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.