On a lovely sunny spring evening, members at our April meeting enjoyed a lively talk by Darren Rudge with his ‘tricks of the trade’ on this subject, followed by a practical demonstration of making up a hanging basket which he then kindly donated to our raffle. His initial presentation recommended different types of pots and baskets as well as plants to go in them, depending on the effect that we want to create and our colour palette preference, as well as how best to fill and a good peat-free compost to use.

There were quite a few questions afterwards, and extra raffle tickets were sold – Sue was the lucky winner of his finished basket. Darren then judged the last of this season’s monthly competitions, and the member with the most points will receive the Trudi Brearley Challenge Trophy at our AGM in May. This month our winner was Anita’s chaenomeles, with Sylvia’s rhododendron 2nd and Sue’s delicate epimedium 3rd. All the entries were beautiful again as you can see from the photo. Please also scroll down to the bottom of this post to spot two dandelions posing amongst forget-me-nots in a shady garden area – serendipity!  

We also announced our 7th July coach trip to Waterperry Gardens, guests welcome, details on our events page, and talked about our Open Gardens Weekend on 28th and 29th June.

In March we welcomed back Diane Clement, this time sharing her vast knowledge of cyclamen & hepaticas – her ‘jewels of the garden’. Her enchanting photography showed us their natural habitats and why they favour similar conditions, then the wide variety available and how to grow & propagate them in our area. There are so many more cyclamen varieties than we knew, and the way that hepatica flowers change colour from year to year was fascinating, also the differences between some of the mums and their babies! Diane’s passion for breeding both these plants really shines through, and she recommended places to source them for those of us who don’t have her patience with hepaticas…..

After her talk she drew our usual raffle then judged our well-supported monthly competition, with Sue’s delicate white erythronium taking first place, Denise’s hellebore in 2nd and Anita’s camellia 3rd. Members enjoyed their refreshments and choosing from the ‘bits & bobs’ table, also collecting their free Teddy Bear dwarf sunflower seeds to grow for the special class in our August Produce Show, with spares that can be used for our 28th & 29th June Open Gardens weekend plant stall.

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!