Blackpool Show 2008

[Maggi Young]

News has reached me of the Farrer Medal winning plant at Blackpool Show today, 15th March.
This show is a joint AGS/SRGC show and this year it is the turn of the AGS rules and so a Farrer Medal was awarded to the best plant in the show.... which I'm told was a superb pan of Corydalis popovii grown by our chums Carole and Ian Bainbridge!   That's two medals to two chums in two weeks.....we do have some very clever friends!

[Mick McLoughlin]

Just got back from Blackpool. Here is a picture of the Farrer winning plant, for now.

[Maggi Young]

Hi, Mick ! What a lovely potfull that is!  Looking very good indeed..... I would post warmest congratulations to Carole and Ian but they don't "do" the website  so I'll thank Mick for posting the pic, instead!!
Did you have a good day, Mick?

[Mick McLoughlin]

Yes thanks Maggi. I met MartinR and Diane as they offered to help me in first show, thanks to them both. Everybody concerned was very helpful, no traumas for a first timer. I introduced myself to Ian, he said he'd to get back over the border by midnight as his visa expired then, looked to have had a good time 'down south'.
Oh by the way I had 2 first and a second with 3 plants, more by luck than judgement I think. Both myself and Mandy enjoyed ourselves, Mandy even registered herself as an exhibitor for the next time, so the competition is on. Just got to get the stubborn plants from this week to flower for next weeks effort!!

So anybody else who's thinking of giving the shows a try give it a bash, they don't bite.

[Maggi Young]

Well, yes, three tickets from three plants sounds pretty good to me ! Two firsts and a second is not to be sneezed at, I'm delighted for you. 
Great to hear that Mandy is going into battle with you... that'll spice up the competition 
 Very handy to get some advice from those folks who have been through the whole rigmarole before....it can be somewhat bewildering until you've done it a few times and realise it is actually quite straightforward....

[Mick McLoughlin]

Dropped Daughter and boyfriend off in Blackpool, so managed to have a couple of hours at the show itself. As usual I was busy with the camera. For tonight just a number of overviews of the show, I'll try and show some individual plants tomorrow. Anybody else with pics feel free to join in.
First 2 general views of the showbenches.
There were a large number of very good Primulas on show.
Dionysias were in evidence, not something I grow(yet). how do they get them to flower like that?
If all this colour is too much for you a selection of foliage plants.
Finally a line up of Narcissi.

[shelagh]

Thanks Mick for the lovely picture of our 3 pan foliage entry, Sedum furfuraceum, Sedum hirsutum beaticum and Asplenium trichomanes, they didn't do anything but it's nice to see them on the forum. The Farrer medal winner Corydalis popovii was absolutely spectacular and very well deserved. Congratulations to Ian and Carole.  Incidentally the new SRGC Jubilee trophy was won by a Scot, the AGS Director of Shows Jim McGregor.

[Maggi Young]

Shelagh, thanks for mentioning the SRGC Jubilee Trophy..... this is a special prize to be awrded at each show this year, the 75th jubilee of SRGC... the prize being a print of a watercolour by Anne Chambers ( SRGC star and RHS Gold Medallist for her botanical art) ..... I had heard the good news about Jim's win... but can you tell me what his plant was, please??

[Martinr]

Maggi, 3 pans bulbous. Picture attached

[hadacekf]

A superb Corydalis popovii! Congratulations

[Brian Ellis]

Congratulations on your first venture into showing Mick, now you have caught the bug there'll be no stopping you

What a super plant that Corydalis popovii is, and so well grown.  They are fast growing on me, and I must do something about acquiring them...I see that Mike Smith has some at Hythe Alpines, I must go across there before it is too late!

[Maggi Young]

Martin R. - thank you! Lovely entry, isn't it?  A fitting recipient of the first Jubilee award, I'm sure.
The Jubilee award will be made for different clases at each SRGC show, and at the AGM Photographic competition....sometimes for the winner of a particular class, sometimes for the best plant from a small number of classes.
The prize for each winner is a print of a botanical painting, commissioned by SRGC from Anne Chambers, of Cyclamen  repandum peloponnesiacum. the original is to be auctioned at the Discussion Weekend, I believe.

[Maggi Young]

Here's a photo from President Ian, the Christie kind, of the Farrer winners and their  Corydalis popovii, Carole and Ian Bainbridge



No- one has sent me a pic of Jim from the show yet, so Ill take the chance to show him looking every inch the fine Scotsman, with wife Christine; taken at an  SRGC Discussion weekend a few years ago!!
 

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Seems to have been another fabulous show !
Thanks for showing us the pix Mick - but I'm missing the pix of your own prize winners 

I hope to see lots more pictures soon !

[David Nicholson]

Come on Mick, I'm dieing to see your prize winners!