Flower Club report for May

Eleanor Davies from Shropshire was our demonstrator for our May meeting. She was a talented lady as, not only did she arrange flowers beautifully but she also showed us some lovely craft work too.

As a farmer's daughter she had to represent the farm which was her 1st design. A miniature milk churn was filled with lots of garden foliage and white flowers. The gerbera were stunning and the milk effect was produced using an enormous hydrangea bloom which she split up around the design. She finished off with a small white design with a knitted cat placed as if drinking the milk.

Design 2 was the one which contained many paper flowers which Eleanor had made and which gave a wonderful effect. This design was from Brownie and schooldays.  Great changes have taken place in farming since Eleanor's childhood and also in school. She told us how she and fellow pupils had to walk half a mile in all weathers to get their school lunch.

Craftwork dominated her 3rd design. To represent her job in a bank and having money to spend Eleanor had made several handbags in card of different colours. She then chose the predominant colour of each bag and filled it with roses of the same colour. These all looked quite stunning.

A large parallel design with multi coloured garden foliage and purple alliums predominating was her arrangement for her days belonging to the Young Farmers club.

In both of the next designs we saw how Eleanor enjoys leaf manipulation as she used aspidistra, fatsia and phormiums to great effect. The final design was in 2 parts on a large black stand . It represented many things enjoyed by Eleanor. The flowers and foliage were her favourites and included garden foliage , red roses, deep pink gerbera and purple anthuriums. Her added like introduced at the base of the design was a glass and a gin bottle !!

There were many raffle prizes which pleased our audience and they were further pleased to see trays of scones with clotted cream to go with our tea/ coffee. These had been kindly provided by Elizabeth Cooke , one of our committee members.

The June meeting is our annual garden visit on 14th June. Our next demonstrator is in July when Beryl Cotton will join us,

As I have mentioned before, the demonstrators take a long time to plan their work so prefer that others do not see too much. Consequently our photographs cannot possibly show the splendour of all 6 designs together.  If you love flowers and enjoy company do come along as a visitor.