This year’s Cothi Gardeners Christmas Social was held at Ystrad Nurseries near Llandovery. It was, for a change, a sunny afternoon, the alpacas greeting us as our cars pulled in. We all arrived in time to have a good browse around the nursery before the demonstration
Julie began the demonstration by telling us a bit about the history of the nursery and timber yard, particularly since 2016, when John and Laura Morgan bought Ystrad, having seen the potential to bring together her background in running a nursery and John’s expertise in the timber business. Since then they have grown the business significantly, and from an original staff of three at Ystrad in 2016, there are now over 30. Ystrad Nurseries itself now also has florist Sian on site, and has embarked on phased improvements, beginning with the car park and entrance. Julie herself has worked here since 2020, having previously been a primary school teacher.
First we saw how to build up an arrangement that could be adapted either for the table, or for placing on graves, using a square block of oasis in a circular base, Starting at the bottom, it is best to avoid prickly holly and to create a base layer with fronds from spruce or cypress. The holly can go in as the next layer. Julie recommends pieris for the centre of the arrangement, which at this time of year has flower buds. To add berries and ensure they show up well, take off any surrounding leaves. When adding skimmia do the same and strip the leaves to highlight the purple flower. For a table arrangement, you can then place a candle-holder with candle in the centre.
Julie then explained how to wire items onto an arrangement, such as dried orange slices, and also demonstrated bow-making.
After that, we turned to wreaths. Nowadays moss is less favoured, and people are choosing straw-based rings for the base as a more sustainable option. The straw rings, once purchased, can be re-used the following year if allowed to dry out and stored safely. The greenery can be fixed in place with either wire or twine, using small clusters of foliage as you go, again starting with spruce, but incorporating a range of foliage such as osmanthus, choisya, skimmia, leucothoe and pieris. From this you can then adapt the decoration depending on whether the wreath is for a grave, a door or table arrangement.
After thanking Julie for her interesting and informative presentation, everyone had an appetite for the delicious and plentiful tea that Ystrad Nurseries had provided. We weren’t going to need supper after that, and a grand time was had by all!
NGS Donations in 2023
Cothi Gardeners Club are fortunate to have among our members John and Helen from Ty’r Maes and Julian and Fiona from Gelli Uchaf who open their gardens for the National Garden Scheme in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. Across the two counties as a whole there were 3,514 visitors, of which 2,130 were from Open Days and 1,384 from By Appointment visits. That is a return to the visitor numbers seen in 2019 and previously. In 2023 the total raised for charity was £26,638 (up from £20,300 in 2022) – a fantastic increase!
In total the National Garden Scheme has been able to donate £3,403,960 to beneficiaries in 2023. This record amount is testament to the hard work and dedication of all those who open their gardens to the public and all the volunteers who contribute.
Cothi Gardeners 