There’s nothing like a spring flower show to shake off winter, and in Falmouth, south Cornwall, a century-old show takes place next weekend.
A county of great estates and commercial horticulture, Cornwall abounds in expert growers and climate-defying gardens, so the show, which first took place in 1910, promises to be a feast of daffodils, early magnolias, rhododendrons and camellias.
This year at Falmouth there will be a new cup for children, given by Ken Pound, who, 60 years ago, was sent from the nearby St Budoc’s Home for Boys to a farm orphanage in Australia, under the Child Migrant Programme.
Pound is returning to Cornwall to dedicate the cup to Charles Rowe, former gardener at Fox Rosehill Gardens, a council-owned park next door to St Budoc’s. A troubled child, Pound regularly shinned over the wall from the home and was befriended by Rowe and his assistant Brian Phillpotts. Rowe gave Ken jobs to do in the greenhouse and encouraged him to join the Boys Brigade, where he learnt to play the bugle (see inset).
Throughout an extraordinary life, in which he set up Australia’s first nature conservation project, Ken Pound was nurtured by his memories of Falmouth and the gardeners who encouraged him as a schoolboy. In memory of the man who instilled in him his lifelong passion for nature, the Charles Rowe Trophy will be awarded each year to a child or group of children.
This year Pound, together with his Australian colleague Robert Hawkes, a specialist in flowering shrubs, camellias and orchids, will be guest judges at the show, joining the committee for their traditional Cornish pasty and saffron cake before the judging begins.
Ken recalls helping out at the Falmouth Spring Show as a child, as well as winning prizes: “I helped carry plants to the Princess Pavilion, to stage displays of flowering and coloured foliaged plants.
“I remember alongside them more than 100 different named narcissi in small milk bottles – from trumpet 'King Alfreds’ to mini 'Bonbons’ – and in the main hall fragrant sprigs and blossoms of many shapes and colours, plus wooden boxes of narcissi, violets and anemones, all so meticulously bunched .
“Nearby were children’s exhibits of pressed seaweeds, wild flowers and grasses, miniature gardens in biscuit-tin lids, with lawns of moss and mirror pools, twig fences and matchbox houses.”
The show now has 32 cups; the oldest is the Falmouth Spring Show Challenge Trophy awarded for the most points in the open single bloom daffodil class.
As well as spring flowers there will be bonsai, orchids and flower arrangements on display, plus a photography competition. This year’s show chairman Ron Scamp, an expert daffodil grower, will have a trade stand at the show and many other plants will be for sale.
The show, which starts off a Spring Festival across the region that runs until April 3, will gladden the heart of any gardener whose enthusiasm has been shrivelled by a long, cold winter.
