AGS SOUTH WEST SHOW-SATURDAY 30 APRIL 2016

[Lesley Cox]

David, thanks to you too for the note about Simon Bond. He is, I think, 10 years older than I am which would make him 83. Simon is well known in New Zealand, having visited every two or three years for about 20 years now, and always for the NZAGS Study weekends when we had wonderful guests such as Jim Archibald, John Watson, Peter Erskine, Kit Grey-Wilson, Finn Haugli, Bob and Ranveig Wallis and others. He seemed to have a great affection for our alpine flora and was always interested in seed. I last heard from him around last Christmas when he sent me seed of the beautiful white form of Jeffersonia dubia among others. Many years ago when I and a friend stayed at Simon's house, it was my first experience of a thatched cottage, a very old one I think and I remember getting out of my bed in the mornings and running down hill to the door, so sloping was the floor!

I hope he is up and well again soon and will take up your invitation to sent him a greeting card, one featuring our native alpines in situ.

[Philip Walker]

At last years Harlow show,I bought a Daphne off Mr. Bond.He then told me about all his plants that I was looking at and how he saw them where they were growing,especially New Zealand.All very interesting.
Lesley,I use Microsoft paint to resize.I'm not very good with computers,but it's very easy,plus if you google it,a simple tutorial comes up.

[Maggi Young]

......... These are a few more to add: an amazing specimen of Daphne petraea 'Lydora' (grown by Lionel Clarkson); Saxifraga 'Golden Prague' (Duncan Bennett) - really like this; and a lovely Californian Allium crispum (George Elder), like none I've seen before, almost orchid-like for those two-tone flowers.

 You've chosen three real winners there, Tim - great plants.   Lionel had made a long trip, for sure!

[David Nicholson]

Having said all that, I wonder if some people have trouble re-sizing because of their software? With my now deceased PC I had a photo processing programme called Photofiltre which was excellent and re-sizing a photo took all of 5 seconds so no trouble at all. But my recently new laptop has a more sophisticated programme (and I'm not at all sophisticated) to do the same things and for the life of me I haven't yet found how to re-size. It's well-known that I'm almost illiterate when it comes to computers so I keep hoping a light will shine upon me some time soon and I'll work it out. In the time since I started using the laptop I have only posted pictured taken previously and already re-sized.

Lesley, bearing in mind what you have said about your own computer skills (and I'm sure you malign yourself!) you could do no better than download the SRGC re-sizing tool. This will sit on your desktop and all you will need to do is open the file(s) you keep your pictures in. Select the picture you want to resize and drag and drop it onto the re-sizing tool and in milliseconds it will have sent a re-sized picture of a size just ideal for Forum use back to the file you started with. It will have a new title that includes "SRGC" and a lot of hyphens but you can then choose to replace that by whatever title you want. I would tell you how to download the tool but I can't remember how, but a know a lady in Aberdeen who does.

[Maggi Young]

All details of the  photo resizing tool here : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=9993.0

[David Nicholson]

Nice to see those pictures David - even though there weren't so many plants displayed I still managed to miss quite a few. The dwarf form of Berberis darwinii is really interesting, haven't come across that before. These are a few more to add: an amazing specimen of Daphne petraea 'Lydora' (grown by Lionel Clarkson); Saxifraga 'Golden Prague' (Duncan Bennett) - really like this; and a lovely Californian Allium crispum (George Elder), like none I've seen before, almost orchid-like for those two-tone flowers. It was pretty busy in the morning, a good day though I didn't know there was a flower festival on at the same time elsewhere. Travelling certainly wasn't easy over a Bank Holiday weekend.

