Northumberland Show at Hexham, 2010

[Diane Clement]

Those Corydalis are all very smart.... did Darren's win? 

Yes, Darren's C integra won the class, beating Cyril, wow!
Don's was part of a 3 pan from Europe.

[Maggi Young]

Good for Darren... that's a great plant!  
So much for those folks who say it's impossible to beat Cyril's plants.... it isn't, you just have to have a better one...' seemples'!!  
Cryil knows that, he is very sporting.

[Lvandelft]

Thanks for showing these wonderful Show pictures Chris and Diane!
450 miles driving and up so early was worth it Diane. And you got used to summer time in advance 

[Darren]

Still somewhat stunned by the success of that Corydalis, thank you Maggi. It looked so lovely planted out in my bulb frame last year (on the day of the Blackpool show - it is normally over by the end of feb) that when I tidied the frame last summer I collected up all the corms & popped them into a pot which i then plunged in the same frame. I was hoping for another cold winter so I could take it to Blackpool but the weather had other ideas and was so cold it delayed the plant by yet another fortnight. It did look great on saturday even if I say so myself.

Incidentally  - the Frit davidii pictured was also mine, and won the 19cm pot frit class. And i won both Pleione classes too - what a day!

Oddly there were few comments on the corydalis on the day but numerous people asked me how I flowered the frit davidii. Of course I can't answer beyond saying 'total laziness' in that I don't repot it, just topdress it each year. Perhaps it is the lack of disturbance that suits it? I didn't actually know it was supposed to be hard so no doubt I will not see another flower now.

I would like to mention our group members Tony Taziker, our treasurer, and his wife Margaret, Very talented growers and propagators who have only recently started showing. Tony won the prize for the most first prize points in section C.  This echoes their success at East Lancs last week. I was very envious of Tony's Pulsatilla vernalis. Only one flower yet, but it had been grown from surplus SRGC seed bought at the 2009 Blackpool show. So only 12 months old. I can't flower this species at all ( i get buds but they never expand), let alone germinate dry stored Pulsatilla seed! Knowing Tony, no doubt by next year it will be as big as that shown by Dave Riley!

Congrats to Peter and his team for another enjoyable Northumberland Show. Susan was delighted that it coincided with the farmers market again and we spent a fortune on food!

[Maggi Young]

I would like to mention our group members Tony Taziker, our treasurer, and his wife Margaret, Very talented growers and propagators who have only recently started showing. Tony won the prize for the most first prize points in section C.  This echoes their success at East Lancs last week. I was very envious of Tony's Pulsatilla vernalis. Only one flower yet, but it had been grown from surplus SRGC seed bought at the 2009 Blackpool show. So only 12 months old. I can't flower this species at all ( i get buds but they never expand), let alone germinate dry stored Pulsatilla seed! Knowing Tony, no doubt by next year it will be as big as that shown by Dave Riley!

Darren, I am so glad you have mentioned Tony and Margaret Taziker and their plants..... at too many shows it is a struggle to get many or even any entries in Section C, (as it is in AGS Shows) or SectionII (in the SRGC)....  to hear of folks who are growing from seed and having fun entering their plants is something that  should make not only ancient Show Secs like myself happy, but should delight every member of our two clubs.... without these keen people getting involved in the shows we are in grave danger of the exhibits dwindling over time and thus losing our shows altogether.
Believe me, there is nothing more important for our shows (no matter how magnificent the displays from the experienced growers and exhibitors, which are of course inspirational) than the sight of a strong entry of plants in the C and II sections, for this indicates the hope of a healthy future for our shows.

My hearty congratulations to all those who enter the "beginners"Sections.... may you "live long and prosper"! 

[SueG]

My hearty congratulations to all those who enter the "beginners"Sections.... may you "live long and prosper"!  [/color]

I assume this applies to the plants exhibited as well as the people, it's certainly the thing I've struggled most with!!

[Maggi Young]

My hearty congratulations to all those who enter the "beginners"Sections.... may you "live long and prosper"!

I assume this applies to the plants exhibited as well as the people, it's certainly the thing I've struggled most with!!

Quite so, Sue... sincere Vulcan wishes to plants and people!

[Darren]

I also worry about the lack of new exhibitors. I also wonder how many experienced showers drop out of the show scene even though they keep on growing great plants? They may be bored with the competition part of it but we (our clubs) use the shows as a shop window and I'd like to think that a large part of exhibiting, especially at a show like Hexham where the location means a lot of public attendance, is to turn folks on to the plants we love. Far more use could be made of non-competitive classes in this resppect. And even those of us who enter plants in competition sometimes (not this year perhaps) have too many plants for the eligible classes - it would be nice to be able to bring the 'spares' even if it was just to put them on a 'non-competitive' bench for the public to admire.

I admit i often think about packing it in, especially when spending a day tarting up plants in the cold when i'm not feeling too good anyway (Blackpool this year for instance!). I am not a competitive person either and my main reward is when someone expresses interest in the plants themselves - one reason why I grow a lot of 'weird' stuff. I was really pleased when Christine B popped over to admire the tropaeolum on Saturday, as I was when Sue G approached me about a Wachendorfia at the same show some years ago.

John Good visited our group recently and saw some plants of mine on our display table. He told me he knew straight away that they were mine and that when he is judging at shows and finds something on the bench he has never heard of I am in his mental list of likely suspects for ownership.

