Summer gardens are flourishing if judged by the variety of flowers, vegetables and home produce displayed at Upton Horticultural Society’s summer show.
Local gardeners successfully overcame changeable weather conditions to show over 380 exhibits of exemplary high standard making judging a very difficult task.
Chair of the Society Wendy Carman congratulated everyone taking part, saying: ‘The village hall is brimming with such wonderful colour and fragrance thanks to the skill and commitment of all entrants.”
Retired membership secretary of the society Janet Elliot took pleasure in presenting the prizes and was especially delighted in the ‘creativity of the children in meeting their challenges’.
Commendable winners of the societies special awards were John White who was awarded The David Miln President’s Challenge Cup for most points in the show; Paul Phillips presented with the Mrs Frank Morris Challenge Cup for vegetables and Susan Reading awarded the Reg L. Barnett Challenge Cup for fruit. Geoff Fieldstead received the John Steward Hutton Challenge Cup for his roses and Bob Worboys received both the John Pritchard Dahlia Challenge Cup and the Herbert Wilkinson Dahlia Shield. The Sydney Levy Challenge Cup for floral art was presented to Sue Formstone and Jeff Formstone received the Allen Hurst Summer Show Challenge Cup and the Ralph Seddon Chrysanthemum Challenge Cup. Rita Critchley received the Mr and Mrs J R C Lumley Challenge Cup for her pot plants and Angela Lloyd was presented with the Mrs C Norman and Miss E M Main Challenge Cup for her preserves.
For their imaginative art and craft work, prizes in the children’s classes were given to Robin Lloyd for his drawing of an ideal garden, Elliott Lloyd for his collage of flowers, Neal Wakeling for baking and decorating a birthday cake, Gracie Ryan for her vegetable man and Niall Breen for his model car with moving parts. Overall winner of the under seven years category was Robin Lloyd; aged 7-11 was Elliott Lloyd and aged 11-16 was Niall Breen.
The society welcomes new members to come along to the meetings held on the first Wednesday of each month in Upton Village Hall with a different speaker and topic to capture an interest in gardening. The next meeting is on September 6 at 7.30pm with a talk entitled ‘English Gardens through the Ages’ by Elaine Taylor. For more details visit www.uptonhorticulturalsociety.co.uk .
Pictures by Keith Reading.
