Saturday 16th March

Caradoc Doy  ‘Plant Hunters and Pioneers’

Experienced speaker Caradoc Doy is an authority on the history of the Veitch Nurseries, which were the first commercial nurseries in Britain to sponsor their own plant collectors. Their plant hunters introduced 232 orchids, nearly 500 greenhouse plants, 118 exotic ferns, about 50 conifers, 153 deciduous trees, 72 evergreen and climbing shrubs, and 122 herbaceous and 37 bulbous plants from all corners of the world, many of which are popular stalwarts in our gardens today! This is a fascinating and enthralling topic for a talk.

The talk starts at 11 with tea, biscuits and discussion from around 10:30.

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The following Saturday (23rd) is the HPS Somerset Group Early Spring Plant Fair to be held at Yeo Valley Organic Garden, Holt Farm, Blagdon, BS40 7YE.

If you can’t make it to Yeo Valley but could support our group by donating plants, then please bring them along to the meeting on the 16th.

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At every meeting we have the Plant of the Month competition. For 2024 we encourage everyone to bring along an offering to expand the competition. Your mission is to bring either a cut flower and / or a pot plant, or both. The competition is usually judged by the Speaker and points awarded towards an annual award at the AGM. The competition includes bulbs and corms, a good time to let these little gems shine.

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Guests are welcome and pay £5 on the door.

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Cover image courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/wlcutler/ under this license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/