Burbage Gardening Club 75th Annual Show – Update

The Burbage Gardening Club 75th Annual Show was held on Saturday 19th August 2023 at Hastings High School, St Catherine’s Close, Burbage, Leicestershire, LE10 2QE.

The Prestigeous BGC Dahlia Championship was well supported with 9 entries. Exhibitors are required to stage 12 blooms in 4 vases, any variety may be used for the exhibit, but each vase must contain 3 of the same variety. The winner was a delighted Linda Caswell who won the championship for the first time and was presented with the Bill Greenaway Tankard and a National Dahlia Society (NDS) Silver Medal to keep. Runner up was Mac Walker who was presented with a NDS Bronze Medal to keep.

The Open Show was well supported with a total of 613 exhibits from 88 exhibitors. Childrens entries were down on the previous year and was attributed to many of the regulars growing up and no longer wishing to enter. We need to get our thinking caps on the encourage more youngsters. Classes in the open show include; Floral Art, Cut Flowers, Pot Plants, Vegetables and Fruit, Homecrafts, Arts and Crafts, and Children’s. The overall winner of the Open Show was Phil Burgess who won several cups as well as the Royal Horticultural Society’s 2023 Banksian Medal. The schedule is still available on the website if you want to see this year’s classes. There will almost certainly be a few changes for next year.

This year there were 2 classes open only to BGC members. The ever-popular Heaviest Potato Crop (grown in a container from a single tuber with no more than 40litres of growing medium) and a new this year Single Gladiolus Stem, after a talk on growing gladioli at a social meeting earlier in the year.

There were 46 entries in the Potato Competition, a record! Congratulations to new members June and John Dawson who came first (5.52kg) and second (4.59kg), with Tom Upton in third place (3.53kg). Sheila Fisher won the prize for heaviest single potato at 490g.

There were 28 sets of gladioli corms supplied but only 6 entries in the show. Congratulations to Linda Barratt who won first prize. There will be some changes to the rules next year with just a single variety available, so they are all the same colour and easier to judge.

The list of potato weights and gladioli winners are displayed at the BGC Members Store and are also available on the website Show Results

Every year BGC chooses a charity and this year the show sub-committee chose Canine Partners who provide assistance dogs for people with disabilities https://caninepartners.org.uk The charity is always invited to attend the show and this year Canine Partners collected a massive £410 on the door in lieu of an entrance fee. A Burbage lady, Kate Cross with her CP dog May, attended the show with other CP volunteers. May has a special party trick to relieve the visitors of their change and drop it in the collecting bucket! May also drew the show raffle, see the video of her drawing the first prize.

All raffle prizes have now been claimed and a list of prize winners can be found on the website. The list and lottery return has been sent to Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council under the terms of BGC’s lottery license.

Nick Sydenham, one of CP’s trustees, addressed the exhibitors and public just before the presentation of the prizes. Nick was due to hand over the cups and trophies to the winners, but Kate and May stole the show again, especially to the delight of the children who had won their classes.

Thank you to all BGC members who helped with the show; setting up, stewarding and catering on show day and clearing up the day after. Thank you to all the exhibitors, without who there simply would be no show, and to the visiting public who came to view the exhibits and donated to our charity Canine Partners. A presentation will be made to CP at the November social meeting with their collection topped up from club funds and other amounts raised through the year.