The 2024 Pilning Flower Show will be held on Saturday 24th August.
All are welcome!
The Pilning Flower Show celebrates the talents of our community. Entries include items grown, baked, and made by participants of all ages.
All are welcome to enter the competitions. You are encouraged to bring your friends and family to the event. Enjoy the day visiting together with the community, viewing the entries, celebrating the achievements, and participating in the raffle and auction. You could go home with your arms fill of local vegetables, flowers as well as a wide range of exciting prizes donated by local businesses.
All proceeds from 2024 will benefit the locally based ‘Make a Mark’ charity.
Are you growing vegetables, fruit, or flowers? Do you enjoy photography, flower arranging, baking? Or perhaps you enjoy arts and crafts? There are a wide range of competition categories to enter for both children and adults. All skills levels are welcome to enter the show.
Latest News and Announcements
The 2024 Pilning Flower Show: New Classes for 2024
In response to public feedback and to provide some new challenges for competitors, the organising committee has refreshed some of the classes for this year’s show. The new classes are as follows:
Flowers Class 27 ‘Sunflowers (flower of the year)’ – 3 stems
Flowers Class 29 ‘Asters (annual or perennial)’ – 3 stems
Preserves Class 40a ‘Glass Jar of Honey’
Baking Class 47 ‘Sausage Rolls (flaky or rough puff pastry)’ – 4
Photography Class 52 ‘Pairs’
Photography Class 54 ‘A Macro or Close-up’
Flower Arranging Class 60 ‘Flower Arrangement in a Bottle or Bottles’
Flower Arranging Class 61 ‘All in Green’
Children to 8 years Class 65 ‘A Decorated Mask’
Children to 8 years Class 66 ‘A Hand/Finger Painting’
Children to 14 years Class 69 ‘My Favourite Homemade Pizza (max 20cm)
Children to 14 years Class 70 ‘A Short Story or Blog (maximum 250 words)
Honey is a brand-new class, but all the others replace something in last year’s show. Please visit the programme on our website for further information on these and all other the classes. Alternatively, please await the printed programmes which should be available in June.
Sunflowers appear for the first time as cut flowers as they are identified nationally as the flower of the year, replacing Salvias. But please also remember to have a go at the tallest sunflower competition. Available to anyone to enter, including those from Easter Compton, we have given children a head start by going into the local Primary Schools to sow seeds with them.
Our charity for this year ‘Made a Mark’ has confirmed they’ can attend the show and have provided us with information to help us to persuade potential sponsors to support us.
If you would like to help, please get in touch with us via the contact form on the website.
2024 charity selected
The organising committee considered which charity it should support in 2024. Suggested to the committee by resident and show stalwart Pat Edwardes, locally based ‘Made a Mark’ was chosen. The charity was founded in 2018 in memory of Mark Knapp, a much-loved husband and father of 2 young children, who died very suddenly and unexpectedly. Whilst the care that Mark received in hospital was excellent, the family were left feeling that the support for the children in that setting simply wasn’t there. It really was difficult to know what to do, where to turn to and how best to talk to the children about what had happened. The charity is a way to help other families take opportunities that were missed, by providing memory boxes and supporting materials to acute hospitals and hospices, which can be given to children and their families following a loss. Made a Mark is a registered with the Charity Commission and is a no-salary charity, run solely by volunteers for the public benefit. We do hope, with the support of the community, the Flower Show will be able to raise a good sum for this great cause.
2024 Flueroselect flower of the year
The Fleuroselect flower of the year for 2024 is the sunflower. So, as well as the tallest sunflower competition, cut sunflowers will be included as a new class in this year’s show. Time to get sowing yours in March and April!
Visit to the Avon Centre
In November, the committee members were welcomed for a visit at the Avon Centre (formerly RDA). This was a great opportunity for the committee members to see how the monies raised by the 2022 flower show are used at the centre. We watched riding lessons being given to children in the vast indoor arena and sat in seats which originally came from the old Webley Stadium and were used by Princess Anne earlier this year. We saw Shetland ponies, toured the stables and were given a demonstration of the horse simulator. A big thank you to Karen Sheppard for arranging and giving a very interesting tour.
Pilning Flower Show AGM
The Annual General Meeting was held on Tuesday, 10th October 2023, 7:30pm at St Peter’s Church, Pilning. The Great Western Air Ambulance Charity was presented with a further cheque for £1,500. The 2024 committee members and officers were confirmed at the meeting. We welcome Sue Fry and Yvonne Gaulton as new committee members. See the About Us Page to learn more about the volunteers.
For further information please speak with any of the current organising team. Thank you for your continued support.
2023 Pilning Flower Show Escapes the Rain
The 2023 show on 26th August once again proved to be a great success, with the outdoor auction of produce and grand raffle draw just concluding as the heavens opened. Visitors to the show had dug deep raising a record amount for the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity who were represented on the day by Alyson Kennea.
Competitors and entries were up by 10% from the previous year with fruit, preserves, baking, photography and crafts being particularly well supported. Wildlife photography (17), cherry tomatoes (15) and jam (12) topped out of the 429 entries.
Remarkably, 90-year-old show stalwart Edward England won best in show for his spectacular ‘King Charles III’ flower arrangement. Edward also took home trophies for most points in the show and in flowers, and the cup for tomatoes. Youth also prevailed with 9-year-old Ollie Roper winning the Harry Cox Cup for best spring sown onions and 13-year-old Beccy Latham Roberts sharing the cup for most points in fruit. Other trophy winner included Mervyn Reeves – specimen rose and most points in horticultural classes, Diane Lloyd most points in cakes, Helen & Jon Oates most points in flower arranging and Lizzie Latham Roberts most points children 14 and under.
The new Ian Kemp Memorial Cup was a first for the show in its 127-year history, as it was made by donor Duncan Kemp using 3D printing. This distinctive trophy was awarded for most points in photography and was won by Steven Wharram. A full set of results and award winners can be found on this website together with lots of photos from the day.
The main hall and grounds of St Peter’s School were full of visitors in the afternoon, who enjoyed the wonderful displays and the homemade refreshments. Show organisers were very pleased with the response and the compliments received for how things ran. They were particularly delighted by the generosity of local businesses and organisations featured in the programme and on this website who all donated money or items to be auctioned or included in the raffle. These are paramount to the continued success of the show and the funds raised for charity. Thank you everyone for your support. The show date for 2024 will be Saturday 24th August.
More details from the 2023 show can be found on the Previous Results Page
Supporting Local Causes
Funds raised by the 2023 Pilning Flower show were donated to The Great Western Air Ambulance.
In 2022, the Flower Show raised funds for two sperate charities, the Avon Riding Centre (RDA) and the Community Defibrillators.
Learn more about the local causes supported ⟶
Acknowledgement
The Organisers of the Pilning Flower Show would to thank the following businesses for their continuing support of donations and prizes for the show. We’d be pleased for our community to return the compliment by supporting them when possible
Would your business be interested in making a donation or providing a prize for the raffle or auction? This is a great way to show your support for the Pilning and Severn Beach community.
