The Southern daffodil season is all but finished , — particularly for North Island growers . The Central Daffodil Group held their late show , today Saturday 4 October . We were hosted by Ralph and and Ngaire Mountfort in Woodville , using just a small section of the big community and sports hall .Ralph was Mayor of Woodville for 20 years and has been involved in Horticultural shows there for over 40 years .The Central group was set up to co-ordinate shows in our region and particularly to take a smaller late show to areas that seldom have daffodil shows .This was our Tenth anniversary late show and we enjoyed the occasion .It has been a week of wild and windy weather ; a strong gale came through overnight and a brief but heavy hail storm mid morning reminded us of the unpredictability of spring . But the fridges and chillers were emptied , about 300 flowers were staged and a good lot of blooms made the top table .
The Champion Bloom was a very smooth and neat CHANSON , well grown and staged by Wayne Hughes . Wayne always presents his blooms very well and had a good show with a host a premiers .
Reg and Rita Cull took the Reserve Champion card back to Foxton with a big , bright HOKORAWA . this was the trading name of their Daffodil business when Reg was a commercial grower for many years . It was the best Hokorawa I have seen since it won a National show many moons ago . It obviously performs well for it,s raiser .
Waynes season is a little later than many in our region and he took 3 of the 4 trumpet premiers .Prem Yellow T was W H sdlg 03 364 121 .
Prem bi – colour T was W H sdlg 02 147 31 .
Prem White T was a new Brogden sdlg SIEGFRIED , a flower named for Spuds Normanby friend Siggy Bauer .Siggy was , many noons ago , a top NZ and international ultra distance runner . He still holds the record for running the length of the North Island . These days gardening is a better hobby and we frequently see Siggy helping at the Hawera area shows .
After judging and a very good lunch , we assembled for a group photo .