Jennifer Marshall with great-grandson Jeremy at the tasting stall
From a tent on the village green to the RHS Exhibition Halls in London, from any local large meeting room to the spacious halls at Harrogate, the annual horticultural show is the pinnacle of the exhibiting gardener’s year. Here fruit, vegetables, plants and flower growers vie with each other for that all-important first prize red card and often a prestigious trophy that goes with it.
For most events, the RHS Show Handbook is the guide and rulebook for staging and judging the exhibits.The criteria for judging the classes are based on condition, size, colour and uniformity, plus any variety variations. Now, here is a curious thing, there is no mention anywhere in the book of the words ‘flavour and taste’, the very attributes we grow our crops for.