Over the years, one of the ways we’ve been able to let people know what we are doing, is through a regular article in the Tetbury Advertiser - a free monthly magazine (excluding August & January) published by The Lions Club of Tetbury.
For 12 years Liz Farnham, now a former member of Tetbury in Bloom, wrote every one of the articles, but in December 2018 she, and her husband Kevin, who also designed and created this website, decided to retire from the organisation.
However, both the articles and website still continue, now written and updated by Sue Hirst, Tetbury in Bloom’s team leader.
Hover over the ‘Newsletters’ button on the left to find previous years’ articles.
December 2022
It’s at this time of year that we like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has supported us over the past twelve months: With grateful thanks going to Tetbury Town Council, not only for their financial support but for their much-needed practical assistance, without which we would really struggle! Many thanks also go to the Feoffees of Tetbury, St Marys’ Parochial Church Council, The Rotary Club of the South Cotswolds, Tetbury Upton Parish Council, and individual residents for their generous donations. Much appreciation and many thanks go to the residents and traders who supported us by buying one or more of our hanging baskets and Christmas trees; and to those people who gave up their time to help us keep the displays and beds watered throughout the hottest, driest summer on record! A special thank you goes to Sian and Kate who in June, which is our busiest time of the year, helped us to plant the beds and displays with summer bedding; and lastly, we give a big thank you to Kevin and Bill who help us each year to dress (and undress!) the Christmas trees that adorn the shop premises.
All the support we receive is so very much appreciated, and without it we wouldn’t be able to do half as much as we do, to make Tetbury look as attractive as it does, for the benefit of us all. We are still looking for new volunteers to help us on a Tuesday and or Thursday morning on a weekly basis, so if you think that you might like to join the team, please contact me on sue@tetburyinbloom.org.uk
The next Tetbury Advertiser will be delivered at the beginning of February and by then the spring flowering season will have just started with the appearance of hellebores, snowdrops, cyclamen, and early flowering crocuses. To me this is always the best time of the year when the days are noticeably getting longer, and the gardening year ahead is full of promise.
Until then, from everyone on the Tetbury in Bloom team, we wish you all a merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.
Cyclamen and snowdrops that can be found in St Marys’ Churchyard during the early spring months
November 2022
Autumn is now well and truly upon us and we have been busy getting the beds ready for the winter months ahead. Instead of planting hundreds of bulbs with the spring displays in mind, we have concentrated this year on making changes to several of the beds by adding a lot more long-flowering perennial plants, together with small colourful evergreen shrubs. This will reduce the amount of summer bedding needed and in turn reduce our overall workload, not only planting them all, but the amount of watering required should we experience any more excessively hot and dry summers like we had this past year.
Christmas is also looming fast and with November arriving, it is only three weeks to go before Monday 21st when we will once again be dressing the Christmas trees that adorn the shop premises and arranging for the contractors to install the lights on the lamp columns and in the five large trees located at the outer edges of the town centre.
Dressing the Christmas trees that adorn the town centre shop premises over the festive period
October 2022
It was no surprise that summer 2022 was officially declared the hottest, driest summer on record since 1976. It took a huge amount of effort to water the beds, tubs and troughs sufficiently to keep all the plants alive until we had rain again, and as we all know, it was a long time coming! This resulted in some of the bedding plants that had been planted in June, not starting to grow until September, just prior to us wanting to take them all out!
Our grateful thanks go to those residents who helped us by taking on the watering of some of the beds and tubs. We really appreciated your assistance, and it allowed us to focus on all the other areas that were so desperate for water.
To help us cope with the possibility of excessive heat and drought conditions in future, we have decided to make changes to some of the beds by reducing the amount of bedding plants we use and adding in a lot more permanent planting. Once established, it should be able to withstand drought conditions much more easily and therefore reduce the amount of watering required.
In expectation that the new petrol filling station in the Tesco car park will open at some point, we also plan to dismantle the beds adjacent to the existing site. We will reuse as many of the plants and bulbs as we can in the beds we intend to change.
At the beginning of September, Anne Wakely, who had been a member of Tetbury in Bloom for the past 10 years, decided it was time to retire. We miss her enormously and thank her very much indeed for her hard work and commitment over the years and not least, the enthusiasm she brought to everything we did together as a team.
The beds at the old Tesco filling station, London Road.
September 2022
We are looking for new volunteers!...
The current Tetbury in Bloom organisation has been in existence since March 2005. In the early years we competed in the regional Heart of England in Bloom competitions for which we achieved 5 successive Gold Awards, were Overall Regional Winners in 2010 and were twice finalists in the national Britain in Bloom competition.
