Hibiscus Show attracts Big Crowd
An incredibly successful Show was held this year with
some outstanding commercial entries from Jim and Jeanne Burns
of the St. Croix Chapter. The venue was admirably suited to the
Show allowing for a brilliant display of winning entries and
comfortable display of all the entries as well as sales of Hibiscus
plants and related material.
The West Wing Atrium looked lavish with masses of plants filling the planters with a rich display of variegated green colours, complimented by a veritable colour collage display of tumbling hibiscus flowers catching the eye immediately in the centre surrounded by the stands displaying the magnificent and stunning winners of each class. This year new display boards showed the winning entries to a much greater effect enhancing the beauty of the magnificent blooms. There had to be three tables, quite unprecedented, for all the Gold Seal blooms.
The public showed up in great force including many cruise ship passengers from different countries. President Roger Downing and Jana hosted a pre-show dinner at their house for last minute fine tuning and the doors opened to a sea of faces and blooms for registration at 7.00 am on Sunday morning. One of our members most tragically had all her plants eaten by a cow on the Saturday, so as a special dispensation she was allowed to register the cow! But to no avail for a winners spot. Registration handled under the watchful eye of Irene Allen supported by Linda Hagenson and Mary Radnik setting up trays for the runners headed by Edith Ann and Don Ray, Alice Turner and Nels Hagenson to deliver to the judges in the Conference room.
There were three sets of four judges with Senior Judges from St. Croix, Jim and Jeanne Burns, Eroll Chichester, Barbara Hagen-Smith, Winston Quammie and a team from the BVI with Jana Downing as Judging Chair and assisted by Trudi Seaberg, Emmett Evans, Laverne Thomas, Sherri Parsons, Clarice Lettsome, sitting in were young Nathan from St. Thomas, Barbara Ray and Linda Hagenson obtaining further experience to become future judges. Judging took place from 9.00 am until 12 noon, blooms were first classed into Gold (absolute perfection), Blue (very few and minor defects) and Red (more obvious defects), following that the Gold were judged by all judges for the Best in their class and type to establish the final winners. Gwen Adams as Show Director ably saw that all went smoothly and Debra Tryon with help from the runners very competently set out the Gold Seals and organised the final judging. Details of the results were immediately sent to Roz Merritt (1st Vice President of the American Hibiscus Society) and were posted on the Hibiscus Mail List. Now the worldknows about the Show, one acknowledgment came as far away as Hawaii.
The results were as follows:-
BEST OF SHOW:
Variety Exhibitor Single: Tradewind
Jim & Jeanne Burns-St.Croix
Double: Honey Bear Jim & Jeanne Burns-St.Croix
Miniature Quick Silver Jim & Jeanne Burns-St.Croix
Seedling Pink Currant David Stuedell-St.Thomas
BEST IN CLASS:
Amateur Single Tammy Faye
Angelina Penn-St.Thomas
Amateur Double Peach Blow
Marlene Etter-Tortola
Collector Single Pete's Prank Barbara Hagan Smith-St.Croix
Collector Double Mother's Day Trudi
Seaberg-Tortola
Commercial Single Sun Shower Jim & Jeanne
Burns-St.Croix
Commercial Double Harvest Moon Jim &
Jeanne Burns-St.Croix
Mini Single Alabaster Jim
& Jeanne Burns-St.Croix
Mini Double Margarite Trudi Seaberg-Tortola
SWEEPSTAKES:
Amateur Myrthlyn Blyden
- Tortola
Collector Trudi Seaberg - Tortola
Commercial Jim & Jeanne Burns - St.Croix
Support for the Society through attendance, the raffle and plant sale was awe inspiring and most welcome, being necessary in order to carry out the work of the Society throughout the year. Many new members joined over the weekend and more are needed, particularly younger members. Bernice Farrington spent all day making sure the public supported the Society by purchasing raffle tickets and is to be congratulated on the fact that very few were left over. At the closing of this most successful event, Jeff Morgan who organised the fantastic raffle was ably assisted by young Nathon who drew the winning raffle tickets, unfortunately she was unable to draw her own raffle entries, but the lucky winners are listed below and the Society wishes to acknowledge her help and particularly the companies and individuals who so kindly donated the raffle prizes.
The Society was most pleased at the response to a new programme they introduced at this year's Show, being a system for people to actually order specific hi-bred bare root plants which take about a month to get here and be potted up ready for pick-up within seven days of their arrival. It was successfully organised by the Hibiscus and Botanic Societies two months before the Show and produced the magnificent plants grown by Curt Sinclair, President of the AHS, for sale at the Show. The plants sold like hot cakes!
SHOW DIRECTOR GWEN ADAM= S (St. Thomas Chapter)
ASSISTANT SHOW DIRECTOR DEBRA TRYON (St. Croix Chapter)
SECOND ASSISTANTS JIM & JEANNE BURNS (St. Croix Chapter)
SHOW CHAIR LAVERN= E THOMAS (BVI Chapter)
ASSISTANT SHOW CHAIR LINDA HAGENSON (BVI Chapter)
JUDGING CHAIRJANA DOWNING (BVI Chapter)
ASSISTANT JUDGING CHAIR TRUDI SEABERG (BVI Chapter)
SWEEPSTAKE CLERK JEAN GREEN (BVI Chapter)
TREASURER IRMA SMITH
SPECIAL HI-BRED PLANTS LINDA & MARK KIRK
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