Garden Inspiration Weekend 2018
Painting of Bressingham Hall by Shirley Hayes
Held on Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th September 2018
This September weekend was the second of its type following last year’s 50th anniversary of Adrian Bloom’s Foggy Bottom garden. Apart from there being 17 acres of gardens which look as good in September as they do at any time of the year, The Bressingham Gardens held for the first time an art competition involving artists mostly from Norfolk and Suffolk, who were approached to come to the gardens during the summer of 2018 to find inspiration for artwork that was displayed and judged this past weekend. There were around 72 entries on display in the High Barn at Bressingham, which is used for weddings and events.
The winner of the art competition was Allan Williams from Wickham Market, chosen unanimously by the three judges. Allan said that he really wanted to put his all into this painting and took hundreds of photographs of Bressingham before developing his associations which he felt represented “the amazing gardens”. The runner up was local artist Vivienne Weeks. The prize was for Mr Williams and his wife, family and friends to stay three nights at Bressingham Hall, which is open for accommodation for wedding parties and holiday lets.
By way of an experiment and to encourage horticultural societies and garden clubs to increase their activity using plants, the results of the first ‘Pot Off’ competition were held at The Bressingham Gardens. Members of different horticultural societies entered displays of garden plants in attractive and suitable containers. These were on display during the Inspiration Weekend and three judges awarded prizes of plants from the Bressingham Gardens nursery. The winning society was Loddon & District Horticultural Society.
