The Chairperson’s Report 

The Chairperson’s Report 2026

At last year’s AGM we had an interesting talk from Sally Lorimor of Willowhill Garden giving us a fascinating insight into the garden’s evolution and she also opened her garden to our group as a fundraiser.  This year we have Mr Ken Cox, Glendoick Garden giving us a talk on 100 years of Glendoick.

Our In Bloom group has been running for 16 years now with many supporters and 24 local volunteers. Our group is Constituted and Insured.

During this past year we aimed to continue to enhance our 70 street planters in both villages.    We have planted bedding plants during May and October and also added perennial plants which has worked extremely well. We now have a map showing all our planter locations in the villages and we wear our Hi-viz vests which displays our logo.

Some of our plants are ordered via Marion Todd, Wormit, who does an extraordinary job by ordering and storing the plants in her garden area.  So thank you to Marion.

We continue to use the funding from Tesco’s Golden Award by replacing some of our older planters.  The areas are looking much smarter and all can see our new logo on display.  Fife Council help to remove the old planters, place the new ones on location and fill them too.

Our 2nd annual Art competition was held during the Newport Festival and was a huge success with over 170 entries.  We are now holding our  3rd competition and have invited both primary schools, playgroups and nurseries to become involved.  The theme this year is “A Garden Bouquet”.

All our volunteers tend several planters each and work all year round to ensure they are in the best condition.  As well as growing their own plants for us to sell at our twice a year Plant Sales at the Newport Festival and the Rotary Xmas Fair, they also sell tickets for our Quiz competition and Hamper raffles.  Thank you also to plant watering carried out by Sandy Douglas and Adam Olejnik using the bowser stored at Peacehill Farm.

Councillor Jonny Tepp, Willie Rennie MSP and Wendy Chamberlain, MP also support us during the year.  We welcomed Willie and his wife Janet to our Garden Party in the summertime.

We have received funding from Fife Council for our work in both villages but we continue to need additional funding to purchase plants and maintain the floral boats, tubs and barrier planters too.  The Sunrise Charitable Trust have gifted us funding this year and we thank them for supporting us.

We are indebted to the following who have given us donations this past year –

Charity Tins are located in the Library, Fig & Fromage, and now Leuchars Butchers.  I also raised funds by giving my Wildlife Photography talks to the local Rotary Club and Wormit Watts group.  We now have sponsorship signs in the Tay Road Bridge planters advertising The Seymour and Lawson Lettings.  A new sign on our Herb Boat at the Rail Bridge invites people to ‘take a snip if you wish to add flavour to your dish’.

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This year we said goodbye to one of our original members Kate Legg and we thanked her for her 15 years of service.  I am stepping down as Chair after 3 years as per our Constitution.  There has been no nomination for the position of Chair so it will remain vacant in the meantime.  The Committee members staying on for a further and last year are the Office Bearers Cynthia Robb, Secretary, Gill Owen, Treasurer. 

PROPOSER:  Alison Heywood and SECONDER: Kirstyn McKiddie.

Ordinary Committee Members who are continuing for a further year are Liz Olejnik, Alison Heywood, Edna Marshall, Ursula Doherty, Kathleen Reid and Heather Wilson. 

We would like to have volunteers who would shadow the Secretary and Treasurer before they also step down next year.  Please speak to any of our group.

We look forward to our next venture which is our Plant Sale outside the Tatha Gallery during the Newport Festival on Saturday 20th June.  You can also view the Art Competition Winners inside the Gallery.

Over the past 3 years we have successfully gained additional funding, support and publicity which has helped raise our profile and so finally I would like to thank all the Committee and volunteers who have worked tirelessly to help make our In Bloom group blossom.