Another year, and another major show has come and gone, leaving those of us who had to prepare it weary and emotional (which is to say, somewhat tipsy in the evening!). The effort was, I am pleased to report, well worth it, as we presented a show with a goodly number of impressive exhibits - for the statistically minded of you, 214 in total! Thank you to everyone who exhibited, or who were involved in the running of the show - and thanks to all of you who came to view the show itself.
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| The show: set up, ready and waiting ... |
The Autumn Flower and Produce Show 2014 was held on 13th September, presented jointly with "The Grow With Us Club" (the Limpsfield and Oxted District Horticultural Society), in St Mary's Community Hall in Oxted. There was a good attendance in the afternoon to admire the blooms and vegetables, aided by glorious sun, as well as a healthy showing for the actual entries from Hurst Green - our club excelled in the Flower and Domestic sections, with a special showing by Richard Dove in the Vegetables. Congratulations go to Roy Eaton, who won the most overall points in the show. Thanks must also go to Jilly, who acted as the show secretary for both of the clubs, preparing all the entries and sorting out all the results on the day, and to the judges for both the flowers and domestic classes, who gave up their Saturday for our benefit.
It should be noted that while prizes and places are all well and good (particularly for the competitive members, of which I suppose I must admit to being a little - ok, a quite a lot - guilty), the real pleasure of the show is looking at all the blooms, vegetables, handicrafts and preserves on display. It isn't just rooted in receiving the prizes - even if a shiny silver cup is nice! Certainly, the pleasure of the members of the public who attended came from seeing flora and fauna rather than seeing who had actually won. Therefore, your committee would like to encourage members to enter a show even if you are not competitive, and to look upon entering as providing an exhibit for others simply to enjoy - I know that I have done so only in order to help fill a table, but that the effort of doing so has been much appreciated (and by the way, these scratch entries often do rather well, as it is surprising how much an entry may be regarded by others and the judges, even if you don't think it anything special yourself). So please, do have a go in the future even if you don't want to win or think yourself competitive - think instead of the pleasure of others looking at the exhibits. Come along to any of our shows, have a look to see what is entered, get a feel for what you need to do - and then have a go yourself! It really, really can be very rewarding.
For the record, the winners of the cups may be found on a new page entitled "Awards - Autumn flower and produce show 2014", accessible on the right hand side of the blog, or by clicking
this link. And now, for the piccies ...
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| Best In Show 2014 - Sue Kempton |
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| Best Dahlia Exhibit - Richard Dove |
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| Best Vegetable Exhibit - Christine Kirk |
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| The Dahlia and flower classes |
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| The first prize specimen Dahlia |
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The rose classes - sadly a little thin as most members'
plants were over by the show |
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Floral arrangements - we also had aster stems and
flowering shrubs which are not pictured |
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One of my favourite displays - the boards of
fuchsia heads always look fantastic, and there were
many entries this year |
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The potted plant classes, succulents and
sempervivums to the front |
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| Vegetables - the first table... |
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| ... and the second table |
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| The collection classes - vegetables |
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| The collection classes - mixed "My very best" and "2 and 1" |
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| The fruit classes |
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Domestic classes - jams, jellies and chutneys. We also
had tea loaves, which are not pictured |
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Handicrafts - the terrarium was placed first but the judging
took a great deal of discussion! |
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The voted classes - miniature flower arrangements,
a flower arrangement in an item of footwear,
and the photographic section. |
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| The winner of the Children's cupcakes category |
Our speaker for August was Mr Colin Moat, with his topic "50 Greys of Shade". We enjoyed a comprehensive listing of many plants that would grow in different levels of shade, including some ideas which may be obvious to some, but are often not really though of, or even considered by most. One example is to plant bulbs in shaded areas, and to treat some of them as annual plants - many will provide a splash of colour in the spring for the first year even if they are not totally suited to the location, as the bulb contains the necessary nutrients for at least one year's flowering.
