The Society’s annual outing was to Kings Seeds and Green Island Gardens . We stopped off on the way for a coffee break at Poplar nurseries Marks Tey, which had the most wonderful displays of baskets and huge floral arrangements. From there we travelled through Coggeshall, with many of its buildings dating back to the 16th Century. Arriving at Kings seeds the first thing we noticed was the fields of sweet peas which they were trialling.
We were split into two groups and shown all the different aspects of the factory, from the cold store where seeds are kept at optimum temperature, the laboratory where germination is tested, to all the state of the art machinery, which detects blemishes, cleans and counts plus more. A very interesting morning.
We then moved on to Ardleigh and Green Island gardens to find a marquee had been set up for us and after a very enjoyable lunch some of us enjoyed a tour of the garden learning of of its history and development by the owner, while others wandered round the lovely gardens. No visit would be complete without tea and homemade cake and it was nice to relax in a beautiful garden chatting over a nice cup of tea.
