Good day Fellow Members,

I hope you are having an enjoyable summer and your garden has not suffered too much during the dry weather. I volunteered to help with the 2023 Somerset HPS Specialist Nursery Directory and will shortly contact the following nurseries to ascertain if they would be willing to support the 2023 directory:

• Avon Bulbs
• Beggars Roost Plants
• Burrow Farm Gardens
• C B Plants
• Champion Plants
• Chelston Nurseries
• Chew Valley Trees
• Cove Garden Nursery
• Desert to Jungle
• Dorset Water Lilies
• Elworthy Cottage Plants
• Forde Abbey Nursery
• Forton Nursery
• Greenshutters Nurseries
• Hill House Nursery
• In Clover
• Kapunda Plants
• Longacre Plants
• Mallet Court Nursery
• Margery Fish Nursery
• Middlecombe Nursery
• Peake Perennials
• Pennard Plants
• Perrie Hale Nursery
• Plant Wild
• Special Plants
• Triffid Nursery
• White Post Nursery
• Wivey Carnivorous
• Plus: Teresa Moss – Rare Plant Fair

Please do let me know if there are any other nurseries you think may be interested in taking part in the directory.  If so, I would be grateful if you could email me:

1. The name of a contact person
2. The name of the nursery
3. A contact email address and/or telephone number.

I look forward to hearing from you, ideally by 16th September, 2022.

Thank you in advance.

Best regards

Angela Summers

angelamsummers88@gmail.com

There are still a few places remaining for the plant swap on Friday 5 August at Watcombe in Winscombe near Axbridge. Arrive between 1:30 and 2 pm for the plant swap followed by afternoon tea.

Please contact Penny Berry T: 01278 662720 by Wednesday 12 noon at the latest.

You will have seen in the National newsletter that the booking has opened for tickets to the HPS Annual Lecture Day that Somerset Group are hosting. Thank you to those members that have already volunteered to help on the day.

However, we still need more helpers:

• Several people to man the members plant stall with HPS booklets
• People to run the Somerset Group’s book stall
• Runners and messengers

The stalls will open at 9.15 – 10:45 just before the first talk, at lunchtime from 12:30 – 13:30 and in the afternoon break 14:40 – 15:10 and then for a short time at the end of the day.

You can volunteer for just one session or for more. It would also be very useful to have a couple of people to act as runners / messengers between myself and others to ensure we keep to the timetable and to usher people in and out of the lecture theatre.

We also need good quality plants for the plant stall.

All attendees must book and pay for a ticket unless you are only attending the AGM in which case there is no charge but you still need a ticket.

Please contact me by email (using the form below on the website) or telephone if you would like to help in any way to make this event a success.

Caroline
Chair, HPS Somerset Group

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As a result of our preparation to move house I have a large number of clay flower pots, ranging in size from three inches to ten inches. There are also a few larger sizes as well. There is a very large stock and I’d hate to see them destroyed, and I would love them to find new homes.

Any members going to the Plant Swap on Friday 6th August could round off their visit by coming to Herongates to avoid making two visits to North Somerset. Apart from the pots, there are some very robust plant supports made from 1mtr high sheep fencing, originally used for dahlia plants.

One or two members are already using them and intend to come for more. My stroke earlier this year has stopped my propagating, so there are fewer plants available, but a limited number that are still worthwhile.

I shall be pleased to see members at any time – not just 6 August – just let me know in advance when you would like to come ( herongates@hotmail.com or 01934 843280)

I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible.

Best wishes,

Roy

Plant swap and afternoon tea at Watcombe.

We are very pleased that Ann and Peter Owen will be hosting the Plant Swap and Lunch in their exquisitely designed garden in Winscombe near Axbridge.

A 3⁄4 acre mature Edwardian garden with colour-themed, informally planted herbaceous borders. Strong framework separating several different areas; pergola with varied wisteria, unusual topiary, box hedging, lime walk, pleached hornbeams, cordon fruit trees, two small formal ponds and a growing collection of clematis.

Many unusual trees and shrubs and a small vegetable plot. Attendees are requested to bring a few surplus plants – seedlings, young plants and rooted cuttings – to swap with others (if you can but not mandatory). Numbers will be limited to 25.

£15 per person – to book your place please use the Contact form and mention how many people you’d wish to bring.

Come along to the 40th year of the Stogumber Gardens Open

Stogumber is deservedly renowned for its beautiful gardens. Every year since 1982 several gardens have been open on a weekend to raise money for charity. In the last 5 years, nearly £38,000 has been raised.

