All entries had to be in by the deadline of 9:30 am on Monday, July 31st. The judging started at 10:00 am. Once the judging was over and the volunteers were finished with the lunch provided, the hall was opened up to the public.
I was the chief auditor and my job was to make sure the number of entries were correct and the ribbons awarded correctly. This meant I had to review the whole of the entries for the entire show and then double check everything on the lists.
Our number of exhibits was down this year due to weather conditions and also we lost a long time member of the society. She passed away the previous Thursday and her funeral was on Monday. Some of us attended after we were finished our duties at the flower show.
I took some pictures so am posting them here for a good look see.
There are 18 pictures in all so dial up users beware.
Lily Entries
Perennial Flox
Perennial Entries
More Perennials
Collections – Grasses
Spider Plants
African Violets
Decorative – On The Move (a rose in three stages)
Decorative – Midsummer Madness
Decorative – Midsummer Madness
Decorative – Straight Up
Decorative – Pretty in Pink
Decorative – Light up My Life
Light up My Life
Decorative – Buds, Blooms and Branches
Cactus – For Display Only
Some of My Winning Entries with Ribbons
Me and some of my winning entries
We didn’t have many annuals this year, as I mentioned previously, because one of our members passed away. She used to enter almost all the annual categories as well as her vegetables. Also, with the hot summer and early rains, it prompted many plants to early bloom. I know lots of my perennials are finished already, and my annuals have slowed down because of the heat. Can’t win sometimes. I really can’t complain though, as I entered 42 exhibits and walked away with 38 ribbons, 17 firsts, 16 seconds and 4 thirds.
I entered some in the perennials, annuals, vegetables and preserved and canned goods. I wish I had time to enter the decorative, but only put one entry in and that was my rose, because there was no category for it anywhere else, and it was a beaut. I will get highest aggregate for the preserves section this year. I will have to wait to see if I got it for potted plants too, as four of my five plants won ribbons. I started getting ready for the show by getting all my entry tags filled out ahead of time, and getting all my preserves tagged and ready to go.
Saturday I was out in the garden digging up my potatoes. I left the other vegetables until Sunday. They were peas (in pod with stem), green bunching onions,green tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes with stem and apples. The swiss chard I picked early in the morning along with the flowers. These I had stored in sweet water in the pantry in the basement where it was cool and dark. I made one trip to the show on Sunday night to put in my preserves entries and my vegetables and apples. The next morning I was on the road at 6:45 am. It’s a 45 minute drive and I wanted to make sure I had enough time to get all my vases ready and the entries set up on the tables. I got it all done with a few minutes to spare, so I lent a hand to other exhibitors setting up their exhibits.
The cactus was entered in the show for display only. The member who entered it is a bit of a cactus expert,and has one room at home devoted to them. He has over a hundred different species and is willing to travel great distances to make new purchases. He has done presentations at the sister horticultural societies on the subject. My collection of grasses is the one on the left side in the photo and won me first prize. My blue violet won first and my spider plant, (the big one on the left) won third. I will not try to list all my other winning entries because I don’t want to bore you further. Suffice to say that I am quite pleased with the results. Hope you enjoyed the show. Sorry I don’t have more pictures, but my memory stick only has room for so many, and because my digital camera, although a good one, is now a dinosaur. Meaning, I can’t get another memory stick for it. I will have to special order one from Sony. Awwwww…….Oh well.
