EAST LANCASHIRE AGS SHOW 24th March 2012

[JohnnyD]

What a great day - and again a super crop of eight mini-gardens, four in each of Open and B Secrions.
Pics follow, again without attribution, a general shot of the 'three in a pan for effect' class, and a pic of the kitchen staff with a pile of Lancashire oven bottom cakes, which made great bacon and sausage butties.
Thanks to everyone for their help - particularly at the end, when all tables were cleared and stacked by 4.30.
JohnnyD

[shelagh]

What a terrific day Carol and her team triumphed again, wonderfully full benches and plenty of visitors, sunshine as well as tater pie and red cabbage what more could you ask for.

[Tim Ingram]

Now that's how I'd like my blocks of tufa in the garden to turn out! This was only planted a week or two ago and needs quite a few more plants.

[JohnnyD]

Nice start Tim, but please remember most of the mini-gardens are made up of pieces of tufa to look like one big lump.
This means it is much easier to find a spot for plants to tuck in.
With a large piece it takes a long time to establish good sized plants.
JohnnyD

[Lori S.]

Those gardens are gorgeous!  It must be a very frightening proposition to move them, let alone transport them to a show, especially if they consist of several lumps of tufa.  Do people fasten the tufa lumps together in some way?

[ranunculus]

Hi Lori,
I am sure that JohnnyD. will respond to your query as soon as he logs on (and he has transported more mini-gardens around the UK than anyone else).

Some more images from East Lancs 2012 ...

[ranunculus]

... And a few more ...

AGS President; Val Lee presenting two AGS Medals and a Certificate of Merit to Frank & Barbara Hoyle.
Val Lee presenting the Allanson Trophy to Norma Pagdin.
Brian Russ receiving the Jeanne Finch Memorial Trophy.
Tony Taziker collects the Merlewood Trophy.
Robert Rolfe collects the well-deserved Farrer Medal.

 ... And just to illustrate how much detail we here at East Lancashire put into our shows ... even the hand dryers are in character (with thanks to MartinR. for pointing this out)!


More images to follow when time allows.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Great report Cliff !! 
I'm just about to try and build 1 or 2 mini-gardens... there are some great examples here !!
Thanks a lot !

[angie]

Brilliant pictures. I have never seen benches so full and full of first class plants. Amazing to see  .

Angie  

[ranunculus]

Many thanks Luc and Angie.

[Lesley Cox]

In the last one of the first set is the bloke in the foreground in the stripy jumper saying "if I nip out whilst they're all talking will they miss this one?"

He forgot there was security in place, in the form of "C. Booker Candid Cameras Ltd."

[ranunculus]

In the last one of the first set is the bloke in the foreground in the stripy jumper saying "if I nip out whilst they're all talking will they miss this one?"

He forgot there was security in place, in the form of "C. Booker Candid Cameras Ltd."

AKA 'Buttercup Surveillance'   

[Lesley Cox]

And a fantastic job your firm did Cliff. A truly wonderful depiction - for us - of a magnificent Show. The East Lancashire AGS Show is the only one I've attended, in person - in 1981! so I feel I have a personal interest in it.

What amazing plants and mini-gardens. I have to say for me perhaps the most wonderful was the soft blue Pulsatilla, followed, of course, by Frit davidii but EVERYTHING looked to be grown to prfection and the pots packed so tight on the benches that the organizers must have been thrilled with the entry numbers.

What's a "bottom oven cake?" In my case it would be when it slipped as I took it out and redeposited itself on the bottom, to get burnt before I could retrieve it, and burning myself in the process.

[ranunculus]

And a fantastic job your firm did Cliff. A truly wonderful depiction - for us - of a magnificent Show. The East Lancashire AGS Show is the only one I've attended, in person - in 1981! so I feel I have a personal interest in it.

What amazing plants and mini-gardens. I have to say for me perhaps the most wonderful was the soft blue Pulsatilla, followed, of course, by Frit davidii but EVERYTHING looked to be grown to prfection and the pots packed so tight on the benches that the organizers must have been thrilled with the entry numbers.

What's a "bottom oven cake?" In my case it would be when it slipped as I took it out and redeposited itself on the bottom, to get burnt before I could retrieve it, and burning myself in the process.

Many thanks for the kind comments, Lesley.  May I ask you to search your memory bank again, as I'm certain it would have been the East Cheshire show that you attended?  The East Lancashire show didn't begin until 1988 at the earliest (and then only as a local show).
An 'oven bottom' cake is a plain tea cake (bap) that is cooked on the bottom of the oven.  Like a soft flattish bread roll without a hard crust.

[Maggi Young]

An 'oven bottom' cake is a plain tea cake (bap) that is cooked on the bottom of the oven.  Like a soft flattish bread roll without a hard crust.

... and flipped over halfway through baking to achieve the characteristic dark circles on  each side..... lighter than air and  sometimes spoken of as 'England's answer to the Bagel', I'm told, by a Lancashire friend of the Hebrew faith.
(Amazing what we can learn from our friends, ain't it?)