On her visit Rosy gave lots of great tips and tricks for growing successful Spring Flowers. Here are some of them: Hellebores…Woodland setting, all soil types, except heavy clay. Flower well into April, cut out flower stem when finished. Next years growth and buds will already be showing. Best in semi shade. Look for seedlings to bring on, but have to leave flower shoot to seed first. Hellebore “Walburton Rosemary” a niger/hybrida cross which has a very long flowering ...

A very enjoyable evening with our 3 very knowledgeable experts yielded lots of good advice in answer to members’ questions: Growing and showing shallots: plant in small pots and keep in a cold greenhouse. feed with onion fertiliser. Transplant in Spring, but don’t bury them. Sit them just on the surface. Thin to 3 or 4. If showing dry them off 7/10 days before the show. Remove loose skins and tie/whip the tops with raffia. Stand in a saucer of ...