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!