31st May 2025 - Annual Plant Sale at Wetheral Community Hall

All of us on the Committee were delighted with the support given by so many, to make our Annual Plant Sale such a success today.

 

 

Thank you so much to those who helped us set up last night and for those stepping in today to be on the stalls, teas, door, sales and raffle. A fantastic effort by all and a great public response. 

Thank you to everyone who brought along plants and all those delicious cakes, and, to everyone who came along and supported the event.

We raised over £1900!

Expenses have yet to be deducted  but we will keep you informed and the amount to be donated  to The Eden Valley Hospice.

Dates for your diaries.

Members Martin and Ian at Ivy House , Cumwhitton, CA8 9EX have their lovely garden open for the NGS on the 22nd, June and 10th, August (1-5pm). So hope members can support.

Brampton East  Gardens , Brampton CA8 1EX are open 6th, July between 1-5.00pm. Details on NGS site.

Again a very big thank you to everyone for making today such a success.

Liz Webster

VGC Secretary.

15th May 2025 - Day Trip to Gardens of the North East, near Morpeth

The Lake at Bichfield Tower, Morpeth

Fantastic weather, two gorgeous gardens & a wonderful nursery – a huge thank you to Sandy, our new trip organiser.

1. First up was STANTON FENCE - home to Sir David Kelly and his late wife, Angela.

This has been the Kelly home since 1969. Firstly a farm with land to enjoy the world of horses, the gardens were designed in early 2000s by Arabella Lennox-Boyd. For twenty two years Steve Grimwood has been the head gardener.

Stanton House was featured in Country Life in 2018 – so do have read & enjoy the pictures of mid summer, by Val Corbett.

https://www.countrylife.co.uk/gardens/stanton-fence-traditional-english-garden-transformed-touch-chelsea-gold-medallist-182425

Morning coffee & tray bakes were much appreciated.

Lady Kelly was a keen grower of indoor pelagoniums. For some these plants belong to the 1970s, perhaps appealing more to the a senior population.

However seeing them grow en masse - in gutsy profusion of health and colour - they were stunning!

2. Lunch was at STANTON HALL GARDENS & NURSERY.

The nursery is a small family run business, offering something different from the larger garden centres. This five star Trip Advisor rated nursery is a wonderful resource.

    “Forty years ago, the nursery was started as a market garden growing and selling soft fruit,             vegetables and cut flowers. As the days of ‘freeze your own’ declined, we progressed into                 annual summer bedding plants then into perennials, shrubs and trees. We still grew vegetables         but now as plants to sell. This was still as part time as we both had full time jobs elsewhere.

    Since we became self employed we have focused on plants and not followed the big garden             centres into franchising areas out. We felt that this way we keep a “garden” atmosphere. We are     only open for half the year during the growing season April-mid September, as we find there are     few winter gardeners! We aim to provide good quality plants, reasonably priced, with advice on     all areas of cultivation.    

    The gardens have developed over the years as trade increased, with Chris’ imaginative                     constructions mostly from re-cycled materials, enhancing the planting. Claire uses the gardens         as an important source of seeds and cuttings to produce the new stock each year. We hope we         have created a garden which people are happy to visit and enjoy."

https://www.stantonhall.co.uk

The Roof of Bichfield Tower's GinGan

 Lunch was taken in the GIN GAN. 

For some of us this was a new name. 

A gin gang is a wheelhouse (often horse powered) which is usually circular and attached to a threshing barn. Most were built in England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The gin was short for "engine" and the gan for “going”.

 

3. Our final destination was to BICHFIELD TOWER, Morpeth. This beautiful mediveal, pele tower is the home of Lesley and Stewart Manners. Set in approximately six acres: there is an impressive stone water feature, large trout lake, mature woodland, pear orchard, and two walled gardens. Extensive herbaceous borders, prairie borders and contemporary grass borders live harmoniously together.

Afternoon refreshments - Thank you Lesley

Wisteria adorned walls

Bichfield Tower is open for the NGS on 13th July 2025
A date for your diary perhaps.

Written by Trish Rodgers

.

