2011

 

6th December

Andrew Lloyd - The Magic of Christmas

We rounded our year off in style at the Conquest Theatre where the ever-popular Andrew Lloyd presented The Magic of Christmas. With beautiful flowers Andrew filled the stage with stunning designs, from a huge door wreath to an alternative idea for a Christmas tree, a tall vase for the halllway, a wonderfully frosty scene, a Yule log and even a floral Christmas card or two!

A wealth of different flowers were included, such as chrysanthemum blooms, roses, amaryllis and cymbidium orchids in all colours! And, of course, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a touch of glitter which Andrew incorprated in each colour scheme.

All of this was accompanied with hilarious tales of Christmas in the Lloyd extended family and Andrew had the audience laughing all the way! An excellent evening's entertainment to round off another great Floral Club year.

8th November

Trip to Abbey-cwm-hir

Our Christmas outing this year was to the magnificent house at Abbey-cwm-hir. Each year the owners decorate over fifty rooms for Christmas and the group of members that visited were amazed at what was on show. Our thanks to Ann Warrington for these photographs:

1st November

Club Night - Santa's Surprise!

The club were in festive mood as almost 40 members met to create a Christmas decoration under the guidance of Brigette Manton. The bouquet consisted of silk flowers, cones, orange slices & cinnamon sticks, ribbon and ting ting, designed to stand in a vase or bottle.

After Brigette had showed us how easy it was, everyone enjoyed creating their own designs and what a lovely selection we had at the end of the evening! Our thanks to Brigette for all her hard work in getting the materials together - all we had to bring was our scissors. And what fun we had!

 

4th October

Alwyn Stanley - Take a Leaf

Something different for our October meeting came in the shape of the Japanese art of Ikebana. Alwyn Stanley, a long-time student of the art, demonstrated a range of styles in the Ikebana school with some lovely ideas for use of foliage.

It was obvious that less can be more as the evening went on and quite a few members who are required to arrange flowers in church were encouraged by what one can achieve with a small amount of well chosen material!

 

30th September

Charity Coffee Morning

Our Chairman, Ann, hosted a coffee morning at her home in aid of MacMillan Cancer Care and was blessed with the hottest September day on record! Members and friends basked in glorious sunshine and the event resulted in a fantastic total of £525 for the charity. Well done and thank you to everyone who supported it!

 

24th/25th September

Malvern Autumn Show

This year's Autumn Show was a real family affair! Bunty Crump won a Second and a Third prize, daughter  Brigette won a Third and granddaughter Rosie won a First in the Junior Class. Many congratulations to you all!

 

6th September

Delyth Price - Serendipity

We were all looking forward to Delyth's visit to Bromyard and she didn't disappoint! Delyth is well known for her stunning competitive work and at our September meeting she demonstrated her wonderful sense of colour with some lovely designs. The title of her demonstration came from the "happy accidents" that had caused her to discover most of her containers and all our raffle prize winners went home very happy with their arrangements!

From an colourful upright design in front of a wrought iron screen we moved to a pretty metal basket full of summery pink flowers in bouquet form. Then we saw a glimpse of the NAFAS golden anniversary a couple of years ago with a pedestal of gold and yellow. An intriguing container looking a little like an upside down hat was filled with layers of pink, yellow and purple flowers and finally a wedding pedestal of green and white completed the evening.

We were delighted to welcome visitors from Bromyard W.I. to the evening and hope that they enjoyed the evening as much as we did.

 

 

9th August

Summer Outing to Broadway

Our annual summer outing this year was to the home of Carolyn Gordon-Smith in the Cotswold village of Broadway. In her summer house Carolyn gave us a lovely summery demonstration using some of the containers that inspire her the most. The flowers also gave us a wonderful feeling of summer with stocks, roses, carnations and the most fantastic pink hydrangea heads! Afterwards we wandered around Carolyn's garden and were treated to a delightful lunch.

We then headed up into the village for afternoon tea and a little retail therapy. And even the sun shone for us!  A most enjoyable day out and we thank Carolyn for her hospitality.

 

5th July

Donald Morgan

Journey into the World of Flowers

Our July meeting brought us Donald Morgan from Aberystwyth with A Journey into the World of Flowers.  His beautiful Welsh accent was a great bonus – he could have just read the telephone directory and yours truly would have been happy to listen to him! But it was much more fun than that! Donald made simple tales, such as trying to find his way through the streets of Shrewsbury, hilarious and had us wiping away the tears. But amidst the entertainment we also saw some lovely flower arrangements.

