whats the point of shows Solved

[Maria J]

I second Bob's comment!!

[Guest]

After a break of many, many years I started showing again at the Oxford shows and enjoy every minute of it. It is not just the showing although that really appeals to me as I am competitive by nature and it does give me another reason for growing them, it is the whole day out in a lovely part of the country, an excellent pub lunch, and the enthusiasm and welcoming of Oxford members.

On judging I have to say that I show a Stenocactus dichroacanthus which has grown into an enormous mound with numerous heads. It either comes first or is nowhere. Never in between.

Mike.

[Ernie]

Some interesting comments and welcome!

Time to own up; last year the Teesside branch had a symposium and included a table show with prizes. I took along a very old Choice Othanna that I bought from a well known German trader. The plant was habitat collected of that there is little doubt. I purchased the plant about 12 months prior to the symposium and during the 12 months saw no growth because it is very slow growing species. I did manage to flowerit and it was in flower for the show.

The plant took first prize. Now what did that prove?

It proved to me that one can purchase prizes if one wants to; its the first and last time I will do that and it was to prove a point. The certificate I won was despatched into my rubbish bin and I never say anything about it when visitors view the collection.

Moving slightly away from the central point of my original post,

Should I have such a plant? well why not the dealer was offering it for sale and if I did not buy someone else would. Its looked after carefully in a good home and is that not better than being churned up by a plough or whatever. Against the argument that if we dont buy habitat collected plants the trade will die I say this; rubbish and if the plant has already been collected then is it not better that its nutured by someone who cares.

I believe in conservation but I also live in the real world.


Back to the main theme; I will probably dislay some plants this year but make it clear they are not to be judged. Shows to promote the hobby- great all for it; shows to feed egos are not for me.

[CactusChris]

Hi Ernie,
It all proves that people have different values. It proves to some that habitat collection can and does pay - they just have to find the buyers.
It does not prove that everyone finds showing and winning with habitat collected plants a worthless experience - many, or perhaps some relish it and that is the core of the hobby for them.

What we should really be asking is what is meant to be the point of showing? Even in a non-competitive class showing habitat collected plants will encourage others to buy habitat collected plants - is that a succesful outcome for the show organisers?

Best regards

Chris

[Ernie]

Hi Chris. Reasoned argument, its your opinion and I respect your right to have it.

The issue of people 'buying' prizes is not unique to this hobby. One of my other hobbies is designing and building model racing boats in particular models of famous boats such as Donald Campbells K7 Bluebird.I write for an international mag on the subject (Much of my work and writings can be found on the WWW via google.)
For a period of about 6 years I raced at national level and found that by purchasing the best motor and best batteries I could win the national title in a number of classes without much effort; I poured money into it. Other factors helped such as an in depth study of hydrodynamics/aerodynamics but the bottom line is not many people could afford to keep up with me. I purchased an edge.

I gave up the racing side of the hobby as it ceased to offer me interlectual stimulation or a challenge and I now concentrate on the building side.(Just finished a large gas Turbine powered model of Campbells Bluebird)

One of the reasons,but by no means a prime reason, why I play competitive chess at County and tournament level is that it is not possible for anyone to buy a prize! prizes are achieved by many hours effort.


Having said all that each to their own and if people in our hobby derive pleasure from purchasing habitat or mature plants and showing them to win prizes then as they say 'each to his own'

The main reason I asked the original question was to get an idea of why people enter plant shows.

[Guest]

Just to add to my original post, 95% of my collection is grown from seed and I am very proud of that fact. When I show it is nothing to do with ego - just wanting to be measured against others.If my seed grown plant beats their habitat collected plant then it all feels worthwhile.

My conscience is always clear.

[Apicra]

There's been a lot of negative moaning on this Forum recently. Surely this question has been asked tongue-in-cheek? I'll try and put the case in support of shows. I can understand someone with the outlook "what's in shows for me" thinking that shows are all about winning, but people who think "what can I give to the hobby" will know that winning is only a small part.

