The Central Daffodil Group started the show season with a small bench show and winter lunch on Tuesday 9 August .
The venue was a large barn , set up as part of a larger wedding venue ,in a large , well established garden , the feature of which is a big number of specimen trees . It is a popular venue in the wedding “season ” , but the big marque was gone , the deciduous trees allowed the winter sun through and about a dozen growers arrived with their few daffs . The Wedding Barn , at Jennings Farm , was ideal for us and had all the facilities that we needed . Wilfred Hall is a part time gardener and grounds advisor here and took great pride in the grounds and gave a tour of the 10 acres when the show was concluded .
As expected , not many standard daffs were out but the tazetta classes were the most popular . Diane Irwin was our judge for the day and soon had the classes sorted .Only 64 blooms and 1 pot ; 15 vases of 3 and 19 singles .The Champion bloom and premiers were a tidy group considering the time in our flowering season .
CHAMPION BLOOM , 1Y – Y RAETIHI , – John Hollever .This is a Max Hamilton registration , not a big flower , very golden , sitting very flat . Great shoulders .
RESERVE CHAMPION and Large Cup premier . JRH TE RANGI PAI Sdling . A slightly different colour ; very good perianth .
Premier Double , The STALKER John McLennan . – Good stance , clean colours .
Premier Div 6 RAPTURE Reg Cull .
Premier Tazetta WTH 14 / 3 Avalex – x – Voda Wilfred Hall . Very attractive colouring .
Premier Pot – Bulbicodium Seedling , — Reg Cull .
Other blooms that caught the eye 2W – W ICESCAPE name pending registration , — a very white flower of good size but head was locked down .This is a John Hunter seedling .
The tazettas were popular , LEMON and BARLEY is consistent and popular .
The brightest of the yellow / orange tazettas is always TUGGLE 66 / 49 . It is a regular at early North Island early shows and is quite a striking flower .We feel it deserves a name and Wilfred Hall , the NZ Registrar is approaching the R H S registrar to see what the correct procedure is .
The top table was a good start to the season .
A display of early doubles and some other early blooms helped fill the hall . Graham Phillips GP 3 – 95 is a short but very bright pink .
A few early doubles also made the show classes .
We enjoyed the winter sun .
Margaret Seconi and Heather MacDonnell , perhaps discussing wedding venues .
Wayne Hughes travelled from Whanganui , without any daffs , but some interesting companions . Two boxes of his neighbours pigeons that will beat Wayne home as he has a two hour drive .
They circled and we watched , – then they were gone .
And so were we by mid afternoon , ensuring no driving in the dark as we came from a wide area . Our first venture into an early show and it went well .
Thanks for the post John.
It looks like you have more flowers than we do in the North. It is good to see varieties raised by Max still be prominent on the show bench. The Northern Daffodil Club will hold their Table Show tonight so I should get some results up in the next few days.
Under four weeks to the North Island National Show in Hamilton, hope the flowers get a move on soon otherwise it might be a small show. Still it seems to work out in the end so no real point in worrying.
Robin
A very nice set of winners for so early in the season. The champion and reserve look like worthy winners. Wilf must have been pleased to get such good colour in his Avalex x Voda seedling. Looks like a fun time was had by all.