This year we held our first-ever Christmas dinner at The Rag, instead of our usual event at the village hall. We enjoyed a delicious three course meal followed by coffee and mince pies, although most of the mince pies were taken home to be eaten another day! The food was generous and beautifully presented, as you can see from the photos, with a lovely jolly festive atmosphere in the room. We were seated at two long tables with lots of opportunity to chat, exchanging news and plans for the season. Time just flew by and we all had a lovely evening, please do scroll through all the photos to get a real ‘flavour’… Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everybody!

At our November meeting we welcomed back the popular Howard Drury of Thedrurys.com with his beautifully illustrated talk on Bulbs for year round colour in the home & garden, including two sequences set to music. It had been postponed from March when he injured his back but was well worth waiting for. As always Howard gave us a wealth of information delivered in his professional but very engaging manner, such as choosing ‘mother & daughter’ bulbs for naturalising and ‘singles’ for a good display in pots, as well as colour and plant combinations, types and situation/soil suitability. His very useful fact sheet is available by clicking on the link above.

After his talk Howard drew the raffle, which included a box of jumbo tulips, and judged our monthly competition. The two fatsias clearly caught his eye, with Sylvia’s taking first place and Anita’s second, with Audrey’s dahlia 3rd, and other lovely entries too, as you can see from the photo. He had also brought some small succulents for sale, and we had our usual spare seeds/plants/recycling table.

Last but not least, our new pocket-sized list of 2025 speakers and events was hot off the press for members to take home. Details are now on our Programme page and we’re looking forward to another packed year!

We welcomed Matthew Nichols from Haywood Park Farm Shugborough, to our October meeting on a damp mild evening. He explained how his family developed their apple growing and juicing business as part of diversification, with his talk covering how to choose a dwarfing rootstock to make picking easier (M26), the grafting process they use, and tips on good apple varieties to grow. These included Katy and Discovery which both produce pink juice.

He also showed us some interesting videos of the pressing, bottling and pasteurising process. They sell their own juice from the farm and supply local shops, cafes and pubs. They also press and bottle customers’ own apples which is now a very popular service. All their leftover pulp is recycled as pig feed or compost, so zero wastage, and they also re-use customers’ bottles if available. 

After his talk, Matthew answered questions then drew our raffle and judged the monthly competition which was won this time by Sylvia, with Anita 2nd and Joan 3rd, with entries showing up well against the smart new backdrop of our recently redecorated hall. Over refreshments, we were able to choose spare seeds, plants and new magazines all brought in by members to share, with donations to the club. It was dark and foggy when we left after another good evening.

At our September meeting we had the welcome return of Philip Aubury former Director of Birmingham Botanic Garden to give a masterclass on the art of pruning. He explained in a very understandable way the “why, what, when and how” including practical demonstrations and some useful tools. We were particularly intrigued by his Darlac Snapper for longer-reach pruning and deadheading, which can also hold the cut stems or blooms.

After Philip’s talk and Q&A session he drew our raffle and judged the monthly competition which as you can see from the photos had some beautiful entries again, with Jean taking 1st place, Pia 2nd and Denise 3rd. Then we enjoyed refreshments browsing the good range of plants that Philip had brought for sale as well as some charming greetings cards painted by his wife. There was also our usual recycling/spare plant table. If this is your first visit to the site for a while please scroll down below the photos to see the previous post about our Annual Show!

We held a brief Special General Meeting on August 13th to update our Constitution, before welcoming Jane Rock of the Staffordshire Bat Group branch of the Bat Conservation Trust with a passionate and fascinating talk about these amazing flying mammals that are more closely related to humans than they are to mice. We could really see that resemblance from drawings of their skeletons.

Jane explained the history of bats, their geographical spread and roles around different parts of the world as pollinators, reforesters, biodiversity indicators and insect control. In the UK, they can eat up to 2000 biting insects a night! She also shared with us the Group’s important care and rehab work, and had brought two delightful Pipistrelles in a specially designed transport case that is fully compliant with BCT requirements (bats are protected by law). They were clearly a relaxed and happy pair and you can see one stretching its wings for us in the photo; we all enjoyed this rare opportunity.

