Another enjoyable show

This year’s local horticultural society show was held on Saturday, being the third one* where I’ve helped out and stewarded. It was held, as usual, in the main hall of the local sports and social club which is almost adjacent to my allotment site.  I was there early to help with the myriad bits and pieces that needed doing, the first and most important of which was to fill the tea urn and switch it on.

The good weather meant that people could unload cars at their leisure and use the outside tables to primp and preen their flower exhibits before staging them.

By mid morning the three double rows of tables running almost the entire length of the hall were filled with vegetables, fruit and flowers.There were just over 400 entries, which was around the same number as last year, despite nearly everyone saying what a difficult year it had been due to the weather.  It was also generally agreed that the overall standard was probably the best that it’s ever been.

Among the vegetables it was plot neighbour Bill’s tomatoes that caught my eye as they were as uniform in colour and size as you could wish for. I was pleased that he won several prizes as he’s not in good health and hasn’t really been able to do much this year.

Dahlias, not surprisingly, dominated the flower exhibits with this stunning bloom really standing out among all the various colours, shapes and sizes.

There were also lots of fuchsias and other flowers, with this pot plant attracting a lot of attention After judging and then lunch the doors opened to the public before the presentation of cups and other prizes. It was good to see some new faces among the prize winners, which included a local primary school and a charity that has a plot.

As always it was good to see, and chat with, folks who I don’t see often. That included Martin who runs the tombola stall. He’d fallen off a ladder earlier this year and was lucky that he only broke his leg! I bought ten tickets and won three prizes. None were of much use to me but with some swopping around I came away with a bar of chocolate and several packets of seeds including dianthus Russian Skies and rudbeckia Cherokee Sunset.

All too soon we were packing up and by just after 5 pm the hall was empty and several of us had moved to the bar for a much needed drink and sit down.  Although it had been a long and tiring day we all agreed that it had been another enjoyable show.

[*Here are last year’s post Don’t spend it all at once and the previous year’s The Show]