Community Spirit Blooms for City’s Centenary Year
Stoke-on-Trent gardening enthusiast Derek Hulme is on a mission to transform the streets of Sneyd Green into a floral paradise. Armed with nothing but passion, recycled materials, and community support, Derek has launched a project to brighten up the neighbourhood with flowers, hanging baskets, and planters for the city’s Centenary year.
Derek Hulme at Buxton Street allotments, Stoke-on-Trent. Photo: Jerome Whittingham.
For over 40 years, Derek has cultivated vegetables and flowers, both at home and in his allotments. His love for growing produce turned into an obsession, leading him to supply fresh vegetables to his neighbours, donate surplus crops to local charities, and even break world records for growing giant leeks and runner beans. Now, along with his friends at Buxton Street allotments, he’s bringing his growing skills to the streets of Sneyd Green.
His plan is ambitious: every shopfront will feature planters overflowing with flowers, while lampposts and businesses will showcase hanging baskets. The initiative extends beyond aesthetics, it’s about germinating and growing pride in the community. Derek gleefully imagines Sneyd Green rivalling picturesque local market towns like Leek and Congleton, making it a more inviting place for residents and visitors alike.
What makes this project even more remarkable is that it’s almost entirely self-funded (save for some initial financial support from local councillors) and will be brought to fruition with recycled materials. Derek has repurposed plastic bread trays from supermarkets for planters, and in a surprising twist, compost from police drug busts has been used to fill them. His resourcefulness ensures that costs remain low while maximising environmental sustainability.
Local businesses and residents have enthusiastically embraced the project.
Beyond beautification of the streets, the project aligns with the centenary celebrations of Stoke- on-Trent. Derek has collaborated with local schools, community groups, and adult learning centres who will create "birthday cards" for the city, adding personal expressions of what Stoke- on-Trent means to them. This effort symbolises residents’ shared love for the city and their locality, and reinforces the community-driven spirit behind the project.
For Derek, it’s about more than just planting flowers - it’s about transforming attitudes, and he’s spurred on by the city’s centenary celebrations. “I’ve been trying to do this for eight or nine years, but kept getting knocked back,” he said. “This special year, I just thought, you know what? I’m doing it.”
With thousands of marigold, petunia, and lobelia seeds already sown and being lovingly nurtured, Sneyd Green is set to burst into colour in early summer, ready for the city’s big centenary weekend in June.
Thanks to Derek’s determination, what was once just an idea is now has the potential to become a vibrant reality, one flower at a time.
Listen to Derek chatting to Jerome Whittingham, centenary ‘photographer in residence’, in this podcast:
https://jeromew.buzzsprout.com/2452677/episodes/16652917-a-blooming-good-idea-in-sneyd- green