this month's flower
Edgworth and District Horticultural Society
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ALL MEETINGS CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

WE WILL BE BACK IN BUSINESS AS SOON AS IT IS SAFE TO DO SO.

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Flowers in Edgworth Pat has taken these pictures of some of the planters which were provided by the Society with NT Parish Council and maintained by local residents and businesses.  They have been admired by many and really lift the spirits in these troubled times.

Best wishes to you all from the Committee.  Hope you are all keeping well and not too bored in isolation.  Personally, I am quite enjoying being able to spend as much time as possible in the garden instead of the usual hour here and there between different commitments.  I suppose the glorious weather has helped, but that seems to have come to an end now so I am able to catch up with other things which have been neglected, and the garden certainly does needs the rain.

In normal times some of us would have been visiting  Erddig House and Chirk Castle on Saturday 2nd May.  Disappointing but we can always re-arrange for another time.  Let’s hope that the Late Summer trip will go ahead in September, the plan was to visit Harewood House and Dove Cottage Gardens but who knows if this will now be  possible. When will life return to normal? <

Irene

Sam Camps from Rawtenstall would have been our speaker in April. He is the third generation of a bee-friendly gardening family.

Sam was going to talk to us about Green roofs and Wildflower borders – having a strong belief that our gardens are habitats for our diverse insect and animal life. He says that for a lot of us, gardening used to be about controlling nature but his ethos is to work alongside nature and to realise that it is vital that we encourage the presence of bees, butterflies, hedgehogs etc

As an accredited Wildflower Turf installer, he strives to pass on an understanding of, and the necessity for, wild flowers in our borders and meadows. Having been trained in establishing green roofs, every bit of garden space is utilised which adds beauty to an otherwise mundane shed, benefitting wildlife which is unaffected by foot traffic.

His talk has had to be postponed, but he is looking forward to being with us in 2021

Pat

A Special House Guest

A large cardboard box has languished in my house since Christmas 2018, being regularly moved “out of the way” to somewhere equally in the way. This was always accompanied by under-the-breath, guilty muttering of “must do something with this sometime”. At the end of March this year I stopped procrastinating about where to put it and installed the beautifully made bird box with a built-in camera that I’d bought 16 months earlier.

Before buying it I’d planned to fasten it to the new fence at the bottom of the garden but then realised that despite being 6’ high the box would be vulnerable to attack by squirrels and cats if near the top and to ground-based predators lower down.  Also it would be exposed to the afternoon sun -  boiled eggs and roast bird was not what I wanted!

Instead I mounted it about 10 ft up the NE wall of my house, close to the protruding chimney flue where it would be sheltered from wind and get the morning sun. This was obviously a des-res because it took about a week for a Blue Tit to take up residence.

The female takes full charge of house hunting and furnishing, the male bird takes no part in this! For the last three weeks she has been busily flitting in and out, carrying nesting materials; bits of fern, moss and hair.  It’s been fascinating to watch as she builds up nesting materials over several visits only minutes apart and then spends more time carefully arranging them to form a cup shaped nest. I assume she is weaving them into place but does this with her head out of sight, deep in the pile. She starts at first light and works like this until about 9pm She then spends about an hour rotating in the cup, using her feet and beak to shape it as she wants it. 

       

After fluffing up her feathers a well deserved sleep follows – all that is visible is a gently rising and falling ball of fluff – and no audible snoring! Very soon I expect she will start to lay eggs, usually one per day and possibly up to 16. I hope all goes well and I can give updates and more pictures in the next few emails.

Phil

A Day in the Life of a Wedding Florist

Well to start at the very beginning as the song goes ... In the ‘80s I took a City & Guilds Flower Arranging course - as it was known then.  The course was entirely female, the majority of the ladies being the age I am now. Their plant identification and knowledge was far greater than mine at the time. I hung on their every word!  Since then I have completed many design courses over the years, worked in the floristry industry for 10 years in central Manchester and now work from my home workshop as a wedding florist.

Floristry and gardening have always been my passion.  In the early years it was all triangles, Hogarth curves and crescents - all rather stiff formal styles.  In the last 30 years design has been very much influenced by the northern Europeans (see master florist Gregor Lersch) which has turned formality on its head producing a much more relaxed,natural look, with the traditional vintage look still going strong. Floristry has now become big business globally, in the UK dominated by such names as Paula Pryke, Zeta Else, Simon Lycett to name but a few.  Check out their work online for colour, imagination and unusual use of material.  Who would have thought back in the days of Constance Spry using herbs, succulents or even artichokes and vegetables in floral design?

