do you agree that sheffield needs a big yearly gardening event like the one's in harrogate/southport after all sheffield is supposed to be a green city?

do you agree that sheffield needs a big yearly gardening event like the one's in harrogate/southport after all sheffield is supposed to be a green city?

I agree totally, however where would the money come from? Shows like Harrogate cost thousands and thousands of pounds to put on.....

I agree totally, however where would the money come from? Shows like Harrogate cost thousands and thousands of pounds to put on.....

This would be great. We went to Sheffield Fayre last weekend and I wonder if the horticultural section could be enlarged. Advertisement for this event didn't seem to happen much beforehand - perhaps this is something that could be thought about.

all the local nurseries could be there along with the specialist plant societies i would not paying £10 to get in i know that harrogate charge £12 on the gate which i think is a fair price to pay

the horticultural schedules started going out in April / May time, we send info to everyone who has entered before, people who ask to be added to the mailing list (about 30 at this years show) the information and posters are also sent to all allotment societies in sheffield and we drop them at local nurseries, allotment sites, parks, craft shops etc.
Once the schedule is completed it is then put on the council events internet site and I can also e-mail out copies.
As for local nurseries being involved, we encourage alltment sites to have stalls to a) promote their allotments and b) to raise funds for their sites. This year we had COrker Bottoms, Roe Woods, LEAF, NVS and SOFI in the horticultural marquee. We should also have had a young man who has recently set up a nursery but unfortunately his vehicle broke down on his way to the event so he was unable to attend.
But at the end of the day 'local nurseries' dont need to attend events like this, and we prefer to give local groups the chance to promote themselves.

just as a thought I have already started planning next years horticultural show and any suggestions would be welcome

just as a thought I have already started planning next years horticultural show and any suggestions would be welcome

If you want more people to enter the horticultural show, de-mystifying rules and regulations would be a start. If I had managed to grow anything worthy of showing I wouldn't have had a clue how it needed to be presented - some demonstrations at either Federation meetings or allotment societies would be useful, preferably from the winners!

To be honest veg shows are probably seen as a bit old fashioned as well, I think people are into 'taste' more than 'exhibition veg' these days. The gold silver and bronze awards for allotments were a good idea, but obviously the crap weather this year didn't help anyone.

Also, you need to work on your publicity - the Sheffield Fayre was covered in the Telegraph this week, but there was no mention of who won any of the prizes (or the allotment competitions), how many entered, etc - don't know if it got a mention in the Star though. You could post the info on here!

Rob

would it be possible for local specialist nurseries to be invited to attend nurseries like

paradise palms
http://www.paradise-palms.co.uk/
black plants
http://www.blackplants.co.uk/
Scawsby Hall Nurseries
http://www.the-plant-directory.com/
Taylors Clematis Nursery
http://www.taylorsclematis.co.uk/
D S Witton
http://www.euphorbias.co.uk/

craigmason,
thanks for the above info, I will contact some of these nurseries to see if they would be interested in coming next year, like I said I'm always open to suggestions

If you want more people to enter the horticultural show, de-mystifying rules and regulations would be a start. If I had managed to grow anything worthy of showing I wouldn't have had a clue how it needed to be presented - some demonstrations at either Federation meetings or allotment societies would be useful, preferably from the winners!

To be honest veg shows are probably seen as a bit old fashioned as well, I think people are into 'taste' more than 'exhibition veg' these days. The gold silver and bronze awards for allotments were a good idea, but obviously the crap weather this year didn't help anyone.

Also, you need to work on your publicity - the Sheffield Fayre was covered in the Telegraph this week, but there was no mention of who won any of the prizes (or the allotment competitions), how many entered, etc - don't know if it got a mention in the Star though. You could post the info on here!

Rob

Rob,
we have put on events over the last couple of years via the Allotment Fed on just these types of things.
As for taste, in the past I thought the giant veg would be tasteless but I was proved wrong, many of the specialist seed producer realise that not all the veg will be shown and now the majority of the exhibition veg are just as tasty as non exhibition veg. I will see if we can organise some more events about showing and will post any dates and times etc on the forum