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

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.

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

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.

Members have a choice of beautiful gardens to visit to satisfy their galanthus cravings early this February.

News just in via Janet Murley: A plastic bag with four plants was found on the grass near the car park last Saturday. Janet says she will care for the plants until claimed. If anyone is missing these plants, reply to the email and I’ll let Janet know.

Two news items, 1) the Spring booking form is now on the Newsletters page, and 2) cheap trees for February via Stuart Senior:

Somerset Plants is open again from February – but I thought it would be worth while reminding you that we have a quantity of containerised trees which MUST BE SOLD. These are big trees at stupidly cheap prices and will have to be collected from the nursery after we open in February. Click here to download the stock list and prices.

Happy New Year to everybody and welcome back to our monthly meetings. Our first event of 2017 will take place on Saturday 14th January at 11.00am with Alan Street and ‘Small Bulbs’.

As well as being the Head Nurseryman at Avon Bulbs, Alan Street is the creative mind behind the company’s gold medal-winning displays at Chelsea.  An incurable galanthophile, he will be expanding our knowledge of a range of small bulbs; which varieties to choose to achieve a continuity of display throughout spring in our own gardens, and how to care for them.

Plants and bulbs for sale
http://www.avonbulbs.co.uk