The Conservatory has had another successful year, thanks to the volunteers who visit daily to tend the plants and check on any maintenance problems.
The Conservatory has continued to welcome visitors on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons throughout most of the year. Unfortunately, we were forced to close to the public from the middle of December until beginning of February due to the rise in the number of covid cases. We reopened in time to showcase our orchid collection looking its best.
We have been expanding our collection of edible plants over the last couple of years. The banana plant is a favourite, and the new papaya plant is flowering. The coffee plant has a good crop of beans. We had a good crop of gourds, mini-cucumbers, and loofahs over the summer as well as tomatoes and chilis. The kiwi plants growing over the newly installed arch outside the conservatory are flourishing. One of our aims is education and school parties who visit can see how these food plants grow.
We have held several plant sales throughout the summer. These have all been very well supported by the local community. The proceeds from these sales have gone towards keeping the Conservatory looking at its best.
This year Enfield in Bloom resumed its competition, and the Conservatory received a gold award. The conservatory or our mini-Kew as it is affectionately known featured in an article in the May edition of the Enfield Dispatch. We manage to pack a wide range of exotic plants into a small space so do visit, there is always something new to see.
