Pontefract AGS Show 20th September 2014

[shelagh]

Due to a shake-up in the AGS Show Schedule the Pontefract Show is this coming Saturday. Full details of how to get there in the Show Schedule.

[Maggi Young]

Will take the chance to mention the next AGS shows too -
As well  as the Pontefract Show at  The Chesneys Centre, Regent Street, Featherstone, Pontefract, WF7 5EW on the 20th , there is :

 The RAINHAM Show at   Rainham School for Girls, Derwent Way, Rainham, Gillingham, ME8 0BX on the 27th September and :

The LOUGHBOROUGH AUTUMN SHOW, Charnwood College (formerly Burleigh Community College), Thorpe Hill, Loughborough, LE11 4SQ on October 4th


- and on October 11th there is the PONTELAND SRGC/AGS show at  the Memorial Hall, Darras Road, Ponteland, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE20 9NX 

[shelagh]

Thanks Maggi.

Hoping for a good day on Saturday although flowers are in short supply in our alpine house

[Maggi Young]

Have fun, Shelagh.
 The season seems to be somewhat "in between" at the moment here. Hope for the Show Sec. sake that some folks have got lots of goodies - I'm sure they will have!

[ranunculus]

Just back from the excellent Pontefract AGS Show at Featherstone (20th September 2014).  The weather has been dull, misty and overcast, but inside the Chesneys Centre the benches were full of superb foliage plants, beautiful ferns, conifers and cushions, a host of magical cyclamen and a number of well-flowered gentians.
Though the Farrer Medal was withheld on this occasion, the plant voted 'Best in Show' also won a very well-deserved Certificate of Merit for Shelley's Steve Walters. This superbly flowered Cyclamen hederifolium ssp. crassifolium ex Zakynthos was (I believe) considered to be under-potted for the size of the corm and perhaps just a tad tall in flower.  Still a magnificent exhibit.  Congratulations to the Show organisers on a lovely event.

Steve Walters from Shelley - Winner of the Best in Show exhibit.
Best in Show at Pontefract - Cyclamen hederifolium ssp. crassifolium ex Zakynthos

[Maggi Young]

My goodness, what a lovely plant - no wonder Steve W. is looking pleased. I don't think you could squeeze more  flowers in there if you tried.
Tough job to transport a tall plant in a tall pot, too - glad I didn't have to do it!

[Peter Maguire]

Congratulations to Steve for winning with a splendid plant. It was, I believe, at last year's Northumberland show that he first staring competing at AGS shows - however he did win both the cup for 'beginners' and a Certificate of Merit at that show. 

I'm sure his first Farrer medal should follow soon. 

[SJW]

Well, it's a busy weekend. Spent the evening sorting out some plants for the Cyclamen Show in Birmingham tomorrow (actually, today. I really must get to bed!) Many thanks for all your kind words. There were some great plants on the benches at Pontefract today (my home town, too). Perhaps slightly miffed not to get the Farrer  because I suspect those opportunities don't come along that often although I understand the judges' reasoning; inexperience on my part. It has always been a long-stemmed flowerer though - taller than others I grow. I should have double-potted and dropped it down a bit, I suppose, but I don't generally like to overpot my cyclamen.

Onwards and sideways!

[Maggi Young]

Jenny, the gardener at the Hutts, Himalayan Garden, shares some great  photos of plants - and parts thereof! - at Pontefract  in  her Twitter  page  : https://twitter.com/The_Hutts/media

Sharing a  photo of  Jenny's of the  show hall :

[shelagh]

We all know how tiring photography can be, energy draining too.  Here is Cliff after a large pub lunch just making sure his energy levels are high enough to go and tackle that wonderful Cyclamen.

[SJW]

... considered to be under-potted for the size of the corm and perhaps just a tad tall in flower.

Don't want to bang on about this too much, honest! But I thought it worth adding the following:

Roma may be interested to see that my plant is one of the seedlings from the original batch of seeds Pat Nicholls collected on Zakynthos. Discussed here: http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11254.405. Roma posted a photo of her plant alongside a 'standard' hederifolium here: http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11254.495. It has a taller flower...

On the under-potting question - guilty as charged. In my defence, I've clearly been influenced by the Cylamen 'big book' (Genus Cyclamen) rather than AGS judges . The former has this to say on the cultivation of hederifolium:

...a really large plant of C. hederifolium can look magnificent in a big pot. Don't be tempted to make that pot over-large; a pot that just fits a large specimen, almost underpotting it, seems to encourage the foliage to fill to the pot's centre, whereas over-generous pots let the foliage run out towards the rim, leaving the centre less well furnished.

[Martinr]

Steve, I think the answer is double potting purely for exhibition, a cunning ploy used by many.....I'd say about a quarter of the plants I exhibit are double potted on a Friday and un double potted on Sunday. As an added bonus it means you don't even have to clean the pot!

[Maggi Young]

Martin - your point is a good tip for exhibitors - but that purely aesthetic consideration does not  ( should not???)affect the quality of any given plant, does it? 

[SJW]

Steve, I think the answer is double potting purely for exhibition, a cunning ploy used by many.....I'd say about a quarter of the plants I exhibit are double potted on a Friday and un double potted on Sunday. As an added bonus it means you don't even have to clean the pot!

Hi Martin - yes, I do this for some plants, particularly for some of the winter/spring growers (coum etc) because, as Maggi says, aesthetically the plants can look 'better'. Thing is though, I like the pot the show winner is in so I've selfishly put my season-long enjoyment of looking at the plant before the one-day displeasure of the judges . Joking aside, if I'd have been organised and knew that I was going to exhibit at the show back in the summer I'd have repotted into plastic before regrowth started and then double-potted into a suitable, larger clay.

[Maggi Young]

Joking aside, if I'd have been organised and knew that I was going to exhibit at the show back in the summer I'd have repotted into plastic before regrowth started and then double-potted into a suitable, larger clay.

Really? Even though it seems you like to grow the plants in terracotta ?
 Looking at the pots we have here, it would be jolly difficult to find a suitable pot to double pot a long-tom into. 
I admit I  love the look of Steve's plant - yes, a taller form but  not etiolated and the growth is compact and dense.