I entered 10 classes in our village show including a vase of flowers with these Cynar cardunculus. The rules were to have a minimum of three varieties so I included some Sedum and Buddleia to give an Autumn feel to the vase. On the ‘basis of less is more’ I threw away a lot of flowers I had taken but didn’t use. I ended up with a second prize to a marvelous display of umpteen varieties in an airy display.

Local Show Tips on Time

• Arrive for benching within the stipulated hours and remember it will take you longer than you expect. It gets just as rushed as Chelsea even for your village show.
• Allow time for tweaking your exhibits, turning to best advantage and cleaning around your exhibit.
• Judging will be at a set time when everyone had to leave the hall and our show opened to visitors in the afternoon.
• Speeches, raffles and prize giving took up ‘gardening time’ towards the end of the show before the uncollected exhibits were auctioned off.

Local Show Tips – Presentation

• Standard vases were provided for floral displays but fruit, vegetables and potted plants used your own imagination.
• Onions were displayed on sand or rings except some giants that stood out on there own.
• I entered 3 fruit classes and stood the apples on squares of white paper. I left the natural ‘bloom’ on the apples and came second, again, to some highly polished smaller fruit. (What to do next year?)
• Several exhibits were mounted on doilies which probably says something about the age of our village. (Seriously with lots of classes for children there were lots of young villagers around.)
• The best tip I have is aim for zero imperfections, a good small one will beat a big imperfect specimen.
• Keep the exhibit clean and tidy using only black or white presentation aids.

Local Show Tip – Keep Too Schedule

• Read the schedule if it says 5 items they do not mean 4 or 6, even if you think it looks better.
• Make sure you are in the right class and leave the correct marker. We are give a reference ticket to leave under our exhibit so the judges do not know whose entry they are judging but can get a subsequent reference back.
• I may have been disqualified in the french bean class when I entered flat pole beans, anyway they were nowhere near good enough.

End of the Show

• I may not have thanked the organisers and volunteers adequately at the Menston 2011 Show so I do so now.
• Our show will donate the proceeds to the Royal British Legion 90th anniversary appeal. They had a stand, bunting and poppies on display
• Local shows are for fun and it is the taking part rather than the winning.
• However you can get a first by being the only entry in a class or in my case by being lucky on one entry. ( not my Pelargoniums or Fuchsias unfortunately)

Read more about Growing Show Gladioli and Show Shallots.

Check out Giant Pumpkin Growing Tips