A specialist plant centre in Shrewsbury has teamed up with well-known flower arranger Margaret Thrower for an event to promote a campaign to rid the world of polio.
Love Plants, located at caravan dealership Salop Leisure’s headquarters at Emstrey, is holding a free Hocus Crocus workshop on Saturday, October 25 from 11am to 3.30pm where Margaret will show children under the age of 15 how to plant a pot of purple crocus, which they can take home and watch grow.
She will also be demonstrating how to plant containers for winter colour, using quality plants and bulbs supplied by Love Plants.
Purple crocus have been chosen for the workshop as they are Rotary International’s emblem for the End Polio Now Campaign. When the crocus flowers next spring it will be a reminder of the world-wide campaign mounted by Rotarian to eradicate the polio disease.
The purple crocus was chosen as the campaign’s symbol as the colour matched the dye painted on the fingers of children who have been immunised against polio.
Polio, which kills and paralyses young children, spreads like wild-fire and there is no cure, but it can easily be prevented through immunisation. Twenty-five years ago, polio struck 350,000 children but, thanks to the work of Rotary, there were only 223 cases in 2012.
Tim Robinson, manager of Love Plants, said the plant centre was happy to support the Rotarian Margaret Thrower to promote the worthy campaign and looked forward to welcoming familiar and new faces to the crocus planting workshop.
In the run up to Halloween, from October 25-31, Love Plants will be setting a free ‘Spooky Trail’ for children with hidden treats along the way. There will also be pumpkins available in all shapes and sizes to buy for Halloween.
