"Annual General Meeting"

Stone In Bloom will hold their Annual General Meeting at Stone Station on Tuesday September 27th. 

The meeting begins at 7pm and all are invited.

 

"A Visit to Mill Farm Green Composting Centre in Chebsey"

There will be a fascinating guided tour, followed by a Pie & a Pint at the Royal Exchange.

We will be meeting at Westbridge Car Park at 6pm on Thursday September 8th.

The tour takes around an hour.

For anyone without transport, their will be lifts available.

The tour is free, but the food and drink at the Royal Exchange will be at your own expense.

If you are interesting in attending, then please call Jill Hood on 077364 13097 or email jillyandsteve@btopenworld.com, as she will need to order the pies!!

It was lovely to see you all at our most enjoyable Andy Strachan talk last Thursday.

We're hoping to have him back next year and once again there will be discounted price tickets for The Friends of Stone in Bloom.

I hope your all enjoying the very good discounts that being a Friend card holder brings in and around the town.

 

"An evening with Andy Strachan"

An evening with Andy Strachan Head Gardener at Garden Organic at Ryton.

Andy will talk about his twenty six years of experience working in horticulture mostly in organic nursery stock. He specialises in rare and exotic plants and unusual perennials and has worked at the hugely popular Garden Organic, Ryton for five years, the last three spent as Head Gardener.

Thursday, August 11th at Christchurch Centre Annexe.

7.30pm

Tickets £7.50 (price includes a cold supper)

Discounted ticket price for Friends of Stone in Bloom -£6.50.

For further details, contact Jill Hood on 077364 13097 or via email at jillyandsteve@btopenworld.com

 

Bird Boxes

Whitebridge Business Park is festooned with the most fantastic bird tables and houses.

Nigel Green designs and builds them working from a small unit on the park.

He has placed them all over the business park especially for the Heart of England in Bloom judges to see and who knows, maybe it may just be that little extra that will win us gold.

 

Stone in Bloom Launch 2011

April 2nd 

7.30pm at ST. Dominic's Hall in Station Road, Stone. 

There will be a hot supper, a short presentation and we begin our new and exciting FRIENDS OF STONE IN BLOOM scheme.

More to follow.......

National Tree Planting Day

March 26th, 2011

It is National Tree planting Day and Stone in Bloom has been given 450 small tree whips by the RHS to celebrate the day. 

We meet Saturday morning March 26th at 10am at the Plott House then at 10.30am we will move on to The Crown Meadow to begin Planting! 

We will also be planting the trees close to the Scout hut on Westbridge Park. 

Bring a small spade and we look forward to seeing you there

 

Stone in Bloom Night

January 14th at 7.30pm 

Invitation to an Evening with Hot Supper at Stone Station.

Robert King of Trentham Gardens will be talking about his career as a garden professional at Wisley, Highgrove and more.

Illustrated highlights of the Stone in Bloom 2010 Gold Award winning campaign will also be shown.

Tickets £5 (including supper).

Bring your own drinks and glasses.

Ticket sales - Jill Hood on 077364 13097

Exhibition of 2010 awards at Stone Library

On December 4th, the Stone in Bloom team displayed the awards from the 2010 campaign.

(Left to right - Antony Lucas, Wendy Key, Jill Hood & Angela Burgess).

Next AGM

AGM on the 30th November to be held at Stone Station starting at 7:00pm with a full meeting of the group afterwards.

Stone in Bloom will be at Stone Library on 6th November to display the photos and spoils of the campaign this year and to launch Friends of Stone in Bloom.

Stone in Bloom win Gold again!

Click here to see some photographs taken at the award ceremony on September 16th.

Images courtesy of Martin Robinson, who won an award for his contribution as the official Stone in Bloom photographer.

Well done Martin!

Best Restaurant and Pub Garden Presentation

Last night (August 11th), the Stone in Bloom group, led by our Chairman and the Town Mayor went to La Dolce Vita to present the winning trophy for the category of "In Bloom Best Restaurant Garden" to Peter Nullis and his team 

The Brushmakers Arms won the the trophy for "Best Bloom Pub Garden" and this was presented to Mark Byrne and his partner Dianne. 