After her talk, Jane drew our raffle then judged our monthly competition which she said was a tricky task with such lovely entries, won this time by Jean, with Rosalie 2nd and Sue W 3rd (photos below). We had our spare plants and recycling table too.

Members paid their deposits for our Christmas meal and kindly put their names down to provide cakes for the refreshments at our Garden and Home Produce Show on Saturday 31st August (full details on our Annual show page) which we’re all looking forward to, not long to go!

At our July meeting we welcomed Robert Barlow of North Staffordshire Hostas sharing his knowledge of how to choose and care for these perennials, having brought some beautiful exhibition plants and other smaller ones to buy. He showed us how propagation by seed rather than division can result in some unusual results, also how leaf colour will change through the seasons especially the paler ones. There was also a four-foot long flower spike which escaped the camera but the other photos give an idea of the range.

After drawing the raffle Robert judged the competition and was impressed with the quality of the entries, this months’ winner was Pia with Anita second and Pam third (photos below). We also had our new recycling table (including hedge trimmer, leaf collectors, bird feeders and fertiliser spreader!) plus plant divisions and seeds for members to take home in return for small donations to the club. 

There were also schedules and booking forms for our 31st August Annual show plus posters to take for display at local outlets. Members were also keen to put their names down for our Christmas social evening! And given the current weather, it feels like it won’t be long to wait…..although at least it was a dry evening.   

Our speaker for June, Ken Whittaker, recalled that he was last with us exactly five years ago to the day on 11th June 2019, one of those strange coincidences. This time he gave an amusing talk on the change of approach in the gardening world to what we once considered as “pests”, a wide range including next door’s cat, slugs and aphids amongst others. He shared his thoughts on how to live alongside them, create the right environment to deter them and control problems without chemical intervention, welcoming audience participation as he went along.

Ken was accompanied as before by his wife Toni, his Executive Logistics Facilitator (ELF) whose helpful interventions added to the enjoyment of the evening. After his talk he drew the raffle whilst Toni had the difficult task of judging the monthly competition which was again well supported with beautiful entries. Our club photographer was in the kitchen doing refreshments this month so apologies for the quality of the pictures which don’t do them all justice especially against the brown curtain. Christie’s deliciously perfumed rose took 1st place with Audrey’s peony 2nd and Pia’s foxglove 3rd. There was a lot of member interest in Rosalie’s Deutzia ‘Strawberry Fields’ too.

Members chatted to Ken and Toni over refreshments as well as collecting plants and seedlings for a small donation to the club, brought in this month by Brenda & Christie. We had earlier discussed replacing our monthly book and magazine stall with gardening paraphernalia as well as spare plants, and that will start next month. We even talked about Christmas!

At our April meeting we welcomed Duncan Coombs standing in for Howard Drury who hopes to be with us later this year when he is fully recovered. Duncan’s very engaging talk took us on a beautifully illustrated Spring Trip to Japan away from our dreary British rain, visiting the main island Honshu with wild volcanic areas as well as botanic and cultivated gardens. Some of the plants were familiar to us although in completely different settings, and others would be defeated by our climate.

The trip covered both modern and historic settings, from cultivated cherry blossoms in Tokyo to wild magnolias and azaleas, via tranquil gardens of Zen Buddhism in Kyoto and temples set in carefully landscaped gardens, with reflections in the still water of lakes and pines trained like huge bonsai. Plus an imperial villa and totally unexpected mass tulip and muscari plantings!

After he drew the raffle Duncan judged the monthly competition which is proving very popular in its new format with high quality entries, Sylvia in first place this time with Rosalie second and Sue third. We took bookings for our trip to Bridgemere Gardens in May and talked about the forthcoming SAGG AGM and our own, then members and visitors enjoyed refreshments chatting and browsing the magazines to take home. It was lovely to arrive in the daylight and at least it was dry when we left.