Sunday 1 July 2018

Fibrex Nurseries 60th Anniversary Show Weekend - 17th June Smelie Pellies and The National Show

On the morning of the show during judging I went to another talk - this time given by Heather Goddard-Key.  Heather distills oils from the leaves of scented pelargoniums. She had shown me her still a few months previously, but this was a new and bigger one.  First of all she told us which scented pelargoniums were the best ones to use, making sure only to use the leaves.  She also told us which ones to avoid.  The rose and lemon scented ones, obviously are fine.  Heather also uses P. radula a lot as the flavours she gets is very strong.  She will often use a mixture of scented pelargonium leaves. She told us how she makes the oil - it takes about 45 minutes to get a very very small amount.  But only very few drops are needed to flavour foods.  She had made a raspberry cordial using a few drops of oil which we were able to sample - and very nice and refreshing it was too.  She had also made one of her famous smellie pellie sponge cakes, and we all had a piece of this as well.    Another way to get the flavour of pelargoniums in your cakes is to use sugar that has had pelargonium leaves (washed of course ) layered, then left for approximately four weeks.


Layering sugar


Liga is wondering if she should get a still



Some of our Swedish visitors enjoying a cup of tea and cake in the WI tents


The show was excellent and, as usual, the standard was very high.  The judges had a hard time making their decisions, so much so the show opened rather later than expected.  They were still making their final decisions when the public came in.

I haven't named the plants here, but here are a selection of plants on show.













 A zonartic shown by Lynn Jarvis
 








 Best in Show - Standard "Sammi Brougham" grown by David Taylor

  A display in an unusual container















 David Taylor receiving his prize from Jim Buttress

Chairman Steve Pollard receiving his award from Jim Buttress


Note: If anyone is interested in using Pelargonium leaves in cooking, The Pelargonium & Geranium Society have a few recipe booklets available.  Contact their book sales officer through the website.

3 comments:

  1. Wow such wonderful blooms and the standard. Perhaps one day I may be able to get something going like that

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  2. Dear Gwen, Thank you so much for your reports about the Show and Fibrex! All plants are brilliant and photos are perfect. I miss very much that I was not able to come to PAGS show this year. Katya Kotskaya

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  3. Gorgeous plants and photos Gwen! Thanks for sharing! :-)

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