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THE DELPHINIUM SOCIETY'S MAIN SHOW in 2008

This Show was staged in the Hillside Events Centre at the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden at Wisley, Surrey on 21st / 22nd June 2008

CONTENTS

Click on the appropriate section IN THIS LIST to see pictures of some prize-winning entries.

Pedestal floral arrangement by Duncan Hagan

INTRODUCTION

We were constantly told by media people that the weather had been exceptionally warm during the spring and you could have expected many delphiniums would be past their best before this June Show. For delphiniums in inner London this was close to being the case but elsewhere, early growth was slowed by frost and long dry spells. Even at Wisley, in the Trial of delphiniums from seed, some plants were pushing up flower spikes in early April yet flowering there was not exceptionally early. This Show was probably close to the peak flowering period for many growers and there was a good display of blooms on the benches. The delphiniums in our own garden at Banbury were about a week behind 2007 and hardly any plants had open flowers so there was nothing for the Show!

THE SHOW

This account is based on a visit to the Show during the second day when it was disappointing to find that some blooms had wilted and did not look at their best.

SECTION A

Class 1: Four spikes. One entry only from Roy Redman who was awarded a FIRST PRIZE. for his set of four blooms of 'Min' shown below.

Class 1.

  
Class 2: Two spikes, light. FIRST PRIZE was awarded to Roy Redman for blooms of' a 'Spindrift' seedling and 'Gemma' and the SECOND PRIZE went to Terry Woolley for blooms of his introductions 'Purple Haze' and 'Joanna'.

Class 2, First Prize

Class 2, Second prize
Class 3: Two spikes, dark. A FIRST PRIZE was awarded to the only entry, two blooms staged by Bob Banks of a deep purple seedling from 'Summerfield Oberon'.

Class 4: One spike, light. Four entries, three seen in the left-hand picture below. Keith Boxall's bloom of 'Tiger Eye' in the centre of the picture won FIRST PRIZE. Ray Joslyn' was awarded SECOND PRIZE for his bloom of 'Gillian Dallas', another pale lavender but with a white eye. Another spike of 'Tiger Eye' won THIRD PRIZE for Roy Redman. Unfortunately, the bloom of 'Gordon Forsyth' on the left of the picture seems to have been staged in the wrong class because this cultivar is classified as dark, and presumably it was disqualified.

Class5: One spike, dark. Four entries, including another bloom of 'Gordon Forsyth' seen at the centre of the right hand picture below. The FIRST PRIZE went to a bloom of dusky pink 'Lucia Sahin' on the left from Ray Joslyn. The light-purple 'Michael Ayers, seen on the right won SECOND PRIZE for Bob Banks and THIRD PRIZE was awarded to 'Gordon Forsyth from Keith Boxall.

Class 4.

Class 5.
Class 6: Two spikes, pink. Two well matched entries, FIRST PRIZE going to Terry Blissett for the blooms of a pink seedling on the right of the picture. SECOND PRIZE went to Stan Ellison's blooms of 'Lucia Sahin' seen on the left.

Class7: One spike, pink. Four entries seen in the right-hand picture below. FIRST PRIZE went to Douglas Pounds for a very large bloom of an un-named seedling. SECOND PRIZE went to Ray Joslyn for a nice bloom of 'Lucia Sahin', while Stan Ellison gained THIRD PRIZE for a smaller bloom of 'Lucia Sahin'

Class 6.

.

Class 7.
Class 8: One spike, cream. FIRST PRIZE went to Ray Joslyn for a nice bloom of 'Cappella', a cream raised by Ray that has an unusual ginger eye, seen in the centre of the picture below. SECOND PRIZE was won by Stan Ellison for his bloom of 'Sunkissed' seen on the left and THIRD PRIZE was awarded to the cream with a black eye from Doug Pounds.

Class 8

  
Class 9: Three spikes. Total height must not exceed 1.07m (3.5 ft). Two entries, the vase awarded FIRST PRIZE from Ray Joslyn contained two blooms of 'Celebration', a dark-eyed cream flower, with a bloom of 'Capella'. SECOND PRIZE went to Steve Dorey.

Class 9, First Prize

Class 9, Second Prize
Class 10: One spike & six florets. FIRST PRIZE went to Ray Joslyn for a fine bloom of 'Lucia Sahin', that was also selected as the BEST BLOOM IN SHOW, seen on the left of the picture. SECOND PRIZE was given to another bloom of 'Lucia Sahin' from Ray Cook, seen on the right below, and THIRD PRIZE to a bloom of pale violet 'Min', from D. Hickmott.

Class 10

Floral Arrangement in a Basket by Anne Blissett
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SECTION B: BLOOMS OF UN-NAMED CULTIVARS (SEEDLINGS)

Class 11: Three spikes, distinct. A single entry from Douglas Pounds but well worth the FIRST PRIZE with two very nice blues and an excellent spike of a pink seedling..

Class 12: Two spikes, distinct. Again only one entry, this time two seedings raised from open-pollinated seed and staged by Roy Redman.were awarded FIRST PRIZE.

Class 11.

