Historic Daffodils of the Tamar Valley March 25th 2014

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In March we were joined by Dr. Frances Howard as she shared her passion for the historic daffodils of the Tamar valley. Tickets for this event had sold out very quickly, and those that were lucky enough to secure a place, were treated to a humorous and engaging illustrated talk from Frances. 

Several people had brought along samples of daffodils from their own gardens for Frances to identify, and we had a beautiful and varied selection of native Narcissus gracing the tables at Coombe Trenchard.

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After a well received two course lunch, guests were invited to walk around the gardens with Frances and myself, giving them them a rare opportunity to see the Spring flowers at Coombe Trenchard. Frances was able to identify many historic varieties, including one named Van Sion (The great double daffodil) which can be dated back to 1620. This pseudo narcissus has the double petaloids neatly within the trumpet or explodes as a shaggy puff.

Entertaining Antiques February 28th 2014

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On the last day of February we played host to a fund raising evening in support of The Children's Hospice South West. 

CHSW fundraising is enthusiastically championed by Judy Pride. Judy and her wonderful team of local volunteers give up a huge amount of their precious time to raise funds for 'Little Harbour' the Children's hospice based at St. Austell, Cornwall.

Coombe Trenchard supported CHSW in 2013 when we hosted a traditional Edwardian tea party,  which was a huge success.

On this occasion, it was decided that an antiques evening would be very much in keeping with the venue, and we were delighted to have the support of Andrew Thomas from Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood of Exeter.

Andrew brought along a number of antiques, all dating from around the early 1900's and some of the Arts & Crafts in style. The guests were given a sheet with details of the items, and they were asked to try to guess their values. Later in the evening Andrew staged an auction, encouraging bids from the guests for donated items.

Guests were treated to a delicious supper of potage & trifle, and a wonderful evening was had by all. We were delighted to hear that this event raised £1117 for CHSW.

This summer CHSW will be joining us at our Home & Garden Show on May 31st & June 1st, serving delicious Pimms, and staging an Edwardian croquet match. Please do come along and support them.

Living Bouquets

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Living Bouquet

Last September for George & Laura's wedding the floral theme was beautiful succulents. I had spent most of last year growing a huge variety of these little babes, and we had a lovely selection dotted around tables, window cills, & steps. Amanda Randell designed some wonderful arrangements for the house, and she also made the scrumptious bouquets for the bride and bridesmaids.

Now if you have ever grown succulent, you will know just what little survivors they are, needing almost no nutrients, water or TLC. They very obligingly self propogate vegetatively by either casting off babies, or even rooting from a small part of the plant. So my task to produce hundreds of succulent terracotta pots was not as difficult as you might think. 

After the wedding, guests were all given their own small succulent pot to take home to nurture, and I like to think that these will be multiplied over the years to come. I have branched out from terracotta now, and enjoy thinking of unusual and quirky containers that my little babies can grow in. I have started saving all old, and chipped china, even teapot, jugs & tin watering cans can look good when planted up. By the time our garden visitors come this summer, I hope to have a lovely variety for them to see and maybe go home with.

Today being the first lovely bright sunny day after what feel like weeks of wet & windy weather, I decided to plant up the bridal bouquets that had been stored safely in the Poly tunnel since September. After removing any leaves that had browned the bouquets were potted into terracotta pots, and are now awaiting collection when they visit at Easter.

I love the idea of  using succulents as a living bouquet,  and the special memories the beautiful bouquets living on.

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