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East Lancashire AGS Show, 2022

May 7, 2022
Lewisias at the East Lancashire AGS Show, 2022

Lewisias at the East Lancashire AGS Show, 2022

The East Lancashire Group has a long tradition of excellent alpine flower shows but as for all AGS Groups the last two years have been challenging – especially as its usual meeting venue has been used as a vaccination centre. Only in recent weeks have they met in person in a temporary venue but during the years of lockdown they have developed an unrivalled programme of Zoom lectures, with international speakers and an international audience. It was no surprise, therefore, that they rose to the occasion and organised a first class show with benches full of fine plants and the usual friendly, welcoming atmosphere.

The number of trophies named after eminent members demonstrates the Group’s traditions.  For example, the Booker Trophy for the best plant in the Novice Section was won by Lew Clark with a small but elegant Trillium chloropetalum, while the Eileen Lever Trophy for the Novice Aggregate went to Alan Ewell for an immaculate Dionysia tapetodes. Both plants would have made proud more experience growers.

Brenda Nickels won both the Intermediate Aggregate and the trophy for best plant in that section with the most floriferous and neatest of many specimens of Saxifraga pubescens ‘Snowcap’ on display.  This originated as a seedling in Alan Spenceley’s garden over 30 years ago. Relatively easy to grow both outside in a plunge bed or under glass, it needs plenty of water when in flower. But as soon as they start to fade, the stems must be promptly removed to avoid rot in the foliage that can quickly prove terminal.

Saxifraga 'Snowcap' - Brenda Nickels - East Lancashire AGS Show 2022

Saxifraga 'Snowcap' - Brenda Nickels - East Lancashire AGS Show 2022

The Intermediate Section has proved very competitive since shows recommenced, boding well for the future of all shows. A stately Arisaema thunbergii subsp. urashima was good enough to win a first prize for Henry Fletcher and gain him, inter alia, his Silver Medal.

Four Certificates of Merit were awarded, three of which might have been judged best in show on a less competitive occasion. The fourth, a lovely example of a plant that many aspire to grow but few succeed, Lionel Clarkson’s Jancaea heldreichii, is endemic to Mt Olympus in northern Greece, where it inhabits rocky crevices. This specimen had been grown in a plastic pot of humus-rich compos, left outside uncovered and not plunged all winter. Lionel also received a second Certificate of Merit for a grouping of some 25 stems of Fritillaria pyrenaica, all immaculately alike and in perfect condition.

Jancaea heldreichii

Jancaea heldreichii

Fritillaria pyrenaica - East Lancashire AGS Show 2022

Fritillaria pyrenaica - East Lancashire AGS Show 2022

The two remaining Certificates of merit went to plants very different from each other.  Dave Mountfort exhibited a huge, vibrant Lewisia cotyledon, the red glow of which was visible across the hall. Peter Hood’s Paris quadrifolia was equally large and conspicuous with a compact architectural structure of pastel green leaves and flowers. This species grows on magnesian limestone in Peter’s native County Durham. He grows it in a leafy compost with a touch of limestone, liquid feeding it regularly.

Peter Hood’s Paris quadrifolia - East Lancashire AGS Show 2022

Peter Hood’s Paris quadrifolia - East Lancashire AGS Show 2022

Two more trophy winners should be mentioned before we reach the final awards. The Jim Lever Memorial Trophy for the best pan of Ranunculaceae (the Lever family has a long, illustrious relationship with the East Lancs Group) went to Peter Farkasch for a tall, multi-flowered Ranunculus amplexicaulis from the Pyrenees and northern Spain. The epithet derives from the slender, pointed leaves that clasp the stem.  The closest rival for this award was his second lovely white buttercup, Ranunculus seguieri, from high limestone rocks and screes watered by snowmelt in the southern European Alps. Peter bought two small plants two years ago. One, growing in a scree in his garden, had twenty flowers this year. This exhibit, grown in a free-draining mix with limestone chippings, left outside, unplunged in all weathers, had 16 perfect flowers with more buds to open – a real achievement.

Ranunculus amplexicaulis

Ranunculus amplexicaulis shown by Peter Farkash at the East Lancashire 2022 AGS Show

The Ione Hecker Memorial Trophy for the best pan of Primulaceae was won by Clare Oates with a vibrant cerise Dodecatheon pulchellum ‘Sooke Variety’.  The swept-back petals of this North American genus provide the common name Shooting Star. The similarity to Cyclamen flowers demonstrates why they are both part of the Primulaceae family, though Cyclamen are so very different from any European Primula. Clare keeps it plunged in a frame and barely moist when the resting buds are dormant. It requires ample water and a cool environment as the stems emerge and flower.

Diane Clement won no fewer than three trophies, one for a novel class stipulating three plants for colour effect, one for the best small three-pan exhibit and finally, to the surprise of nobody, the Grainger Trophy (another East Lancs ex-member) for the Open Section aggregate.  On arriving and leaving, Diane’s car was an extraordinary spectacle, its driver barely visible among a huge array of plants in glorious flower and leaf. Her Cypripedium and Trillium exhibits were particularly memorable. As she herself said, if you aspire to win the Open Section Aggregate at our Shows, you must bring a lot of plants to the shows!

Diane Clement at East Lancashire AGS Show

Diane Clement at East Lancashire AGS Show

Don Peace, whose excellent photographs grace this report, won the Farrer Medal with a magnificent Cypripedium parviflorum subsp. parviflorum, the second such award it has received. More than 30 perfect slipper (or moccasin, as it is a North American species) flowers were a real triumph, smaller than the European Lady’s Slipper but very similar in colour and form, with tightly twisted, dark maroon sepals. Beautiful!

Cypripedium parviflorum subsp. parviflorum - East Lancashire Show 2022

Cypripedium parviflorum subsp. parviflorum - East Lancashire Show 2022

Finally, your reporter enjoyed the miniature gardens on display, five in total, all interesting and different. The three prize winners in particular showed the differences and imagination achievable in so small a space. Those of John and Clare Dower and of Peter Hood were classic examples with mature but slow-growing plants on pieces of tufa and seasonal plants in flower planted around. Razvan Chisu’s entry, planted recently, was novel and thoroughly enjoyable – a crevice garden with vertical slices of slate in a part-broken terracotta pot.

So ended a very good, well-attended show.  After two fallow years it is a joy once more to be able to participate in happy, friendly events such as this. Thank you to all concerned.

Author: David Charlton

Photographer: Don Peace

Razvan Chisu's miniature crevice garden in a pot

Razvan Chisu's miniature crevice garden in a pot