It was a thrilling occasion for everyone and especially for La Dolce Vita as they were last years winners too.

The Brushmakers was pipped to the post by his neighbours The Wheatsheaf last year, so Mark and Dianne are really pleased that all their hard work has paid off.

Dave Bond - Gardener at La Dolce Vita

(Trophies sponsored by John and Vera Ferrie)

Judging Day Announced!

After several false alarms, it’s now official! Stone in Bloom will be judged on Tuesday afternoon July 13th2010.

The judges are in Uttoxeter in the morning and will start judging Stone at 2.30 p.m.

The judging route has already been published so it is now ‘all hands to the pump’ to make sure that we can maintain our ‘Gold’ standard! 

Anyone wishing to volunteer, please contact us through this website.

Coffee Mornings a Great Success!

As part of the commitment to ‘spreading the word', committee member Helen Harrison has recently given talks about Stone in Bloom at coffee mornings arranged at Joules Court and Summerfield Court. Both were enthusiastically received and donations in excess of £80 were received. 

Much to Helen’s surprise several residents were unaware of the existence of Stonefield Park, so plans are afoot to arrange an outing with the Green Bus to show these residents the ‘jewel in Stone’s crown’ in the near future. Well done, Helen.

Stone in Bloom Launch

Between 35 - 40 people attended the official launch of Stone in Bloom 2010, which was held at The Royal Exchange public house.

In the absence of Richard Stevens, the Town Mayor (Jill Hood) stepped in and chaired the meeting.

She began by thanking the groups and individuals for their continuing support and also the new recruits who have pledged their support for 2010.

The judging route for 2010 was announced and this website also had it's official launch!

Representatives from the local Keep Stone Tidy campaign were present and have offered their support to this years campaign.

 

  

Keep Stone Tidy litter pick

Several members of Stone in Bloom turned out on Sunday morning (28 March) to help Keep Stone Tidy conduct their postponed litter pick. Originally scheduled for January, it had to be called off when all the litter was covered in two inches of snow!

No problems this time! After a couple of hours of intensive ‘picking’, several dozen bags of litter had been picked from the Whitebridge area and Newcastle Road.

When the photographer from the Stone Gazette arrived there was an amazing mountain of bags to be photographed. Well done everyone!

A Worthwhile Journey South

On April 21, Chairman Richard Stevens, secretary Jill Hood and photographer and committee member Martin Robinson travelled south to give a presentation to Brewood Civic Society. The talk had originally been planned for January but had to be called off at the last minute due to a very heavy snowfall!

No problems this time, thank goodness – all arrived in good time.

And the presentation went down superbly. Martin’s photographs were displayed on a large screen and we were able to demonstrate how much effort and enthusiasm went into preparing for our entry.

Judging by the reception and the subsequent letter of thanks, there can be no doubt that the audience was impressed by our energy and enthusiasm!. Indeed, it wouldn’t be a great surprise if we were to see Brewood as an entrant sometime in the future!

Back to Uni!  

Well, not quite! This time it was a visit to the University of the Third Age – better known as U3A – at Walton Community Centre.  U3A’s Gardening section is obviously a very thriving group and Stone in Bloom’s Richard Stevens, Jill Hood and Martin Robinson were given a very warm welcome when they gave a presentation to explain how the Stone in Bloom entry was prepared. 

After the formal presentation and in answer to a question, the audience were amazed to discover that Stone in Bloom had achieved success on a budget of just £1000.

An Evening with Stone in Bloom

Last Thursday, 15th October, Stone in Bloom hosted a social event in the President’s Hall at Walton Community Centre. Richard Stevens, Jill Hood and Martin Robinson presented a slide show of Martin’s superb photographs to illustrate how Stone in Bloom ‘happened’. It obviously came as a surprise to many in the audience just how much work and effort went in to organising the event.

A superb buffet was well received and many names ad addresses were collected of people who expressed a wish to help this year’s campaign.

A great success!