by Lesely Wood
After weeks of unseasonably warm daytime temperatures which dipped to just above freezing at night, it was with some trepidation that we held our Spring Show on Saturday 12 April in the Ewhurst Village Hall, when for many of us our garden daffodils had all but gone over. While entry numbers were down slightly, we still managed to pull out all the stops and put on an impressive show of high quality daffodils, tulips, vases of flowering shrubs and mixed garden flowers. Together with floral art, photography, home fare and children’s classes, it was a lovely show with our visitors enjoying both the gorgeous and fragrant spectacle as well as the delicious teas with home-made cakes, raffle and auction. Thanks go to Notcutts, our local garden centre and Hazelbank Stores, our wonderful village shop for donating raffle prizes to supplement our regular selection of edibles and plants on the raffle table given by our members.
We are very lucky to have in our society several serious daffodil growers. One such is Richard Tabor whose winning small-cupped daffodil shown here displays the exquisite perfection that can be achieved.
The floral art classes were very well represented and the quality of the entries so high that our judge had great difficulty in deciding the winner in each class. The image at right shows Dawn Gaines’ winning entry in the petite class (max 8” in all directions) entitled ‘Lemon Sorbet”.
Cup winners were:
John Bennett Bowl for the best exhibit in the horticultural classes, the Tabor Cup for the most points in the members-only daffodil classes, and the NDS Bronze Medal for the winner of class 27 (vase of 5 stems of daffodils): Richard Munford.
The Margaret Hawes Cup for the most points in the open daffodil classes: Alan Moody.
The Merrist Wood Cup for the best daffodil in show: Richard Tabor.
The Greenfield Trophy for the best bloom in show: Lesley Wood.
The Cranleigh Cup for the most points in floral art: Jane Bishop.
The Rural Pies Cup for the most points in home fare: Lesley Wood.
In the Photography section, Heather McLean won first prize for her entries in both the Sunrise/Sunset and the Yellow classes, which stands her in good stead for the cup which is awarded at our AGM after all three shows.
Photo above shows Richard Munford receiving the Tabor Cup and the photo below showing Alan Moody receiving the Margaret Hawes Cup from our Chair Zoe Horton.
We also had some lovely children’s entries; the pre-school children who created some wonderful Easter paintings and each was rewarded with a hand-decorated packet of nasturtium seeds.
Huge thanks to the Committee and helpers for a brilliant show and to all our visitors who enjoyed a lovely afternoon. Our next show is our Summer Show on 12 July in the Village Hall, but do check our website for other events through the year.
