The 18th Annual Fuchsia Show of the Scarborough & District Fuchsia Society took place at our usual venue, Scalby Parish Hall, over the weekend of 11-12^th August. To our great delight the hall was once again filled with a superb colourful array of fuchsias. Quality plants wherever you looked - the Society proudly upholding its reputation of putting on an excellent show year after year. Some people especially choose the second week in August for their annual pilgrimage to Scarborough so they can include our show - quite a compliment!
Though the free-flowering show fuchsias were widely admired, many visitors expresses their delight about the great range of varieties on display - indeed something that makes our show so special and interesting. Our exhibiting members don't slavenish follow the books and stick to the all too familiar show bankers, but they are always willing to try something else, growing the ones they really like. Hence, while elsewhere you might encounter rows upon rows of the likes of Shelford, it only appears in a few classes at our show, amongst a real galaxy of others in all colours, shapes and sizes.
Encliandras with their dainty blooms and gracefully arching growth created much interest, with visitors surprised to hear that they are actually quite hardy, many having survived numerous winters in members gardens. This also applies to the New Zealand native Fuchsia procumbens. It too survives our Scarborough winters year in, year out, proving an excellent rockery plant. With its small rounded leaves, most unusual shaped flower and bright blue pollen it proves a talking point wherever shown or grown.
Once again the sheer quality the plants was outstanding. Not only the fuchsias picking up the prize cards, but throughout the show- yes, all exhibits. Our members proved that they really do take in all the good advice from our guest speakers at our monthly meetings. All plants were in excellent conditions, well presented and clean - indeed, not a whitefly in sight. Well done all!
The judges, Mr. Lionel Twigg from Carlisle and Mr. John Utley from Wetherby, had a difficult task in deciding on the winners! They were both very complimentary about our show with John happy to have picked up some good tips to take back and Lionel proclaiming it a "really good show with an excellent range of different varieties." It must have been that good because the Twiggs stayed overnight and came back the next morning to have another look!
Once again there was a really good mix of our regular exhibitors, who we can rely upon to support us with many (like Dave Wood, Brian Boyes, Norman Wood, Laurie Hemmingway and Peter Staveley) having done so for quite a number of years now and some relative new 'adventurers' and youngster Adam Bailey still making rapid progress.
Then we have the 'stars' behind the scenes like Peter Bendall, such a stalwart at setting-up time and enthusiast exhibitor especially supportive of the newer classes such as Novelties and Bonsai.
The other Peter, Peter Long, may not have picked up any of the trophies, but certainly deserves one for all his advice and encouragement given to grandson Adam Bailey over the years and for his excellent efforts organising and raising so much on the plant stall for us.
There were personal success stories in abundance, and that's what we like to see, the awards being shared out, little triumphs everywhere and (at last!!) a close contest for the top honours!  It was nice to see that after much uhming and ahing committee member Ann Preston did get one of her plants to the show and was suitably rewarded with a second prize - now for the big one next year!
Stuart Calpin proudly gained two 2^nd prizes from his five entries and Amy Tub won three prizes with her four plants. Others too who have been hesitant before brought their plants along and were really pleased to see that they didn't look out of place at all. That's the thing, you really do not know how good (yes, good!) your plants are until you see them on the bench amongst the others.
Hopefully it will encourage a few more to take the plunge next year, as entries in the beginners classes were a bit thin on the ground, alas. Still, overall the number of entries totalled 275 from 29 exhibitors, with no less than 24 of them amongst the prize winners!! So once again support to be proud of - many a Show Secretary would be very envious.