March 29th 2014 Hexham Show

[Stan da Prato]

..and more

[Stan da Prato]

..yet more...

[Stan da Prato]

....last five from open section

[Stan da Prato]

many nice plants in sections 2 and 3

[Stan da Prato]

Carrying  in the plants provides  interesting  snapping opportunities....

[Stan da Prato]

..as does staging

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All the work done by local group members and others makes for a successful show

[Stan da Prato]

the nursery stalls are always a popular part of the show.

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people enjoying the plants and one another's company.

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more

[Stan da Prato]

The prize giving  finishes as Cyril receives yet another  Forrest medal. My thanks to the NE England group of AGS  who already plan to welcome alpine enthusiasts to  their   next show   on the last Saturday in March 2015.  I hope others will now improve this account by  adding  their own pictures  and commentaries.

[Peter Maguire]

Thanks for a wonderful series of pictures Stan, you have really given a great sense of the range of plants on view (just under 600) and the people pictures show a lot of smiling faces, so I guess everyone enjoyed themselves.

I'd like to thank all the local group (and some not-so-local) members who helped out on the day and my my job that much easier, and indeed pleasurable, and made for another succesful show.

As show secretary, you don't get much chance to take photographs at the show, but I had been impressed by David Boyd's winning entry for the cut flower class - mostly Hepaticas which he grows so well. The cut flowers in vases (actually 'shot' glasses from IKEA in our case) don't often get seen in detail in show report photos. Whilst we were tidying up. David came along to clean out the glasses, and as the flowers would have just been thrown away, I asked whether I could take them away to photograph later. Here are the results:

[Peter Maguire]

The other three

[Maggi Young]

Little gems in those cut flowers, Peter, thanks for the close up "shots" !!   I would think only David Boyd would have plants big enough to allow the cutting on so many Hepatica blooms!

Stan, you have, as ever, done a great service to us all by showing such an extensive range of photos to really bring the atmosphere of the show into our homes.
I am very grateful to you for this contribution.

The display from the RBGE looks super in its finished state.
I must mention the display of the plant hunters - what a well thought out and accomplished display that looks. A huge amount of info contained there - what a lot of effort to achieve that - a  superb exhibit. 

There will be many looking forward to next year's Hexham show - but of course those nice NE folks will be welcoming exhibitors and visitors alike to Ponteland on   11th October 

[Peter Maguire]

Just looking through the photographs and realised that the white Primula in Christine's photo (reply 9) was in fact Primula 'Aire Waves' shown by Peter Hood for which he received a certificate of merit. He told me later it had looked far better last week at East Lancs and by the end of the afternoon was looking a little 'tired' - as were we all!

That corner of the benches was a little congested and I can see how the confusion over whose plant each was could arise - will try to do better next year.