Ashton Hayes and Tarvin Flower Club – Report of November Meeting

The main hall of the community centre looked very festive for our Christmas Event. There were stalls all around the back and sides of the hall selling cards, Christmas food in abundance, jewelry and scarves and bags, various gift stalls and a stall of Japanese goods which had decorations hand made with paper which were incredibly intricate. There was also a tombola stall.

Alan Wilkinson provided background music and then later the lighting for the demonstration and we thank him for his help.

Jane Pugh from Bishop's Castle in Shropshire is a lively lady who runs a flower shop as well as doing wedding work and she likes to sing whilst she works. Because it was our Christmas demonstration with the title "Christmas Cheer" we had the accompaniment of Jane singing Christmas music.

Jane had decided that chocolate is a popular component of Christmas so each design represented a well known chocolate brand. She told us a little of the history of each and of the manufacturer. As all are still in production today she had a sample of the chocolate to give with each design.

The 1st design represented Milk Tray by Cadbury's so had a purple theme. Number 2 was showing Terry's chocolate orange with orange roses. Next was an Aero bar and Jane chose to represent peppermint flavour so the flowers showed a green bubbly design. 1951 was the date when the Bounty bar was introduced and for this Jane produced a large arrangement in a basket with delphiniums and white orchids. The final design represented Cadbury's Roses, originally made by Rose Brothers when they were first produced in 1938. This design had exotic foliage and was multi-coloured.

Excellent refreshments followed, home made by our chairman. These were appreciated by all.

We have no meeting in December so January 9th 2019 will be our next demonstration when Anne Houghton will entertain us with the title "Constance" This will be at 7-30pm in the Edna Rose room.