SHE says that while she can’t draw for toffee, when it comes to flower arranging, well, she can do that till the cows come home.

So, no way is she going to let the other members of the club she chairs off the hook - only a “can do” attitude is allowed to prevail on her watch.

Dedicated and gregarious, Pamella Alexander said: “I won’t have it when they tell me they can’t do something and when you look at what they’ve done here today you can see what they are really capable of.”

Hexham Abbey’s first all-singing, all-dancing Flower Festival at the weekend was, indeed, a blooming success.

Thirty or so of Hexham and District Flower Club’s 46 members embellished its ancient stones with displays that were dramatic, sweet, uplifting and beautiful by turn.

Visitors going the ‘right’ way round would have entered the Abbey via the new entrance porch (in the Cloisters) festooned with the 56 arrangements made by Pamella and the president of the club, Philida Irving.

Hulahoops, wreath rings, wool, sizal and hat pins have never been put to such collective good use. Pamella said: “We used green as the background, because it’s the universal colour for flower arranging - it harmonises with every other colour you put against it. It makes every other colour ‘pop’ out.”

The hoop shapes proved to be an introduction to the festival’s Circle of Life theme that reflected the Native American Indian take on the four stages of life, from infancy to youth to adulthood to wise old age.

Fittingly, the Font was bedecked in the lemon, pinks and blues most babies sport, while a nearby display entitled Best Days of Your Life conjured up images of learning to read, playing in the garden and jumping in puddles.

“It’s floral art, not just flower arranging,” she said. “It’s another medium - I can’t draw to save my life, but I can play with flowers all day long.”

She points to Childhood, put up by Hexhamshire farmer’s wife and flower arranger for weddings in Whitley Chapel, Yvonne Hall. “She’s really thought outside the box,” said Pamella, with a note of pride in her voice.

A display of two halves, one was a dark stunted arrangement that symbolised the failure to nurture a child, while its antithesis was a tall stand of sunny yellows.

Pamela Greenhill, chairman of the Northumberland and Durham area of the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies that embraces the Hexham club, portrayed adulthood with a barbecue, wine, strawberries and marshmallows.

Elizabeth Bramwell defined old age with the most glorious stand of flowers in all manner of rich and subtle hues. One of them was the large, highly scented, dusky-pink Columbian Rose that grows in the rich mountain soil of the Andes.

The late Margaret Robson, a life member of the club and one of the Abbey’s “flower ladies”, would surely have been touched by what was a tribute to her.

The north transept had been turned into a hotbed of activity, thanks to the myriad of sports represented, swimming, golf, cricket and horse racing among them. One of the sponsors, Newcastle gallery The Biscuit Factory, had set up there too, replete with floral themed works of art and jewellery.

Little figures of choristers peeped out of the displays in the north ambulatory on the run up to St Wilfrid’s Chapel, which in turn boasted a bouquet that complemented the colours of the copper wall-hanging above its bijou altar. “They’re avalanche peach, the bride’s favourite rose,” said Pamella.

“It comes in pink, lemon and white as well as peach and has a big head that opens bigger and bigger.”

The memorial plaque to Henry Hogarth Bell, who was killed at the Battle of the Somme; the Frith Stool, thought to have been installed by Wilfrid himself when he founded the monastery that first stood on the site in 674 and from which the circumference of sanctuary was traditionally measured; and (Bishop) Acca’s cross, were all given floral blessings too.

But the pièce de résistance was the 200-plus “parallels” - a vertical design hailing from the Continent - that seemed to depict the white-clad, serried ranks of choir boys who otherwise inhabit the chancel.

Hexham Abbey’s Philippa Richmond said: “The Flower Festival has been an event organiser’s dream.

“It has been tremendous working with Hexham and District Flower Club. Their knowledge, expertise and artistry are quite astonishing – I really think there isn’t anything they couldn’t make out of flowers.

“The support from local businesses, regional arts organisations and major sponsorship from the Community Foundation, amongst others, has really enabled this idea to blossom.”

Hexham and District Flower Club meets at the Torch Centre, opposite Hexham General Hospital, on the second Monday of every month, at 2pm.