On Saturday 9th July and Sunday 10th July 2022 from 10.30 am to 5.30 pm, around 10 individual gardens will be open in aid of St Mary’s Church, the Children’s Hospice South West and Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance and four more in addition.

Several delightful and very varied gardens in a picturesque village on the edge of the Quantocks with many rare and unusual plants. Features include a courtyard, ponds, bog gardens, rockery, extensive mixed beds, vegetable and fruit gardens, and a collection many different roses. Fine views of the surrounding countryside from some gardens.

Refreshments will be available in the Village Hall and include fabulous food and cake. There will be plants for sale and Bric-à-brac stalls as well!

Prices

The entrance fee is £8 for all weekend.

Children under 14 are free.

Directions

TA4 3TQ – 3 miles SE of Williton, Somerset – follow signs from A358 or B3224. 

11m NW of Taunton. 3m W of A358. Signed to Stogumber, W of Crowcombe. Village maps given to all visitors.

Open on Sunday 26th June from 11am to 5pm

To quote the St Margaret’s brochure:

“This tranquil plantsman’s garden, surrounding the Georgian farmhouse, has been created over the past 17 years. Old stone barns provide backdrops to a series of steps and terraces sculpted from the hillside sheltering a profusion of borders. Vegetables, fruit and flowers grow side by side, including a traditional flowering hay meadow”

10 miles north west of Taunton
Westleigh Farm
West Leigh
Lydeard St Lawrence
TA4 3RE (NB the other side of the B3224 than Lydeard St Lawrence)

Sent in by: Kate Harris, Higher Nunnington Farm, Wiveliscombe TA4 2AE

Coach Trip to Little Dartmouth Farm, nr. Dartmouth and Mothecombe House, nr Plymouth on Thursday 7^th July

Our final visits of the season are coming up shortly and there are still some places available for this trip.  Due to the access to both properties being narrow, we are limited to a 30 seater coach which has made it a little more expensive than usual, but it promises to be an interesting outing.  The coach will leave from Taunton at 9.15.  

The first garden, which is not regularly open to the public, is Little Dartmouth Farm.  Designed 10 years ago by Dan Pearson it should be an interesting study of how to “live and evolve” with a ‘designer’ garden.  Right on the coast the garden has a vast panorama of sea and sky.  Curving beds wrap around the sides of a stepped terrace, and below the terrace a ha-ha allows uninterrupted vistas to the sea.  A superb vegetable and cutting garden, large greenhouse space, beautifully wrought dry stone walls and airy, naturalistic planting give this garden the ‘wow’ factor.

In the afternoon we will visit the gardens at Mothecombe House.  Also right on the coast but sheltered from the prevailing south westerly salt-laden winds which allow tender plants to flourish.  The time of our visit is just right for the Bee Garden which was created in 2013.  250 lavender plants in 12 varieties has brought a considerable increase in bumble bees, solitary bees and hoverflies to the garden.  Beyond the immediate gardens are extensive wooded glades lead down to the beach.

Tea and cake will be served at both gardens and we should be back in Taunton by 5.30pm.  Additional information about the gardens can be found on the Somerset HPS site.  To book please contact Penny Berry   p.berry487@btinternet.com or phone: 01278 662720.  Penny deals strictly with bookings only, so if you have any queries about the trip please contact Kate Harris at nunnington@aol.com

Kate Harris, Higher Nunnington Farm, Wiveliscombe TA4 2AE

Sunday 12th June

HPS Somerset Group Summer Plant Fair at Lower Severalls

10.00am – 3.00pm 

Admission:  Non-members £4     HPS and RHS members £3.50 

The fair at Lower Severalls is a popular event, with independent nurseries from across the South West bringing their best plants to sell.  

The Fair will run from 10.00am until 3.00pm and you can pay on the gate – no need to pre-book your tickets for this one. There will also be a range of delicious light refreshments available and a chance to see the garden at an earlier time of year. 

We have the following excellent nurseries and stalls coming along from various parts of the south-west (plus one coming from mid-Wales!), and of course the HPS Somerset Group plant stall, to bring you the best of their summer plant offerings:

• CB Plants
• Charles Chesshire Plants
• Exotic Earth Plants
• Floyds Climbers
• In Clover
• Gardener’s Blacksmith
• Heartsease Plants
• Japonica Plants
• Leesa’s Not Just Alpines
• Misfit Plants
• Pennard Plants
• Plant Wild
• Plants Galore
• Wild Thyme