For most people a day in the life of a wedding florist would suggest a rather breezy occupation.  I promise the reality is very different.  For an average wedding once you have met with the bride, visited the venue sometimes multiple times, discussed with the bride pieces and plant material, created a spreadsheet for numbers and costings, the real work then begins! Flowers and foliage are ordered several weeks in advance from your friendly wholesaler.  Material is collected by the florist early in the morning as these guys and gals work anything from 2am to meet the large chiller containers coming from Holland, I am sure you will have seen them on your local motorway.  Wholesalers are closing by 10am, they are a hardy lot!

The Dutch flower market is a huge industry they are not only importers but huge growers (particularly of bulbs, especially spring flowers).  They also receive flowers grown from all over the world, e.g. roses from Columbia and Kenya, proteas, lilies chrysanthemums and eucalyptus from South Africa, orchids from Japan. We have all enjoyed spectacular international displays of their native flora at Chelsea in years gone by.  When I first started working in floristry the UK flower growing industry was very small and niche now ‘stems’grown in the UK accounted for 14% of £865m of flowers (and presumably foliage) sold in Britain in 2019, an increase from the previous year.  Influenced by Royal Weddings and inparticular ‘the English Look’ created by Simon Lycett for William and Kate’s wedding in 2011. Who would forget the beautiful avenue of maples and hornbeam trees in Westminster Abbey.

Homeward bound with a car full of flower/foliage, plus previously selected containers for large pieces, bridal and guest tables etc. is where the real fun starts, usually 3 to 4 days before the big day. The dishwasher is a great help!  The garage workshop is prepped with all flower buckets beached, cleaned and filled with clean water / flower food to ensure your precious bundles and boxes and importantly the finished products will stay fresh for at least a week.  Your ‘best friends’ for longevity include carnations, orchids and lilies.  Most stems are purchased in bunches of 10-18 depending on the flower. All stems are then ‘conditioned’: stem ends cut, lower leaves and rose thorns removed.  Stems are then left to take up water for at least 24 hours.  All oasis foam soaked.

    

I tend to start with the larger pieces such as large pedestals first, then to buttonholes/corsages and lastly the bouquets on the day before the wedding. Each completed piece is water sprayed several times daily.  Buttonholes completed and name tagged – this comes from experience of trying to find Aunty Flo in a room full of people!  I prefer to attach buttonholes and corsages to the relevant guest as nothing is more annoying when looking at photo’s later to find them hanging by a thread pinned on the wrong side (left facing up / men, right facing down / women).  Gone are the days of a carnation and bit of fern, buttonholes have become more elaborate and thus heavier so fitting securely is important.

         

Set up day - time to pack the car for delivery.  On arrival you can tweak as needed.  Usually bouquets, buttonholes and corsages are delivered on the morning of the wedding.

You can then head home for a bubbly bath and then feet up - that is before you are back at the venue to clear up!

Providing wedding flowers is as much about creativity as it is a practical exercise in organisation and logistics to deliver a product successfully and on time to a happy customer!


Angela


My Favourite Garden - Have you visited a garden, large or small,  and fallen in love with it.  Why not tell us about it in your own words (around 300-400).    Explain what you liked about it, maybe what you didn’t like.  Where it is, is it open to visitors? (we can only dream about that one at the moment).  We can add photographs if you can provide a few or we can find pictures if they are on a website.

Barbara’s Springtime Garden

Are you missing our monthly lectures and looking for something to do?  
Here are a few websites offering Tutorials..............

  • Did you join us on the 4-day holidays a few years ago when we visited Sarah Raven’s home and looked around her garden. It was stunning.  Why not explore her website for inspiration? www.Sarahraven.com

And now for some Retail Therapy and a way of helping the Retail Garden Industry to survive this crisis
  • Barbara Kenny has been using this site  https://www.gardenbargains.com  which have a lot of plants and garden products at low prices.  You can pay a £10 annual membership fee which then gives you 10% of every order
  • Barbara has also discovered a provider of birdseed and other wild products that is very good value and quick delivery. Here is the link the link https://www.ivelvalleybirdfood.co.uk "> 
  • Angela Swallow has passed on this information received from a friend  :  "Lovania" & "LS Systems" are family run horticultural businesses based in Tarleton.  
    • The former grows &  produces vast numbers of plants for garden centres& Aldi.  You may also  have seen their plants on TV as they supply plants used in the programme Love Your Garden The website is www.lovegardeningdirect.com"> 
    • The latter business sells horticultural supplies including composts, aggregates, tools & irrigation. LS systems is also operating a mail order service for their products. They have a very wide range of horticultural supplies including organic pest controls of nematodes for things like slugs & vine weevil. & a wide range of composts, topsoil & fertilisers & peat free products. Again, their prices are very competitive. They will offer a click & collect service, by arrangement, for larger orders from their premises in Tarleton. Their website is www.lssystems.co.uk

Remember, please tell us about ‘A Garden You Love, or any stories / ideas to share with other members. 3-400 words (or less) would be really good. I will put them in a future e-mail message. 

KeepWell

Irene