  

10th April 2025 - A British Flower Story - by Emma Greenshaw

Our speaker was                                     

Mrs Emma Greenshaw; the inspirational owner of The Fellside Flower Company, situated in Long Marton, near Appleby-in-Westmorland.
Emma’s talk was entitled “A British Flower Story” was a fascinating presentation about the growth and development of sustainable flowers now being produced throughout the British Isles.

Around the world, life events are invariably celebrated using flowers of many varieties. Commercial enterprises have thrived in producing blooms for the public. Such flowers needed to be robust in order to withstand the picking, packing and the many miles of road or air transport in order to arrive at distant wholesale markets in pristine condition. The Netherlands and Israel emerged as global trade leaders for the cut-flower world market.

Historically, every British high street had an independent florist but then the mass production of foreign blooms became available in every supermarket and on every garage forecourt: selling at competitive prices. Therefore small independent floristry businesses have struggled to compete. Currently about 10% of flowers were being produced in the U.K., mainly seasonal spring flowers like daffodils.

With growing public awareness of sustainability, the fact that the global flower market involves huge transportation costs and the use of chemical sprays, an inspirational lady from Yorkshire intervened! Her name is Gill Hodgson MBE. She has led the way to try and alter the tastes and fashion of British customers by revolutionising the British Flower Market. She founded and organised a company called “Flowers from the Farm”.
Gill had a background hobby in floristry using mainly Dutch flowers. But she began experimenting and growing flowers such as cosmos, cornflowers, Ammi majus, love-in-a-mist and found that even grown in commercial quantities, they coped well with the British climate. The trend for using local blooms has been enhanced by the desire for a more informal style of floristry: using local leaves, herbs and seasonal blooms. This old style revival of using freshly ‘just-gathered’ flowers has allowed many enterprising farmers to diversify and grow crops of flowers!

In 2016 the “Flowers From The Farm” initiative led Emma Greenshaw to decide to begin her own career growing flowers for her local Cumberland customers, despite the unpredictable northern climate! With the support of her husband, she carved out a scheme in an adjacent field to their house. Hedges were planted, fences erected and rabbit and sheep-proofed boundaries installed. On-going woodland planting was also developed for wildlife as well as being useful as floristry foliage. So with the Sarah Raven catalogue in hand, Emma began to trial the seeds and plants for suitability in her chosen fell side field. Before long, she had to extend her beds as the demand for her flowers grew.

In 2019, Gill Hodgson decided to exhibit at Chelsea. She created a display of British grown flowers called To Market. The display of a featured a horse and cart laden with the flowers tumbling off the back of the wagon was a gold medal winner!

Emma has continued to plant more trees including crab apples, birch, hazel, and viburnum, all chosen to complement the blooms. Even an apiary has been added. No spray chemicals and pesticides are used (although docks have proved a challenge!) but as a consequence a high biodiversity has been achieved across the flower fields and woodlands, and a Barn Owl now frequently flies at dusk. Emma uses a no-dig style of cultivation with grass paths between the long flower beds.

Practically, antirrhinum, cornflowers, larkspur, calendula, and sweet peas are thriving and are proving to be easy to cut and also have a good shelf life. A move to plant perennials as well as annuals has led to Emma experimenting with astrantia, echinops, rudbeckia, scabious and verbena bonariensis. A variety of bulbs planted in November, including unusual daffodils, fritillaries, and late tulips. Emma spends much of December making winter wreaths using her own foliage and fruits.

A huge accolade and promotion for Flowers From the Farm happened when (in total secrecy) Gill was approached by the King’s Florist, Mr Shane Connelly, to ask if she could organise all of the farm flower growers across Britain to provide sufficient flowers for use at the 2023 Coronation in London. From across Scotland, the North and right across England, flowers were sent and collected for the King’s florist to be able to use exclusively British grown flowers in the celebratory displays. Shane’s wife is a church warden and this has prompted a movement throughout the Church of England to try and use sustainably grown British flowers for decorating churches for weddings and funerals.

And of course we are all responsible to trying to avoid using foam products such as ‘Oasis’ when arranging formal displays.