Horticultural Achievement

Heritage Formal Bedding

Although the trend is moving away from Formal Bedding as councils reduce spending on horticulture, FIB continues to plant Grant Park with heritage designs because these are highly valued by residents and visitors, many of whom look forward to making return visits to admire displays.

Autumn and Winter

• Emptying of annual bedding by school students, committee members and volunteers at several locations throughout the town
• Planting of bulbs and spring bedding
• Collecting leaves from park areas for composting at Council Recycling site
• Discussing summer bedding, permanent planting and summer colour schemes.
• Submitting entries to Forres Horticultural Society’s Show for biggest sunflower head
• Organising planting of purple crocus corms with Rotary Club of Forres, Anderson’s Primary School, Dallas Primary and Forres in Bloom as part of the eradication of polio initiative
• Building additional raised cold frame for hardening off summer bedding
• Building new storage shed
• Insulating existing shed to provide storage for overwintering begonias and dahlias

Spring

• Continuing to introduce more sustainable planting in Grant Park
• Planting a mix of perennials, summer bulbs and annuals to attract bees
• Planting raised beds on High Street by Anderson’s Primary School.
• Starting off Dahlias, fuchsias, begonias and eucomis in greenhouses
• Planting bought in plugs in heated greenhouses
• Watering and maintenance of spring barrels and beds.
• Planting seed and preparing for summer planting by Wee FIBbees and adult volunteers

Summer

• Saving Spring bulbs from containers and planters throughout town
• Planting of barrels throughout the town.
• Placing window boxes and hanging baskets in position
• Selling plants at coffee morning to enhance floral displays in private gardens.
• Meeting weekly with WEE FIBbees every Tuesday evening term time and mornings in holidays
• Watering daily baskets, beds, boxes, tubs and sculptures in rotation
• Continuing routine maintenance tasks: weeding, dead-heading and feeding
• Taking care to ensure that our planters enhance the impressive architecture of our handsome buildings
• Maintaining our reputation for summer floral sculptures in Grant Park
• Planting beds for biodiversity with Wee FIBbees
• Choosing and ordering Spring bulbs
• 70 Sunflowers to celebrate the 70th anniversary of inauguration of Rotary Club of Forres
• Planting bed to commemorate VE and VJ day 2020
• Planting raised bed for AJ engineering
• Planting sloping bed for NHS 2021