Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
SRGC Shows and Events => Events => Topic started by: shelagh on September 16, 2014, 08:54:56 PM
-
Due to a shake-up in the AGS Show Schedule the Pontefract Show is this coming Saturday. Full details of how to get there in the Show Schedule.
-
Will take the chance to mention the next AGS shows too -
As well as the Pontefract Show at The Chesneys Centre, Regent Street, Featherstone, Pontefract, WF7 5EW on the 20th , there is :
The RAINHAM Show at Rainham School for Girls, Derwent Way, Rainham, Gillingham, ME8 0BX on the 27th September and :
The LOUGHBOROUGH AUTUMN SHOW, Charnwood College (formerly Burleigh Community College), Thorpe Hill, Loughborough, LE11 4SQ on October 4th
- and on October 11th there is the PONTELAND SRGC/AGS show at the Memorial Hall, Darras Road, Ponteland, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE20 9NX
-
Thanks Maggi.
Hoping for a good day on Saturday although flowers are in short supply in our alpine house :D
-
Have fun, Shelagh.
The season seems to be somewhat "in between" at the moment here. Hope for the Show Sec. sake that some folks have got lots of goodies - I'm sure they will have!
-
Just back from the excellent Pontefract AGS Show at Featherstone (20th September 2014). The weather has been dull, misty and overcast, but inside the Chesneys Centre the benches were full of superb foliage plants, beautiful ferns, conifers and cushions, a host of magical cyclamen and a number of well-flowered gentians.
Though the Farrer Medal was withheld on this occasion, the plant voted 'Best in Show' also won a very well-deserved Certificate of Merit for Shelley's Steve Walters. This superbly flowered Cyclamen hederifolium ssp. crassifolium ex Zakynthos was (I believe) considered to be under-potted for the size of the corm and perhaps just a tad tall in flower. Still a magnificent exhibit. Congratulations to the Show organisers on a lovely event.
Steve Walters from Shelley - Winner of the Best in Show exhibit.
Best in Show at Pontefract - Cyclamen hederifolium ssp. crassifolium ex Zakynthos
-
My goodness, what a lovely plant - no wonder Steve W. is looking pleased. I don't think you could squeeze more flowers in there if you tried.
Tough job to transport a tall plant in a tall pot, too - glad I didn't have to do it!
-
Congratulations to Steve for winning with a splendid plant. It was, I believe, at last year's Northumberland show that he first staring competing at AGS shows - however he did win both the cup for 'beginners' and a Certificate of Merit at that show. :o
I'm sure his first Farrer medal should follow soon. ;)
-
Well, it's a busy weekend. Spent the evening sorting out some plants for the Cyclamen Show in Birmingham tomorrow (actually, today. I really must get to bed!) Many thanks for all your kind words. There were some great plants on the benches at Pontefract today (my home town, too). Perhaps slightly miffed not to get the Farrer :) because I suspect those opportunities don't come along that often although I understand the judges' reasoning; inexperience on my part. It has always been a long-stemmed flowerer though - taller than others I grow. I should have double-potted and dropped it down a bit, I suppose, but I don't generally like to overpot my cyclamen.
Onwards and sideways!
-
Jenny, the gardener at the Hutts, Himalayan Garden, shares some great photos of plants - and parts thereof! - at Pontefract in her Twitter page : https://twitter.com/The_Hutts/media
Sharing a photo of Jenny's of the show hall :
[attachimg=1]
-
We all know how tiring photography can be, energy draining too. Here is Cliff after a large pub lunch just making sure his energy levels are high enough to go and tackle that wonderful Cyclamen.
-
... considered to be under-potted for the size of the corm and perhaps just a tad tall in flower.
Don't want to bang on about this too much, honest! But I thought it worth adding the following:
Roma may be interested to see that my plant is one of the seedlings from the original batch of seeds Pat Nicholls collected on Zakynthos. Discussed here: http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11254.405. (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11254.405.) Roma posted a photo of her plant alongside a 'standard' hederifolium here: http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11254.495. (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11254.495.) It has a taller flower...
On the under-potting question - guilty as charged. In my defence, I've clearly been influenced by the Cylamen 'big book' (Genus Cyclamen) rather than AGS judges ;). The former has this to say on the cultivation of hederifolium:
...a really large plant of C. hederifolium can look magnificent in a big pot. Don't be tempted to make that pot over-large; a pot that just fits a large specimen, almost underpotting it, seems to encourage the foliage to fill to the pot's centre, whereas over-generous pots let the foliage run out towards the rim, leaving the centre less well furnished.
-
Steve, I think the answer is double potting purely for exhibition, a cunning ploy used by many.....I'd say about a quarter of the plants I exhibit are double potted on a Friday and un double potted on Sunday. As an added bonus it means you don't even have to clean the pot!
