Long-running show reaches its 71st year
GROWERS, bakers and makers are gearing up for the 71st Burbage Gardening Club open show.
The show, to be held in Hastings High School in the village on Saturday August 19, will include a nationally-renowned dahlia championship.
More than 100 classes offer prizes for cut flowers, plants, vegetables, homecrafts, baking and photography, including many specially for children.
A Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) medal will be awarded to the exhibitor with the most points across the horticultural classes, with cups and trophies to be presented to top show and category winners on the night by chairman of Hinckley and District Museum, Ann Crabtree.
Cash prizes of up to £50 are on offer in the dahlia championship and an in-club potato contest, plus top prizes of £10 for a runner bean championship and three floral art sections.
Children’s classes, with cups and trophies for winners, include a garden on a seed tray, an arrangement of garden flowers in a jam jar, and an edible necklace.
Former Hinckley Times chief photographer Jim Tomlinson will be judging photographic classes, with the Jim Tomlinson Trophy awarded to the best exhibit in that section.
People can enter as many classes as they wish, at 30p per entry for adults. Children’s classes are free.
Entries must be ready for judging by noon on the day and the show will open to the public at 4.30pm before presentations are made and a raffle drawn at 7.15pm.
Admission to the show is free but donations will be invited towards the work of the Huntington’s Disease Association which is Burbage Gardening Club’s chosen charity for 2017.
Schedules detailing all classes, prizes and entry information are available now to download from the club’s website or by contacting Bob Gwynn on Hinckley 632221 (bob@gwynnrd.plus. com) or Trevor Allcoat on Hinckley 613119.
Burbage Gardening Club, which arranges social events, garden-related trips and talks, meets on the first Tuesday of each month at 7.45pm in Burbage Constitutional Club on Church Street.
Members plant up village hanging baskets on behalf of Burbage Parish Council and run a garden store offering horticultural items at discounted prices.
For more information call Pat Wood on Hinckley 637088 or go online.