Church Crookham & Fleet Garden Society Summer Show 2024
A lovely sunny day greeted the participants of the Church Crookham & Fleet Garden Society Summer show held on 17th August 2024. Cars full of flowers, vegetables, bakery items and arrangements. Fingers crossed all the roundabouts were negotiated safely without any of the exhibits rearranging themselves. A small, but select few displayed their produce, all to a high standard. Emphasis is still very much on, ‘show what you grow’. No one should be put off by thinking their produce might not be good enough. It is amazing how often someone has a positively, surprising result, with flowers cut at the last minute, or veg entered just to make up numbers.
Weather conditions have not been ideal this year for the vegetables and the class numbers were low. The judge commented on tomatoes having a bad year and was impressed to see a superb tomato entry, which won the best vegetable award for Jennifer Kelly. The cherry tomato class had 6 entries and gave the judge a tough decision to make. Well done to Jan Parker for winning that class. Overall, the highest number of points for this section went to Jennifer Kelly, and she received the Ryelaw Vegetable Cup. Jan Parker was a very creditable runner-up, only 3 points behind.
No novices were tempted to have a go this year, and only one entry in the children’s class with Jake Howard, winning a rosette for his arrangement in an unusual container. As a society, we have struggled to attract juniors and novices to the shows, but the committee will strive to improve on this.
There were entries in all 19 of the floral classes. Gillian Rose was the runaway winner, taking top spot in 11 of the classes. A superb effort. Many congratulations to Gillian, who received the Ryelaw Floral Challenge Cup. Runner-up was Jo Wilson, who also won The Rose Bowl for her beautiful single stem rose. Jennifer Kelly won the prize for the best pot plant with her succulent in class 42. Not the biggest exhibit but the judge said it was in lovely condition and very hard to grow.
Best Pelargonium went to Caroline Morris and the Best Fuchsia to Sue Grant. Stunning plants well worthy of these awards.
The fruit section was won by Sue Grant, winning both the culinary and dessert apple classes. Sue received the Gillian Duke Memorial Cup.
Moving on to the domestic classes, Jennifer Kelly proved she not only has green fingers but can turn her hand to baking. Winning 5 out of the 8 bakery classes, Jennifer won the Domestic Cup. Jennifer also won the hotly contested Apple Cake class (recipe provided). Fascinating to see how the same recipe can produce such differing results. As an aside, my attempt became a classic ‘bake off’ mistake, and temporarily became an Apple turnover! But somehow it was rearranged and vaguely reassembled. I had cooked it, so it was going in the class regardless! (apologies to the judges). Jennifer showed us how it should be done, with a delicious looking Apple cake which won the Gladys Murrel Cup.
The Floral Art prize went to Helen Howard for the exhibit ‘my favourite colour’ using buddleia and geraniums for a lovely purple display. (Not my favourite colour, but I used artistic license!)
The Richard Leavey Cup was awarded to Peter Stevens for his hydrangea entry. This was the entry that the Committee felt was most deserving of an award. Many congratulations to Peter, and well done in the raffle too.
Finally, the Banksian medal, which has its own unique scoring system, was awarded to Gillian Rose with a staggering 870 points. Second was Caroline Morris with 430 points and third was Sue Grant, a further 10 points behind. Fourth place was Jayne West, who was another 10 points behind. These three were incredibly close and well worthy of a mention.
Thank you to our judges Helen Baker, Annette Blackwell and Elisabeth Lloyd. They did a fabulous job with great knowledge and insight.
Many congratulations to all that entered and supported the show. A fun afternoon was had, catching up and comparing notes.
We all very much missed our Show Secretary Liz Kirton, who provides not only many, many show entries, but much well needed advice and tips on everything show/garden related. We all look forward to seeing you soon, Liz.
Our next event is the Harvest Supper on 18th October. In the meantime, the shed remains open, and we are all off for a rest, and to tell our spouses not to eat show entries before the show!
Best Wishes
The Show Committee