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THE DELPHINIUM SOCIETY'S SHOW

This Show was held at the Hillside Events Centre of the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden at Wisley, Surrey on 19th / 20th June 2004.

Delphiniums from our garden at "Summerfield" were entered in a number of classes in the Show

 

CONTENTS

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

INTRODUCTION

The Delphinium Society's only Show in 2004 was earlier than the Main Show in 2003 and attracted less entries. The flower quality in the exhibits was also well below that of 2003 but visitors to the Show still enjoyed a good display of exhibition blooms on the benches, lovely floral arrangements and a colourful display of photographs on display boards around the walls.

Only a few of our delphiniums at Biddestone, were ready for the Show and our entries were mostly in classes for un-named seedlings, Section B.

Blooms were cut on Friday morning and taken into the garage. As seen in the picture, they were placed in vases of water for conditioning before packing and transport to Wisley during the late afternoon. A strong gusty wind made it tricky to carry blooms from the garden without them being damaged. The journey to Wisley to stage the flowers during Friday evening was spoiled by a traffic accident at the M3/M25 motorway junction. We took 2 hours to travel the last 10miles to Wisley! As we were mixed up with racegoers returning from the Ascot races, our only consolation was the variety of the hats of ladies in other cars.

THE SHOW

This account is mainly based on visiting the Show on the second day. Some blooms had been treated to stop petal drop and looked in good condition but too many blooms were spoiled by wilting or dropping petals. Most pictures are derived from a video recording and are not of good quality.

JUBILEE CLASS

The Jubilee Trophy is for six blooms in two vases which must not extend more than 107cm (3.5 ft) above the bench top. To meet this height restriction properly for the Show vases used, no bloom used should be more than 60cm (2ft) long from the base of the florets to the tip.The intention in introducing this Class was to attract entries of delphiniums grown for garden display. The winning vases in the left hand picture were from David Bassett. A set of blooms staged by Duncan Hagan, seen in the right hand picture below, was placed second.

SECTION A

Class 1: Four spikes.

The winning entry from Roy Redman consisted of a well matched set of blooms in a pale violet shade, two being of 'Gillian Dallas' which has a white eye and two blooms of 'Min' with dark-eyes.

 
Class 2: Two spikes, light.

The winner was Ray Joslyn with a long bloom of 'Gillian Dallas' well matched to his beautiful bloom of 'Emily Hawkins' seen on the right in the left hand picture below. Roy Redman gained the second prize for two very nice blooms of 'Conspicuous' seen on the right below. Bob Banks came third with two blooms of 'Emily Hawkins'.

Class 3: Two spikes, dark.

Roy Redman gained another first for two blooms of the deep dusky pink 'Lucia Sahin'. Ray Joslyn was second with blooms of Lucia Sahin and Bruce. The normally prolific prizewinner, Jimmy Fishenden was third, labouring under the handicap of having his every move recorded for the BBC by TV cameras. He staged nice but fairly small blooms shown below of dusky pink 'Lucia Sahin' and the very deep, inky blue 'After Midnight', which is shown in close-up on the right..

Class 4: One spike, light.

Roy Redman had another winner with a large bloom of the pale violet flower 'Tiger Eye', although the yellow hairs on the dark eye petals do not show in the picture of his bloom below . The second prize went to Ray Joslyn for an enormous bloom of 'Min'. David Bassett's rather crowded bloom of 'Summerfield Viking', seen on the right, was placed third.

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Class5: One spike, dark.

The six entries in this class were of an excellent standard with some spectacular long blooms of the popular purple cultivar 'Bruce', seen in close-up in the right hand picture. One lovely long bloom of this cultivar gained the first prize for Bob Banks and another from Ray Joslyn was second. Jimmy Fishenden's shorter bloom of deep blue 'After Midnight' was place third.

Class 6: Two spikes, pink.

Roy Redman added to his haul of first prizes, this one for two blooms of 'Summerfield Miranda', shown on the left below. Ray Joslyn was second, with two long but quite rough blooms of 'Lucia Sahin', shown in the right hand picture. Jimmy Fishenden was third with 'Lucia Sahin' and a very young 'Our Deb'.

Class7: One spike, pink.

The bloom of Lucia Sahin in the centre of the picture below won the first prize for Ray Joslyn and the second prize went to Bob Banks for the 'Lucia Sahin' on the right of the picture. Roy Redman was third.

 
Class 8: One spike, cream.

There were six entries in the class, five being seen in the left hand picture below. Numbering from the left, the fourth bloom in the group won the first prize for Ray Joslyn. This was a fine example of the cultivar 'Kennington Classic' raised by the late Terry Murphy. 'Celebration' from Grahame Case, the dark-eyed cream third from the left, was placed second. The third prize went to a tall, thin bloom of an un-named cream seedling from David Bassett and is seen at the right hand side of the group in the picture. The right hand picture shows 'Celebration' in close-up.

Class 9: Three spikes. Total height must not exceed 1.07m (3.5 ft).

The only entry was from Ray Joslyn,who staged three blooms of the deep dusky pink 'Lucia Sahin', that looked almost too long to qualify for use in this class.

 
Class 10: One spike & six florets.

Ray Joslyn won first prize with a beautiful long bloom of 'Emily Hawkins', seen in close-up below, and an excellent set of florets of this cultivar. It was interesting to see a bloom of 'Franjo Sahin', which has heavily patterned colouring of the flowers and this gained second prize for Grahame Case. Third prize went to a bloom and florets of 'Bruce' from Warwick Brench.

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

Class 11: Three spikes, distinct.

