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THE DELPHINIUM SOCIETY'S MAIN SHOW in 2009

This Show was staged in the Hillside Events Centre at the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden at Wisley, Surrey on 13th /14thJune 2009

CONTENTS

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

Floral arrangement by Carolyn Clarke

INTRODUCTION

The Show was held during what was the earliest weekend that it would be realistic to expect entries from growers over most of Southern England due to difficulties in booking the Hall at Wisley for more suitable dates. On the preceding Tuesday, when we visited the Delphinium Trial at Wisley, only the earliest flowering cultivars were well out, with 'Kestrel' and 'Spindrift' looking wonderful, so a large entry in the Show seemed rather unlikely. In fact the number of entries was better than we expected. However, the display boards with information on cultivation, types of delphiniums around the world and pictures of blooms that visitors usually find interesting were not present and the Hall seemed rather drab as a result.

THE SHOW

This account is based on a visit to the Show during the second day.

SECTION A

Class 1: Four spikes. Two entries, one from Roy Redman who was awarded a FIRST PRIZE. for his set of four blooms of 'Loch Leven', with the other being four blooms of pale blue- lavender 'Spindrift' that won a SECOND PRIZE for Bob Banks.

Class 1.

Class 2.

Class 2: Two spikes, light. Four entries here with the FIRST PRIZE awarded to a neat pair of blooms of 'Gemini', a cultivar seen in the picture above raised by the exhibitor, Ray Joslyn. SECOND PRIZE went toRoy Redman for blooms of' 'Emily Hawkins' and THIRD PRIZE to Terry Woolley for blooms of his introduction 'Purple Haze'.
Class 3: Two spikes, dark. A SECOND PRIZE was awarded to the two blooms staged by Bob Banks of a deep purple seedling, while Roy Redman's entry of 'Bruce' and an immature 'Summerfield Oberon' gained a THIRD PRIZE. None of these blooms was in good condition by Sunday morning.

Class 4: One spike, light. Four entries. Ray Joslyn's lovely bloom of 'Walton Gemstone' won FIRST PRIZE. Roy Redman was awarded SECOND PRIZE for his bloom of 'Conspicuous', a pale blue mauve with a dark eye. Terry Woolley won THIRD PRIZE with a nice but very immature bloom of 'Min'. The lovely florets at the base of the bloom can be seen in the picture below.

Class5: One spike, dark. Three entries, the FIRST PRIZE going to Douglas Pounds for a purple seedling that was showing seed pods at the base despite not being full out. The SECOND PRIZE went to another un-named seedling, this time from Bob Banks, while Roy Redman won the THIRD PRIZE with a potentially nice but immature bloom of 'Summerfield Oberon' .

Class 4. 'Min'

Class 7 / 8

Class 6: Two spikes, pink. No entries.

Class7: One spike, pink. Just a single entry of a neat but very small bloom of 'Lucia Sahin' won a FIRST PRIZE for Stan Ellison.

Class 8: One spike, cream. FIRST PRIZE went to Stan Ellison for his bloom of 'Sunkissed' seen above and SECOND PRIZE was won by Ray Joslyn with a larger but rather crowded bloom of 'Cappella', a cream raised by Ray that is now included in the Delphinium Trial at Wisley.

Class 9: Three spikes. Total height must not exceed 1.07m (3.5 ft). FIRST PRIZE went to Steve Dorey for a vase containing a bloom of 'Mother Teresa' , a pale lavender flower, with two light pink seedlings

Class 10: One spike & six florets. Four entries. The FIRST PRIZE was won by Ray Joslyn with a large bloom of deep dusky pink 'Lucia Sahin', which normally has florets of high quality that are often winners in floret classes. SECOND PRIZE went to Roy Redman, who used 'Spindrift', and Stan Ellison took the THIRD PRIZE with a small bloom and florets of 'Lucia Sahin'.

Floral Arrangement by Carolyn Clarke

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SECTION B: BLOOMS OF UN-NAMED CULTIVARS (SEEDLINGS)

Class 11: Three spikes, distinct. A single entry from Douglas Pounds was awarded FIRST PRIZE for an excellent spike of a white seedling accompanied by an immature light mauve-pink and a blue lavender flower, all with dark eyes.

Class 12: Two spikes, distinct. Here there were two entries with John Flowerday gaining the FIRST PRIZE. with a bloom of a purple seedling with a striking white eye accompanied by one of his trademark cranberry pinks, seen in the picture below. Stan Ellison was awarded the SECOND PRIZE for two small purples, one having a dark eye and the other a white eye.

Class 11.

Class 12.

Class 13: One Spike, Seedling excluding white. FIRST PRIZE was awarded to another cranberry pink with a white eye from John Flowerday. The SECOND PRIZE went to Bob Banks for a seedling in the style of 'Conspicuous' and Terry Woolley's rather loose blue-mauve seedling with a dark eye gained the THIRD PRIZE.

Class 14: One spike white. Another FIRST PRIZE was won by Douglas Pounds with a large bloom of a very nice white. SECOND PRIZE was awarded to the other entry from Roy Redman. These blooms are seen on the right of the Class 15 'Best in Show' spike in the picture below.