His first design was inspired by his beginnings as a flower arranger when he was fifteen. Garden flowers and foliage cascaded from a metal “wheelbarrow” container in pinks and creams. Then Donald moved on to his training as a demonstrator with a design of carnations standing tall, with sunflowers in a group beneath and alstromeria nestled at the base.

Aberystwyth is on the coast and so Donald’s next design was a picture of the view he enjoys from his home. A piece of driftwood was decorated with stunning blue delphiniums, white larkspur and calla lilies with a white oriental lily at the base.

Wales is The Land of Song and so a wrought iron harp was the frame for the next design. Here we were introduced to a beautiful red/white mix rose called “Latin Lady” which won a lot of “oohs” and “aahs” from the club members!

Finally another of Donald’s funny tales surrounded the purchase of a black cube frame which was the base for his final design. From the centre flowed cream carnations and bright red anthuriums, which also inspired another tale of incidents in his florists shop, causing  the evening to end with even more laughter!

 

 

14th June - Area Day

A dozen members enjoyed a fantastic Area Day at Worcester Rugby Club. The morning speaker was Tony Cleaver who had us laughing non-stop with his reminiscences of childhood and school days. A lovely lunch and a bit of retail therapy was followed with an afternoon demonstration by national demonstrator, Linda Shackleton, and not only did the stage look amazing at the end of her performance, but her  stories of life in an Essex florists kept us all entertained.

The competitions brought more success for Bromyard with two Seconds for Jill Williams, a Second and a Third for Barbara Priest and a Highly Commended for Yvonne Berry. Barbara also did well in the photographic competitions – move over David Bailey! The photo here shows one of Jill's exhibits. Well done to everyone.

 

7th June

Pedestal Evening

June brought an evening with a difference. The subject was pedestals which many church flower arrangers are required to produce on a regular basis. The inspiration for the evening was a DVD of a flower festival which took place at St George’s Hall, Liverpool, last year and was entirely made up of – yes, you’ve guessed it – pedestals. The DVD showed us all just what a varied subject this is. Gone are the days when a pedestal was just the formal triangle. Now, as long as it is lifted from the ground by some form of mechanics, anything goes!

Following the DVD presentation club members, Brigette and Barbara, demonstrated two contrasting pedestals. Brigette produced a beautiful traditional triangle design in pinks and white while Barbara put together a more modern cascade design in shades of green. Both arrangements were then auctioned off to the members. And our thanks go to Barbara’s husband and technical adviser, Richard, who once again bravely agreed to work the DVD player surrounded by fifty ladies!! (I think he quite enjoyed it!)

Our annual plant sale also took place at this meeting in aid of Club funds (what a busy night!) and many of our members went home clutching something new for the garden.

 

 

Malvern Spring Gardening Show 2011

Well done, as always, to everyone who entered the floral art competitions at this year's Malvern Show. From our members, Barbara Priest gained a First, Yvonne Berry was awarded a Highly Commended for her parasol in the craft class and Yvonne's grandson, Reece, was Second in the junior class for his decorated cake.

But the star of the show has to be Junior Floral Club member Rosie Manton who not only won First in the junior class but also the Best Use of Foliage award for the whole show. Well done Rosie! Haven't we got some talented young arrangers.

Here are photos of Yvonne's parasol and Rosie's decorated cake.

 

 

3rd May

Elizabeth Graham - Traveller's Joy

It was with great pleasure that we welcomed National Demonstrator, Elizabeth Graham, to Bromyard. Many members remember their summer outing to her home and garden some years ago and were delighted to reminisce with her about her plants and her mother’s wonderful welsh cakes!

Elizabeth’s demonstration took us on a journey via her containers – each bought in a place which brought back memories for her whenever she used it. We began with a Turkish oil pot cascading with white roses, viburnum blooms and tulips. Then we moved on the a metal container bought at a wholesalers in Amsterdam. Bright yellow roses nestled amongst willow and aspidistra leaves. A home-made basket then held a wonderful selection of garden plant material in greens and burnt oranges, completed with just three Choco anthuriums at the base.

Some ideas of construction work came next, and a few members not keen on twiggy frames were won over with Elizabeth’s imaginative designs. Finally a wonderful pillar of ivy root salvaged from a tree became the back drop for Aqua roses, lilac and more treasures from Elizabeth’s garden.

Elizabeth’s tales of her travels entertained us all the way and we hope to see her again before too long.

