This is a photograph taken from a moving buggy of the reputed 100,000 crocus which have been planted at Wisley and which were in nigh perfect condition on the first day of the show.
The Early Competition was held in the glasshouse complex and was full of families enjoying the experience, the Easter holidays had started and the Wisley gardeners were transforming the landscape into a wonderful scented dreamlike scene. They had grown many scented lilies in pots, plus pots of heliotrope and enormous scented freesias. There are permanent plantings of citrus plus the jungly plants and the waterfall, all interspersed with lazily flapping butterflies, and the excited screams of small children as they realised that a butterfly had landed on them, a truly unforgettable memory. All this was in contrast to the weather outside, which had created massive problems due to high winds, which at one point had threatened to cause the cancellation of the event. Happily it was judged that it was safe to continue. At one end of the calm space where the judging was taking place was a display of amaryllis from a trial held at Wisley, which is continuing in order to assess how easy it is to grow the bulbs for the successive year. I adore perfume and took away the memory of the many layers of exquisite scent pouring from the flowers. Heavenly.
Wendy Akers – exhibitor
The Daffodil Competition was very good with seventeen exhibitors. It would have been eighteen if Peter Wilkins had managed to get there in time to stage his flowers having spent three hours in his car because of the chaos caused by the closure of the Dartford Bridge. It was disappointing that so few of the Southern exhibitors failed once again to make an appearance bearing in mind that at least six exhibitors had traveled over 200 miles to get there; three had flown from Northern Ireland and three driven from Yorkshire. However Richard Hilson, Robin Crouchman and John Goddard the “ever faithfuls” were present as usual.
The three Best Blooms in show were all exhibited by Nial Watson from Northern Ireland and are pictured below (click on the picture to expand it).
The two multiple vase classes were both won by Wendy Akers from West Yorkshire.
Her entry for the three vases of standard daffodils was ‘Gold Velvet’, ‘Pops Legacy’ and ‘Demmo’ and in the three vases of Division 6, ‘Trena’, ‘Rapture’ and ‘Perky’. Wendy also won the single bloom class for a white perianth Division 6 with ‘Trena’
For a number of years Brian Duncan has bemoaned the fact that he faced little opposition in the classes for miniature cultivars bred and raised by the exhibitor. Last year he persuaded the North Yorkshire hybridiser Anne Wright to enter at this competition and also at Rosemoor. Anne has for a number of years been very successful at Alpine Garden Society (AGS) and Scottish Rock Garden Club (SRGC) shows but reluctant to put the scissors to the flowers. This year although Brian still won the class for six cultivars, Anne won the class for three cultivars and also the class for a single miniature cultivar with ‘Andy Blanchard’; no relation, Blanchard is Anne’s maiden name. Anne’s website is Dryad Nurseries.
Some of the other prizewinners etc are shown below. Please contact us using the reply facility below if we have got something wrong.
Once again the show was well organised by Georgina and the RHS staff and well supported by Bulb Committee members.
It looks like a good day was had by all, well done to Wendy, Anne and the Northern Ireland team; without the Yorkshire mafia and Northern Ireland Boys what would the show be like. Where were the Southerners is it too far to travel or what?
I’m afraid that if the organisers at the RHS decide to phone me at 8pm the night before the show and say to me that the show “may” be cancelled it puts a real spanner in the work because as a few will probably know I actually travel to shows by train (I don’t drive and I take a box). So to say to me that she (Georgina, the organiser) will know if it’s going ahead at 6am, by the time I would have phoned her I would have already had to be on my train on the way up. I would have also needed to re-organise the time of my pick up taxi – so the whole thing wouldn’t have been worth the hassle from where I’m from, where as exhibitors who have to travel longer distances don’t have a choice because they are staying in hotels etc. So really the lack of support from the South happened because the RHS simply don’t have any consideration for how much work goes into this hobby and because they can’t come to any sensible decisions. There would have been 27 more blooms and a collection of 6 from me and 6 vases of miniatures from my mum but if officials are going to cause this aggravation I will not waste my time and money traveling that may or may not be going ahead. Well done to everyone who did attend and traveled far though and I hope to see some of you at the main show in a couple of weeks. I am actually a full time student at the moment studying at undergraduate level so this can cause problems with attending shows but just you wait, I’m planning to come to Harrogate in the future and we’ll see who’s also willing to go the extra mile or hundred! Wishing you all a good season, Peter Rogers 🙂
Thank you for the information Peter. We look forward to seeing you at Harrogate next year (and at this year’s shows of course)
Made it to my first Daffodil Show!
Best advice given while staging my first exhibit – “You might try putting water in the vase” (Nial Watson)
Best advice NOT given while staging my first exhibit – check your moss for slugs before using it (result – 3 of my best flowers eaten overnight!)
Excellent advice Anne – provided you get it!
Maybe young Susan will appear there one day?
Lesley
It’s nice to get a comment from down-under in New Zealand.
Susan did not quite last long enough, Lesley – maybe next year!
(Susan Cox is a very nice miniature Div 6 by Lesley and named after her daughter)
Thank you James and Wendy for doing such an interesting and comprehensive report so quickly. Daffodil growth having slowed down so much in the last few weeks the Competition turned out to be a little larger than I had feared it might be; well done everybody who managed to stage some flowers. What was on display was generally very fresh and clean with not many flowers looking as if they had been held for a long time in the fridge.
The high winds, travel disruption and the need for people to telephone Georgina was a pity but in the circumstances I don’t see what else either the RHS or Georgina could have done. As it happened the winds were not as strong as had been forecast, the Tuesday was mostly dry and bright and the garden visitors included a lot of parents with young children. Clearly, if the wind had been stronger there would have been a significant risk of branches falling and the RHS would have had no choice but to close the garden and hence the Competition. The decision would presumably have been made by the Curator and not by Georgina. What the experience does show is the need for an exhibition facility that can be accessed without entering the garden. Something that is in the long term plans but will not happen for a good while yet.
I was encouraged to hear a young mother comment to her pre school age daughter ‘ you did not know that there were so many different daffodils did you’ Similarly, though it broke the rules and would have annoyed some people I was amused to see three little girls fetching vases, lining them up and then deciding which they liked the most and telling one another what they liked about them. They then replaced the vases in the right places, each none the worse for being handled!