Fabulous Forty for Flower Club!

FLOWER CLUB Report of May meeting.

In September the Ashton Hayes and Tarvin Flower Club will celebrate 40 years! The club started to meet in Ashton and moved to Tarvin after the Community Centre opened. It has always been called Ashton Hayes and Tarvin Flower Club. Nowadays we have more Tarvin members but when it started there were more from Ashton.

At our September meeting, on the 14th May, Anne Houghton demonstrated and we marked the special occasion.
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As expected this month’s meeting was like a breath of fresh air and also an indication of the way that flower arranging is moving with the times. To see so many beautiful locally grown flowers was wonderful. Jean Hopkins of Apple Tree Flowers , near Broxton describes herself as a grower and arranger of flowers. She also does wedding and special event flowers.

Jean worked 9 designs for us and although there were repeats of the type of flowers used each design was quite different in colour tones and shape. No floral foam was used and containers were given with most of the designs when they were raffled.. Her methods of holding the flowers in place varied widely too.

Using foliage in a design helps to keep the flowers in place as well as adding to the overall effect. Another method shown was crunched netting . In a goldfish bowl she had pebbles in the base and on a low table design she placed a grid on the top of the container. One design was Ikebana style with red acer foliage and knarled wood as a flower support.

Jean used Sweet Cicely to great effect. It grows easily in the garden, is similar to cow parsley but stronger and longer lasting in water. One member told us that if rhubarb is cooked with sweet cicely no sugar is needed. The many tulips that Jean grew and used were enormous with not only varied colours but many different shapes of bloom. One variety we all thought was a peony. Ranunculus used were beautiful and were grown by Jean’s friend who has great success with them as her soil is sandier.

The evening concluded with red. white and blue decorated cakes to eat with our tea/ coffee. Every member was given a decorated door wreath to display for the Jubilee. Keep an eye open for these around Tarvin.

Our June meeting is a garden visit to Bluebell Cottage gardens. If you haven’t booked and would like to go please contact Merryn know (740832)

Ed: Beautiful arrangements – I love the recent expansion of the door wreath beyond the Christmas tradition – can't wait to see the jubilee Wreaths dotted round the village.