ALAN POWER: Thank you for downloading this garden cutting
from the National Trust. I'm Alan Power, the head gardener at
Stourhead in Wiltshire. And today I'm standing in the house
at Croome in Worcestershire.
Every year, some very talented volunteers transform Croome
Court into a festive work of art.
A huge part of this transformation is bringing a bit
of the garden into the house.
I'm with Sue Lloyd, one of the volunteers that make and create
these wonderful arrangements at Croome Court. Can you tell me
Sue what brought you into Croome as a volunteer and particularly
your interest in flower arranging.
SUE LLOYD: I came into Croome because I came on a bat watching
evening and this was about 14 years ago, 13/14 years ago and I
got snapped up as a volunteer and not looked back really. And
now we've got thousands and thousands of visitors. So it's
amazing, the transformation
ALAN POWER: And I can smell eucalyptus foliage in the
background. For me, it kind of takes me back to my childhood
Sue. I grew up around flower arrangements. My mum has been
arranging flowers for years and still does. It's a really
important thing to do, isn't it?
SUE LLOYD: It's just nice to feel that there's something
greenery and bit of life brought back into the house at
Christmas.
ALAN POWER: As an arranger here, You're probably heading into
your busiest time preparing the house for Christmas. Can you
describe for me what the house is going to look like?
SUE LLOYD: We start at the beginning of December because it
has to last right over Christmas. So having lots of
lovely, interesting smells of cinnamon and Lavender, lots of
nice trees there going to be several trees in the Long
Gallery this year, which are going to be decorated by
different artists.
ALAN POWER: It's a lovely thing to do, isn't it? Because it
softens the internal architecture of a house when you
dress it with foliage, lovely thing to do.
SUE LLOYD: And it's not an over the top place. We've not got
lots of light and things that shows that other places have.
It's going to be very simple and really nice and within the
period I think.
ALAN POWER: And that's key, isn't it? You don't need to- you
don't need to go down to the shops. You don't need to buy in
a load of flowers, do you? To create something beautiful?
SUE LLOYD: No, This year we've grown a huge lot ourselves in
the wall garden.
ALAN POWER: And it's very satisfying, isn't it to go out,
you know, get your jacket and your coat and your gloves on and
go out with your secateurs and pick from a beautiful display
and then come in and convert it into another display in a day.
SUE LLOYD: And stand and think, oh, I have a bit of that and a
bit of that and then put it all together.
It's very exciting.
ALAN POWER: It really is. Picking from a menu of living
plants, isn't it?
SUE LLOYD: Absolutely.
ALAN POWER: And Sue, you said you're willing to give me a
little bit of a demonstration on how to make one of these wire
wreaths that you make here.
SUE LLOYD: Yes, that really is quite fun actually. You buy a
little wire wreath just a little base really, it's just two
circles joined together.
And then you can go in forage outside and rake your lawn or
something and get lots of moss. Make sure it's nice and damp and
then form the moss over the circle and wrap it on with wire.
And then when you've done that nice firm base to it, you can
put all sorts of different things, wire them on as you go
around, things like Pyracantha lots of berries, some Holly, Ewe
any other bits of Fir.
And then you get a nice green circle of different foliage
which makes it really nice.
And then you can add in bows and Baubles and the sky's the limit
really. We put some robins in last year.
Yes. A little furry robins off the internet. And they look
really rather nice.
ALAN POWER: That's lovely. Isn't it? Even the moss in your lawn
can be useful creating something you're doing two jobs.
SUE LLOYD: The only cost is buying the wire base or you
could get some birch twigs and just wrap them into a circle and
bind them up with wire and do exactly the same. You can use
dried stuff or stuff out the hetero. So it needn't cost
anything.
ALAN POWER: And starting from scratch is quite tricky.
SUE LLOYD: In the pots that we do every week, we have just wire
netting. And at Christmas we've devised this out of milk
cartons. If you have a four pint milk carton-
ALAN POWER: I'm listening!
SUE LLOYD: If you cut the lid off and swoop down past the
handle, you can then put a whole block of oasis in and a bit of
string on the back and pot wire around it, keep it all together.
Then we hang it on the stairs. So you can have a fabulous long
trailing arrangement with Old Man's Beard and Ivy and paper
flowers because we have to be careful because the arrangement
has to last a month.
ALAN POWER: I was just going to ask, how long- how far do you
have to push the arrangements?
SUE LLOYD: So, if the foliage- we try and keep that in oasis
because then it doesn't mark things and we get into terrible
trouble If we make a drip on the floor!
ALAN POWER: It captures Christmas, doesn't it captures
that moment?
And I think sometimes we forget when we're heading into those
dark, longer winter days that actually just by bringing a
little bit of your garden indoors, you can really enjoy
the smells, the scent, the colours and it's, it's a
wonderful thing to do.
SUE LLOYD: It is! Absolutely!
ALAN POWER: It's brilliant.
Well, I hope Sue, you and your team of volunteers carry on
doing it for a long time at Croome because it's a lovely
thing to do. And as I wander around the garden for the rest
of the day, I'm going to be spotting the best bits of
foliage.
Sue, Thank you so much
SUE LLOYD: A pleasure.
ALAN POWER: Hope you've enjoyed this garden cutting from the
National Trust. You can subscribe or follow on your
podcast app for the full program. Next month, I'll be in
Sissinghurst for festive magic. I hope to see you then.
BETTANY HUGHES: I'm Bettany Hughes. I've been visiting
National Trust Properties all my life, but in this series of
podcasts, I'm going beyond the delights of teas and topiary to
reveal the surprising European roots of some of the most
splendid sites in England.
You can subscribe to my series by searching for Bettany
Hughes's 10 places, Europe and us. On your podcast app.