Our Autumn Show took place in the Victory Room, Bucklebury on Saturday 5th September. I was anticipating a quiet day with a significant drop in entries, after all, how on earth could anybody produce flowers, fruit or veg in the conditions we have experienced in the last four months. However, the gardeners of Bucklebury proved me completely wrong and somehow managed to fill the benches with some excellent exhibits.

 The number of entries was down slightly from last year with 231 compared to 256 last year, there were 30 entrants compared to 34 last year.

The most popular classes were “Any other vegetable” with 8 entries, “Cheers” floral arrangement in a wine glass with 7 entries and “Three stems of shrubs for foliage” with 7 entries. The foliage created a beautiful display on the bench, I have no idea how our members managed it, the foliage in my garden is either brown and crispy or lying on the ground.

The chrysanthemums suffered in the heat and sadly we had no entries in two of the four classes. The newly introduced “Chrysanthemum Challenge” for committee members saw each member grow one plant of the same variety. The results were very interesting with some managing to show a good number of blooms, others only had buds and some fell victim to the deer and rabbits!

The dahlias had some excellent entries and our judge, John Eckton was very impressed. Overall the vegetables were smaller than an average year, the lack of rainfall to blame.  Several people commented that their apples this year are much smaller than normal, however this was not the case with the apples on display on the benches.

The floral arrangements were very well supported with 20 entries across four classes, significantly higher than last year. The judge, Barbara Hunt, commented on the creative ideas and quality of the arrangements.

The homecraft bench was laden with a delicious assortment of entries including lemon drizzle cakes, apple cakes and homemade jams. Our judge, Brenda Seaward, was particularly impressed with the cakes and jams. There are certainly some very talented jam makers in Bucklebury.

I am delighted to report that the number of entries and entrants to the children’s classes continues to grow. With 30 entries it was the highest number since 2012. Thank you to the parents, grandparents and carers for your support.

The Photography classes were judged by Alan Woolfenden and Sue Lloyd from Thatcham Photographic Club. As ever their very helpful constructive comments written on each entry help us all to improve.

Visitors arrived at 2pm and enjoyed tea and cakes.

A reminder that next year, we will be holding workshops a couple of weeks before each show to support inexperienced and new exhibitors. Details will be in next year’s schedule and on the website.

Thank you to the amazing gardeners who defied the odds and produced a wonderful display at this year’s show. Thanks also to everybody who supported the show, it is really appreciated.

Our AGM is on Friday 23rd October, I hope you can join us to hear the exciting plans we have for 2027!

Kind regards

Jane West

Show Secretary