Remarks from the Weekly KAVB Flower Show - Lisse

[Maggi Young]

Yes, David, the glory days of winning in Gothenburg are a LONG time ago!

[Lvandelft]

I can see the need for CND leaflets at Pittodrie mind.... many folks DO think the team could do with blowin' up!

 

[Maggi Young]

Luit, sorry, I will explain.... CND is the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Aberdeen Football Club, which has had termendous success in the past, has, for some years, been really bad... thus the opinion that they might be better to be blown up, whether by using nuclear or other explosives 

[Lvandelft]

 
Thanks Maggi!

[Lvandelft]

Maggi, where is the Sternbergia thread? I have several pots here with dubious names - I can use some help here!

Jim, here we discussed Sternbergia last year too:

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=969.msg22838#msg22838

[Lvandelft]

Really coveting a Bessera -  will have a word with Big John Amand, I think, he had some last year 

Maggi, I made last week a picture of a bed where Bessera is cultivated.
Sorry the place was a little far from the road where I was cycling, but it
gives some idea, I hope.

[Maggi Young]

Ooh! How lovely!  Yes, I must try some, now that I see they are field grown... I had thought that even in the Netherlands they would be greenhouse subjects.
 Thanks Luit!

[Lvandelft]

Maggi, they are cultivated like many other bulbs from the S.H..
They were planted (in April/May) next to a field with Crinum.
It's not far from me and I know the man who grows them.
Will try to have a chat with him.
Here a picture of the Crinum field.

[Maggi Young]

Oh, my word, a Crinum field! Amazing to see these... thank you for showing us these Luit!

[Lvandelft]

Today I made a visit to one of the best Dahlia breeder/growers in the Netherlands.
Here I saw again the Dahlia Silver City and I told the man what I found out about
the name and where it came from.
He was a little surprised that I knew the name of the Reverent Brother Simplicius and did
not know that Leicester was once a Silver City.
But he knew him personally because the Rev. had visited his garden in Holland and
told me he had a photo of the Brother Simplicius.
So I made a picture of it where the reverent is showing 5 Dahlia's.
He is holding 3 D. Silver City, which was described on the back of the photo.
A picture of his handwriting I show here too.
I made many pictures in the Showgarden today, which I hope to show when I
fixed them.
       
Dahlia Silver City           
Rev. Simplicius               
Rev. Simplicius backside text. (modified L.)

[Armin]

Luit,
amazing fields of Bessera & Crinum. You really live in the bulb center
Very interesting -Silver City- story.

[Maggi Young]

Luit, what an interesting day  you had... and have then given us.... thank you.
 I must say I had no idea the Silver City blooms were so BIG!!

[Lvandelft]

Luit, what an interesting day  you had... and have then given us.... thank you.
 I must say I had no idea the Silver City blooms were so BIG!!

Maggi, Silver City is "moderate", only between 20 and 25 cm. There are much bigger ones.
Will show some soon, I hope.

[Maggi Young]

Maggi, Silver City is "moderate", only between 20 and 25 cm. There are much bigger ones.
Will show some soon, I hope.

Moderate at 25-25cms ??!! 
The huge size that Dahlia flowers can attain is astonishing to me. I konw there are very large Chrysanthemum varieties also, we usually only see these at flower shows, of course... it seems there is a fondness for the giant flower as well as the giant vegetables at these shows......such a contrast with thealpineflowers... yet many of the ancestors of these massive blooms were quite modest sized wild flowers in the beginning ...there is no chocolate under these fields is there, Luit? These flowers are from breeding not feeding!! 

[annew]

Luit, can that really be his handwriting? It seems to give his date of death.