#fundraiser

Inspiring People: Phyllis Tuckwell Charity

/ karen / Leave a comment
Beckhams, Coxcombe Lane, Chiddingfold – 14 Sept.

This blog is dedicated to highlighting special people who are gardening to make a difference. The Phyllis Tuckwell charity has to raise £25,000 every single day to fund the hospice care it provides. Just take a moment for that to sink in. £25,000. Every single day! It’s an amazing challenge. Open gardens is one way the organisation raises funds. I’m sharing details of the gardens here, in the hope that if you live in the area, you’ll visit and help them reach their targets.

Poster for this year’s events. A range of gardens open between 29 May and 14 September 2025.

For a complete list of gardens taking part, download the brochure here:

https://www.pth.org.uk/open-gardens/

Susie Floud’s garden, 13 Rowland Road, Cranleigh, Surrey.
Binsted Place, Alton, Hampshire.
Serendipity, Chiddinfold open gardens – 14 Sept.
75 Kenilworth Rd, Fleet, 21 June
Deron, Yateley, Surrey. 12 July.

Some of the highlights include:

Art and music in the garden, Greenhills Estate 7 June

Crondall open gardens 8 June

Godalming gardens 8 June

Fleet orchestra proms 11 June

Skydiving event 8 June

Alton open gardens 6 July

*Please check times and dates with the website before visiting.

Jack’s Jungle, Chiddingfold, 7 Sept.
Jack’s Jungle.

Phyllis Tuckwell is the only Hospice Care service for adult patients, and their families and carers, who are living with an advanced or terminal illness such as cancer, across the whole of West Surrey and part of North-East Hampshire.

“Every day we support over 250 patients, relatives and carers, through medical and nursing care, therapies, counselling, social work advice and practical support. We offer this care on our In-Patient Unit, through our Living Well service, and in patients’ own homes and care homes.

Our specialist, compassionate care helps patients to manage their symptoms, improve their wellbeing and remain as independent as possible throughout their illness. We also support the families and carers of our patients, as well as local healthcare providers, building skills and confidence in palliative and end of life care… because every day is precious.

As the NHS/Government only cover around 25% of our costs, we have to raise over £25,000 every single day to be able to offer all of our services, which we provide free of charge to our patients and their families and carers. That’s why events such as Open Gardens are so incredibly important. By taking part, you’ll be helping us to raise these vital funds – and we really appreciate your support.”

Thank you for reading my blog. Please leave a comment in the box below, sign up for e mail notifications and pass on any good news you’ve heard on this blog! We can all help one another just by sharing what we know and by supporting everyone trying to make a difference. Thank you.

In a Vase on Monday – my fund-raiser flowers.

/ karen / 38 Comments

Table flowers are a joy. They set the scene for leisurely lunches, or cosy friends-and-family dinners. Even a picnic has to have flowers. Usually I linger over the selection and mooch around the garden searching for material. This weekend, I ran round the plot at a gallop. The flowers thrown into jam jars in haste. I was planning an afternoon tea for 45 people! I just had time to gather these gloriously sunny chrysanthemums. I picked variegated ivy flowers and some beech and oak leaves. Here are the chrysanthemums, not looking very glamorous, in the corner of my poly tunnel.

Variegated ivy Glorie de Marengo covers one end of my 40 foot pergola. It provides cutting material all year round. I particularly love the starry flowers at this time of the year. The huge beech tree in the middle of the lawn casts a golden glow and its autumn leaves look so cheerful in amongst my Aunty Doris chrysanthemums.

I threw the lot into a wicker basket on the potting shed window while I searched for suitable jam jars. You can see my garden, the beech, cherry and maple trees around the pond, reflected in the potting shed windows.

Then I left the peace and quiet of the potting shed to head over to Spring Barrow Lodge near Coalville. It’s the home of my garden design clients Pat and John Stanley, where we were hosting my afternoon tea and gardeners’ talk for Rainbows Hospice. Author Barbara Segall kindly agreed to come and present a talk and slide show on her newly-launched book Secret Gardens of East Anglia.

And I thought you’d like see the flowers on the tables- arranged so hurriedly. They contain the Aunty Doris chrysanthemums I wrote about last year Here

Barbara’s talk transported us all to the fabulous gardens contained in her wonderful book. I wrote a review here. I am so grateful to Barbara for her kindness in agreeing to come and help me stage this event- my first ever fund-raiser for charity. I am still counting the proceeds. But I think the admission tickets, book sales, raffle tickets and generous donations from people who could not attend but wanted to support us, amounts to just short of £1,000. To say I’m over the moon, is an under statement! I’ll write more tomorrow when I have gathered my thoughts. At the moment, I am still on cloud nine to be honest. There’s so many people to thank……

But I wanted to join in and congratulate Cathy at rambling in the garden for her 4th anniversary of In a Vase on Monday. Every week, I look in to see what everyone is growing, picking and arranging in their gardens- all around the world. It’s a fascinating blog, and I love joining in when I can. Go over and have a look. For the anniversary celebration the theme was any container- but a vase. So I was delighted to be able to join in with my great Aunty Betty’s Kilner jars, wicker baskets and simple glass jam jars. Thank you Cathy for hosting such a lovely meme, and for the friendship the blog has created amongst our growing and gardening community. I certainly appreciate all you do.

For more on Rainbows Hospice, click on the link here. All other highlighted words contain further information and are not affiliate links.