September 2001 on Alfie's Fuchsialand

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September 2001

All Aboard - Destination Unknown By Virginia Bickel

This story takes four children: Amanda, Peter, Laura and Jason from New York City to a small town in west Texas and describes good times and bad times as they grow from childhood to adulthood
STOP PRESS
Virginia Bickel's newest book Come September has just been released. Order it now!

In Virginia Bickel?s second book, she turns from historical fiction to mystery. Come September is the story of Daniel Lindsey?s quest to identify the young woman found unconscious in front of his store, and to find out what she was doing on Mesa Street, in El Paso, Texas. She brings to this genre her skill with character development and dialogue. You won't be disappointed.
Dr. Sarah Barlow

January 2001	February 2001	March 2001
April 2001	May 2001	June 2001
July 2001	August 2001	September 2001
October 2001	November 2001	December 2001

Please click on the thumbnails to view the pictures full size.

Here are a couple of shots, taken on the afternoon of the Wednesday 22nd August 2001, of one of the fuchsia plants that I will be taking to the Moorgreen Show on this coming Saturday, the 25th August. This first one is of the large plant of Star Of Pink standing on the ground before me. I firmly believe this fuchsia could be a prizewinner. You can see that it's an extremely large plant and is just coming into full flower for the first time this season. This first flush of flower is always the best one, the flowers tend to last much longer and look much healthier than they do on the second and third flowering.

The second photo is of me lifting the same plant. I've been suffering with a bad back recently and wanted to see if I could lift it without too much strain. Looks like I can, so unless the pain in my back gets any worse, I'll be able to carry it out to the van. Mind you, there are other hurdles to overcome before we can do that. I have to carry the fuchsia through two gateways to get it out onto the street and they are both narrower than the plant. The only way I can get it out will be by lifting it over the gateposts (quite a task). I will have to ask Andy the van driver to help with that. We just have to make sure that we get it to the show without any damage. I won the trophy for best plant in show with this plant in 2000. I'd like a repeat performance this year. :)

Bit of an anti-climax here in Kirkby on the 25th August. I did not get my plants to the Moorgreen Show due to a transport mix-up. The van that was going to take my plants to the show is used by both the father and the son-in-law. This morning the father took the van out on another job, not knowing that the son-in-law had arranged to take my plants. When the father returned with the van it was too late to for us to get to the show in time to enter the plants. These people are friends of mine and have done me many favours, so I bear them no grudges. Looking on the brighter side, all is not lost and I've actually salvaged the situation. I will now be taking them to the Mansfield Town Council Show, which is held tomorrow. Staging is today and I am taking the plants down there at 4.00pm. Judging will be in the morning and the show will be open to the public from 12.00 noon on Sunday. Mansfield Show is an equally prestigious show to Moorgreen and in fact the prize money is much better. I don't have a schedule till I get down there, so I don't know whether there are any trophies to be won besides the cash. So, all in all it hasn't worked out too badly.

The two photos on the left are of my entries in the Mansfield Show. I took this photo after staging them. The top photo shows my three entries in Class 101, which is for a fuchsia in a pot over 5 inches in size. The second one is of my three entries in Class 99, which is for a standard in any size pot. Judging takes place in the morning between 9.00am and 12.00 noon. I'll be going down tomorrow in the late afternoon to see if I've had any success with these plants.

Here is a shot taken after the entries had been judged, taken from near to the marquee entrance looking towards the fuchsia section. I was a little disappointed in the number of entries, but the plants that were entered were of a good quality. From talking to other exhibitors I learned that most had problems with the adverse growing conditions we had this year. We've suffered from a lot of rain and high winds throughout the growing season in this area and most of us have had lots of plants setback by this.

Another shot of the fuchsia section, this one taken from the other side of the plants looking up towards the entrance. I like this particular photograph because it shows the plants at their best. They always seem to look better with a white background and white staging. No matter how good you think your plants look at home, they always seem to look that bit better when they're staged correctly in a good situation.

Here is a shot of the three standard fuchsias that I entered. There was not a lot of competition I'm afraid. There were only two other small standards entered. It's nice to win, but it gives much more satisfaction when you succeed against a lot of other competitors.You can just see the prize cards in the pots. Red cards denote a 1st place, blue denote a 2nd and green a 3rd place. There was no award at this show for the best plant in the show.

Here is the first prize card for class 101. This was a class for a fuchsia in a pot above 5 inches. I was awarded 1st, for my very large plant of Star of Pink. 2nd, for my nice plant of Gorden Thorley and 3rd for a good looking plant of Phyllis. If you refer to the picture at the top of this page you can see me lifting the winning plant of Star of Pink in my garden the week before the show.

Here is the prize card for class 99. This was a class for a standard fuchsia in any size pot. I was awarded 1st, for my plant of Star of Pink, the center plant in the photo. 2nd for my plant of Waveney Sunrise, the plant on the left and 3rd for my plant of Star of Pink on the right. I was so pleased to win this class with my plant of Star of Pink. This is one of the standards that I started from cuttings in April of 2000. In the 18 months since then it has made a really nice plant, I'm somewhat surprised at the amount of growth it's made in that time. A lady at the show offered me 20 UK pounds for it, but I had to refuse her kind offer.

Just so that you can share in the atmosphere of an English flower show. Here are a couple of photos of the marquee interior. This shot is of Dahlias on the left and mixed flower vases on the right. The two girls on the right are enjoying a stunning display of tuberous Begonias.

This was taken from the other end of the marquee. There a carnations on the near left of the picture, beyond them can be seen the spikes of the gladioli towering up from the staging. On the right are two or three guys admiring a collection of giant vegetables. There were some very large cabbage and onions at this show, they were a real credit to those who grew them.

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