After the last year, when a mild winter was interrupted by distinct cold spells, including one in spring, and then when summer took place in June and early September, with cool and damp weather in between, it must have been very hard for any self-respecting autumn flowering bulb to know when and if it was going to flower. After the first two autumn shows, where even the Cyclamen (which do so much of the “Heavy Lifting” for colour at this time of year) were fewer and less well-flowered than usual (rumour had it that many of them were already over), I approached the Harlow Carr Show with fear that there might be little colour to excite the visitors. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Crocus and Galanthus, Saxifraga fortunei and Petrocosmea, and many more, made sure that our visitors were greeted with a really colourful display.

Sadly, the marquee that we have used at Harlow Carr in recent years is no more, and we are back to using two rooms, mildly annoying for the judges who had to walk backwards and forwards between the two rooms as they decided on their awards. The general layout is that one room has the classes for larger plants, along with the novice classes, and the other room has the classes for small pots.

There were still some good Cyclamen in large pots. These always impress visitors; and leave most growers wondering how old they are.

The two finest received Certificates of Merit for the same grower, Ian Robertson, who had a particularly successful day. Ian’s Cyclamen confusum ‘Raspberry’, as the cultivar name suggests, has a deep pink flower; Cyclamen cyprium, his other certificate plant, was very large for this particular species.

Right by the entrance to this room, Ian had another plant which drew even more attention. Even regulars at the shows were heard to ask questions like “Is that out of season?” or “Do some Pleiones really flower in autumn?” Flower it certainly did, with about 40 flowers, and attracted a Farrer medal in the process.

Autumn flowering Pleiones hold their flowers lower, only just above the top dressing. Often they flower sequentially, but this pan did not suffer in this way. Unlike spring flowering Pleiones, they should not be allowed to dry out at any time of year, as the flowers come just as the leaves die down, and the plants start growing new roots shortly after flowering. There are three species of autumn flowering Pleione, and this plant was Ian’s own cross between Pleione maculata, the seed parent, and Pleione praecox, the pollen parent.

The Orchid Society had supplied the plant with the name Pleione x Confirmation, though there was uncertainty over whether this name was a Cultivar name, a Grex name, or a hybrid name. The plant is hardier than the seed parent, from which it inherits its attractive lip on its flowers, and has better flowering characteristics than the pollen plant, from which it inherited the pink flowers. Now about 12 years old, this was only the second time at a show, and the first time as a large plant.

Sharing the room with the large plants was the Novice Section. Sadly, at too many shows recently there have been no entries in this section, a distinct contrast with the state of affairs thirty years ago, when your reporter remembers one show at which his novice entry was one of eight entries in a class for three rock plants in flower.

At Harlow Carr, two entrants, Catherine Burns and Kathryn Hern, good friends who live near to one another, each entered three plants, each got three firsts, and shared the Novice Section aggregate trophy, the Harrogate Salver. Catherine also won the West Riding Plate, for the best entry (not the best plant) in the section with a miniature garden. As well, she had a larger miniature garden in the Open Section, which did not look out of place in this exalted company.

The enthusiasm of these two new exhibitors made it clear to your reporter that we must do more to support new exhibitors. It is good, and important, to encourage members to come along with some plants, and we will find classes for them. But there are many more mysteries and obscure practices at our shows. One of these two exhibitors had never seen a show schedule. When I was at that stage, there were talks on how to show – an excuse for some fine pictures and cultivation tips, but also an introduction to arcane rules included in the show schedule. Perhaps seasoned exhibitors should make sure they get plenty of support. Adopt a novice, perhaps?

Moving to the other room, there was an intensity of colour not always associated with autumn shows, with my eyes going first to the Crocuses. Crocus remains one of the hardest plants to show, as flowers at their best at the beginning of the show can look distinctly tired by the end of the afternoon; or worse, flowers that look fine when leaving home can be over by the time of judging. Your reporter remembers one of our society judges who would remove dying Crocus flowers from plants he was judging.

Don Peace, as usual, exhibited a fine collection of crocuses: Crocus cartwrightianus ‘Michel’, Crocus niveus, Crocus goulimyi and C. goulimyi ‘Mani White’.

