Our April meeting was heralded in by thick fog & seemed more like a November evening! Fortunately our stalwart members, now used to winter dragging its heels, were undeterred & we had good attendance for a hands-on talk from the renowned Primula specialist Bob Middleton to remind us that spring must be on its way. He used the plants that he brought with him to illustrate some of the many different groups within this plant genus from alpine auriculas to primroses. He demonstrated how he prepares them for showing, what the breed standards are and how best to care for them, answering varied questions from a keen audience.
He clearly sets very high standards for himself & laughingly referred to several lovely specimens as being "rubbish" from a showing perspective so it is easy to see how he wins! He also breeds new varieties, pollinating plants by hand to achieve the best results, and calls them after local pubs. He had brought with him a large primula in a terracotta bowl that had recently won several prizes at the recent National Auricual & Primula Society's show at Knowle although he was disappointed that it had started to "go over". Club members were happy to rehome many of his smaller specimens!
Unfortunately I forgot take any photos on the night so these are just boring old "Lemon & Lime" primulas in my own garden which flower most months of the year. Hopefully we'll be able to add some of Bob's pictures in due course. Also photo-less was our competition, this month's winner Brenda Brettell with her decorated Easter bonnet. Sorry folks!

At our February meeting we enjoyed a return visit from popular speaker Diane Clement, Director of the Seed Exchange for the Alpine Garden Society, who used wonderful photographs from her own garden to demonstrate how we can have flowers in bloom every day of the year, even in challenging areas such as heavy shade & steep slopes. She provided us with strategies to achieve this & gave examples of unusual varieties of plants that will extend their flowering season, after explaining initially what had influenced her approach to gardening & inspired her style. After her talk she judged our monthly competition "A photograph of your winter garden" which was won by Rosalie Allden (see bottom left). One of Diane's beautiful blue Meconopsis is below. 

We had an excellent start to 2018 when our first speaker, David Wood, shared with us how he followed through a childhood interest with a 7 year apprenticeship to become a Master Thatcher, illustrating his fascinating talk with the tools of his trade, a dovecote & a portable roof section! We also launched our new website and started arranging refunds following the unfortunate cancellation of our Christmas social evening due to the heavy snow.

It was a shame to finish such a good year for our club with the cancellation of our Christmas social evening but the conditions were treacherous & we couldn’t risk any injuries to our members! Here are some photos that give an idea of how beautiful it was, plus one of the lovely table decorations that 2 of our committee members had prepared.