IF you are going to hold a flower show you can plan the programme and the attractions to your heart’s content. The one thing that is generally outwith your control? The weather.
The organisers of the 55th Ayr Flower Show were praying for sunshine for yesterday’s opening day. To their delight, the sun obeyed, and shone all day long.
The prolonged sunshine prompted people to turn up in their droves at Rozelle Estate, in Alloway: so many, in fact, that the overflow car park was opened considerably earlier than usual at 11.30am.
Some 10,000 people turned up yesterday, and another 20,000 are expected here today and tomorrow. Today’s forecast is good, by the way.
“People are sick of a summer that never happened,” says spokesman Bill Nolan. “and suddenly they see blue skies and sunshine, and there’s a big event on the doorstep, and they think, ‘That’s for me’.”
The flower and plants stalls did good business yesterday: there was even a plant creche, run by a Prestwick Boys Brigade company, where you could leave your purchases for just 50p.
As befits such events, there were a lot more things going on than just flowers. There are nearly 150 trade stand, craft and food-court stallholders, for a start. In the food colonnade, customers were tempted by venison, cheese and upmarket olive oil. Opposite was a man selling silk-filled duvets.
The smell of fish and chips mingled in the summer air with the smell of ‘fresh hot donuts’, gourmet burgers and hog roasts.
Clusters of kids enjoyed the demonstration of honeybees staged by Ayr Beekeepers; speaking of wildlife, seagulls wheeled overhead and swooped down onto the outdoor tables where people sat. The only reason for mentioning this was that this year, the birds of prey display hadn’t come to Rozelle Park, an absence that gave the seagulls free rein.
But the bad news for the gulls is that the birds of prey have been invited to turn up today.
The show relocated from Dam Park, near the centre of Ayr, a couple of miles away, in 1987. Most of the visitors over the course of this weekend will be Scottish, but the organisers say others will come from the north of England and, via the ferry at Troon, from Northern Ireland. The three-day event will be worth some £1.3 million to the local economy.
The show’s chairman, John Walker, resplendent in his kilt, expressed his pleasure with the way things were working out. Ayr MSP John Scott, resplendent in his panama hat, said: “On a day like today, you can see why we market this part of Ayrshire as the Riviera of Scotland - we have almost everything here in this wonderful micro-climate.”
Lorraine Connell, here with her daughter Charlotte, 12, said they had had “a really good day here - the weather has been fabulous.”
Today sees the launch of Ayr Looms, an antiques valuation service to which people can bring up to five items for valuation by professionals from Ayr-based Thomas R Callan.
There were stunning displays of begonias, delphinia, fuschias and pansies. Joe Proudlock, from Castle Douglas, deservedly won the Master Gardener prize for his remarkable leeks, onions, potatoes and flowers. In the kids’ tent, there were some striking works of art, including a crocodile made from pineapple and kiwi fruit, and a dolphin fashioned from a banana and a single blueberry.
“They’re forecasting some rain round about 6pm on Sunday,” adds Bill Nolan. He smiles. “But we couldn’t care less. We shut at 5pm.”
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