Incidentally - I noticed with pleasure that the show was advertised around the town as a 'Spring flower show and plant sale', with nary a mention of 'alpine' or 'rock garden'. It made me realise again that often the names of our clubs suggest a limited scope which, in reality, is not reflected in our shows, in our gardens, or on this forum. I was chatting with a lady in our bank last week who admitted to being a plantaholic and I recommended she looked on the forum. She was very wary as she was 'not really into alpines' and had to be reassured that the forum especiallly is now so broad in scope that it is, IMHO, the best resource for PLANT information anywhere on the www. I feel that advertising our shows to the public as 'SRGC' or 'AGS' shows is automatically going to limit attendance to those already converted. The Hexham team are doing the right thing by pitching the posters slightly differently and i think the rest of us involved in running shows could learn from this. They are going to bring in anyone with even a passing interest in flowers or gardening - then we can work on converting them!

[Maggi Young]

Yes, Darren, yes, yes, yes!!

[annew]

Here are a few that Barry and I took, apologies if I duplicate any earlier ones. The flowers on the saxifrage were at least 2cm across.

[David Nicholson]

Very well done Darren, it looked a great Show.

Just a few reflections from the South West Show in respect of exhibitors and visitors.

Exhibitors in Section C were thin on the ground and possibly so because of the difficult season this year. My absence from the benches was simply because I had nothing ready this year and others I spoke to had the same problem (but, I SHALL be back!!). I do think though that some of the experienced growers tend to forget that they were once novices and could spend a little more time encouraging beginners. Having said that Shows; getting ready for them, and the act of benching plants on the day is busy and time consuming, and on the day time is of the essence. I do think though that the Judges could offer more help here. For example, at the conclusion of judging if they were to gather together the Section C exhibitors and talk them through the judging process and how decisions had been made, and why one plant in a Class that got a First differed from the plant that got a third or no award at all; and how the grower might make his/her own plant a winner the following year.

I've always been of the view that without "losers" there would be no Show and especially in Section C, where the future of Shows lies, encouragement is a must rather than simply leaving them to it.

Similarly with visitors, fine, they will wander about in an un-directed way, looking  at the plants perhaps with the minimum of understanding of them. We need to do more to spot the visitor who wants to learn a bit and actually spend time in guiding them, and talking to them about how they might get involved in the future. They will rarely come to us, we need to do more to go to them.

[Michael J Campbell]

John Good visited our group recently and saw some plants of mine on our display table. He told me he knew straight away that they were mine and that when he is judging at shows and finds something on the bench he has never heard of I am in his mental list of likely suspects for ownership. Grin

Darren,you have hit the nail on the head,the judges know who owns the plants and if you are not on their Christmas list you have no chance. I am not saying that this happens at every show but it has been my experience and is the reason I give up showing. One Judge even disqualified my plant, a primula( because he said that there was more than one plant in the pot ) so that his own plant got the award. I cannot find that rule in the book Re. Primulas.

I used to take part in the judging and because a certain individual who usually wins almost everything did not win a certain class,and disputed same, but lost in sunsequent decision in which I had the deciding vote, I was never asked to judge again.as a matter of fact I was never asked to do anything at the show again. I dont even go to the show anymore.
If you look at my web page you see I am capable of growing a few plants. I hope this answers your question about the shows.

[SueG]

I do think though that some of the experienced growers tend to forget that they were once novices and could spend a little more time encouraging beginners.

Hi David
I could not agree with you more, though sometimes I think they don't mean to be offputting (which does imply that sometimes they do, I realise). Comments like 'when are you going to grow proper plants' or 'judges don't like plants like those' both of which have come my way, do not fall into the encouraging category I feel. Happily these were the minority.
(Actually I rather like the thought that my plants are improper in some way    )
They also assume that winning is all that a show is about. I can only speak for myself, it's much more about the people for me, yes the plants are a real draw but that's to see them, not to win at any cost. I'll take along any of mine that look decent and I won't turn down a first place if given one; but what really matters is talking to people, finding out advice and information, seeing new plants and adding them to the list of things to grow or avoid and meeting and making friends.
Afterall so what if I don't win, no one has died (as they say), I've had a good day out, met people, bought a plant or two (ahem  ) and hopefully had a nice lunch.

I also know what you mean about talking to visitors - maybe we need to start a movement of people who when they hear visitors making a comment about a plant will join in and encourage conversation with them rather than sniff loudly and push past them as I've also seen. That way we can point them to where the free leaflets are, the nursery stands with something similar etc etc. Afterall if you've paid to get in, you are probably reasonably interested already.

[Maggi Young]

All good points being made here about the encouragment of novice exhibitors and visitors.... .and something which I believe we spend a good deal of time on in SRGC Shows in Scotland.

[Michael J Campbell]

Folks,you obviously have a different environment at your shows than we have this side of the pond. It is win at all costs, and I don't know where the advice comes from, I have never been given any,although I used to spend a lot of time given it out. I also give away most of the plants I had on show to beginners that showed an interest in them. I once got a few trillium tubers from the show secretary, apart from that I have never got a cutting or a pinch of seed from anyone at the shows in over 20 years in spite of numerous requests. They continually complain that the shows are declining but when you tell why they do not want to listen.The person referred to in my last post that disputed a decision, refused to let me see his garden one day when I was in the neighbourhood, he said there was nothing to see.
Friendly people at the shows.?
 Enough said.