Just curious...

Anything relating to Cacti or CactiGuide.com that doesn't fit in another category should be posted under General.
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williamsii823
Posts: 107
Joined: Wed Jun 14, 2017 3:51 am
Location: Tampa Bay, Florida,USA

Just curious...

Post by williamsii823 »

A response to a recent post piqued my curiosity...How many people here enter their plants in Cactus/Succulent Shows or Flower Show competition? And how many use photos of their plants to illustrate articles or papers they are writing?
DaveW
Posts: 7376
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:36 pm
Location: Nottingham, England/UK

Re: Just curious...

Post by DaveW »

The shows situation was fairly healthy at branch level in the UK in the 1970's-1980's, but our branch no longer holds one since hiring halls is getting expensive. I used to show many years ago when we held an annual three day branch show that was open to the public, but have not done so in recent years.

In the UK the hobby is more unified in that unlike the US where most area cactus clubs are independent and simply affiliated to the American Society. In the UK they are actually local branches of the National Society, therefore the judging has to be by approved judges who take a course and test to prove they know their subject. The Society also produces a "Guide to Shows" which is the judges handbook on how to judge and what is eligible in each class. The judges can either take a test to be a judge for Cacti only, or for Other Succulents only, or for both. Of course local garden shows use their own judges who are often just a local gardener to judge any cactus exhibit, though often the local cactus branch is asked to provide a specialist judge.

I used to do flower shows years ago, but these were usually displays for publicity for our Nottingham Branch BCSS rather than competitive entries and we were usually allowed to sell a few plants for branch funds. I remember putting on displays of cacti and succulents in Rose Society, Fuchsia Society, Chrysanthemum Society shows and the odd agricultural show. The British Cactus & Succulent Society puts on a National Show every four years and I once entered that and won a class, but I don't bother with shows these days.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... ional+Show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxwaicwXHB8

Most of my pictures of plants are just used for web use on forums, or for digital projection at branch meetings, though the odd one has been used in a magazine.
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