2 more shows.

Not long back from staging at Littleover in Derby where i've put in 18 entries.This is a lovely little high quality show where every ticket is hard earned. You have to put good stuff in to win here.

Tomorrow morning I shall be staging at Seagrave, a small village with a fun show that has managed to attract several good local showers. I haven't won most points here for a few years now so I hope to have a good go at this tomorrow. With that in mind i'm just waiting for my victoria sandwich to cool down before I can put the raspberry jam filling in. There is a very hotly contested 'men only' victoria sponge class at Seagrave. Now, ordinarily a man baking is a distinctly homosexual and Yorkshire thing to do, but it is a perfectly manly operation when performed for horticultural show purposes when there are important points at stake.

Collection at Littleover

I'd won this class for the past two years but despite staging 3 cracking sets of veg and good vase of flowers I had to be content with 3rd place out of 3! No shame in losing out to two first rate displays however. My veg were Kestrel spuds, Vento onions and Cedrico tomatoes along with a vase of Mary's Jomanda.

Littleover 2009

Every card won at this superb little show is well earned and for the first time ever here I managed to win best veg in show for a dish of 5 kestrel spuds.





I also picked up the cup dedicated to the one flower/one veg class. Again, this is always a well contested class and when I walked away from staging I didn't think I had a chance. Upon closer critical inspection you spot certain imperfections in other exhibitors blooms and veg so it's always worth having a go as long as you choose two specimens as near perfection as you can get. My Mary's Jomanda was clean and nicely rounded and my Pinnacle parsnip was free of canker.






Leesa also picked up a cup (2nd year running!) for best in photography as well as a 2nd place in the savoury flan section. Many thanks to Linda Wlodarczak for the recipe!

Littleover trophy winners

Many thanks to Paul Harvey for emailing these pics after my camera failed on the day.

Top Tray successes

I’ve won 4 out of the 6 ‘Top Tray’s’ that I’ve entered this season and one of the reasons is that I’ve been able to exhibit some bigger onions because of a relaxation in one of the rules around here. It used to be that onion rings/supports/stands were not allowed to be used which meant that people were reluctant to show their onions in this class as they were prone to rolling about on the board and therefore getting damaged…..especially if the benches weren’t level. However, on both the show committees I’m involved with we have allowed small, discrete supports to be utilised which meant I could display these onions at Sutton Bonington without fear them coming to any harm.

I staged these same onions at Littleover last week with carrots and tomatoes and a woman came up to me and said she thought they were stunning. She really needs to get out more!

Week old carrots win again.

At last week's Littleover show I did something I don't normally do, which is I exhibited these winning Sweet Candle stumpers that won best in show at Sutton Bonington the week before. In the past I've pretty much always pulled new carrots and parsnips for each show but these were just so good I decided to see if I could store them as I was running short on carrots. I wrapped each one in dry kitchen towel and then wrapped them in cloth towels and stored them in a fridge.

Come the following Saturday they won the carrot class at Littleover also and hadn't lost too much of their previous good condition. Unfortunately, our camera didn't have a battery in so I couldn't take a photo but it's certainly something I shall be doing in future if I have a particularly good set.

Spuds bashed

This 3rd place at Sutton Bonington has been my only card with potatoes this season. The variety was Malin and these were the only 4 decent sized tubers I managed to salvage from about 50 bags this season.

I got talking to a great spud grower at Littleover who reckoned that I may have made my peat too alkaline when I sterilised the bags with Armillatox. I did this to try and kill any blight spores that may have overwintered after last year's attack. In any case he said you need to get fresh peat in every 3 years or so and mine is now about 4 years old so I've spread it over the flower borders and will be buying new stuff over the winter and sieving it as I go.

He also uses calcified seaweed and Vitax Q4 in his bags......about 4 oz of each per bag!!!!!

Give it a rest!

I've won 14 trophies this season.....but I haven't heard the last of the one my wife won for photograpy at Littleover. I mean.....anyone can point a camera and click the little button! Can't they? LOL

Tired but happy

When I first started showing I couldn't understand why most of the top exhibitors would leave straight after the show and not stay for the auction. I know now. After another 2 shows on one day for the second weekend running and another 60 or so entries I'm absolutely shattered! I had another successful weekend however, winning 19 red cards and 4 trophies including 'Best in Show' for these leeks at Sileby. I also won my first ever red card for large onions at Sileby although I do think I was a little lucky as my onions weren't that uniform although they have ripened quite nicely in the past week.

I lost out on 'Most points in Show' by a single point to Mick Mills again. Mick says he's had a disastrous year. God help me when he has a good one! The show has gone from strength to strength since starting up again 2 years ago and attracted over 270 entries, due in no small part to the hard work of Melvyn Hoyes and Stephanie Green. Sadly, and perhaps predictably, my Victoria sandwich was just outside the cards in a class of 4 entries! Looks like the Hairy Bakers haven't got much to worry about there then!

At Littleover I won two of the main awards for the 'Grange Collection' for 3 flowers and 3 sets of 3 vegetables, and the Littleover (Top) Tray award. Having travelled all the way there I received a call from my wife to inform me I needed to put the battery in the camera.....the battery that was still at home! So I'm indebted to Paul Harvey taking a few photos for me which he'll be emailing in the next few days I hope.

I now have a few weeks off from showing until my last show at Sturton in Lincolnshire in October, so I can now do some tidying up in the garden and some walking, starting with a walk in Derbyshire next weekend.

Another busy weekend

I've just got back from staging at Littleover in Derby where I put in 24 entries. It's a lovely little show with very high quality exhibits so any cards here are well earned, especially in the dahlias that are as good as you'll see anywhere. The problem with staging on a Friday night is that you cannot make last minute alterations once you've been able to assess the opposition......for instance moving carrots from the main class onto your Top Tray if you feel they'd have a better chance there, but it's a chance I have to take. My thanks to Brian Eagers for waiting for me to finish and for the coffee!

