On a dreary February evening, members and visitors enjoyed ecologist Richard Sunter’s beautifully illustrated Virtual Fungi Foray, which he brought to us with great enthusiasm. We learnt, amongst other fascinating facts, that our local Gentleshaw Churchyard is a waxcap grassland site of regional importance with over 14 species of interest. The colourful group includes earthtongues as well as coral and club fungi, some with distinctive smells of honey and cedar. Thank you to Christie for the photos from a local autumn foray with Richard.

Richard explained that Fungi form a biological kingdom of their own, closer to humans than to plants from a molecular perspective! Many species of grassland fungi are rare and declining, as they prefer ancient pastures and grasslands that have not been agriculturally improved, hence the particular importance of churchyards. After his talk Richard answered questions and drew the raffle before judging our monthly competition.

There were some lovely entries again, so varied, as you can see from the photos below – all single stem. Sue’s wonderfully perfumed sarcococca took 1st place with Angela’s unusual yellow hellebore 2nd and Ena’s heather 3rd. Members and guests enjoyed looking at the display over refreshments as well as browsing our popular spare seeds/plants/recycling table.

 

We launched New Year on a fairly mild January evening with an informative talk by Marc Brimble and Catherine Baxter on ‘Winter colour in the garden’. Marc started with a screen presentation on all the different ways that we can bring colour into our gardens at this time of year then he and Catherine passed round a selection of stems from fragrant, coloured and textured plants for us to examine (and inhale the perfume in some cases!). They ranged from evergreens such as sarcococca and eleagnus through witchhazels, rubus and cornus stems to seedheads on phlomis, sedums and grasses.

After their talk and Q&A, Catherine drew the raffle while Marc judged our monthly competition, won this month by Sylvia, with Angela second and Anita third, with all the entries showing the beauty that can be found in our gardens at this time of year. We also announced our coach trip survey and details of our Open Gardens weekend coming this summer, requesting volunteers to help with various tasks. Members and guests enjoyed their refreshments chatting to Catherine and Marc and browsing our ‘bits and bobs’ table.

A great start to 2025!