Foremost, cactus shows provide a show-case of our hobby to the general public. They provide one of the few opportunity for the Society to recruit new members and raise funds from beyond our own membership. They are a social occasions where friends can meet and learn about plants. Shows also provide local opportunities for people to sell and buy surplus plants.

However, the above could be achieved with displays. But in my experience, people loose interest in non-competitive displays after a couple of years. Making the classes competitive and asking a judge to choose winners adds excitement and of course, there is a long tradition of such competitive local flower shows in Britain.

There are few personal challenges in our cactus growing hobby, but growing a plant well enough to win its class is one. Winning at zone and national levels provides a further challenges. Growing enough good plants to win Highest Points in Show is an even greater challenge. In a different direction, another challenge is to make oneself knowledgeable enough to qualify as a judge, or to succeed in organising a show. This activity all helps our hobby. None of the shows that I know down south offers prize money, it is all done for fun.

Hardly any cactus show has a rule about owning plants for a minimum period of time - precisely because it is impossible to police. However, as Chairman, I do request our members verbally not to show plants unless they have cultivated them for at least six months in my Branch. The BCSS publishes a very useful booklet "Handbook of Shows" which explains show rules and a lot more good advice, including the generic grouping for show classes.

So if someone spends money on a mature plant and wins a class, then I would be happy to see this well-grown and probably unusual plant on the show bench. So long as the best plant wins, I don't mind who it belongs to. Unless they are a competent grower, it will probably not appear again next year. If you don't like this, then show annual cut flowers or vegetables, where everyone starts from scratch at the beginning each year, and don't grow perennial cacti.

Actually I have found that loosing in a show can be valuable - it gives one a reality check to look after your plants better and try harder.

Please do support as many cactus shows as you can this summer, either by exhibiting or visiting. They are nearly all listed on the BCSS Events page, button above.

Best wishes,
Derek Tribble,
BCSS Judge B.T.W.

[Chris in Leeds]

I agree with that Derek
I enter my branch show to support the branch and have a good couple of days seeing people you dont see at branch meetings
as for ownership a judge told me at a show (in the last couple of years) that a plant in a show was possibly a recent purchase for the exhibitor but you cant prove anything (but it did not win anyway)

[phil]

Very well put Derek, I totally agree!

[MikeT]

I've been putting plants in the Sheffield show for some years now. Whenever I've asked someone else "how do you grow that plant so well, it looks much better than mine?", I've always had a helpful response, and often been given useful tips; never a reply on the lines of "it's a trade secret". Others who show do so to support the show, our main activity each year to try reaching new members. We bring plants that we know won't win prizes, because we want enough entries for the show to look good. We also bring the plants that we hope will win prizes, because we enjoy the feeling that comes from a judge deciding that a plant merits a prize. Personally, I find that much more rewarding if the plant is one I've grown from seed. At our show last year, both the "Best cactus in show" & " Best succulent in show" were grown from seed by their owners.

I think the Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus that I won in a branch raffle (Old Northern Counties CSSGB ) back in about 1970 may have been habitat collected, though as it was perhaps 2cm diameter, maybe it was nursery grown. Apart from European Sedums from cuttings, I don't otherwise have any habitat collected plants. * I would be happy with a ban on showing habitat collected plants, with the proviso that I doubt that it's enforcible, and would hate to think of a seed grown, old, mature plant being classed wrongly as habitat collected and disqualified. It must be hard enough being a judge without having to make a guess at whether a plant is habitat collected or not.

I doubt that Sheffield is that different to most branches, and that the majority of those who show do so to support their local show. If some shows have those who enter for an ego trip, at least the show benefits from some decent plants. I think anyone entering wih that motivation is a bit sad, but they may well think the same about me (especially after they've seen some of my plants!).

What's the point of shows? Well it does give us a chance to compare our growing skills with others; it gives us a chance to appreciate & admire other growers' plants; and it's a major way of attracting into the society people who like the plants they see.

* oops: I have a habitat Echinocereus that Chris Rogerson gave me, nearly forgot that. Sorry Chris; it is still alive.