Tasteless Slush Puppy drizzle swirls in eddies in garden recesses. In the compost corner, one heap is diminished to a fifth of its original size. Under the old carpet is a friable, dark mixture of last year’s harvest of death; on top, protected by the high wooden sides and covered in leaves, is a collection of black plastic pots of narcissi labelled and pandered to for the local spring show.

Our July 2018 outing to Trentham Gardens held great promise as we alighted the coach and saw the exuberant planted wooden containers