As many of you may know, members were invited to open their gardens to the public this year in celebration of the Society’s 60th anniversary. Booklets describing the gardens were available at our spring lecture meetings and plant fairs. Here in Somerset there are six members’ gardens open this summer – the first coming up at the end of this month. We would urge you to visit as many as you can to show your support. Proceeds from the garden openings may go to the HPS entirely or may be shared with the garden owners’ chosen charity.

The Somerset gardens opening for the HPS are as follows:

• Wednesday 24th May, 11.00am to 5.00pm – Elworthy Cottage (Mike and Jenny Spiller)
• Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th June, 2.00pm to 5.30pm – Hooper’s Holding (Ken and Lyn Spencer-Mills)
• Thursday 22nd June, 11.00am to 5.00pm – Vellacott (Kevin and Pat Chittenden)
• Sunday 25th June, 11.00am to 5.30pm – Lower Severalls Farmhouse (Mary Pring and Catherine Bond)
• Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th July, 10.00am to 4.00pm – The George House (Dr Robin Goodfellow)
• Tuesday 18 July, 2.00pm to 6.00pm – Braglands Barn (Simon and Sue Youell)

Full details about these gardens and their location, and others open outside of Somerset, may be found on the main HPS website. We wish them fine weather and crowds of visitors on their chosen day or days!

Jane Hunt

Many, many thanks to everyone who has responded to our requests for help manning the plant stall, the entrance gate or providing refreshments as required at one of the public events so far this year – East Lambrook Manor Plant Fair, our own Group Plant Sale and, most recently, Milverton Street Fair. The Committee couldn’t hope to do it all without help from the rest of the membership  so we are most grateful to everyone who has volunteered. We really feel that the HPS Somerset Group name is becoming very well known and respected as a result.

BUT, we are not done yet!! Coming up we have our stall at the Bishop’s Palace Garden Festival in Wells from 9 to 11 June and the Toby Buckland Garden Festival at Forde Abbey in September. We will be seeking help with the September event later in the year but we still have some spaces to fill on our volunteers rota for June. Most spaces are during the afternoon so if you could spare us a couple of hours of your time on one of those three days please get in touch with Jane as soon as possible, stating which day you would prefer. Volunteering has the benefit of free entry to the event for the day for two members per slot so the remaining places are certain to be taken up quickly.

Jane Hunt

 

Via Janet Murrow:

A Plant Fair on Sunday the 16th run by the Plant Heritage Charity

Our annual spring plant fair in aid of Plant Heritage. Up to 12 selected nurseries from throughout the South West of England bringing their best plants for spring to sell! £1 entrance to plant fair which is taken off your entrance to the garden if you do go around the garden.

• The event page is here
• Directions to Burrow Farm Gardens are here

Come along to our ANNUAL PLANT SALE at West Monkton Village Hall, Monkton Heathfield, Taunton, TA2 8NE on Saturday 22 April 2017 from 10.00am to 12.30am

A Large Selection of Quality Locally Grown Hardy Plants, including some Unusual Varieties at Reasonable Prices, plus Specialist Nursery Stalls.

 All Welcome * Free Parking on Site * Entry £1 * Refreshments on Sale

(From Jane Hunt)

Aster expert Helen Picton will be giving the lecture at our next group meeting this Saturday.  Helen is the third generation of her family to be involved in running Old Court Nurseries and The Picton Garden in Malvern, Worcestershire, which houses the Plant Heritage National Collection of autumn-flowering asters, encompassing over 400 varieties.  Helen’s lecture will be all about rethinking autumn in the English garden, extending colour in our borders using a range of late season perennials and shrubs including, of course, asters.  Although you may be busy enjoying your spring garden, now is the time to start planning and planting for good autumn colour so don’t miss the opportunity to get advice from one who knows.

Plants for sale
http://www.autumnasters.co.uk

One of the HPS Somerset Group’s biggest events is coming up this Saturday, so don’t miss the chance to get your hands on some choice plants for the season ahead.  At time of writing, the forecast is looking good, so it promises to be a good turn-out.  Come and join the throng!

When: 10.00am – 4.00pm

Where: East Lambrook Manor Gardens, Silver Street, East Lambrook, South Petherton,
Somerset, TA13 5HH

Next Group Meeting – Saturday 11th at at 11am

Our next group meeting is coming up this Saturday at 11am where Derek Spicer will speak about Conifers.

Derek is the Chairman of the Conifer Society and owns Kilworth Conifers in Leicestershire, a wholesale nursery with the largest selection of conifers in the UK.  He also co-wrote the two volumes of the RHS Encyclopaedia of Conifers, the definitive guide on the subject.  If you find the word ‘conifer’ conjures the squat dwarf forms which populated rockeries in the 1970s, come along and be converted – there is a conifer for every garden and Derek will be persuading us all to go evergreen with style.

Plants for sale
http://www.kilworth-conifers.co.uk

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Help at Milverton

We have been offered the share of a stall with the Somerset NGS at the Milverton Street Fair on 1 May 2017 and need volunteers to help man it from 9.00am onwards. It will entail providing publicity for the HPS Somerset Group mainly – handing out leaflets and so on – and maybe selling a few plants. If anyone is available to give an hour or two of their time on the stall please contact Jane Hunt with your preferred time for helping.

Either use the contact form on the website, or if you’re reading this by email just reply and let us know if you’d be able to help.

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East Yorkshire HPS National Lecture Day

On Saturday, 30th September 2017 East Yorkshire HPS will be hosting a day of lectures on ‘Hardy Plants in a Changing Environment.’ Come and listen to:

• Alastair Fitter –  ‘When will it Flower? Phenology in a changing Climate’
• Lizzie Balmforth – ‘Planting Combinations at Mt. St John’
• John Grimshaw – ‘What is a Perennial?’
• Matthew Wilson – ‘New gardening: How to garden in a Changing Climate’

The day before and the day after four gardens will be open for viewing, full details in the PDFs below.

The day will be held at Bishop Burton College:

Bishop Burton College
Bishop Burton
East Yorkshire
HU17 8QP

TICKETS: £25 to members
LUNCH: £12 or bring your own
For more information contact: Keith Scott
Email: klscott@klscott.karoo.co.uk

Here are two PDFs with more details and a booking form:

• lecture day additional informationBooking HPS Lecture Day 2017 final
• Booking HPS Lecture Day 2017 final

From Jane Hunt:

On the 25th of March at 10am we will be running our early spring plant fair at East Lambrook Manor.

16 of the South West’s top nurseries will be showing off their best plants. The admission charge to the plant sale and the gardens will be £4.00 for the day for all adults except RHS and HPS members who pay a reduced rate of £3.50 so please remember to bring your membership card!

Nurseries attending are:
Avon Bulbs
Blooming Hill Plants
Desert to Jungle
Dorset Perennials
Elworthy Cottage Plants
Hardy Way Perennials
Hilltop Nursery
In Clover
Kevin Hughes Plants
Long Acre Plants
Mill Cottage Plants
Millwood Plants
Pennard Plants
Picket Lane Nursery
Roseland House Nursery
Wild Thyme Nursery
Margery Fish Plant Nursery (our own of course)

Also attending are:
Beans & Herbs – organic vegetable seeds
Park Produce – locally made apple juice and preserves

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We need helpers on both our own stall and on the gate. I shall be bringing a rota to our March meeting for people to sign up or they can contact me direct to book into a slot (or preferably more than one!). We will be short of helpers this year as Stuart and Roy (along with the two Helens) will be at the national AGM wearing their other hats! Helpers get free entrance to the Fair which might prove a bit of an incentive!

Thanks, Jane.