The
South Coast Area
Representative : Dave Coates |
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Dave joined the Society in 1975 and quickly established himself as a
leading exhibitor and hybridiser. His best known introduction to
date Nichola Coates (named after his daughter) is one of the most widely
exhibited varieties. Vera Coates is also rapidly gaining
in popularity.
His newest introduction Emily Rose is named after his first
grandchild.
Pictures |
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AREA NEWS |
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AREA HISTORY |
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Our Area Show in the floral marquee at the Southsea Show.
Really we were thrown in at the deep end,
or so it seemed at the time. Luckily one of us, "Pop"
Hilton was an excellent grower and an experienced exhibitor.
He and his wife Doris had been
displaying groups of plants including begonias at local shows for some years
and it was their expertise that set us on the road. |
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1973. Our first display, a modest 9' x 6', attracted much interest and several
new recruits, and with this enthusiastic support we were able to develop
and improve. Even before the Show had ended we were busy planning for
the future. |
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1974.
The following year. the stand had grown to 12' x 10' with an additional
decorated area at one end. A feature as in the previous year was the use of a
large number of Species begonias grown by founder member Alan Cole. The
display earned us our first Gold Medal. |
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In 1975 we staged the first classes (3 pot, 1 pot, and
3 cut bloom). That same year a young couple enrolled who were to make such an
impact on the Society, both locally and nationally that it is fair to classify our
activities at Southsea as BC (before Coates) and AC (after Coates), I refer of
course to Dave and Pauline. Our
standards were instantly lifted and displays became bigger and bigger. Over
the next few years the number of classes increased and
exhibitors were attracted from further afield. This success was not just down
to Dave and Pauline, it was, and still is a grand team effort by a group of
enthusiasts who have along the way become good friends. |
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In 1976 the National
Committee
granted us area status and Brian Simmons became the first South Coast
Representative and Show Secretary. |
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By 1984 our stand had become recognised as
the largest massed display of begonias at any Show in the country. A new
introduction was
the charity
pond which over the years has benefited many local causes. We now had
twelve classes and these had been divided into Open, Intermediate and Novice |
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In addition
to our Show and meetings coach trips were proving popular. Our annual pilgrimage to Blackmore & Langdon's open
days prior to the Chelsea Show together with weekends away were
organised by the late Ernie Bryant. We tried to expand along the coast to
Southampton but in spite of staging some very attractive, if modest, displays
for several years local support was not forthcoming. |
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After the 1988 Show Dave Coates took over as South
Coast Rep. and Vernon Upfield as Show Secretary. New recruits continued
to reinforce our numbers and our classes at the Show grew to twenty,
these took up so much space that we were allocated the entire end of the
floral marquee, an area that we continued to occupy until our last Show at
Southsea. |
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Each year the stand varied in some way, the
1997 display was steeply banked as in the previous three years,
it was however to be
be the last big massed display, at least for the time being (we have
hopes). We had lost two or three key contributers and could no longer
muster the 140 or so plants needed to fill the 20' of staging. To counteract this we tried to add more artistic effect,
mainly in the form of a garden. The competitive classes continued to thrive, and still do. |
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In 1998 the Society introduced Area
Championships and honoured us by holding the first competition at Southsea,
classes were for 6 pots and also for 6 cut blooms, the classes augmented our own regular
ones and on the day there were 164 blooms and 82 pots on the showbenches. |
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The 2002 Show was our
30th. The only surviving founder member Brian Simmons was forced
to withdraw from all classes and from contributing towards the Stand due
to a severe attack of tarsonamid mite in his begonias. This left
the display a little short on plants, but in spite of this it was an
excellent Show with entries well up on the previous year. |
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2004,
although at the time of the Show we did not realise it, this was to be our
last year at Southsea. Ever increasing costs and other problems
forced a rethink and we decided that after 32 years it was time for a
change. We would take the bold decision to hold our own Show. |
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2005. The
decision paid off. The new venue, Portchester Parish Hall where we hold
our meetings, is a new building with plenty of light and extensive
facilities. We no longer have the problem of admission passes,
traffic congestion and spiralling costs. We do miss being right by the
sea and being part of a very large show but at the end of the day it was
all getting too much for us. |
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