SI National

Hi folks,
 
We had a wonderful SI National in Christchurch this last weekend. I am sure Trevor will send some photos through. We had near record entries and, in my view, the quality of flower was the best I have seen at a National for some time.
 
Two unusual instructions should go down in the annals of daffodil history.
 
1) Keep the space under your staging table clear. You may need it.
Forunately we only had one small earthquake at 7am on Saturday morning. The number of shakes had been increasing during the previous week and I was a little worried.
 
2) A resident of the park may come in for a free meal. Please advise us if he is seen.
The Horticultural Centre is in the middle of a 500acre park which has a number of permanent residents. Said gentleman did visit on Friday night and was not happy to be ejected but that was the last we saw of him all weekend.
 
I want to publicly thank all the New Zealand exhibitors for their patience when we ran short of vases on Friday night and for their patience in staging conditions which became rather cramped. It all made for a very happy weekend.
 
I had a seedling which created a lot of public interest. It only opened on Friday and could be classified as a miniature 6G – Y. It looked stunning. Sadly the green is from undeveloped pigment rather than from green in the pigment. In a double it would be rejected for having green in the back. The cross was a 2y-p x N cyclamineus, hoping for a 6y-p. Sadly the flower was pinched late on Sunday and Leitha still has not seen it. I hope the bulb survives for us.
 
The Canterbury Horticultural Society was celebrating its 150th Jubilee and helped make the show a visual delight. There was a display of floral art, Ikebana and Alpine plants. A promotion of Seeds for Canterbury where people from all over New Zealand and overseas donated seeds to get Christchurch growing again brought a huge number of visitors to the show. Our Junior Gardeners gave a display of planting seeds.
 
Christchurch has a number of English Upper Class traditions. The Board Room of the CHS is no exception. When the National Executive met on Sunday morning we had great delight in seating NDS President Trevor Rollinson in the President’s chair. All chairs in the Board Room have carvings of NZ native flowers and have high backs. The president’s chair has a higher back than the rest and has lovely arm rests fitting for the honour the position holds.. I noted that Trevor must have felt quite comfortable in the end for the Executive meeting went a little longer than usual.
 
I want to pay tribute to Margaret and George Seconi, Robin Simmons, Bill and Betty Cowie and Kevin Johnston for staying to help with the clean up. These six were some of our furtherest exhibitors. Kevin has health problems but stated he always books an extra night at shows so that he can help clean up. This is a fine example for all of us.
 
David Adams