HPS Norfolk and Suffolk Group display at 'Taste of Autumn'
On Sunday 6th October the Group took part in the 'Taste of Autumn' event at Raveningham Estate.  We were invited by Lady Susan Bacon to provide an educational display about the work of the Group.  Pamela Clark and Linda Hall decided to focus on the life and plant introductions of Alan Bloom as he was one of the four founders of the Hardy Plant Society.  We also decided to have a display showing the benefits of national and local membership of HPS.  On the day itself Pamela and Linda were joined by new committee member, Colin Pusey, to mount the display and man the stall during the event.  Colin had recently organised the purchase of a gazebo and branded aprons on behalf of the group and this new branding made us stand out from the rest of the stands.  We also had pole position at the entrance to the event space that meant that no one could avoid our stand.   

(click on pic to enlarge)

We had lots of material on display from HPS National and from our own local group - magazines, booklets and copies of our local events programme.  Visitors were also interested in what the Society offered members and quite a few membership leaflets were taken away.
What made our stand all the more interesting were the Alan Bloom artefacts and plants.  For these we have to express our great gratitude to Jaime Blake, curator at Bressingham Gardens.  We had Alan Bloom's original potting bench and garden tools, as well as his gardening jacket.  Jaime had prepared for us a display of Alan's means of propagating trilliums, on which he spent sixteen years before getting a commercially viable collection together.  We had many photographs of Alan Bloom plant introductions as well as cut material and plants in pots, again courtesy of Bressingham.  Linda and Pamela had borrowed Bloom catalogues and Alan's original sales and purchase ledgers and prepared display sheets from each.  We showed examples of Alan's sales strategies, of his plant introductions and of the problems he experienced due to weather and plant failure.  We found lots of interesting names in the sales ledgers (Margery Fish, Waterperry, Notcutts, R. Veitch, etc.).  At the end of the event we gave Sir Nicholas Bacon the copy of the sales ledger which showed sales to the Raveningham Estate during his mother's lifetime.  Armed with this information he plans to search the family archive to see if he can trace the associated purchases.
The weather was glorious, as you can see from the pictures, and we had a great day.  Our thanks to everyone who helped us make this such a successful event.  We are extremely grateful to Jaime Blake for the support he gave us and to Jennifer Harmer, the HPS archivist, for copies of  the Society's historical material.

Pamela Clark