I agree, I don't think moving the Show further west would be sensible - the venue in Exeter is easily accessible, spacious and comfortable, and the Show friendly and welcoming. I'm not sure exhibitors and many of the nurseries would find it easy to travel a great deal further for a more uncertain outcome, but at least it would be good to have the options shared and discussed where they should be discussed on the AGS website. I think more energy and imagination advertising many of the AGS Shows - so that the AGS has a higher profile in general across the country - would be advantageous - and hopefully more articles in the gardening media such as 'The Garden' and elsewhere. After all there are 'Rare Plant Fairs' strongly promoted in different parts of the country and what is an AGS Show but a Rare Plant Fair under another name? The draw is certainly as much from the nurseries as the plants that are exhibited (however much these may be 'valued' in different ways) and by attracting people to the one there is the opportunity to interest people in being involved in the other. As far as Showing culture is concerned I think there is something of a north/south divide in this as there is in so much more, but that doesn't mean it's not worth making a strong effort to promote the southern Shows and develop them more for those of us down here keen to encourage more people to learn about the plants and grow them. If there are less plants being displayed perhaps there may be an opportunity to have more educational-type displays/demonstrations/talks that could appeal in different ways, more practically to a newer audience? And to get the local BBC to come along in the way BBC Kent is beginning to mention the Alpine Shows here more strongly? Once the media notice something happening in one place they are likely to quickly pick up on it somewhere else for the sake of not being left behind!

It was nice to see you Tim. I enjoyed my day very much indeed and went home with a car full of new plants.

You and I, as well as a few other brave souls, have involved ourselves previously in many discussions on the AGS Web Site about the future direction of the AGS and plant societies in general and the problems they face which, in my view anyway, have been as useful as talking to the wall in terms of any useful measurable progress made. Given a membership who are, in general, at the top end of the age scale; a membership that is declining anyway and a show culture that isn't as generally popular as it might have once been, the points you have made about publicity were valid then and even more valid now.

 I remember making a case for the AGS to take professional advice (in the absence of a professional in these skills being already in membership) on a marketing and publicity strategy with a view to developing and implementing a five year plan to run along with a similar five year plan covering all  aspects of AGS activity. It seems to me that any attempt, in whatever way, to suggest anything that is contrary to the perceived view of those currently charged with the responsibility of organising and managing the AGS is doomed to failure.

I rarely look on the AGS Site these days  apart from reading the Diaries and occasionally responding to those, and the renewal of my current membership is open to some doubt.

[Jon Evans]

For those of you who have time for these things, I have posted the results of my efforts during the day to the AGS Discussion Forum here http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/discussion/atshows/South+West+Show+/20136/, including a few plants, and displays, which escaped David's lens.  Below is Lewisia tweedyi exhibited by Alan and Janet Cook.

[fermi de Sousa]

Jon,
thanks for your link to your Show Report on the AGS site - apart from your excellent photography you often have some insightful comments (I hadn't realised that Geissorhiza darlingensis was so rare); it's unfortunate that you can't report on each and every Show so that the AGS Site has a good record of each event. Have you thought about learning to bi-locate?
cheers
fermi

[Maggi Young]

Thank you for the link, Jon - and the photos.
I hope Mr Nicholson takes note to be more discreet in his sales technique in future 

[Jon Evans]

Hi
Please can I clarify my position on this.  I have no official role or office in either the AGS or the SRGC, but I am a paid-up member of both societies, and I take the show photos at some of the AGS shows. 

Alone among the show photographers I try to post all the pictures I take to the website with a brief commentary.  I do this because
a)   I believe that some people who are not able to attend the show for whatever reason will be interested to see them
b)   The exhibitors are usually pleased that someone has taken the time to appreciate their plant.

I post the pictures on the AGS website forum because I have been asked to take them by the AGS.  If I post them elsewhere, those invitations will probably dry up.  In the past, Maggi would usually post a link to them from here when she noticed they had appeared on the AGS site.  I started to post a link here because I thought they were of interest to some of your members, and that it would save Maggi some work.  If I am wrong about those things I will be happy to desist.

