St Anne’s in Bloom volunteers have been busy trying to get our plants ready for summer to bring some colour to town. Fortunately we have been able to grow on lots of our own plants either from seed or cuttings at our allotment. Deliveries of bedding plants has been delayed by logistics problems so we have at least had some plants ready whilst waiting for more to arrive.

Regular gardening groups of volunteers have been working in the Peace and Happiness Garden and along the promenade and a new group has been formed for the summer to take care of our tubs in the town centre. All of our volunteers are very committed and really enjoy being part of St Anne’s in Bloom.

We held our annual plant sale in Ashton Gardens as part of the Jubilee Carnival celebrations. The carnival was a great success and the organisers did a fantastic job organising the four day event in co-operation with St Anne’s Town Council and Fylde Borough Council. The Saturday was extremely busy but as we were not in our “usual” spot behind the café a few people couldn’t find us. If you missed us at the carnival please keep an eye on our Facebook page as we are considering having a “pop up” plant sale later in the summer.

The new RHS criteria for judging the In Bloom Competition has now come through and it looks as if the RHS are definitely moving away from bedding displays with the focus more on sustainability.  At St Annes in Bloom we are moving away from “buying in” lots of bedding plants and working more on raising our own plants from seeds and cuttings. We have been potting on lots of cuttings and have sourced some plugs which are due to be delivered soon to supplement our “home grown” plants. Our tubs have perennials in them and the bedding is there to enhance the displays not be the sole provider of it. The new judging criteria will be discussed amongst our committee and we will make our decisions moving forward based on the information we have.

We have an ongoing programme with local primary schools to plant trees to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.  The Rowan saplings we have are quite small but with care they should grow into substantial trees in the future to enhance the grounds of local schools.  We are also distributing Sunflower seeds to the children to encourage them to grow them on during the summer.

Students at St Anne’s College Grammar School were first with the tree planting and more schools will be planting their trees in the coming weeks.

Britain in Bloom judging criteria have changed for 2022 to reflect more sustainable gardening.

St Anne’s in Bloom have been busy trying to work more sustainably over the last few years and we will continue to make changes going forward. On our allotment we are able to grow many of our own plants from seed or cuttings. We are already using more perennial plants in our displays and also using plants to encourage bees and other insects. We re-use and repurpose many products including pots, packaging and other items and we are looking constantly at other steps we can take.

Spring daffodils are now providing a fine display in St Annes – the Golden Gateway along Queensway is blooming in the sunshine and signs of Spring are definitely in the air.

The Promenade Gardening Group planted lots of daffodils at the entrance to the car park near the swimming pool. A generous donation from Vanessa Jayne Shakespeare enabled us to further enhance this area.

Ask us about volunteering opportunities with St Annes in Bloom -you will be made very welcome

It’s that time of year again! We are coming out of hibernation and have lots of great plans for the coming year. We have quite a lot of catching up to do after the restrictive last couple of years and will be entering the National In Bloom competition this year

Preparation work has already started and our gardening groups are starting up again (weather permitting). To achieve all our ambitions we need you – yes we need more volunteers please. You will be made very welcome and we work in small groups so it is very safe. Please contact us for more details – no experience needed – message us via this page or our Facebook Page

The white daffodils on King Edward Avenue are starting to come into flower. The yellow ones should be following very soon. These were planted by our volunteers with help from pupils at AKS a couple of years ago and should make a wonderful display this Spring. Keep you eyes open for the Queensway daffodils starting to bloom in a few weeks too. Spring is definitely on the way.

Well no-one was quite expecting the last year or so to be what it has been! St Annes in Bloom may not have been as visible over that time but we have certainly been busy “behind the scenes” with lots of preparations for the future.

We have been fortunate to receive continued support from St Annes Town Council and Fylde Borough Council which has certainly helped us to keep going and we are very grateful for this support.

Work on our allotment has continued and we now have a functioning space we can use as a base for our activities. We have produced most of our own plants either from cuttings or seeds and this has helped us in our aim to be fully sustainable and also very satisfying as we see things coming to fruition.

We have put out lots of these planters around town and local businesses have taken on the task of caring for them and watering which has helped to reduce to load on our volunteers. Due to the restrictions we have been working with our volunteers have been limited not only in numbers but also in what activities could be carried out safely.

Watering has always posed a mammoth task and especially during the hot weather in June and July we have been helped immensely by business owners taking on some responsibility for this.

We have taken on some new areas along the promenade and a new gardening group has started work on Thursday afternoons. Along with the Friday group in the Peace and Happiness Garden this has meant we can work safely in small groups and still achieve good results.