-
Martin - your point is a good tip for exhibitors - but that purely aesthetic consideration does not ( should not???)affect the quality of any given plant, does it? :-\
-
Steve, I think the answer is double potting purely for exhibition, a cunning ploy used by many.....I'd say about a quarter of the plants I exhibit are double potted on a Friday and un double potted on Sunday. As an added bonus it means you don't even have to clean the pot!
Hi Martin - yes, I do this for some plants, particularly for some of the winter/spring growers (coum etc) because, as Maggi says, aesthetically the plants can look 'better'. Thing is though, I like the pot the show winner is in so I've selfishly put my season-long enjoyment of looking at the plant before the one-day displeasure of the judges ;D. Joking aside, if I'd have been organised and knew that I was going to exhibit at the show back in the summer I'd have repotted into plastic before regrowth started and then double-potted into a suitable, larger clay.
-
Joking aside, if I'd have been organised and knew that I was going to exhibit at the show back in the summer I'd have repotted into plastic before regrowth started and then double-potted into a suitable, larger clay.
Really? Even though it seems you like to grow the plants in terracotta ?
Looking at the pots we have here, it would be jolly difficult to find a suitable pot to double pot a long-tom into.
I admit I love the look of Steve's plant - yes, a taller form but not etiolated and the growth is compact and dense.
-
I must say that Steve's plant was the first image that I took upon entering the hall on Saturday morning (before judging had started), so it must have made a very good impression from the outset. I was captivated by the quantity and quality of the flowers and didn't really notice any of the 'implied' shortcomings to the exhibit as a whole.
I am not a judge and would probably make a poor one as I am quite generous of spirit ( :))), but I did consider Steve's exhibit to be as worthy of a Farrer as quite a number of the recipients of the past few years.
-
Really? Even though it seems you like to grow the plants in terracotta ?
Looking at the pots we have here, it would be jolly difficult to find a suitable pot to double pot a long-tom into.
I admit I love the look of Steve's plant - yes, a taller form but not etiolated and the growth is compact and dense.
Yes, I do like terracotta for my larger plants. I badly phrased my earlier comment. What I really meant was that, for showing purposes, it would probably have been wiser to repot into plastic back in the summer and then double-pot for the show. At the time though, I wasn't thinking about the AGS show (Cyclamen Society shows may be a little more relaxed about this sort of thing :) ) and just chose a pot I liked of a suitable size, in my opinion, for the tuber. I agree, finding a suitable pot into which I could double-pot the long-tom wouldn't have been easy!
-
Just thinking that if I had a pound for every time I've heard a conversation about a judging decision at any show of any kind, from plants to rabbits, which was felt to be unfair, I could be typing this from a villa in the Bahamas!
And, any minute now, we'll all be beaten about the head for having the temerity to discuss an AGS judging decision ::) :-X
-
And, any minute now, we'll all be beaten about the head for having the temerity to discuss an AGS judging decision ::) :-X
I blame nature and plant genetic diversity. It's just a wilful refusal to conform to the show standards of plant societies ;D
-
I blame nature and plant genetic diversity. It's just a wilful refusal to conform to the show standards of plant societies ;D
;D ;D you could also say that without the "plant" bit ... "I blame nature and genetic diversity. It's just a wilful refusal to conform to the show standards of plant societies" - that works for us too!! :o ;)
-
That plant was a farrer all day long. Be proud of it Steve. Well done mate.
-
Really interesting to listen to this debate - I take something of the same position as Cliff, especially since I have rarely exhibited plants and am more interested in seeing the botanical variation of genera and families. But just from the experience of selling plants - potting on into bigger pots immediately changes the impression of the plant even though it hasn't changed an iota - double potting is an excellent idea, but potting on is a lot of work when you run a nursery! (and tests the springs of the van, as well as the muscles). One can take consolation that judging becomes more and more critical the better the plant is!
-
There are some lovely pictures of plants at the Pontefract Show by Jon on the AGS (Discussion) pages, but why do I come away feeling so exhausted after seeing them? It would be lovely to hear the views and impressions from visitors to the Show as well. It recalls to me how nice it was to see Rachel de Thame speaking to visitors to Hampton Court who had bought plants and the thrill that this somehow gave them. Remember, I am a nurseryman, so forgive me my particular view - and the Shows are brilliant and the plants very beautiful. So too is the enjoyment that comes from growing them.
-
I'm very impressed with your Cyclamen, Steve. How old is it? My one has been flowering since early August and still has more flowers to come but the flowering looks sparse compared with yours.
-
I'm very impressed with your Cyclamen, Steve. How old is it? My one has been flowering since early August and still has more flowers to come but the flowering looks sparse compared with yours.
Roma - the seed was sown autumn 1999 so that makes it 15-years-old. Flowering has really improved with age. My memory is that it was quite slow to get going and the seedlings/young plants I have from it don't seem to be that precocious either...