Regards
Jon

[Maggi Young]

Jon, believe me, your willingness to post here to let us know when your photo are available on the AGS site are very much appreciated - as are your  work in posting those photos and comments.  Such a shame that there is so little of that from the shows on the AGS site. There are the "official" photos, of course, but they always seem, to me at least, to be overshadowed by the amount of effort and space given to the "results" tables etc in the Show section.  Your reports  - and I might mention the pictures from Ian Instone ,too,  give a much  more pleasant view of the shows.

There is no problem here - in any way - with you or anyone else posting links to AGS  web pages.

[Matt T]

Jon, I think I speak for all members when I say that we greatly enjoy seeing your photos. As with so many postings online, those of us stuck at home are transported 'virtually' to the show to experience it as though we were there and reading your informative comments is an education for many of us. Please do keep posting a link to your reports here.
M

[Tim Ingram]

A few more pictures from Exeter, especially from a nursery perspective: Lee & Julie Martin's plants - the Centaurea clementei is a great favourite after I saw this at Kew many years ago; a rare and beautiful foliage plant; Lewisia tweedyi, now by another name or two, from Aberconwy; Pine Cottage Plants had some very interesting Rhododendron species, which I think would greatly appeal to the plantsman, and also the New Zealand shrub, Pachystegia insignis, which appealed to me significantly enough that I bought it! And a little collection of interest from the Show: Helleborus multifidis subsp. hercogovinus and Betula nana 'Glengarry form' from Tale Valley; Sedum yosemite 'Red Raver' and Aubrieta canescens from Parham Plants; and as always 😊 some really nice things from Keith & Roz Wiley, Wildside, viz: a pink flushed form of Impatiens omeiana, Uvularia carolinianum 'Variegatum', Disporum cantoniense, and Aquilegia grahamii. There are always so many interesting plants at these shows...

Just to finish because it seems apt: "So nice a difference in your singing lies, That both have won, or both deserved, the prize." (Dryden). If the Show does move it will be a bit too far for us I think.

[David Nicholson]

Hi
Please can I clarify my position on this.  I have no official role or office in either the AGS or the SRGC, but I am a paid-up member of both societies, and I take the show photos at some of the AGS shows. 

Alone among the show photographers I try to post all the pictures I take to the website with a brief commentary.  I do this because
a)   I believe that some people who are not able to attend the show for whatever reason will be interested to see them
b)   The exhibitors are usually pleased that someone has taken the time to appreciate their plant.

I post the pictures on the AGS website forum because I have been asked to take them by the AGS.  If I post them elsewhere, those invitations will probably dry up.  In the past, Maggi would usually post a link to them from here when she noticed they had appeared on the AGS site.  I started to post a link here because I thought they were of interest to some of your members, and that it would save Maggi some work.  If I am wrong about those things I will be happy to desist.

Regards
Jon

Jon, like many others here I always thoroughly enjoy your pictures on the AGS Site. From a Primula perspective I find it very useful too to keep an eye on what Primulas are doing well in Shows. It's nice too to see pictures from a 'proper' photographer, keep going please.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks from me too John, for your wonderful photographs from AGS Shows. Although I joined the AGS as a teenager, back in 1961, I no longer belong partly because it seems to me that the AGS doesn't value its members in any practical way. As SRGC Membership Secretary will know, I have sometimes been tardy in paying my subscription. This has sometimes been through hardupness and sometimes through sheer forgetfulness but, reminded, and always cheerfully and politely, I pay it and membership goes on and I'd hate NOT to be a member of SRGC. But AGS, if one is a little late paying, there is no reminder and suddenly one realizes one is no longer a member. AGS seems happy to write off such a person without regret or effort to maintain a contact. OK, so I should always have kept up to date myself and shouldn't need to be chivvied but we're all fallible and don't always do the absolutely right thing. But I always felt more at home here than with the AGS anyway so don't regret that I no longer belong. Your photographs therefore are an opportunity for me to see how the other half lives and admire - and sometimes covert - plants that are not available in my part of the world.