Spring Show 2026 | Grayshott Gardeners

The Spring Show was a wonderful event for all the community and there was a lovely vibe all afternoon with lots of compliments from visitors, six of whom were impressed enough to become members. Although visitors had come to see the show they all also enjoyed the delicious homemade teas, plant sales and tombola which were as popular as ever.

As I read through all the individual reports on our wonderful show, a few sayings leapt to mind:

1. ‘Practice makes Perfect’ – many congratulations to Sue Erler for winning the Floral Art Inter-village competition. Not only that, but she also won the ‘Best in Show’ with her Stem of a Rhododendron.

2. ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again’ – despite their first attempt at the Jamaican Ginger cake which exploded into a sticky mess in their oven, Pamela and Alan persevered and went on to win the Home Produce cup.

3. ‘Be brave and dip your toes into the water’ – many thanks to our three new members who decided to enter the show. I do hope that you enjoyed the experience and are now inspired to enter future shows.

The Show was a huge success and the village hall looked glorious with 219 entries on display. Many thanks to all our 27 entrants – without all your hard work there simply wouldn’t be a show. The Judges were hugely impressed with the very high standard of the exhibits, in particular the camelias and thought that it was a lovely show.

Prize Winners

L-R: Sue Erler, Diana Peat, Gill Purkiss, Alan Wright, Pamela Wright, Doris Marjoram, Sue Wheeler, Judith Rae

Prize	Event	1^st
Inter Village Floral Art Cup		Grayshott
Gladys Wilmott Cup	Home Produce	Pamela and Alan Wright
Gentlemen’s Invitation Cake	Home Produce	Alan Wright
Denyer Cup	Floral Arrangements	Tie – Sue Erler and Gill Purkiss
Craft	Craft	Diana Peat
Photography	Photography as voted by visitors	Doris Marjoram
Spring Cup	Plants & Flowers	Judith Rae
Gardeners Cup	Cut Exhibits, Pot Grown/Container Exhibits, Vegetables	Judith Rae
Novice Cup	First time winner Across all entries	Sue Wheeler
Whitehouse Cup	Across all entries	Pamela and Alan Wright
Best in Show Plate	Best Exhibit	Sue Erler – Class 25: Stem of rhododendron

Most of the classes had clear cut winners – here are the close seconds:

The Gardeners Cup was very hotly and closely contested: Pamela and Alan had the same number of points as Judith, but as Judith won more classes, she won the cup! Gill Purkiss and Gill Foster came second with only one point less! Gill Purkiss has been showing for many years with beautiful exhibits while Gill Foster has only recently joined in and is doing so well – hooray!

The Novice Cup was won by Sue Wheeler, who has exhibited for some years, both Gill Foster and Lesley Benson were only one point behind! Gill Foster as above, and Lesley started showing last year.

Finally, behind every successful show is a very hardworking and dedicated team. Many, many thanks to Pamela and her show team who did a brilliant and professional job in staging the show and even found time to enter exhibits themselves. They now only have a few months respite before it’ll be time for the Summer Show on Saturday 11 July.