Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
SRGC Shows and Events => Events => Topic started by: cycnich on March 07, 2011, 04:45:22 PM
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This Saturday 12th March the Tunbridge wells group will be holding their annual show ar King Charles the Martyr Hall, Warwick park Tunbridge wells, open to the public from 12 30pm till 4 00 pm. If you are local or at a loose end please come and support us. We can promise you a warm welcome and a very high standard of exhibits with 3 farrer medal winners at least, one of which is a gilt farrer medal winner and one of the best growers of Dionysias and Primulas in the country. There will be lunches and home made cakes on offer and a tombola. Local groups are folding fast and need your support and even if you only pop in for an hour to look around, have a cuppa and a go on the tombola this all adds to group funds and ensures the group stays in existance. Look forward to seeing you. I will post some pictures after the show, thanks.
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Pat,
Best wishes for a successful show.
Paddy
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Pat, thanks for letting us know about this show... hope the sun shines and it's a great day for your Group.
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As promised a few general pictures of the show and some of the plants on display.
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And a few more
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Cor, Pat, great
cakes! ooops... I meant great plants!
The display looks super... where you pleased with the turnout? Did you have a wet day or were you getting some sun?
How big is the local Group? An impressive show.
The plants look well on those covers.... is that landscape fabric?
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Yes it was a lovely sunny day up until 3pm when it clouded over and the turnout was good. We are only a small but stable group at just over 40 members but we keep going but is very hard to get new people interested as with all groups. The covers I believe are some sort of heavy duty horticultual membrane and have lasted well, we have had them as long as I remember. The cakes were lovely, all made by the ladies in the group, the few that were left were sold off to members. All in all a pleasant way to spend the day and hopefully we have made a small profit to help keep us going for another year.
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My, that is very impressive from a small Group.... hard enough to keep going let alone run a show but when it's done properly as you demonstrate, then a show can make some funds to keep things ticking over....Hats Off to you !!
Folks reading this in the Tunbridge area may find these details about this vibrant group useful:
Kent-TUNBRIDGE WELLS AGS Group: Hon. Secretary: Mrs Kay Cox, 19 Warwick Park, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN2 5TA. Tel: 01892 534139.
Meetings: This was the venue for the show, too..... Main Hall, King Charles the Martyr Church, Warwick Park, Tunbridge Wells, 7.30 for 8.00 pm. 1st Monday of the month, unless it falls on a Bank Holiday, then the 2nd Monday, September to May, with Group BBQ in June/July. Subscription: £5.00; Visitors £1.00.
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Thanks for that Maggi.
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Pat, I'm very interested in what you have to say on this because my local AGS Group, South Devon, has a similar sized membership (on a good day!) as yours and we are currently considering putting on a Show for the general public in 2012 instead of, as at present, doing it behind closed doors for ourselves. Our thinking is that if we can interest Joe Public in the plants we just might attract a few of them to join us.
Our Show at present is non-competative, do you have prizes and cups and things at yours and is it done to AGS standards etc. Any help would be appreciated.
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David do you think if you went to the local school and told them about it so they could organise for the children to come on mass with supervision one way of getting the next generation involved.Just a thought.
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Might have been worth trying in the past Dave but in these days of the National Curriculum every thing has to be stereotyped in order to produce stereotypical kids :P
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My wife is not a plantoholic (unfortunately). However she looks in as an outsider, and thinks the show standards are far too high to attract new members - who view the plants as being well above their league. She thinks that the best way of attracting new younger members is to have a separate class for kids at a show. However, get a teacher involved, and coach and assist them with cultivation of plants in advance then ensure that they all bring their parents and relatives to the show. Next year do the same with another school in the next town, and encourage competition between them. That brings in twice the number of kids, parents and relatives and so on....
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In theory that seems a great idea, Richard, and I would hope it would work somewhere... it didn't here.... :'(
We even tried a connection with the gardening group for children at the local Satrosphere science museum 'thingy' (I forget what its title is) but that was short-lived. :(
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You are right Maggi, it needs a special kind of kind of person to do that. No me unfortunately, but it would be great if it worked somewhere.
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Hi David
The main thing is your members, are they all willing to get involved in some way, this is very important. You will need a venue that is not expensive but central with passing trade, parking and with catering facilities, a kitchen at least. The venue you use for your meetings may suffice, has it got tables you can use. You need to appoint a show secretary and you will have an initial outlay at first, you will need drapes, class dividers,printing ie class cards and entry cards and schedules etc. Plant sales donated by members, a tombola with prizes donated by members, cakes and teas etc donated by members and people to man all these things. Timing is important, you must fix a time when the majority of your members have the most in flower, for us it is March as we have some good Dionysia, primula and sax growers. You must advertise the show at every chance you get,local press, local radio,posters in libaries, other local groups, the main AGS, banners and posters on the day. You must also avoid as far as possible other events on the same day in your area and national shows. We do not have prize money but we do have trophies, we have a lady who does tapestry and makes something framed for us, prize cards and local group medals are free from the AGS centre at pershore as are prize stickers. So I would say go for it and if you make a small profit and gain a few new members than thats great, but it is hard work and it needs every member to get involved and the more they put in the more you will get out.. Good luck.
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Mant thanks for that Pat. I'll keep plugging away (I seem to be the only one concerned that if we loose members at the rate we have lost them this year our group will be unviable in two years time) I agree it needs to be very much a team effort.
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David, I am show secretary for a small show for Highland Rock Garden Club. Many years ago we started in one room of the agricultural college but have slowly built up to a much larger event for the public. In my experience, the first thing to realise is that the local public do not come in to look at your lovely plants on the show bench. Joe Public comes in for his morning coffee and home bakes; gardeners come in to buy plants from your club sales table! After that they might have a quick look at the show. These two items are important because they provide our club with extra money to bring in good speakers in the winter and it is the quality of your talks that increases membership.
Of course, you do need an attractive show but it is primarily for the enjoyment of your members.
Other than what has been said by others you need some other 'side shows' eg noncompetitive plant displays, auricula theatre, photo displays and whatever to keep the attention of visitors, particularly if the teas and plant sales are open whilst judging is still going on. And finally, some leaflets about your group for the visitors to take away with them.
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Thanks for that David, all information that will come in handy.