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At the beginning of August our members had the chance to display their efforts with the cuttings of an unknown (to us) cultivar that had been handed out at our Annual General Meeting at the end of March. The only information given at that time was that it was a single cultivar, so we could get our stopping times right, and that it had been doing well down south.
It having been such a difficult growing year for fuchsias, with dismal dull weather being the order of the day from early spring right through to show time, we were pleased to see so many plants back. With a reasonable amount of flowers too, no mean feat with this lack of sunshine.
Our judge for the evening was Mrs. Sheila Brislin, the Secretary of the Louth & District Fuchsia Society. A position, she told us, she acquired when after having joined the society the previous year she "nodded at the wrong time" at a meeting, ten years ago now. As a bonus we were treated to 'Mrs Robinson' on stage, as Sheila Robinson made it a double act by keeping track of the scoring for Sheila Brislin. Rather than looking at all the plants in turn and making a decision at the end, Sheila allocated points to each plant immediately. For quality and quantity of flowers, for the foliage, for cultural proficiency and for presentation.
There was the usual array of shapes and sizes, neat small-pot little ones, to the more open grown 'biggies' in 6" pots and even the customary mini-standard. However as nearly all the cuttings had been stopped at two leaf nodes, prior to distribution, shaping up presented problems, especially as the growth of this cultivar proved to be very vigorous. It is probably more suitable for basket work. Members overwintering it success-fully could try growing it on for the hanging pot classes at next year's show. Every plant was picked up in turn and its merits discussed a little and occasionally some 'faults' brought to our attention which should prove very useful especially for our novice growers. The main problem was plants being a bit "manky" and the "gaps", arising from the battle with botrytis so many people had to wage this year, with the dull damp conditions we have had to endure. Sheila did come up with a very good tip in this respect. In stead of leaving a 'large watering gap', maybe we ought to fill up the compost in our pots right up to the rim, so that the airflow goes right across the surface. Of course we should also remember to space out our plants adequately, not easily done when we expected the cutting to produce a neat little plant! Had we anticipated the full spread of the branches we would no doubt have put it in hanging pots and pronto put it out of the way of others.
Considering a lot of the plants suffered from bare stems associated with the botrytis problem, which seemed to have affected everyone this year, we did well to overcome it in so many cases and still rescue much of the plants. "Gaps" became the most used word, though Sheila did actually, to her delight, manage to find one without any! Someone had also cleverly overcome the problem by training it as a fan.
Sheila reminded us that wayward branches can of course be tied in. Avoid using several stakes and long string going from one to another, to another, etc. Staking should be unobtrusive though, using separate stakes and branches individually neatly tied into them. I like to add that it is best to do this at the finally stopping stage, the foliage will then have time to naturally hide stakes and string. If you leave it till just before show time, you will invariable have trouble hiding stakes and ties or worse, snap some of the branches clean off and spoil the plant! (Sounds familiar??!!)
In a close contest Dave Edmonds mini standard came third, Harry Ward gained second prize and Betty Woods proved the popular winner. Her plant was described as "clean as a whistle with an abundance of blooms." Well done!! The winners each received a gift voucher and crystal trophy. Congratulations to the winners, but full credit also to all members who took the trouble to bring their plants along, for they made the show possible and hence provided a very enjoyable evening for all. Many thanks also to our judges, the two Sheilas. The constructive hints were most helpful and our language has been enriched with a few new descriptions. We are however hoping next year will be a bright sunny one so we can be spared the botrytis causing all those gaps and manky leaves!!The mystery cultivar proved indeed to be a great mystery to all as no-one managed to guess it right. Not surprisingly as it was totally unknown in our area.JOHN PULFORD is a nice waxy white and orange coloured cultivar, which those of us that grow Sylvia Barker deemed to be the same, the shape and colour of the flowers, the foliage, identical in every way!! CD
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