Time to get planting and planning for the Higham Ferrers Horticultural Show

It’s time to get planting and planning for this year’s Higham Ferrers Tourism Committee’s Horticultural Show.

The show has not been held for four years, and although it was planned for last September, it was cancelled out of a mark of respect following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.

But the event is back on Saturday, September 9 and Sunday, September 10 in the town’s Chichele College – and you don’t have to live in Higham Ferrers to enter.

Organiser Pam Webbley said: “We will welcome entries from people in other towns too.”

And not all the entries have to be perfect either as one vegetable category calls for a ‘silly-shaped specimen’ with the criteria being ‘anything silly, strange or accidental.’

The categories cover vegetables, fruit, flowers, floral art, cakes and preserves.

There are baking

categories for children aged from two to four, five to seven, eight to 11 and 16 and under, as well as a Ferrers Fellows Bake Off for men.

The vegetable, fruit and flowers categories will be judged by acclaimed judges Nicholas Warliker and Gillian Underwood.

Warliker, a noted Northamptonshire horticultural show judge, who has been judging for almost 50 years, was asked for some tips for show hopefuls before last year’s cancelled event.

His advice is that entrants should follow the event schedule, explaining that if the programme asks for five apples, they should submit five apples and not six.

Entrants should not be tempted to submit an extra one for luck – or even fewer - in the hope that the judges won’t notice.

This is not fair on other entrants and ‘it is all about following the rules,’ he advised.

In the event there is only one exhibit in a particular category, it will not mean the grower will automatically get first prize.

He said: “Judges only award first prize when the exhibit deserves it.”

Alison Wilkinson, a local baker, will judge the baking categories, while Celia Ingram and Pat Hall will judge the preserves category and the mayor of Higham Ferrers, Cllr Nigel Brown, has been asked to judge the children’s section.

The floral art judge is still to be announced.

Entry forms are available at Higham Ferrers Town Hall or can be downloaded, with details available from the website: www.highamferrerstourism.org.uk