger something had to give and it was the daffies, pity as we both enjoyed that part of our lives.
A particular memory is of a show at Brodie Castle, less than a mile from our garden. Jim was judging and the organiser had really p...d him off, in spades! There was a class for species narcissus and we had snipped some bulbocodium blooms out of the garden and displayed them in a vase. Not only did Jim award the smallest entry in the show best in class, he gave it Best in Show! We still have the trophy to prove it and it is recorded in the Daffodil year book for that year. Show Secretaries take note - be nice to your judges.

[Maggi Young]

A reminder of this weekend's Caley Show :
For folks who are spending a weekend in Edinburgh - or just fancy a burst of Spring glories  this weekend, there is the  Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society Spring Flower Show on
Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th March  at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh

Entry Price: £2

The Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society returns to RBGE for its annual Spring Show, lasting the whole weekend. Head to the Fletcher Building to see beautiful floral displays.

Venue  RBGE, Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR

http://www.rchs.co.uk/shows/spring-show

[Maggi Young]

Photo by Gavin McNaughton of Beryl McN. on the Macplants stand at the Caley show -

"At the Royal Caledonian Hort Soc spring show @ TheBotanics Sat/Sun. Busy! "

[Maggi Young]

Gardening Scotland tweeted this pic :

Gavin McNaughton selling to Jim Jermyn - Binny Plants stall in background .....

[FrazerHenderson]

Just back from Caley Show.

It was  a grand spectacle and with an abundance of hyacinths surely the most fragrant of spring shows.

Many SRGC regulars at the show including Beryl MacNaughton (Mac Plants) and Billy Carruthers (Binny Plants) on the trade stands.

Red tickets in various pot classes (alpines, bulbs, cacti, dwarf conifers etc)  abounded for Stan da Prato, Alan Weepers (just in shot in photo2 below) and Billy Carruthers (His winning daffodil 'Island Pride' won best of class and best Tazetta.)

[Maggi Young]

Wow, those must be the biggest pot hyacinths I've seen in a long time - whoppers.

'Island Pride' is  a dainty creature - does that smell as good as it looks ?

[Stan da Prato]

some of my  show pots back home - though the bulbs were all spent  - to demonstrate  the variety that one can exhibit. Two of Clive's pics one of the hall and another of the cut daffodils which line the back wall of the RBGE Fletcher building, spill over onto the benches  and are the strongest part of this show.

[Stan da Prato]

..Another of Clive's photos  -the  stand of daffs sent up from Cornwall by Ron Scamp. I think he was on Gardeners World last Friday talking about heritage varieties.