As we approach Spring and start to think about our gardens and allotments, the Shrewsbury in Bloom Committee is inviting the town’s gardening enthusiasts to join them for the annual behind the scenes tour of the Town Council’s greenhouse.
The open evening event takes place on Wednesday 22 May from 6pm.
The site, at Weeping Cross, nurtures more than 300,000 blooms that are cultivated each year for the town’s award-winning floral displays.
The Town Council has already started to take delivery of the summer bedding and the greenhouse is filling with blooms ready for summer planting, so the greenhouse will be filled with summer colour in time for our Open Evening.
Visitors will be able to get a glimpse of the hundreds of commercial baskets ready to go out to the town’s businesses, tens of thousands of plants that will feature around the town, as well as thousands of bedding plants and hundreds of standard fuchsias destined for Shrewsbury’s 365-days-a-year show garden in the Dingle.
Guests will be given a guided tour of the greenhouse, with planting demonstrations, and there will be an opportunity to put questions to the Town Council’s gardening staff and Bloom Committee members.
Light refreshments will also be provided.
Margaret Thrower, a member of the Shrewsbury in Bloom Committee, said: “It is always a great pleasure to see so many visitors attend our Open Evening with this ever-popular event.
“The greenhouse will be packed with blooms, and this is a wonderful opportunity for our residents to see the sheer scale of the flowers required for the numerous summer planting schemes around the town.
“The flowers look and smell fantastic and it is certainly a wonderful sight to see the blooms in one place before they are planted out. The open event is also an opportunity to get useful tips from the experts who will be on hand to answer your questions and queries as well as see how people can get involved with the Bloom project for the town.”
Helen Ball, Town Clerk for Shrewsbury Town Council, added: “We take great pride in the floral displays in the town and I’m sure that our residents will be eager to see just what goes on behind the scenes to make our town look ‘blooming marvellous’.
“Following the success of these annual events, we are pleased to be able to open our greenhouse for our residents to visit and see the number of plants we use to ensure that Shrewsbury maintains its reputation as ‘the town of flowers’. I would encourage those interested in coming along to get in touch and register for this event.”
Registration for the open evening is essential. Requests should be sent to hilary.humphries@shrewsburytowncouncil.gov.uk by close of business on May 17, although the list may close before this date if the maximum number of attendees has been reached.
Shrewsbury in Bloom is a non-profit committee, which brings together interested groups and individuals to implement a programme for Shrewsbury’s floral enhancement, environmental improvements and community projects. It is the driving force behind Shrewsbury’s annual entry into the Heart of England in Bloom competition.
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