 

5th April

Arnaud Metarie - Come Fly With Me

We went continental at our April meeting with French demonstrator Arnaud Metairie. His presentation was entitled “Come Fly with Me” and what an entertaining time we had. The demonstration revolved around all the places Arnie had visited on holiday and the stories accompanying his designs had many audience members in fits of laughter.

Arnie’s flowers were varied. His first depiction of his homeland, France, was a dark urn with white roses and tulips cascading from its rim, illustrating the formal gardens of Versailles. Next we flew to Thailand with a horizontal design of pink orchids and green chrysanthemum blooms lying beneath a necklace of interwoven midelino sticks and beads. Then to India with a dome giving a hint of the Taj Mahal. Inside a selection of green “Bells of Ireland” nestled with cream gerberas and peach roses. The design was placed on a beautiful piece of Indian silk, originally destined for Arnie’s sister!

We visited Italy and particularly the stylish ladies of Rome with a selection of decorative handbags and shoes made from natural plant material. South Africa was illustrated with the nation’s native protea and sprays of alstromeria. Finally we flew home to England with a rural scene of spring flowers; purple iris and yellow tulips amidst a collection of garden foliage.

Janet Davies brushed up her French for the vote of thanks – apparently the first time Arnie had received an entire vote of thanks in his home language!

Before the demonstration began, past president, Bunty, announced that she had donated badges of office for the main officers of the committee as her personal thank you to the Club. So new president Jean, Ann (chairman), Brigette (secretary) and Nancy (treasurer) were all presented with their badges to much applause.

1st March - AGM

It was "all-change" at Bromyard Floral Club as we met for our AGM. Sadly, we said goodbye to Jill Williams as our chairman (although, happily, she is remaining on the committee) who has been at the helm for the last five years and has done sterling work in keeping us the happy and fun-loving club that we are. We welcome Ann Stanhope as our new chairman who has also been on the front line for quite a while and we know that we will be in safe hands as Ann leads us onward and upward!

Also, Bunty Crump ended her term of office as President and will hand over the reins to Jean Gwalchmai. Unfortunately Jean was not able to be with us at the AGM so the ceremonies of handing over badges of office will take place at our next meeting in April. Bunty has been a kind and gentle influence during her two years in office and we thank her for her valuable experience and support for the club and everyone in it. We look forward to welcoming Jean into the post next month.

The committee welcomed two new members; Yvonne Berry and Brigette Manton. Bromyard realise how lucky we are to have such an enthusiastic and hard-working committee and we welcome both our new girls on board.

AGMs mean competition results and, this year, the annual cups were awarded to:

1st  -  Yvonne Berry

2nd  -  Ann Stanhope

3rd (joint)  -  Janet Davis & Audrey Yarranton

Congratulations to them all and our thanks for keeping the seasonal competitions alive with their beautiful entries.

1st February

Barbara Priest - Novel Ideas

The club began the year with Barbara Priest, one of their own demonstrators, also known as “me”!  So what can I say about myself!!

The demonstration was entitled “Novel Ideas” and took its inspiration from the library shelves. Each design was introduced with a quote from the chosen book and it was great fun to see which books the audience recognised and which caused scratching of heads!  The first was Jane Austin’s “Pride & Prejudice”. A metal grid was decorated with strands of pink wool, representing a tapestry fire screen that an accomplished Georgian lady might sew. Across the grid hung a diagonal design of pink Aqua roses, a central area of pink lily heads and burgundy spray carnations interspersed between.

Next we moved on to “Ballet Shoes” with a silver moon  surrounded at the base by a ring of white feathers, inspired by “Swan Lake”. White cymbidium orchids and gypsophila grew out of grey foliage such as eucalyptus and conifer. The third design took us onto the Orient Express with Hercule Poirot and a black Art Deco stand was decorated with suitably gruesome red flower – roses, gerberas and carnations. A smaller matching arrangement was added to complete the design.

Next came Oscar Wilde’s “Picture of Dorian Gray” with a silver picture frame surrounding flowers of white, purple & lilac. Two-tone lisianthus nestled in amongst tulips and lilies, with some dried strelitzia leaves, sprayed purple, adding to the portrait’s attic atmosphere. The finale was the comic novel “Three Men in a Boat”. A green arrangement nestled into a willow boat with green Anastasia chrysanthemums, Midori anthuriums, carnations, and an apple for the riverside picnic! This was completed by a matching arrangement cascading from a driftwood “tree”.

I had a lovely time! From the comments and laughs throughout, I think the ladies enjoyed themselves and I hope our seven visitors were tempted to join us again