After three years without a Spring gathering, it was a great joy to get together on Sunday to show off all our lovely daffs, tulips, polyanthus, hellebores, hyacinths, fritillaries and pretty much any other spring flower you can name.  The week before we had seen several days of sub-zero temperatures, so it was a small miracle that we had such a good display, including tulips actually open. 

​

There was real competition in the flower classes; Chris Fido ruled over the tulips and Annie Eggar produced some beautiful entries for almost every class of daffodil.  With barely three quarters of an hour to go, Teresa Inglis arrived with a huge basket of impressive daffs and pulled off the near impossible by getting them all into vases and looking fighting fit before judging began – helped in no small part by husband, Andrew.

​

There were 4 exhibitors for the exacting  Eric Moss Challenge which I haven’t seen before in my 22 years in the club. Absolutely fantastic.

​

In contrast, the domestic classes were rather sparse, sadly, as we were missing some of our regular exhibitors but there were some delicious looking entries from new exhibitors, including chocolate eclairs and simnel cakes.  The Domestic Shield was won by Rachael MacRae who produced enough yummy fudge to feed everyone who came to view.

​

There were some terrific entries in the children’s classes – an Easter card and an Easter bunny – and the kids all went home with a bag of Mini-eggs and some packets of easy seeds to try.  Xanthe Cole also won the Junior Trophy.  Well done to them all.

​

Again, the floral art was missing a couple of our most reliable exhibitors but the ‘For Ukraine’ category inspired several lovely arrangements and all of them were sold off at the end to raise funds for the Disasters and Emergency Committee’s Ukraine appeal.  This money, in addition to half of the proceeds of the raffle and various donations, raised over £115.

​

It’s no small feat to put on a show like this and there are many people to thank:  Sylvia Wren and Rose Allen spent the whole day freezing in the office acting as Show secretaries; Janet Joynson performed her regular Queen of the Raffle role; our three judges came from far and near including Aldbury’s own Pat Quigg, Phil Fido and Tim Alps moved a lot of tables; and then there is your fabulous committee who did everything else over many weeks, designing,  printing, distributing, advising, carrying and clearing.  Thanks for everything you do, Rachael, Linda, Chris and Annie; you’re gems.  Final thanks to the many members who mucked in at the end proving that many hands do indeed make light work, even when that involves a lot of wet newspaper!

​

I should, for the record, tell you who won the Les Sparkhall Cup, the Eric Moss Cup and the Floral Arts Cup but, as that was me, it’s a bit embarrassing.  Not a good look, so please everyone get planting more bulbs this autumn so I don’t have to keep cleaning those cups. Cups aside, I was most chuffed to have Pat write ‘Lovely marmalade’ on my jar of Seville.  Now, that really is a big deal.