Since 2011, although we don’t choose to compete anymore, we still enjoy tending the beds and floral displays that we created in the early years, not just for our own enjoyment but mainly for the benefit of Tetbury residents, traders and visitors to the town.
However, over recent years our numbers have reduced, and as such we are looking for new volunteers to come and join us on a regular weekly basis. If you can say yes to the following, you may be just the person we are looking for!...
* Want to make a difference to the town and be part of a much-appreciated small hardworking successful team.
* Enjoy gardening, exercise and being prepared to work hard for a couple of hours each Tuesday and or Thursday morning: deadheading, weeding, planting, sweeping, and watering.
There is no need to have a lot of gardening experience or knowledge. You won’t be working on your own and will always have at least one other person with you to guide you along the way.
Visit our website at www.tetburyinbloom.org.uk which will give you a full insight of all that we do and have achieved over the years and if you feel that you may like to join us, please contact me on sue@tetburyinbloom.org.uk
I look forward to hearing from you!
August 2022
There is no Tetbury Advertiser in August
July 2022
By the time you read this article, we will have just completed our four-week planting schedule to fill the beds and floral displays with bedding geraniums, the vibrant colours of which will complement the sustainable plants already in those locations. The last evening of planting was Thursday 30th June and that’s the night we added summer bedding to the London Road roundabout.
Since its major overhaul in late summer of 2019, when we removed all the large shrubs from the centre of the roundabout to increase visibility whilst trying to cross the road, the new planting scheme has improved its look no end, producing a much more floral and colourful display whilst still achieving the aim of seeing ‘through’ the plants to make crossing the road there much safer.
A few months after we gave the roundabout a makeover, we decided to do much the same with the bed adjacent to the roadway by the hospital; not for safety reasons, but to make the bed look much more attractive. We removed all the large shrubs that were dominating the bed and replaced them with a mixture of long flowering easy care perennials. Last summer we added half-hardy antirrhinums throughout the bed which we left in over the winter. Although their survival wasn’t guaranteed, they did all manage to get through the seasonal cold weather and following the spring bulb display, they produced a wonderful early summer show. We have now replaced the old plants with new antirrhinums and hopefully, depending how severe this coming winter proves to be, they should produce the same vibrant display again next May
The hospital bed in early summer
June 2022
During May, we completed a few outstanding jobs in some of the beds: Trimming down the penstemons and reducing the size of the choisyas where they are used, and removing the phormiums at the library, which have liked it there just that little bit too much! They have now been replaced with Kniphofia ‘Tetbury Torch’ which we have in several of the other beds: Fire Station, Priory Industrial Estate bed, the roundabout, Knapp and hospital. They will not only provide contrasting strappy-leaf growth which the phormiums also offered, but in addition, they will produce a succession of tall orangey-yellow spires from now until late autumn.
With June arriving, we’ll be spending the month planting the town and delivering over 130 hanging baskets to residents and traders who have kindly supported us by buying them as part of our main fund-raising initiative. The profit raised from them goes directly into the ‘Tetbury in Bloom’ funds, which allows us to continue making the town look as attractive as possible, throughout the year.
Planting will start at the London Road beds which are situated opposite Combers End. Every Tuesday and Thursday we will be out preparing the beds and containers in the morning, ready for us to plant them in the evening. The four-week operation has become well practised over time and this year we will start the planting on Tuesday 7th June. Over the following 4 weeks we will then work our way around the town until all the beds and containers are planted with vibrant, drought resistant geraniums which complement the shrubs and perennials used in the different locations.
Once again, our grateful thanks go to Paul Grimes of Wotton Farm Shop who has been supplying our summer bedding plants and hanging baskets for over ten years. His input has become an integral part to our planting operation. He not only produces all the plants for us but comes over from Wotton Under Edge twice a week during June, to bring those that we need for each of the specific planting locations we are working at. Without his help and assistance, we would find this mammoth annual task almost impossible to achieve and as such we truly appreciate his support.
The Priory Industrial bed in London Road
May 2022
With May arriving, the succession of different types of spring flowers which we’ve been enjoying since they first started to appear in early February, will have almost come to an end. The tulips are the finale of the spring displays filling the beds with vibrant colour, together with later flowering daffodils in some locations. Although they too are now fast approaching the end of their flowering season, the colder weather at the beginning of April, did help to prolong their blooms, allowing us to enjoy them for just that little bit longer.
