General showing.

[laurieuk]

I have more or less retired from exhibiting at flower and veg. shows but this year having some nice sweetpeas decided to have another go. I last show my sweetpeas 12 years ago but pleased with results. I put in four entries had four firsts, one cup and one medal. I have over the years showed most veg and flowers, I still judge many shows and happy to help with problems, they keep changing the rules. An example being that we always used to cut beetroot to see how good the color was but now the Nat.Veg. society have told all their judges not to cut at all. Many societies still want the cutting done so we judge "according to schedule"
One thing to remember is if there is more than one of anything then there are points for uniformity, so do not go for the largest if some are on the small side,go for the middle size.

I am using imageshack to put my photos on forum if you click on picture you see full size

[thifasmom]

congratulations, they look beautiful

[Ninnyscrops.]

Congrats Laurie beautiful sweet peas.

I went to the local monthly Horticultural Society talk a couple of months ago and learned all about left and right handed blooms, didn't realise it was so difficult, what with the layering and cutting off the tendrils 

Now beetroots.........a local ex-shower told me to feed them with Epsom Salts if I wanted to show any as it enhanced the colour inside when the judges cut them! 

This showing business gets so confusing!

Linda

[davyw1]

I am a great believer in trying to keep local leek/flower and veg shows going and try to encourage anyone to have a go, even if they don,t realy have a clue about what is required.
I am not so good at growing leeks but then we did have a world champion in the village ( Gorden Clark ) then national sprays champion who after doing that went onto carnations and wiped the board at the nationals again  ( Paul Harmer) then there is John Peace ( he was like you a Daffodil man ) best flower, nationals, but it does not stop me from trying to beat them.
So all yee who post on here have a go, try too keep these local shows going.

OH! this i have to tell you, at one show a bloke was preparing some sweetcorn for the bench and as i was walking he asked, "How do you grow this" but being a bit hard of hearing i thought he said how do you show this, so i started to tell him, his reply " I know how to show it i am National Veg Society Judge i asked how to grow it"
The moral of the tale if you don,t grow it don,t show it.

[Ninnyscrops.]

Couldn't agree more Davy about keeping local shows going. 

I'm such a novice but willing to have a go again next year. I'm no expert at growing anything but will put the best of what I've got in.

It's all about having a go, nobody laughs at you and that's what I like about local village shows.

Linda

[laurieuk]

Congrats Laurie beautiful sweet peas.

I went to the local monthly Horticultural Society talk a couple of months ago and learned all about left and right handed blooms, didn't realise it was so difficult, what with the layering and cutting off the tendrils 

Now beetroots.........a local ex-shower told me to feed them with Epsom Salts if I wanted to show any as it enhanced the colour inside when the judges cut them! 

This showing business gets so confusing!

Linda

I have never used epsom salt but a feed with ordianry salt helps with the color, but if the judges are no longer going to cut hem the color will no longer matter.
Laurie

[angle shades]

congrats and well done Laurieuk /nshades x

[lorna]

Congratulations, they are beautiful.

[shirlton]

So nice to see a show for Sweet Peas. We used to have one round about now. It was a strawberry and sweet pea show.But due to lack of interest they stopped it. From you pics it looks as if the arrangement rules have changed somewhat Laurie or is it left to the individual these days. Well done anyway

[laurieuk]

Not sure what you mean by "arrangement rules, I have show in National shows etc. for about 30 years but have not come across rules for arranging. Other than of course numbers in vases and variety types etc. Interested to hear from you as some groups have their own rules and maybe it would give a change to the normal schedule.
Laurie

So nice to see a show for Sweet Peas. We used to have one round about now. It was a strawberry and sweet pea show.But due to lack of interest they stopped it. From you pics it looks as if the arrangement rules have changed somewhat Laurie or is it left to the individual these days. Well done anyway

[Tee Gee]

Well done Laurie I particularly like Valerie Harrod.

Regarding beetroot I didn't know that they have stopped cutting either.

Along with colour, the concentric rings would also give an indication of how dedicated the grower was.

If the rings were relatively evenly spaced this showed that the veg dad been well looked after during the growing season. If the rings were a bit intermittant i.e. some wide and some narrow this indicated a poor watering regime.

The only time I came across a situation where the judge was advised not to cut them was when the produce was put up for sale after the show i.e. the club got more money for whole roots than halves.

I have never known any rules for arranging either!

Basically the only criteria I worked to was to display them in a manner that showed the exhibit at its best.

Depending upon what I was showing and the number of blooms asked for often determined the arrangement.

For instance if I were showing five dahlias and I found I had three of say equal size and two slightly smaller, the two small ones would go at the front of the arrangement to make them look bigger and the others were placed at the back to make them look smaller. I would reverse this if I had two that were larger than my best three.

So basically arranging was dictated by the produce you were showing.

[shirlton]

When I used to show sweet peas wether or not it was the fact that everyone followed the mentor we had or not. for vase of 6 it was 2 rows of 3. For vase of 12 it was a five a for and a three. Nevertheless they are my favourite however they are displayed. About the beetroot, mine last year had a section cut out of them.

[davyw1]

Presentation can give you that bit of edge if points are equell then the juge just might go your way.

[laurieuk]

Hi Tee Gee,
Last year the National Vegetable Society told all their judges that beetroot should no longer be cut. I asked a judge why this was and he told me the idea came from Scotland where they do not like the veg. being cut . This is the reason I was given , I wonder if part of it might be that there are now so many different colors in beetroot including some that do rings that it has got confusing. I am not a national Veg judge and so will carry on cutting if asked by the society where I am judging.
Judging gets more difficult all the time, at one time when judging specimen roses you looked for a good firm centre but with all the English (Austin) roses about now that no longer applies.
Potatoes according to the RHS should be much larger than we used to look for.

[Tee Gee]

Judging gets more difficult all the time,

I couldn't agree more Laurie!

I guess I would have to go back to the drawing board if I were to take up showing to national rules again.

Then when it comes to the local shows these can have there problems as well but for different reasons e.g the rules are often different particularly if you NAS someone or don't give a 1st place in the class.

Who would be a judge