Mickleton Gardening Club

The Spring Show attracted lots of plant variety and colour with 151 club exhibits and an outstanding contribution from Mickleton School. Thelma Hunt was the overall winner with 14 points just ahead of Pat Cook and Alan Hale with 13 points and Libby Weil 4th with 11 points. Childrens’ section winners were:

Nursery Pictures of flowers using shapes

1st Eleanor Learmount

2nd Andrew Clark

3rd Evie Stowe

Reception Flower collage on paper plates

1st Chloe Hobkirk

2nd Izzy Theron

3rd Abi Baldwyn

Year 1 & 2 Tee Shirts with British wildlife (hedgehog/squirrel/butterfly)

1st Freya Harvey

2nd Nell Conlon

3rd Oliver Matthews

Year 3 & 4 Home nations (Rose Daffodil Thistle & Shamrock)

1st Tilly Walker

2nd Edith Organ

3rd Bethany McGoldrick

Year 5 & 6 Fraction Flowers & Haiku poem stems

1st Harry Chalkly

2nd Phillip Bond

3rd Ava Callan Foster

Highly commended James Doughty

Hot on the heels of the Spring Show, members enjoyed an excellent talk on Wednesday April 15 and new plant demonstration entitled ‘What’s in Store Today?’ by Jim Teague, who is based at Evesham Garden Centre but is plant buyer for the now 17 Garden Centres in an expanding group. Jim brought his wealth of experience as a past grower, propagator and commercial manager to give us really interesting stories and insights about modern commercial horticulture. For example, take the new market segments of ‘Keenies’, ‘Reluctants’ and ‘Decorators’. Many younger adults are not after gardening DIY but DFM, Done For Me, and are brilliantly served by an amazing variety of instant colour coordinations of e.g. mixes for scattering of ‘quick shade’ or ‘perennial mix’ and even ‘scatter bulbs’ for that natural drift look. New technologies shown included, impregnated seed mats, micro-rings ‘Twinkle Tendrils’ giving peas in 10 days, quirky veg such as purple and black potatoes and grafted tomatoes with 2-3 species on one plant! Edibles intrigue with blueberries giving supply over 3 summer months and the boggling chilli pepper ‘Trinidad Maruga Scorpion’ of 1.4 million Scoville scale! Ornamentals weren’t neglected with drop-in-ground Hairy Pot Co. offerings, rhodedendrons for limey soil, genetic crosses between Tiarellas and Heucheras (=Heucherellas), sterile celandine to prevent spread and the eye-catching Dutch single-headed hydrangea ‘Avant Garde’. A great educational evening delivered with enthusiasm, deep knowledge and an amusing relaxed style.