By Isle of Wight Observer
There was a wonderful display of late flowering chrysanthemums at the Wilberforce Hall, Brighstone, along with classes for vegetables, pot plants, home baking, craft, floral art and photography on Saturday.
The show was the idea of IW Observer gardening columnist, Darren Everest, who was set the challenge of putting on a show by his dad, Bryan.
Due to a decline in growers of chrysanthemums, often known as ‘mums’, especially the south of the UK, there are now very few shows for the last few growers to go to. Early flowering chrysanthemums bloom from late August into September, with the late flowering types blooming from late October into November.
Bryan, who turned 80 in March, gave Darren the challenge of setting up a show and promised he would travel from his home in Westerham, in west Kent, to exhibit on the Island.
Darren has grown a few chrysanthemums over the years, but not exhibited for some time. Undeterred, he grew some plants and even gave a selection to some other Island growers with cultural instructions.
On the day there were around a hundred entries with forty-five vases of blooms on display. Viv Langford, from Brading, won the Best Exhibit and Best Vase in Show for her vase of Golden Woolmans Glory, a large single, and Darren won the Best Bloom in Show for a Rose Kath Stephenson, a medium single. Helen Hunt won the Best Exhibit in Floral Art, Darren also won the Best Exhibit in Photography and for Home Baking, James Kingswell won Best Exhibit in the Vegetables, and Helen Cox won Best Exhibit in Handicraft.
Darren said: “It was a great success and to see so many visitors come along to see the show was wonderful. My mum and dad had a lovely day, and I’d like to thank all the exhibitors for all their efforts.”