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2025

DECEMBER

SHREWSBURY FLOWER SHOW

Extraordinary General Meeting 25th November 2025

What I write here is unpleasant to me but I am afraid it has to be brought to the attention of Members and the general public.

The meeting was interesting from a number of points of view. The few Trustees which faced the members had a very different point of view from the facing Members. The only way which both sides seemed to agree was that the Show (notice Show and not The Shropshire Horticultural Society) needed to change to go forward and that the present format was unsustainable.

The financial reports going back to 2000 were terrible reading and a brief summary will follow. The Treasurer explained the financial position and presented his view and went on to explain the present position of Charity and seemed to have a good understanding of the Charity’s assets and managing them.

Here are the income and losses since 2000 which includes income from investments etc

This is really difficult reading. The Charity has eaten into its assets over the past 6 years and has made a loss in the past 9 years. I will not comment on the donations to other Charities but from my own perspective none are for developing Horticulture in Shropshire which is one of the Charities objectives.

I will briefly make some comments on the Extraordinary General Meeting.

It would seem the Trustees have explored a number of options for the charity all of which seem to lead to a dead end.

The conclusion from the final note to members at the Extraordinary General Meeting is

The Group came to the conclusion that the only viable options facing the Society were to cease to hold a Flower Show and re-position itself as a grant giving organisation that stages small scale events for members as outlined above, or potentially to put on a much smaller offering in the Quarry as set out in section 7, following consultation.

However, we must recognise that this would mean it is unlikely that a Show will be held in 2026. At this point it is unclear whether it would be possible to hold a Show in 2027 after two years without Shows.

The benefits of ceasing to hold a Show would be that the Society would have a substantially reduced costs base and practical certainty of income. In contrast, should the smaller show option proceed, there would, in all likelihood, be substantial losses that exceed the proposed financial parameters.

It is obvious that the Charity has “lost the plot” and has been “digging a hole for itself” over the past 20 and is desperate to find a way out without admitting that they have not done their job properly and now grasping at straws.

The same Trustees are the ones which are on the smaller “working group” with seemingly the only external input a commercial festivals organisation. I will not list the Trustees or who are members of the group just to say that there are 24 people with another co opted. If you wish to find out then a reasonably correct list is available on the Charity Commission website.

I will make no other comments here just to draw these facts to the general Horticultural Public.

Part of the Governing document is below and at the end is my interpretation.

My interpretation is:-

The Committee should be made up of the following

(I) President

(ii) Vice Presedents

(iii) Honorary Officers

(iv) 42 Members of the Society

(v) Co opted Members

Referring to the Members at (iv) at least 1/3 should retire each year before the Annual General Meeting but should be eligible for re election.

Now the important part.

“Nominations for vacancies on the General Committee shall be called for by the Secretary through the medium of an advertisement in the Press each year not less than 6 weeks before the Annual General Meeting. Names of retiring members shall be included automatically on ballot papers unless they do not wish to be re-elected. Vacancies not filled should be regarded as casual vacancies. Voting should be by postal ballot and should be scrutinsed 7 days before the A.G.M. and then result shall be notified at the A.G.M.”

My interpretation of this is as follows.

The Committee should consist of

(i) President

(ii) Vice Presidents (how many)

(iii) Honorary members (again how many, logically these are a limited number of people who have an interest in the Society and the aims of the society).

(iv) 42 Members of the Society (who are these people in the current line up and when were they elected or are these the casual vacancies)

(At the moment there are 25 members of the General Committee 24 and 1 co opted)

From my observations both from the Governing Document and the A.G.M.’s I have attended this is not as the way the Society is run at the moment, to be frank I think it is illegal and reeks of cronyism.

From the governing document it should be nominations for the posts from the members, then a ballot of those for those posts with the retiring member for the post being automatically included on the ballot if that person wishes.

THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN.

The Society has lost its way it is only looking for people to run the Society from a very narrow circle.

The situation the Society finds its self in at the moment is an opportunity but is being lost with no or little outside help being sought from members.

As I said in the meeting the Society needs to be more transparent in its workings, which as I have just shown, it is not.

I will finish now I leave it up to readers of this document to make their own conclusions.

The way forward which everyone agreed on was it needed to change to go forward and that the present format was unsustainable.

This website was set up to fill the gap which Shrewsbury Flower Show does not cover and seems to be incapable of filling with its present format. At least someone is trying to make the changes required to make The Shropshire Horticultural Society great again but i need everyones help.

David Darrell

The following are Shropshire Companies and should be of interest to Horticulturalists. I do not have any connection with them.

At this time of year Gardeners are looking at planting Fruit trees. I am asked many times as to what i recommend and also the rootstock. I have a couple of reccomendations which i would like to grow myself but Fruit trees are very much dependant on location soil type and preference for the people growing them.

Rootstocks are another matter and i have put together a couple of pages where i have sourced as simple information as possible to help Horticulturalists.

Here is the link.