The downside of growing spring bulbs is that you need to leave them to die down naturally after they’ve finished flowering. By doing that it allows the nutrients in the leaves to be reabsorbed into the bulb, and with a bit of luck they will successfully flower again the following year. Unfortunately, leaving all the untidy stems and leaves means that the beds and displays will look their worst during this month. Having said that though, at least the later spring flowering shrubs and perennials in the beds, will have started to fill out with fresh new growth, and it won’t be long before Tuesday 7th June arrives, which is the date when we’ll be starting to plant the seasonal bedding, ready for everyone to enjoy throughout the summer months ahead.
The tulip display in the fire station bed
April 2022
During the past few weeks, we’ve stayed busy by tidying the beds and the surrounding areas that we tend: The storms at the end of February produced a lot of tree debris that we needed to clear away, and somehow, however good or bad the weather is, weeds still carry on growing and autumn leaves still manage to turn up in the beds! With April now arriving though, the days are getting much longer and the weather is starting to improve. The deciduous shrubs and perennial plants are now showing very welcome signs of life which will provide a fresh-looking backdrop for all the tulips and later flowering daffodils that will be coming into their own during this month.
In March’s edition of the Tetbury Advertiser, I suggested that St Marys’ churchyard was well worth a visit to see the spring flowers but another place worth visiting is The Anniversary Garden, which is a small public garden hidden away just a stone’s throw from the town centre. It is located in Eccles Court which is the footpath that runs between The Ferns and The Chipping. Last year we gave this lovely quiet area a makeover to mark HM The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and the spring bulbs that had been donated to us from ‘Wildlife World’ in Chavenage Lane, produced a wonderful display of narcissi and tulips. They will very soon be in full flower again and no doubt will look just as beautiful this year.
The tulip display in Anniversary Garden
March 2022
If you’re walking around the town taking in the different spring flowers that are starting to appear, St Marys’ churchyard is well worth a visit. At this time of year thousands of self-seeded primroses, growing amongst the grass, come into flower and look absolutely beautiful. Over the years we have extended this naturally occurring spring display by adding hundreds of snowdrops and cyclamen under several of the trees together with clumps of daffodils and bluebells in amongst the gravestones.
In autumn 2020 we planted 500 Tete a Tete bulbs along each side of the path leading from the main gate towards the church and last spring, when they all came into flower for the first time, we were far from being disappointed with our efforts! It looked wonderful and hopefully this year it will look equally as good – if not better!
In autumn last year, to improve the spring display in the six formal beds that flank the paths, we added over 750 mixed tulip bulbs. Each variety of tulip was specially chosen for its colour, height, and time of flowering and, if it works out as we hope it will, they should give a vibrant display throughout April.
Over the thirteen years we’ve been caring for the flower displays in St Marys’ churchyard, other beds have also been planted with spring flowering bulbs: Amongst them is the semi evergreen woodland-style fern bed at the north-east corner of the church building which has brought life to what used to be a dark, dank and empty area. Snow drops, crocus and narcissi, followed by lily of the valley, form part of the spring display here.
Even though we’re starting to enjoy all the spring flowers at the moment, it really won’t be long before the summer months arrive and with that in mind, if you’ve been meaning to order one or more of our hanging baskets but haven’t got round to it as yet, please don’t delay any longer as they are selling fast. Look for our adjacent advert for details and get in touch with me as soon as possible to place your order.
The display of Tete a Tete bulbs along the main path of St Marys’ Churchyard
February 2022
The recent weather has unfortunately prevented us from working on the beds on a couple of occasions but with the nights now drawing out and the days becoming slightly warmer and more spring-like, the early flower displays will start coming into their own. Starting in early February with snowdrops, crocus and early flowering daffodils, the display will continue to go through the changes culminating in April-May time with hundreds of colourful tulips, bringing a splash of vibrant colour to all the beds we tend.
Plans have already been put in place for the summer planting and dare I say it... hanging baskets! They were all ordered back in November! If you would like to support us by placing an order for one or more of our hanging baskets, please see our adjacent advert and let me know your requirement as soon as possible. The 14” baskets comprise easy-care trailing begonias in pink, red and apricot shades OR you can choose a colourful mix of vibrant trailing geraniums. For those living in Tetbury, they will be delivered to your door by arrangement during the first two weeks in June. All profits raised go towards funding the work that we do. If you purchased our hanging baskets last summer and still have the empty containers, we’d really appreciate their return now as soon as possible please, so we can re-use them for this year.
In the meantime, weather permitting during these early months, the Tetbury in Bloom team will continue to be out every Tuesday and Thursday morning to keep the flower displays looking their very best. We really do enjoy what we do and gain much satisfaction from knowing that the displays we create and the difference we make, bring such a lot of enjoyment to so many people.
Spring flowers in Anniversary Garden