Two late comers make our day

“Can we make a pot please”, two tired young faces looked up at me. A little boy with his younger sister were followed by a tired mum, apologising for her children. It was 6.15 pm, fifteen minutes past closing. We were busy tidying up and sweeping our stand after a hectic day showing people how to make paper pots and sow seeds.

Their mother explained that they had been looking for our stand all afternoon. Her children had seen us earlier, it was all they had talked about she said. Their young faces were fillled with hope, how could we refuse.

Hanna went to the storage area to bring the seed, I tipped out compost from the bin and got ready to show the children how to make their pots. They paid attention as I showed them, concentrated hard as they rolled and folded the paper and looked so proud of their completed pots.

“Have you sown a seed before” I asked. Shyly the boy said no, his little sister grinned and shook her head. Enthusiastically they grabbed compost in their hands filling their pots, covering themselves and the floor with compost too. They pushed the seeds into their pots and patted them in. Broad smiles and energy now filled their faces, their mum took pictures and laughed. “Can I being this home?” they boy asked, of course we replied. Their mum asked how much she had to pay, and looked shocked and ecstatic when we said that it was for free.

The mum and her two children thanked us and walked away bouncing with hapiness, the children turning to wave goodbye with their wrapped up pots of nasturtium seeds in their hands. I think that there were only two people happier than the three of them at Bloom at that moment, that was us. We smiled widely, our own tiredness forgotten as we finished tidying our stand. Two children had just sown their first seeds. A perfect end to another great day doing Project Nasturtium at Bloom.

In the pictures below: two past student volunteers on our stand demonstrating how to make pots. The vast majority of people who made pots today were adults, but Project Nasturtium is for everyone. Bottom pic: View of a busy Friday afternoon in the Floral Pavilion from the Penninsula Primulas stand.

Nursery Pavilion

The nursery pavilion has been transormed into a festival of flowers and plants. Specialist nurseries sell their home grown plants, florists exhibit their creations, and education stand ate the to inform.

The judges decisions are always controversial to some extent, there will always be people will always be disappointed. I was delighted to see that the judges had awarded a gold medal to the Camolin Potting Shed for their floriferous nursery display and best in nursery category.

Our Project Nasturtium stand also earned an award. We arrived into the pavilion early this morning to see a card placed on a chair in out display; Special Commendation in the education category. We were very happy.

Airfield also received the same award in this category as did our friend Jimi Blake for his Huntingbrook Gardens stand.

We had an incredibly busy day on the first day, we must have made thousands of pots and sown loads of nastrurtiums, sunflowers and coriander. It has been great fun, meeting so many keen gardeners, beginners and anthusiasts, young and old.

We have been so busy it was not possible to take pictures of the action on our stand, maybe Friday will give the opportunity.

Best Small Garden

Beauty and the bees- not a fairy tale but an enchanting garden at Bloom. Orange and yellow flowers mingle with green foliage while glass sculptures spill over the floral feast.

A metal pavilion is a sanctuary above a lively brook, it’s sides planted with finese. 3Design, Una, Bernie and Marian in association with glass sculptor Roisin de Buitlear have created a garden that not only attracts bees but will surely attract the attention of every visitor to Bloom this year and sting their inspiration into action. That so much can be achieved in a small space is inspiring. I love it! Deservedly judged to be best in category – small gardens.

Ready to Bloom!

We have our stand ready! Posters are up, benches built, compost in and plants potted. We arrived on Bloom this morning after an early start from Co. Mayo. The floral pavilion was full of busy gardeners and florists putting finishing touches to their displays. Everybody had to be finished by 3 pm for judging. All the nurseries will be eager to find out if they receive a gold medal award for their stand. A gold award is given to nursery displays that are thought to be of high enough standard. In theory every stand could win gold, but not everyone does. Silver gilt, silver and bronze are also nice to get, but for many the only thing that glitters is gold.

One of the really nice things for us when we do a stand at Bloom or similar events is that we meet our friends from the garden world. Last year there was no Huntingbrook Gardens stand but this year Jimi Blake has returned and gone all out with a planted border featuring Aralia echinocaulis, such a memorable plant in his garden. Maybe the judges will give Jimi a gold medal. I will let you know…

Pictures below: Project Nasturium is ready to roll; Nasturtium pots arranged by Hanna; Huntingbrook Gardens stand.

The Ironing is Done

11.15 pm and I have just finished the ironing! The table clothes for the stand needed a once over to get the bad wrinkles out, so that our tables look nice and neat when we finish putting the stand together tomorrow.

We have the car packed, nasturtium plants, sunflowers and a couple of others. Tables, more leaflets and thousands of nasturtium seeds. So it time for bed, we will be up at 5 am tomorrow so that we can hit the road early. All the stands have to be ready by 3 pm tomorrow afternoon, when the judges do their walk about.

It is getting close, we are looking forward to it, we hope lots of people will bring a paper pot with a sown seed home from Bloom.

Photos below: my iron and the floral pavilion at Bloom on Monday afternoon.

Bloom set up

We drove to Dublin this afternoon and brought a car load of leaflets, newspapers and tables for the stand. We also had time to cover the grass with mypex.

There was lots of activity in the floral
pavilion, including the Thompson & Morgan people putting together their amazing display of vegetables. Billy Alexander was also hard at work on his Dicksonia Direct stand and the florists were beavering away too. The pavilion will look amazing on Thursday!

Nastrurtiums from the nursery

Saturday afternoon, typical west of Ireland weather, a soft rain is blown by a westerly wind and grey clouds slide over the sky. We were in Dunleavy’s nursey just off the Loughglin to Ballinlough road in Co. Roscommon. Excitedly we were greeted by their grandchild, a little doll named Kila who informed her grandmother and aunt that there were customers here. Her aunty Valerie laughed as she said to Kila, “customers! Sure that word is bigger than youself”.

Two benches of nasturtiums grown in pots were laid out before us, we picked a good number for our Bloom stand. Each one beautifully healthy, grown with love. We picked up a couple more sunflower plants and Hanna found a double flowered pale pink and white aquilegia for our garden.

We packed them into the car, chatted with the Dunleavy’s until Kila came along covered in ice cream, she had started eating her cornetto from the narrow bottom end. We said our goodbyes and left Kila to be fussed over by two generations of Dunleavys. Off home to continue our preparations for Bloom, only four more days to go.