Slightly off topic but often when you bring two very skilled people together and follow their exchange you learn a lot. The trouble is that no-one is really able to accept that they are skilled, but it is easy to see when someone else is! The HPS in Kent once held a 'seed sowing' workshop in our garden, when myself and Graham Gough described how we grew plants in this way (both from a nursery perspective). We both love growing and propagating plants but our experiences and background are quite different - Graham is artistic and musical (literally) and I am quite technical and scientific. Graham was brilliant at pointing out my mistakes (and the most important of these was lack of preparation - I had spent hours putting together a display of seeds and demonstration of cleaning them etc., but had failed to make sure I had a good example of compost - i.e: we had run out!); Graham on the other hand has the simple practical skill of making a nursery work and so homed in on what is most essential (and if you have visited his nursery, or in the past Washfield, you will know what a fine nurseryman and gardener he is). So I personally learnt quite a lot and hope that those watching did too. When you really enjoy doing something and have thought a lot about it I think "thinking out loud" is almost impossible not to do and the exchanges that result are wonderfully stimulating. In the context of the AGS Shows in particular my view is that this would release them from such a strong 'judgemental' element, and would do nothing to reduce their quality and wonder.
