John, a member of the affectionately
named group of growers the “Radstock Mafia”, is a regular
“must
visit” from time to time. He is lives in Midsomer Norton where he
carries out his propagating activities, with his show plants located at
a nearby site in the village of Chilcompton.
We visited on the Monday after the National Show on a wet and windy
evening up on the Mendips. However, what we saw brightened our day. You
would have thought that after the National there would not be too much
to see. How wrong could you be?
John grew 130 plants to supply blooms for both the Portchester and
Bideford Area Shows in early August and a further 320 plants to cover
the National in early September. (Click on National Show link to see how
John got on) Of this number 40 are selected and the balance remained
back at base. On our visit some of these were of course going over, some
in their prime and the others catching up.
Together with John’s help I took many pictures and a selection is
shown below and others will follow in the next instalment.