David Bassett's seedlings seen in the left hand picture below gained fiirst prize. Douglas Pounds' vase with a less well matched set of blooms in the right hand picture was second.

Class 12: Two spikes, distinct.

David Bassett won the first prize with a tinted white and a pale violet seedling that were well matched compared to the other entries. The second-placed entry from Roy Redman contained an interesting seedling from a cross between 'Emily Hawkins' and 'Cream Cracker' with pale violet flowers having pronounced patterning of the colour intensity in both the sepals and eye petals. The entry from Keith Boxall was third.

Class 13: One spike seedling, excuding white. D. Bassett's violet seedling, seen in the left-hand picture below, took the first prize. A dark violet seedling from Douglas Pounds with heavy veining of the colour was placed second.
Class 14: One spike white.

First prize went to David Bassett's fully developed but rather short bloom with a white eye. It was raised from seed of the 'Centurion White' seed strain and the nicely formed florets are seen in the right hand picture. A white with brown eyes staged by Douglas Pounds was second with Roy Redman's bloom in third place.

Class 15: One spike, pink.

First prize here went to John Flowerday for the bloom seen in the left hand picture below. This cranberry pink flower with a white eye was the sensation of the show as the intensity and purity of the colour were unmatched in the experience of most growers who saw it. The second and third prize entries from David Bassett and Douglas Pounds were not in trhe same league

 
Class 16: Six florets, distinct.

D. Bassett' set of florets seen below was placed first. The florets from Douglas Pounds in the right hand picture were second.

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SECTION C

Class 17: Two spikes, blue.

The outcome of this class was made the subject of controversy in the TV reporting of how Jimmy Fishenden's entries fared in the show. The day after the blooms were judged it certainly looked as if his beautifully fresh blooms of 'Gertrude Sahin' seen on the right below should have been give the first prize. By then, the blooms seen on the left of 'Galileo' that actually gained the first prize for Terry Blissett looked rather jaded by comparison but their greater maturity must have been the deciding factor.

Class 18: One spike, light blue

Jimmy Fishenden justifiably won the first prize for a good bloom of 'Carol Fishenden' and this time Terry Blissett's bloom of 'Pandora' was really well past its best

Class 19: One spike, dark blue

There were only two entries, both being blooms of 'Fenella'.The bloom from Grahame Case was judged to be the winner, with Ray Joslyn being given the second prize.

 
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SECTION D

Class 20: Two spikes white, any cultivar or cultivars

Bob Banks was the winner with blooms of 'Sandpiper', although on Sunday one of these had wilted badly. The other entry in the class was given only a third prize award.

 
Class 21: One spike white with white eye.

Bob Banks was placed first with a bloom of 'Jill Curley' that had wilted by Sunday. This was very disappointing as the Judges had considered it worthy of the Best in Show award on Saturday morning and Sunday visitors could see nothing that justified this decision. Second prize went to a loosely packed bloom of a seedling from Ken Leigh, seen on the left below, and third prize to Douglas Pounds for another un-named cultivar.

Class 22: One spike white with coloured eye.

First prize went to a nice fresh bloom of 'Sandpiper' from Grahame Case, seen on the right below. Bob Banks was placed second.

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SECTION E

Class 23: Six florets, all same cultivar.

A beautiful set of large florets of 'Bruce', seen on the left below, was an easy winner. The second prize went to Warwick Brench for another set of florets from 'Bruce' and the third prize was awarded to a set of the rather untidy florets of 'Vanessa Mae' seen in the picture on the right below

Class 24: Six florets, distinct cultivars.

Ray Joslyn won with a nice set of large florets of good form and colour seen on the left below. Another colourful set from Bob Banks seen on the right was second

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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. The record of blooms and exhibitors for the classes in Section F is incomplete as the battery of the camcorder ran out!

Class 28: Two spikes, any cultivar or cultivars.

The pair of blooms of 'Gillian Dallas' from D. Hickmott, seen below, were placed first. They are similar in size and would have looked better matched if they had been staged with the same length of stem exposed above the top of the vase.

 
Class 29: One spike, light.

First prize went to Rex French for a bloom of 'Titania', a nice pale pink with well forned florets seen on the left below. The second prize went to D. Hickmott for the flower on the right. This looks to be the only bloom of 'Gordon Forsyth' used in the Show, which reflects the early date.

 

Class 30: One spike, dark.

Starting from the left, the pictures below show close-ups of the prizewinning blooms from Rex French, first prize for 'Cassius', from D. Hickmott, second prize for 'Giotto', and from Jan Waterhouse, third prize for 'Summerfield Oberon'.

 

Class 31: Six florets, all same cultivar.

A set florets of 'Min' from Jan Waterhouse, seen on the left below, won the first prize, florets of the dusky pink 'Beryl Burton from Rex French were placed second and D. Hickmott's set of florets of 'Gillian Dallas' was third.

Class 32: Six florets, not les than two cultivars.

Jan Waterhouse was again the winner with a pleasing set of three 'Bruce' and three florets of a pink seedling. D. Hickmott was second and R. French third.

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Clearing Up

The saddest part of any show is the clear up at the end, although there are usually many vistors happy to carry away any flowers still in good condition. On this occasion, Delphinium Society members helping at the Show had to throw away some nice blooms together with the rubbish. Most visitors had already left after heavy thundery rain during the afternoon.

 

As exhibitors ourselves, we would like to end this report on the Show by thanking the Show Secretary, John Tombleson for taking the entries, setting out the benches and sorting out the many problems that arose. Thanks are also due to Duncan & Ursula Hagan for organising all the other exhibits in the Hall.

The Show could not have been so successful without the cooperation of the Staff of the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden, who we thank.

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