Seasonal & Purposeful Displays
With a move towards more sustainable planting in the floral displays around town, more shrubs are being used in floral displays, which helps to provide all year-round greenery as well as a contrast of the seasonal bedding.
Two hanging basket trees have been installed in the Quarry. Weighing over a tonne, the structure allows 20 hanging baskets to hang creating a tree of colour.
The Castle Carpet Bed is a highly visual floral feature at the entrance to Shrewsbury Castle and has a new planting scheme twice a year. The design is planned months ahead, with Town Council staff working together on a display that highlights major events within either the town or the country as a whole, with a view to ensuring that the plants are suitable for both the design, location and the maintenance of the display. These displays are designed by staff and plant types are planted free hand by staff. The winter/spring display featured an oak leaf which was an idea from a member of staff, using yellow polyanthus as the leaf, blue polyanthus around them and then a double row of white polyanthus around the outside. To commemorate the 80th Anniversary of Victory in Europe, the design for the summer display is a V80 design using red and green Alternanthera and Echeveria.
To mark the centenary of the Inner Wheel, the WW1 Flower Bed was planted in blue, yellow and white. Founded in Manchester in 1924, the objective of this service organisation is to promote true friendship.The local club meets regularly and has a full and varied programme through which friendships form and flourish. Previously the group has organised bulb planting amongst its membership.
For the first time in several years the Town Council held a display at the Flower Show, this included some of their machinery, the Turf Tank Marker and a Floral Display of Hanging Baskets. The Floral display was the main picture on the front of the Shropshire Star. Staff on the stand fielded a number of questions from the public and gave out literature about the Town Council and its functions. Whilst there is great disappointment that the Flower Show has been cancelled for 2025, there is hope that a more streamlined show will be reestablished in 2026.
The Shrewsbury in Bloom Group launched a school competition for pupils to design a planter for placing in the Square. The winners were invited to see the planters being made up. There would also be a design on the side of the planter displaying the name of the winner and their school.
