Hanging baskets marking coronation dubbed ‘drab’

THE hanging baskets which have decorated Henley this summer have been described as “drab”.

Residents and businesses bought a record 273 baskets from Henley in Bloom this year, supported by the Henley Standard’s Buy a Basket campaign.

The baskets are installed and maintained by Windowflowers, of Burnham, each year.

This year, the flowers are in the royal colours of purple and gold to commemorate the coronation of King Charles III in May.

They comprise surfinia blue, verbena purple, Biden’s sun drop, lysimachia goldilocks and calibrachoa sunrise.

But the flowers were criticised at a meeting of the town council’s Henley in Bloom committee.

Councillor Gill Dodds said: “What happened to the yellow flowers — they look drab? The yellow flowers haven’t flourished, have they?”

Daisy Smith, the council’s communications manager, replied: “Some around the town have and some haven’t. I’m wondering whether the plant they picked has not been the strongest or it has got overwhelmed by the purple.”

Diana Barnett, a member of Greener Henley, suggesting using different types of plants in future.

She said: “Perhaps we can think about more sustainable plants, things that are going to tolerate the changes in our climate, things that maybe aren’t just annuals.

“We have got to be really conscious of what we are doing, not just for us, not just for the town, but for everybody, all living things.”

Chairwoman Catherine Notaras called for a discussion with Windowflowers director Miles Watson-Smyth, saying there was too big a gap between the winter hanging baskets coming down and the summer ones going up.

She said: “My worry is the town was left a little bit miserable, which was unfortunate. A lot of the community are quite disappointed if they’re not up to standard. We’ll do our best next year. We’ll be better.”

She also suggested having an inventory of the town’s public flower beds.

Ms Notaras said the “celebration” flowerbeds in Mill Meadows had been “lost” and hoped there could be some more planting.

But Kyle Dowling, of the council’s parks services team, replied: “We were using a lot of annuals each year, roughly 2,500, to do the celebration beds for a four-month display. They then remain empty for the rest of the year because of the chance of flooding.

“We thought it was a good opportunity to put in something sustainable, so put in two native trees and stopped using so many annuals because we had to use a lot. Potentially we could look at doing some more sustainable beds and more beds if you want.”

The committee also discussed replacing lost trees.

Colin Brathwaite said that trees in St Mark’s Road and St Andrew’s Road had been lost and the ground tarmacked.

He said: “I’m not pointing any fingers at anyone but I just think it would be nice if we could put one back because once it’s tarmacked over, people forget.”

Cllr Dodds said that the planting trees in those streets was “complicated” because of the drainage system.

Councillor Kellie Hinton, vice-chairwoman, said: “Perhaps if they’re unable to replace the tree in that specific location, for whatever reason, they could plant three more instead. We have plenty of locations for trees.”

A tree in Station Park that suffered strimmer damage in July is to be replaced.