Thompson & Morgan’s vegetable ‘show man’, Arthur Davies, will stage his last impressive
vegetable display at the Suffolk Show in Ipswich on 29th and 30th May, before hanging up his
trowel for good at the end of this show season. After over four decades of growing and exhibiting vegetables, winning an amazing 164 Gold Medals in the process, Arthur has decided to finally retire and to concentrate on his other pastimes, namely time-keeping at major athletic events and his grandsons’ burgeoning football careers. Arthur’s career as an expert vegetable grower began
42 years ago when he was challenged by the great Percy Thrower, possibly the first TV gardener, to exhibit his vegetables with the professional growers at the Shrewsbury Show after spotting Arthur’s talent in the amateur section. Percy encouraged Arthur to ‘have a go’ in the professional tent and he won a gold medal in the first year. He has gone on to win the ‘Large Gold Medal’ for the next 39 years at the show. Arthur and his wife, Mary have been exhibiting every year since then, covering 5 or 6
shows a year. They have exhibited at more than 170 shows and horticultural events around the world, once even travelling to New Zealand Each show display involves a great deal of preparation.
Arthur grows over 80 varieties of vegetables himself and carefully schedules his seed sowing timetable to ensure vegetables are at their very best for exhibition at different dates in the year. The produce for each display is carefully lifted, cleaned and packed - a process usually taking 3 days - before being transported to the show site. A settingup time of around 15 hours follows to make sure that the
display is at its best.
Last season for veteran vegetable exhibitor