Class 15: One spike, pink. Unusually, this seedling class provided the outstanding bloom in the Show, the award for the Best Bloom going to John Flowerday's large and beautiful spike of one of his cranberry coloured seedlings seen below. Terry Woolley was awarded SECOND PRIZE for a quite large bloom with flowers in a lighter shade of pink set off by a white eye.

Class 16: Six florets, distinct. There were no entries recorded.

Class 15.

 
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SECTION C

Class 17: Two spikes, blue. Two entries in this class. FIRST PRIZE went to two large broad-based but rather rough blooms of un-named seedlings from Douglas Pounds. Stan Ellison's rather small blooms of 'Fenella' won SECOND PRIZE.

Class 18: One spike, light blue. Douglas Pounds was again the winner of the FIRST PRIZE with a huge bloom of a seedling and Stan Ellison's bloom of 'Walton Benjamin' won the SECOND PRIZE.

Class 19: One spike, dark blue. FIRST PRIZE went to Douglas Pounds for a lovely broad bloom of a seedling with the black eye petals having prominent gold hairs like those of Tiger eye. SECOND PRIZE went to Stan Ellison for a bloom of 'Fenella'.

Class 19.

Delphinium Arrangement by Anne Blissett

SECTION D

Class 20

Class 21

 
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 in the picture above. The SECOND PRIZE went to Doug Pounds for two whites with black eye and some black splashes on the sepals. THIRD PRIZE was awarded to Terry Woolley for rather irregular and gappy blooms of 'Elizabeth Cook'.

Class 21: One spike white with white eye. Terry Woolley was more successful here, winning FIRST PRIZE for a lovely bloom of 'Elizabeth Cook' seen at the centre of the picture above. Doug Pounds won SECOND PRIZE for a seedling with beautiful florets seen on the right above and Ray Joslyn took the THIRD PRIZE with a bloom of 'Elizabeth Cook' that was rather irregular and showing seedpods.

Class 22: One spike white with coloured eye. A rather crowded bloom of 'Sandpiper' gave Ray Joslyn another FIRST PRIZE. Doug Pounds won the SECOND PRIZE with a rather columnar seedling and a bloom of 'Olive Poppleton' won THIRD PRIZE for Terry Woolley.

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SECTION E - For sets of individual florets.

Unfortunately no photographs of the entries in these classes are available

Class 23: Six florets, all same cultivar. The FIRST PRIZE went to Warwick Brench for a superb set of florets of the deep violet-purple 'Bruce'. SECOND PRIZE went to another deep purple but with a brilliant white eye, 'Summerfield Oberon', staged by Terry Woolley. Unusually, Ray Joslyn was the THIRD PRIZE winner with florets of his favourite 'Lucia Sahin'. It was fascinating to see a set of florets of the oldtimer 'Florestan' staged by Stan Ellison.

Class24: Six Florets, distinct cultivars. The only entry from Stan Ellison was awarded a SECOND PRIZE.

Class25: Six Florets, two or three different cultivars. Warwick Brench won the FIRST PRIZE, while Terry Woolley using florets of purple 'Summerfield Oberon' and lavender 'Min' added another SECOND PRIZE to his haul.

Class26: Six Florets, seedlings, two or more different cultivars. One entry only from Stan Ellison.

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SECTION F - Restricted to Exhibitors who have not previously won a first prize in any of the open classes 1-27.

There was no competition for Steve Dorey, the only entrant in these classes, who staged blooms or florets in all the 5 Classes as follows:

Class 28: Two spikes. FIRST PRIZE for a pair of blooms of 'Spindrift' .

Class 29: One spike light. FIRST PRIZE for a bloom of 'Spindrift'.

Class 30: One spike dark. A very poor, immature bloom of 'Bruce'.

Class 31: Six florets, all same cultivar.

Class 32: Six florets, two or more cultivars. This entry gained a FIRST PRIZE.

SECTION G -Restricted to Novices.

Class 33: Two spikes, Class 34: One spike light, Class 35: One spike dark. Graham Austin was the only entrant. His entries of 'Spindrift' in Classes 33 and 34 and of a lovely 'Summerfield Oberon' in Class 35 are shown below and each was awarded a FIRST PRIZE. The quality of Graham's exhibits was exceptionally high for a novice exhibitor and this was also true of the blooms he staged in the second Show.

Classes 35, 34 & 33

Jubilee Class

JUBILEE CLASS For Blooms of Restricted Size.

Six spikes, any cultivar(s) to be exhibited in two vases, three spikes to a vase in a space not exceeding 137cm (4.5ft) in length and 73cm (3.5ft) in height measured from the top of the staging table.

This year the Show Secretary, Keith Boxall, staged a nice entry of neat, small blooms of 'Summerfield Oberon' seen in the picture above. This was awarded a well deserved FIRST PRIZE. and demonstrated very well that Society Members who grow delphiniums primarily for garden display can take part in the Show using small blooms of high quality.

 

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.

As usual, 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.

Many fine blooms were also to be enjoyed in the borders at Wisley and especially in the 2009 Delphinium Trial that provided one of the best displays seen for many years

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