Ian Robertson had Crocus goulimyi ‘Agia Sophia MELJ9652’; but the star of the show was Crocus ligusticus, exhibited by David Millward, which was awarded the Mr. & Mrs. WH Northcliffe Memorial Trophy for the best plant in the small pan classes. A warm purple colour, shown off to its best in the autumn sun.

David had received cormlets of this plant (as Crocus medius ) from Alan Edwards as a thank-you gift in return for a geological consultation. This plant comes from the mountains of North West Italy (Liguria) and South East France where it grows on serpentinite, an ultra basic rock, and in the absence of such rock, the pH of the soil should be kept high with added limestone.

Snowdrops at the autumn shows usually mean Galanthus peshmenii and perhaps Galanthus reginae-olgae. Both of these were there. Notably, Ian Robertson got yet another certificate of Merit for a fine plant of G. peshmenii, and David Carver exhibited a number of small pots of named varieties of G. reginae-olgae.

More notably, Anne Wright received a Certificate of Merit for the best of her three hybrids between these species which she showed, Galanthus ‘Dryad Duchess’. The cross was made ten years ago and first flowered in 2019. The plant has bulked up quite well, often producing more than one scape per bulb. The plant is not very tall but with larger flowers and stronger scent than either parent, and a large emerald green mark on the inner petals.

Also on show was Galanthus bursanus ‘Alpha Teutonic Helmet’, shown by Michael Myers. Eyebrows were raised at both specific and variety name. Galanthus bursanus is a recently described autumn-flowering species from north west Asian Turkey, formerly included in Galanthus plicatus byzantinus (which is normally winter flowering). The cultivar name comes from Ruslan Mishustin; A Teutonic Helmet is a Mediaeval Pot shaped helmet with wings on it, worn by German Teutonic Knights. The most distinctive thing about this species was that the inner perianth segments have both basal and apical green marks. It flowers before the leaves come up, and it has a good scent.

Autumn flowering Narcissi are delightful, with small and delicate flowers, and difficult to grow and flower. Anne Wright received another Certificate of Merit for Narcissus deficiens. Such is the confusion in naming Narcissi, that she had labelled it with three different Latin names: N. deficiens, N. miniatus and N. obsoletus. Essentially a plant of dry places, it is grown in a clay pot, planted deep, kept fairly dry in winter and very dry (almost baked) in summer. This is achieved by lifting the pot in summer so it stands on, rather than in the plunge.

Autumn shows still depend on a backbone of foliage classes. Many of these plants we are used to, but there is always an opportunity for a surprise, or something new. John Dixon as usual showed an excellent set of three cushion plants, with two huge, hard and ancient Dionysias. The third plant brought joy to so many of us, to see a perfectly fresh, perfectly symmetrical, dome of Androsace villosa GF573. Not rock hard of course, but a real achievement. Hairs on the leaflets really caught the light.

In recent years, we have got used to Don Peace and others exhibiting Pyrrosia drakeana in the fern classes, and often winning them. They are fine plants, but sometimes looked at with suspicion. They are not very fern like, with entire fronds with a dull green top surface and a lower surface covered with brown hairs, sometimes hiding small sporangia. They don’t look hardy. On that score, we are wrong. They grow at very high altitude in the Chinese mountains, on rock faces where they often do not even get a cover of snow to insulate them in the winter.

This year, Pyrrosia drakeana has been joined by two more species, Pyrrosia sheareri and Pyrrosia hastata. P. hastata in particularly is of interest; in the specimen shown the fronds are ternately lobed, with a long central lobe and two shorter lower lobes. I understand that plants can have fronds with five lobes in a palmate arrangement, so it is interesting to see a species which is more fern-like in appearance. Pyrrosia grows like so many rock ferns in a gritty or open mix. One additional virtue is that they can be propagated easily by division, even if they need a very sharp saw – or Don suggests – an axe.

We come to the end of a show season when things are at least nearly back to normal, though it would be great to see even more exhibitors. Our thanks must go to Ian and Georgina, our show secretaries, all their volunteers, all our exhibitors and judges, all the public who support and encourage us – and often share their knowledge. Our thanks also to RHS Harlow Carr for all their support, and to Martin, our Director of shows.

Show Photographer: Jon Evans
Show Reporter: Peter Hood