RAMBLINGS OF AN EX-NOVICE

Andrew Richardson

After many years of following my wife around Harrogate Flower show I eventually realized that I always looked forward to seeing the Dahlia show , and that maybe I should have a go at growing some . There was a guy on the stand that gave me some advice on how to start and gave me his telephone number in case I had any problems .I had picked up a catalogue from Station House Nurseries so I ordered ten plants off them ,five lots of two varieties of poms .These duly arrived in April , having read the books I hardened them off in a cold frame and planted them out in the first week of June .Not knowing how to “stop them “, now was the time to ring the guy from Harrogate ,he turned out to be Jimmy Jones . “I’m down your way this afternoon,  I’ll stop in and have a chat “ he said. I learnt a lot that afternoon as well as receiving many more plants.

Things went well that year I even showed some flowers at our local agricultural show ,not with any success but again got some valuable advice from judges and fellow exhibitors .After the first frost I dug up the tubers and stored them in dry sawdust and forgot about them until February when I got them out to “set them off “ for cuttings , the problem was nothing happened , and by May still nothing was happening .By this time I had found the NWDS website and saw that there was to be a plant sale at Hillcrest Nurseries , so I turned up there and bought anything on offer as there was very few poms on sale. This introduced me to balls and decs .Another enjoyable year and a first prize at Chipping Agricultural Show under Bill Gott with an individual specimen (Moor Place ).I also showed at the Chipping Village Hall show under Jack Gott , I won nothing but he gave me a lot of good advice on show preparation .I didn’t keep many of that years tubers as they were not my first choice for colour , this time I bought some from Halls of Heddon , which did well for me but no prizes ,the highlight of 2005 was showing at the NWDS show at Kendal , I was made feel very welcome by Graham , and was invited to a lecture on new varieties at Endmoor , having attended this I came to the AGM and ended up on the committee (how did that happen? ).

Now that I attend the monthly meetings I can find out what I should be doing , this year I got a heat mat which really got the tubers started , I took plenty of cuttings only to lose nearly all of them one night , it wasn’t frosty , did I over water them ?. Once again many thanks to Brian Warriner for helping me out with some poms and Barry Kenyon for letting me have some Marston Lilacs .

In 2006 we had a tremendous show in the Ashton Memorial, I think from this show we will go from strength to strength as the word spreads about this excellent location . This year I was the only novice showing , so I “swept the board” , I was quite hopeful with the quality of blooms I was showing but it would have been nice to have some competition , anyway next year I’m showing with the big boys , its funny but I feel more like a novice now than I did two years ago .

To sum up a big thank you to all the members of the NWDS for all their help and advice ,  we have some of the best Dahlia growers in the country in the North West ,yet they are only to willing to pass on tips and plants to potential show bench rivals .

If I am going to win any more prizes in the open section I am going to have to ask more questions , listen to the experts and just TRY HARDER.