What an enjoyable evening we had this month when Irene Bowkett presented ‘Curtain Up’.  Her colourful  and    dramatic  designs together with her  energetic, entertaining  and humorous commentary  (in addition to her giving us helpful tips along the way) kept us all relaxed, attentive and amused throughout.

Her arrangements were all associated with  entertainment; we started with a performance of   Buttons and Bows, we payed homage to Carmen Miranda and Liberace and visited performances of The Lion King, Madame Butterfly and Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat.

All the designs were bright and bold. Plant material included soft ruscus, laurel, fern, broom and pussy willow.  Flowers  included Singapore orchids,  gerberas, carnations, anthuriums , Captain arum lilies, Miss Piggy, aqua and grand prix roses, white and green  Anastasia chrysanthemums,  delphiniums and statice. Containers, additional props and extra arrangements (so there were many very happy raffle winners)  all contributed to a stunning stage display at the end of the evening.

The refreshments, sales table and  plant stall all added to the enjoyment of the evening – thank you to  Irene and everyone who worked  hard to make it so successful.

By the end of the evening everyone was feeling very jealous of what a beautiful garden Daphne must have    – her variety, use, knowledge and love of  mainly home grown plant material was tremendous.

Her demonstration ‘Old Friends and New Faces’  used a variety of containers, all of which had a story attached – some from years ago and others very recent.

We have chosen two of our favourite arrangements . Firstly the horizontal one using pink stripe phormium leaves, ‘antique’roses , bouvardia, bergenia, viburnum tinus and badam pods.  Midollino sticks formed the focus of the next design round which purple carnations and scarlet gerbera were spiralled. This was finished off with choisya sundance, hebe and coca spathes.

The other four arrangements were equally  well planned and executed  with interesting combination of colours  and a wide variety of flowers including irises, agapanthus, caffia lilies, chrysanthemums and tulips.

The stage already looked bright and welcoming with lots of daffodils and Spring flowers when we arrived for our first demonstration of 2016 with Barbara Collins presenting ‘Spring Bouquet’ – a really appropriate title as we met on St David’s Day.
Barbara used both definitions of ‘bouquet’ producing a lovely hand tie as her first arrangement and throughout all the designs used Spring flowers with a beautiful scent. She linked several of the arrangements with Spring events including a basket of flowers for Mother’s Day and a church window design using pussy willow for Easter.
Barbara’s love and knowledge of plant material was apparent throughout and we can name only a few varieties of foliage (much of which was garden material) that was included; griselinia, sennecio, Kew Green skimmia, pittisporum, cornus, bergenia, Xanadu philodendron and willow leaf hebe.
The foliage was complemented by just as many varieties of flowers. Our favourites were Sky Jacket hyacinths, Blueberry roses, multi headed veronica, Flashpoint pink double tulips and freesias.
Barbara’s entertaining presentation was full of humour, information and lots of tips for both novice and experienced flower arrangers all of which made for a well balanced and enjoyable evening for everyone.
By the end of the evening the stage looked stunning – thank you Barbara for a lovely evening.

Following the formal aspects of the AGM, we were very pleased to welcome as our speaker, Jane Markham, Manager of the Warden Abbey community vineyard.

Some of us were unaware of the existence of the vineyard,  but it has a long and varied history and Jane shared  some of it with us.  Now a community vineyard, it is a not-for-profit venture and works in partnership with various organisations to provide social, health and educational benefits for Bedfordshire.

At the end of a most interesting and informative talk we were able to taste some of the wine made from grapes grown in the vineyards.  Very nice it was too.