At the 2003 Annual South
Australian Chrysanthemum Show George Harrington was presented with an
Australian Chrysanthemum Council Medal for his contribution to chrysanthemum
growing.
George being presented with his medal
by Vin Charlton President of the SA Chrysanthemum Society
Below is a description
of George's involvement with Chrysanthemums
George
Harrington has been involved in the cultivation,
hybridisation, showing and promotion of chrysanthemums and chrysanthemum
growing in South Australia and Australia since the early 1970's. George
and his family arrived, like so many Australians, as a migrant in 1963.
The home he established at Seaton was not special by general standards
but to George was magnificent because of the size of the garden. He instantly
filled it full of gladioli, dahlias, chrysanths and a myriad of other
blooms. Not content with just letting them grow he constantly tried new
ideas to try and improve the size and colour of his blooms. One example
of this was his experiments with soil-less culture. His shed was soon
full of vast sacks of vermiculite and a wide array of chemicals to mix
and trial different fertiliser recipes for his plants. This constant activity,
the drive to improve his knowledge and growing skills, the burning desire
to grow the perfect bloom or produce a new cultivar and the constant search
for new ideas and knowledge epitomised his involvement in horticulture
over the next 30 years. In the early 1970's George joined the South Australian
Chrysanthemum and Floral Art Society and from this time on his great love
became the chrysanthemum. He still enjoyed growing other plants but they
all took second place to his beloved "chrysies". He quickly became an
active member of the society and a great contributor at the annual show.
In his first year as an exhibitor he covered the show bench with blooms
entering every class. George continued to be an avid exhibitor and his
boxes of certificates, indicating champion blooms and first in class,
are testimony to his success as a grower of high quality blooms. This
interest in showing continued, with great success, through into the 1990's
and was only curtailed through changed life circumstances, the death of
his wife, moving into a small flat and other changes of that made the
upkeep of a large garden difficult. However, no matter where George was
one could always find, a small plot or shade house full to the brim with
potted chrysies and if you had the time hours of conversation about the
season and how it was affecting the growth of the plants. During his growing
years George was interested in new ideas in chrysanthemum growing. He
was always experimenting or trying out new ideas. When Graham Sharpe introduced
the concept of Fusuke and Durama to Australia George was one of the first
to try out the method with great success. His use of a 14 week method
to grow potted chrysanthemums was also very successful. Over the years
he tried his hand at most areas of chrysanthemum growing but became particularly
interested in charm chrysanthemums and grew some immense pots and encouraged
many of the society members to take up this particularly rewarding area
of chrysanthemum growing. George also involved himself in hybridisation
and had some reasonable success with some spatulated forms. As stated
before he always like to experiment and had a particular interest in using
colchicine, which is used by African Violet growers to produce new forms,
to develop new chrysanthemums. George was not content to just attend meetings
of the South Australian Chrysanthemum Society and quickly became a member
of the committee holding several office bearer roles over many years.
He gave talks to the society members on a variety of topics, helped with
the organisation and running of the annual show, assisted as a judge at
the annual show, wrote articles for the society's magazine and actively
encouraged novice members of the society by encouraging them to enter
the show and giving them growing advice. George was particularly keen
on assisting new growers and in recognition of this the George Harrington
Prize for Novices was introduced by the society as one of the awards at
the annual show. In the 1970's meetings were held to create the Australian
Chrysanthemum Council. George was one of the South Australian representatives
on this group and helped with the formation of the Council. George was
the South Australian representative on this group for many years. Travelling
to different states each year to attend the meetings and the Australian
Show. He really enjoyed this involvement because it gave him the opportunity
to help promote the growing of chrysanthemums around Australia and enabled
him to meet some amazing people involved in the cultivation of chrysanthemums.
In the late 1990's although, due to age and lack of space, George could
no longer be involved in intense growing his interest in chrysanthemums
had not diminished. He had recently bought himself a computer and had
started to 'surf the net'. He found that there was little out there for
chrysanthemum growers particularly material emanating from Australia.
Therefore together with his son, a website based on chrysanthemums called
the South Australian Chrysanthemum Centre was constructed. On this site
George published information on growing chrysanthemums and information
from the annual South Australian Show. Links were made to other chrysanthemum
sites around the world and George continued to advise growers, new and
old, through the e-mail provisions on the site. The site provided George
with access to keen chrysanthemum growers worldwide and allowed him to
help others who were just starting out on the road to successful chrysanthemum
growing. In 2001 George had a stroke and retired to a nursing home. Although
he lost half his vision and has become a little forgetful his first task
everyday is to get up, turn on his computer and check out how many people
have visited his web site. George Harrington through his energy, involvement
and willingness to give of his time and share his ideas and knowledge
has made a noteworthy contribution to chrysanthemum growing in South Australia
and Australia.
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