My family have been involved in chrysanthemums for over fifty years, the first member of the family to grow them was my uncle Ronnie who started in the fifties, encouraged by him my Dad started growing them in the early sixties since them we have gone on from strength to strength.  I remenber watching my Dad when I was a small boy, I can still remember some of the varieties he grew such as Tracey Waller, Ermine and Evelyn Bush.  Dad had tremendous success with Chrysanthemums winning major honours all over the country from local shows to the Nationals.  My own exhibiting efforts started in the mid 80's with leeks and onions picture below shows me with a prize winning onion of over 14lbs at Horden.  Ably guided by my Dad I started growing chrysanthemums my first mayor win came in 1989 at the Early National Show at Stafford.

I am now growing around 350 large earlies and 200 pot lates these are mainly for the National Shows having won the championship on quite a few occasions.  In the last few years I have started with a small number of mediums which I have entered and won the 9 x 5 mixed championship class at the nationals.  With lates I have started a few decs which are intermediates and reflexes, I show these in the decs classes which I have been lucky enough also to win on a few occasions.

Over the years I have become involved with the National Chrysanthemum Society and I am now Floral & Promotions manager.  Our efforts this year at Chelsea can be seen on the Shows page ( link to shows page)                 We have won many awards for the quality of our displays over the years, which are well deserved for the amount of hard work which goes into them.

Other interests

Over recent years I have expanded my interest to include Daffodils and Carnations, the daffodils  are  a continuation of my Dad's stock which I hope I have maintained well and added to over the years.  I have good success with them taking honours at Westminster, Warwick and Harrogate

My interest in Carnations started around 2007-8 and I am pleased to say my efforts have done very well on the benches with many wins at the Great North Carnation Society Shows and at Gateshead and Harrogate.  As my involvement with Carnations has grown in 2010 I took on the role of vice-chairman for the GNCS.  At present I only grow Perpetual flowering carnations quite enough I think for the time being.