Class 12.
Class 13: One Spike, Seedling excluding white. FIRST PRIZE was awarded to a deep purple with a white eye from John Flowerday seen in the picture below. SECOND PRIZE went to Terry Woolley.

Class 14: One spike white. Another FIRST PRIZE was won by Douglas Pounds with a large but loosely packed bloom of a white with an interesting light brown eye. A SECOND PRIZE card was awarded to the other entry, Terry Blissett's white seedling with a white eye.

Class 13.

Class 14
Class 15: One spike, pink. Douglas Pounds used another large bloom of his pink seedling to take the FIRST PRIZE and SECOND PRIZE was awarded to John Flowerday for one of his trademark cranberry pink flowers with a contrasting white eye.

Class 16: Six florets, distinct. No entries?

Class 15.

White delphinium Arrangement by Anne Blissett
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SECTION C

Class 17: Two spikes, blue. Two entries in this class, seen in picture below. FIRST PRIZE went to the left-hand pair of blooms of an un-named seedling from Douglas Pounds. As last year, Terry Woolley's blooms of a seedling from 'Faust' and 'Fenella' were only considered worthy of a THIRD PRIZE card.

Class 18: One spike, light blue. Douglas Pounds was awarded FIRST PRIZE for a large but droopy bloom of a seedling and Stan Ellison's bloom won the SECOND PRIZE. Mr D. Hickmott staged a lovely bloom of 'Gillian Dallas' in this class, seen on the left of the picture below, but the pale violet flowers of this cultivar are not considered to be blue and the Judges probably disqualified this entry as N.A.S. - not according to Schedule. This was a great shame since on the Sunday it seemed to be one of the best blooms in the Show.

Class 17.

Class 18.
Class 19: One spike, dark blue. FIRST PRIZE again went to Douglas Pounds for the bloom seen in the centre of the picture below, with the SECOND PRIZE awarded toTerry Woolley for another bloom of his 'Faust' seedling. THIRD PRIZE went to Stan Ellison for a bloom on the left of 'Fenella' that showed seed pods in the bottom florets.

Class 19.

Blue Delphinium Arrangement by Anne Blissett

SECTION D

Class 20: Two spikes white, any cultivar or cultivars. The FIRST PRIZE went to a pair of neat blooms of 'Sandpiper' from Ray Joslyn, seen on the right of the picture below.

Class 21: One spike white with white eye. Ray Joslyn won FIRST PRIZE for a lovely bloom of 'Elizabeth Cook' on the left hand side of the picture below. To the right of this was a broader bloom of 'Jill Curley' that won SECOND PRIZE for Terry Blisssett.

Class 22: One spike white with coloured eye. A bloom of 'Sandpiper' was the only entry and gave Ray Joslyn another FIRST PRIZE.

Class 21(on Left) Class 20 (on Right)

White Delphinium Arrangement by Carolyn Clarke
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SECTION E

The pictures below show some FIRST PRIZE entries in the floret classes. At the left is Ray Cook's entry of 'Gordon Forsyth' florets in Class 23: Six florets, all same cultivar. In the middle is Ray Joslyn's entry in Class 25: Six florets, two/three cultivars. The picture on the right is Alaster Calder's entry in Class 36 for novice exhibitors.

Class 23.

Class 25.

Class36.
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SECTION F

Intermediate classes restricted to exhibitors who have not previously won a first prize in any of the open classes 1-27.

Class 28: Two spikes. The FIRST PRIZE for two excellent blooms of 'Elizabeth Cook' was won by Anne Cole. The entry from Steve Dorey, a pair of tall slender blooms of 'Pandora', and two short blooms of pale violet 'Mother Teresa' from Howard Norton were both awarded a THIRD PRIZE.

Class 29: One spike light. Anne Cole won FIRST PRIZE with another lovely bloom of 'Elizabeth Cook.

Class 30: One spike dark. Anne Cole was awarded a SECOND PRIZE for a good bloom of 'After Midnight' that was spoiled by a number of florets showing a partial mutation to a pale colour.

Class 31: Six florets, all same cultivar. FIRST PRIZE went to a set of florets of 'After Midnight' from Howard Norton.

Class 32: Six florets, two or more cultivars. Anne Cole won FIRST PRIZE with a set consisting of 'After Midnight' surrounded by pale violet 'Min' and pink 'Rosemary Brock'.

Class 28, First Prize

Class 30, Second Prize

Class 28, Third Prize

Class 32, First Prize

SECTION G -Restricted to Novices. Alaster Calder was the only entrant. His entry of florets in Class 36 is shown above.

 

Floral Arrangement by Carolyn Clarke

 We would like to end this report by thanking the Show Secretary, Keith Boxall for organising the entries, setting out the benches and sorting out the problems that arose. Thanks are also due to Duncan & Ursula Hagan who set up the display panels around the Hall.

Lovely Floral Arrangements using delphiniums were a major attraction of this Show and we are especially grateful to Anne Blissett, Carolyn Clarke, Duncan and Ursula Hagan for their efforts.

We thank the Staff of the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden, who contribute greatly to making our Shows successful.
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