Time to reflect up yesterday’s U3A Horticultural Show held at the Neyland Athletic Club.
When I arrived and saw this large empty hall I began to have doubts as to whether there would be any exhibits. As all gardeners will know this has been a most challenging year, with a cold north easterly wind which seemed to hit us for many weeks, not to mention torrential rain at just the wrong time. Last year, the cry was “My garden has gone over” this year it was “I have runner beans in flower but they have not set”. You will appreciate we gardeners are hard to please! The morning started slowly, not all our exhibitors are early birds! However, at 9.00am they started to arrive clutching their boxes containing a cornucopia of flowers and vegetables. The lady of the house generally leading the way with her gentleman following behind carrying yet more produce. Why did I ever doubt!
The hall looked magnificent. The flowers were outstanding, but the vegetables were a little thin on the ground, in fact, this year there were no carrots, only one entry for beetroot, no cucumbers or a heaviest onion but the flowers and preserves more than made up that deficiency. Last year the total number of entries was 178. This year 212 as follows, vegetables 66 flowers a whopping 105 with 41 preserves.
The best in show in the flower section went to Stan Steer for his beautiful cactus dahlias.
Vegetables Mrs Valerie Swales for her cherry tomatoes.
Preserves Mrs Pam Steer for her lemon curd.
Our judges commented on the quality of the entries which gave them quite a tough job, and me enormous pride in my band of dedicated gardeners. Well done!
The winner of the U3A Perpetual Cup (yes we have gone up in the world) given for the most number of points scored was awarded to Mrs Pam Steer who achieved 41 points, second (oh alright it was) me and third John Croxon gained 16 points.
My lasting memory of the day will be of the aisle of flowers just an abundance of beauty and colour. My thanks to you all for your hard work and dedication in making our second show a success, I know many of you are planning for next year already!
Penny Thomas