Roundhill Flower and Garden Club

For our second Members’ Night of 2019, held at the end of October, the theme was that of ‘Bonfire Night’. It was a topic we had not covered before, thereby providing an opportunity for something different. The picture above shows the Welcome Flowers, and on a Halloween theme.
Nonetheless, with it being late October, thoughts of Halloween were never far behind, so running in conjunction we had competitions for the ‘Ugliest Witch’ and a ‘Decorated Broomstick’.
Some members had gone to great lengths with their entries into either competition, but the winner of the ‘Ugliest Witch’ really had pulled out all the stops in terms of face make-up; long black wig; red cape; and a witch’s hat that played a tune!
For the ‘Decorated Broomstick’, the winner created a masterpiece where the ‘broom’ consisted of a large bundle of bare twigs; stems of berries; plus acer and mahonia foliage in their autumn colours. The handle was entwined in ivy, interspersed with holly, and over-wrapped with LED Pumpkin lights. A ring of spiky teasels separated handle from broom.
For the ‘Bonfire Night’ floral arrangements, it was very interesting to note the different perspective people had applied to the same theme. Despite the obvious use of gladioli in shades of yellow, peach, orange, and red to interpret flames, along with other flowers and foliages in red, copper and purple, the actual style of the designs were highly individual.
It was the same with those designs depicting a fireworks display. Again each arranger had an entirely individual interpretation, even where referring to a specific type of firework, for example a sparkler; rocket; jump-jack; Catherine wheel, etc, all used different plant materials be they fresh or dried to recreate the varied shapes and colours.
Other contributions to the evening were the reading of a poem, plus a brief talk describing how childhood bonfire nights in one county linked to later life in Leicestershire.
Mid-way through the evening we had refreshments made and provided by another club member. This included a beautifully decorated cake, in addition to smaller nibbles that could be served at a Bonfire Night celebration.
It was a very enjoyable evening.