I'm now just waiting for my Victoria sandwich to cook in the oven for the 'men only' class at Sileby tomorrow (it's a long story!). I'll need to be up early to get some more parsnips and carrots up and washed, as well as a pair of leeks. I also have some corking Kenora Sunset picked and safely stored out of this bloody rain! It's going to be another busy day! And thanks to talking to you lot I've only just remembered my Vickie sandwich....tis a bit scorched around the edges but a bit of icing sugar should mask that!

Dahlias blooming at last

I won two classes at Sutton Bonington after being able to cut my first blooms of the season. I only grow 20 or so plants, 8 each of Jomanda and Kenora Sunset and a few more of Emma's Coronet that is only just starting to colour up.

The vase of Kenora Sunset won best dahlias in show after opening up overnight in my living room. I'm hoping to have plenty more flowers ready for this weekend's shows at Littleover and Sileby.

Pablo can't 'beet' the trusty old favourite

After very successfully growing the beetroot variety 'Red Ace' for many years I inexpliquably decided to grow the variety 'Pablo' this season because it was the winner (and 2nd/3rd/4th and 5th) at last year's NVS Midland Championships held at Malvern.

Well, all I can say is it certainly doesn't like my soil as it's failed to make much of an impression on me. I have had some success with it....a first at Seagrave and two '2nds' at Littleover and Sturton but I've really struggled to get matching sets and most of the roots have hardly got beyond walnut size. Whether the poor summer has had an effect I don't know, but other growers seemed to manage to grow it well enough and it was prominant at the National.

What I do know is that 'Red Ace' used to get me 3 or 4 wins per season and I sowed the 'Pablo' seed on the same weekends and in the same manner as I always have done.

Littleover 2007

I was only able to muster up 12 entries for Littleover this year but still managed to walk away with a couple of trophies for the 1 flower/1 veg class and the Top Tray. My Grange Collection was not a patch on my winning entry last year and I only managed a 3rd place.

My cherished 'marigold in a marigold' in the 'Plant in an unusual container' class came 2nd to universal disagreement apparently, beaten by a leek in a welly! Ah well, at least it made everyone laugh!

The dahlias here were of a superb standard and Paul Harvey's blooms were up to his usual high standard, but he'll have Kevin Broxholme challenging him in the years to come I think. And Leesa managed to get a couple of '1sts' also.....one for her fruit cake and one in the photography classes where she also picked up 3 other prize cards.

Pick of the shows

I know he'll be reading this blog but I just had to mention Kevin Broxholme's 3 vases of the giant dahlia 'Bryn Terfel' from the weekend's Littleover Show. They were stunning....and huge! The picture perhaps doesn't do the size justice but imagine 3 footballs....these were bigger and hardly a mark on them. Some achievement.

Well done Kevin!

Heroes

After two cracking shows over the weekend it's time to name my heroes and they are:

Melvyn Hoyes

Kay Bint

Richard Smith

Brian Eagers

These four and people like them all over the country give up their spare time to lay on flower and veg shows for people like me. Every year they must wonder why they do it as the effort and stress involved can be incredible at times, and after a year like we've just had you always wonder whether the growers will have anything to show. But both Seagrave and Littleover Shows were both superb and the quality of produce on show would have

1 flower 1 veg

Enough of football for now.....I'll spend the winter months showing different classes and how to stage in them.

A popular class at a lot of shows is the class for a single specimen flower and a single specimen vegetable. (Some shows go further and also have a single specimen fruit). They are usually very popular as most people will have a spare veg or bloom that they can enter into this class without having to match it up to other blooms or veg. However, it is important to try and select your best single flower or vegetable if you want to have a chance of a prize card.

The judge will compare your dahlia (or whatever bloom you choose) against other dahlias so it needs to be as fully developed and blemish-free as possible. Therefore, flowers such as dahlias/chrysanths and gladioli would be the best ones to go for as these are deemed harder to grow to perfection than say marigolds/sunflowers and other annuals.

Similarly, what are termed '20 pointer' vegetables such as carrots/parsnips/tomatoes/potatoes etc are looked upon more favourably than lower pointed veg such as cabbages/peppers/beetroot etc. (I will explain the pointing of veg in my next post).

The pic above shows a well contested class at Littleover Show this year. The superb gladioli and potato near the camera won.....my humble dahlia and carrot staged next to them didn't even warrant a place.

Collection

2 more shows over the weekend and one class I was particularly pleased to win was for a small collection at Littleover in Derby. You need a vase of 3 flowers (choose from dahlias/chrysanths/gladioli/annulas etc) and 3 sets of 3 veg (choice from about a dozen different kinds)

I staged 3 Jomanda dahlias, 3 Winston potatoes, 3 Cedrico tomatoes and 3 Purple Speckled french beans, managing to beat the guy who usually wins it by half a point.

The whole show is a credit to those who organise it and is always well supported, the quality of the flowers in particular being above most other shows of it's size. I staged on Friday night and because I didn't get away as early as I wanted it was 8.45pm before I got there. However, the organisers didn't mind waiting for me to finish and it makes the effort all worth while when you are welcomed at a venue like that.

One problem I've been having all summer is 'open centres' on my dahlias and was wondering if it was a cultural problem (i.e. my fault) or to do with the hot summer. I took the opportunity to ask a guy called Paul Harvey who is a top dahlia showman and a bloody nice guy to boot. He said he didn't know why it happened which was good enough for me. If it can happen to him then what chance have I got?