The area beside the Train Café on the promenade has been transformed with the placement of extra tubs and additions to the planting in the large (previously neglected ) large planters.

The area beside the Toby sign has been cleared of bindweed – a back breaking but very worthwhile job – and planted up with a selection of wind and drought tolerant plants. The owners of the train café have kindly let us use their water supply to keep the area watered when necessary and also provided us with some refreshments. The management of the Toby Carvery have also been very generous in supplying us with refreshments as a thank-you for completing the work in this area.

It is very satisfying to see previously drab areas transformed with colour and if you would like to join us as a volunteer to help with this you will be most welcome. Just get in touch either via our contacts on this page or our Facebook page for more details.

In September we took part in the St Annes Town Council September Spectacular in Ashton Gardens. This was our first “public” event for some time and it was a great opportunity to meet lots of local people, visitors and friends to show some of our projects and have some fun with “roll a penny” and a photo opportunity. We also held a plant sale on the Sunday which helped us to raise some funds.

Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook to keep up to date with all our activities and future events

In this past year of changes and cancellations we are getting used to things not going to plan.

Unfortunately this year’s annual Christmas tree planting event is no different. In the interest of safety it has been decided that the event will not go ahead with volunteers in any capacity due to the risk of Covid-19 transmission.

Fear not though the work will continue. This year has seen a record number of trees collected this year, 2500+, which is in fact more than in any of the past 9 years the Christmas tree planting project started. It is essential that these trees are buried to catch the sand blowing in from the strong onshore winds we have been having recently. Therefore, a small operational team from Fylde Council will be out there working hard and in the safest manner possible to ensure these trees go in to provide added coastal protection for our fantastic community.

With more trees, and significantly less helping hands, it will take some time for the team to work their way through burying the trees, so please be patient. If you are out walking on the beach for your daily exercise, please give us a wave!

Fylde Sand Dunes project will of course be posting pictures and regular updates on their social media channels so you can all stay involved and feel a part of the team once more! As volunteer participation cannot take place this year, please could we ask you all to support the project in a different way, from the comfort of your home. Fylde Sand Dunes Project has a strong social media presence so please follow us and share their posts to keep up to date with what is happening. You can help to spread the word that this year although community engagement is restricted there is still work ongoing to protect the dunes and coastal environment.

We would like to thank all of our volunteers for your continued support in this uncertain time and hope that you understand the decision and we sincerely hope the event will be able to take place in Jan/Feb 2022.

Please follow Fylde Sand Dunes Project the project on Facebook and Twitter to receive updates

https://www.facebook.com/FyldeSandDunes

We have been understandably quiet during 2020 as our volunteers have been unable to work whilst government restrictions limit how we can work together.

We have been busy behind the scenes planning for 2021 and hope to be back bigger and brighter than ever soon.

We have been busy on our allotment organising the plot and raising some of our own plants in readiness for the new season.

A small group of volunteers have planted up a few winter tubs and troughs to be placed around town and we are doing our best to keep up with weeding and general care.

During the past few months we have obviously been unable to carry our our normal volunteering activities

This morning it felt like we were returning to some sort of “normality” with our first volunteer task

We assisted Fylde Borough Council Gardeners in tidying up the beds in the Square which had become littered with fallen Cordilyne fronds

The weather wasn’t the best but Liz, Anette, Fiona Christine and Fiona braved the elements and managed to fill a lot of bags and make the look a bit tidier in readiness for Saturday’s STEP business event

The event is to encourage footfall in the Town Centre a variety of entertainment during the day once the mayor has opened proceedings at 11.00

We have a stall in one of the blue domes so please come and find us and grab a bargain in our sale of donated plants

As we are unable to have “official” In Bloom competitions this year just for fun and with your input we going to have a virtual display of the gardens in St Annes.

No prizes but hopefully some great colourful and interesting pictures for us all to see.

There are several categories which we hope will encourage you to enter whether you have a huge and well established garden or a window box and anything in between.

Front Garden
Back Garden
Vegetable patch – show us how you are growing your own
A small corner of my garden – maybe most of your garden is a “work in progress” but you have a part of it you would like to share with us
Children’s Corner – share what your children have been doing in the garden – anything from bug hotels to sunflowers
My favourite flower – a chance to share your prize blooms

Here are a couple of images we have received so far:

The RHS are issuing newsletters to keep us all updated on the latest initiatives and  virtual events.

You can sign up to receive these Blooming Brilliant Newsletters by visiting the RHS website or the Britain in Bloom Facebook Page

https://www.rhs.org.uk/

This wonderful tribute to key workers in Hunstanton: https://tinyurl.com/BloomingBrilliant2