Some Important Announcements
/We hope you and your families are keeping well, and that your gardens are benefitting from this lovely weather, especially now that we can get to the garden centres again – thank goodness!
August Show
It is with great regret that the committee has decided that we will have to cancel this year’s show. As you know, we have continued to hope that we might still be able to hold it, but the recent announcements from the government have not indicated that the relaxations to the current restrictions will happen quickly enough to enable us to get together to undertake the many practical activities involved in putting on the show, particularly as our most of the committee, members and judges are in the category which seems likely to be advised to continue to ‘socially distance’.
However… an alternative, “virtual show”!
We are instead planning to hold a ‘virtual’ competition (if it’s good enough for the RHS and the Chelsea Flower Show!).
This will involve people taking a photograph of their competition entry, and emailing it to entries@brhs.org.uk. We will then add it to our website on a new “Virtual Show” page, and they will be judged by a panel, with the winners receiving cash prizes and rosettes.
There will of course be no fee to enter. The winner of each class, provided there are more than 2 entries will receive £5.00. If there are 2 entries or less, the winner will receive £2.00. There will be no second or third prizes. All winners will also receive a red rosette. All entries should refer to things grown/made in 2020. Entries should be sent in by 29th August 2020, and the winners will be announced online a week later. Please include your address so we will know where to send your prize money!
You can download the Schedule by clicking here, but the categories are as follows:
Section A - Flowers
A1 — A vase or jug of home- grown flowers arranged for effect
A2 — Vase of Roses
A3 — Vase of 3 Blooms Dahlia
A4 — An outdoor planted container
Section B - Vegetables
B1 — Healthy eating 5-a-day – A Display in a basket of 5 kinds of fruit and/or vegetables and/or salads
B2 — 3 beans of any variety
B3 — 5 Tomatoes of one variety with calyx
B4 — Plate or dish of one fruit
Section H - Cookery
H1 — The Great BRHS Bake-off Show Stopper! — A Decorated Cake to celebrate horticulture
H2 — A loaf of bread
H3 — 3 decorated biscuits
Section J – Craft
J1 — A photograph or painting "My Beautiful Garden"
J2 — A photograph “Our VE Day 75th Anniversary Celebrations”
J3 — A craft item in any medium made during 2020
Section K – Floral Art
K1 — VE Day 75th Anniversary - An exhibit to depict this event (any size)
K2 — Grow your own - A floral exhibit to include a garden implement, and or fruit and veg (any size)
Section M – Junior
Aged 7 years and under only:
M1 — A miniature garden in a seed tray
M2 — A Bunch of Flowers in a jam jar
Aged 8 to 11 years only:
M3 — A picture entitled “My Hero”
M4 — A creature made from fruit and vegetables
Aged 12 to 15 years only:
M5 — A photograph: “A day in my Lockdown Life”
M6 — A plant I have grown
Please feel free to involve non-members, whether friends, family, grand-children etc.
While this obviously this will not compare to the real show, we hope it will give people some encouragement and focus for their gardening and craft activities this summer – now the garden centres are open again we can at least be sure of supplies now!
Plant sales
Several committee members have been busy growing plants which they had intended to offer for sale at our June Show. As we no longer have that event to look forward to, we have decided to offer these plants to any members for a small donation to society funds.
To comply with the current restrictions, the plants will be put out on drives, with an honesty bucket for donations, on the 6th and 7th June. We would ask you to ring before you go, to ensure that social distancing is maintained, and also to ensure that the plants you want are still available.
A list of the plants available, and addresses and telephone numbers, will be available on the website next week.
Gardens to enjoy online
I’m sure that, like me, one of the pleasures of your summer is normally the chance of visiting some beautiful gardens in search of peace and inspiration. We are denied that this year, but several organisations have arranged for us to do some virtual garden visiting. These include:
The RHS Virtual Chelsea Show — videos and articles for top designers, plant experts and practical gardening advice – 18th to 23rd May
The National Garden Scheme — owners of gardens who open under this scheme have produced films of garden tours and seasonal tutorials
Sarah Raven (sarahraven.com) — is posting short video tours of her own garden as well as tutorials
National Trust — their website contains virtual tours of their gardens, tutorials from their gardeners, and podcasts about some of their famous gardens
My Garden School (learningwithexperts.com) — this site has more than 32 different courses.
There are also many tutorials on growing veg, for example:
Future BRHS events
Like all gardeners, we are always optimistic and planning for the future, and we are hopeful that we might still be able to resume our talks programme in the autumn – we will let you know as soon as we are assured we can do this safely. Meanwhile, we are planning the programme for 2021 – we have some great talks lined up, and two trips, to make up for missing the one this year!
Meanwhile, best wishes from the committee, and we hope to be able to see you all in the not-too-distant future!
