One of our members Jenny Barr is looking for a supplier of Cornish Grit in our area. If anyone knows please reply to this email or use the Contact form on the website.
Thanks.
Author: Bill Hodgson
Road Closure Near Monkton Heathfield
Our member Helen Clark discovered a problem for anyone approaching Monkton Heathfield Village Hall from the North.
According to her conversation with the County Council, the Garden Centre end of the village will be closed to traffic, and the only way of reaching the hall is from the Taunton (south) end.
You may want to reconsider your route to the hall and allow extra time for the diversions which will be in place.
Meeting Reminder – Saturday 22nd October
Our next meeting is coming up on Saturday 22nd October at 11.00am and will be a presentation by Mark Wash on ‘Crocosmias and Eucomis’.
Mark is the owner of Trecanna Nursery in Cornwall, which specialises in hardier varieties of South African plants, selling at plant fairs and via mail order. This lecture is based on two of his real favourites – crocosmias and eucomis – of which he has bred some outstanding (and non-invasive) varieties at the nursery. See how these plants grow in the wild, find out what conditions they enjoy and learn how to use them to best effect in the garden.
Plants for sale.
http://www.trecanna.com
As a bonus, there may also be a short presentation about the new website. (To be confirmed)
Somerset HPS Autumn Plant Fair
Despite a gloomy forecast, the rain held off for the Somerset Group’s inaugural Plant Fair in the grounds of Forde Abbey. Considering this was the Group’s first autumn event of this kind there was a good turn-out, and by mid-morning plant-hunters were already carrying bags of foliage and flowers as they wandered amongst the stalls.
The Somerset HPS table was decked with donated plants, which gradually diminished in number as the day wore on. Small children were invited to come and plant a pot of miniature daffodils for free, learning which way up the bulbs should be planted, and that age-old gardener’s lesson of waiting for spring.
Expert advice was on hand from the stall-holders and nurserymen. There were a wide variety of bulbs for sale, from dainty dwarf narcissi to elegant azure-blue camassias, and customers were intrigued by exotic plants grown for their architectural and curiosity factor. Many of the stalls boasted a wealth of reliable herbaceous perennials, from the jewel colours of Michaelmas daisies and salvias to the metallic pink sprays of miscanthus grasses. There were stands displaying woven willow animals, carved spoons and all manner of pots, planters and paraphernalia.
Dogs were welcome and a variety turned up with their owners in tow. There was a generally sociable atmosphere to the event and many people stopped to chat as they enjoyed the fair.
Forde Abbey’s own borders were still full of colour, and the extensive kitchen garden seemed designed to instil vegetable envy in anyone who grows their own, with a fine pumpkin harvest, huge clouds of feathery asparagus and a display of picture-perfect Brussels sprouts. Tall wigwams at the corners supported the scrambling climber, Spanish Flag, (Ipomoea lobata) in full flame. Elsewhere, glowing rudbeckias, beetroot-tinted sedums and the velvety, rich orange Mexican daisy, Tithonia rotundifolia, brought life to the fading autumnal borders.
Click on the images to see them full size.
New National HPS Website
After a huge investment of time and effort, the national Hardy Plant Society website has been transformed into something colourful, interesting and new. We have our own page on the site, but overall the new design has made better order of the vast amount of information available. Click the link above or the screenshot below to visit the new site.
50/50 Plant Sale – Saturday 17 September
The 50/50 Plant Sale prior to the lecture at our September meeting each autumn continues to prove popular. The Group keeps half the money taken and returns the other half to the seller. The hall will be open from 9.30am – 10.00am to receive your plants to sell.
Please ensure that each plant has two identical labels, both of them bearing the name of the plant, your name and the price. One will be removed so that the amount you are owed can be totted up and given to you at the end of the meeting, when you can also reclaim any unsold plants and your labels (tip: write in pencil on the labels so that they may be reused).
Selling will take place between 10.00am and 11.00am, at which point the lecture begins. Offers of help with selling on the day will be most welcome.
Our speaker on Saturday – salvia specialist, Janet Buist – will also be bringing plants for sale.
Altogether, it promises to be an excellent opportunity to bag some choice plants while the soil is still warm enough to plant them.
Flower/Plant of the Month
Don’t forget your entries for the Plant of the Month competition!
For the Flower Section, it is just a single flower if that is how the plant grows, i.e. a narcissus or a dahlia. If it is a flowering shrub, for example with clusters of flowers along the stem, then it is the whole stem that you display.
The point is that it is not a flower arranging exhibit, so multiple blooms or stems are not what we are looking for. If you are an Ikebana fiend then you’ll know, of course, that even a single bloom may be displayed very artistically!
For the Pot Plant Section, much the same rule applies. It is a single plant in a pot. For a plant that naturally produces little offsets all around the central growth, as many succulents do, you do not have to remove all the offsets!
Meeting Reminder: Saturday Sept 17th
Our new season kicks off with a Plant Sale at 10am in West Monkton Village Hall, followed by a fascinating lecture at 11am from Janet Buist – ‘Salvias; their History and Cultivation’.
Janet has run Pennycross Nursery in Cambridgeshire for 17 years and has been collecting salvias from the beginning. She has grown 350 different specimens but has scaled her collection down to those she considers to be ‘garden worthy’ varieties. The talk will include salvias from around the world, illustrated by exquisite photographs taken by Janet’s husband, David. No doubt we will come away with some useful tips on how to keep and propagate these wonderfully aromatic plants, as well as a better knowledge of their origins and historical usage.
Janet has spoken at many other HPS group meetings and her talks are always popular. Don’t miss it!
Refreshments Crisis!
So far we have no volunteers to help with teas at this Saturday’s meeting. We need two people to bring milk and biscuits, and make the teas. If you could help for this one meeting, please contact us right away. The alternative is water and fresh air, which may suit the plants for sale but will bring members little cheer!
Tea & Coffee Help Needed At The First Meeting
On behalf of Ruth Boundy:
We need two people to provide tea and biscuits at the first meeting of the season on September 17th. Could you please bring some milk and biscuits and handle this first meeting?
If you can help please send a message using the contact form (on the website) below and let me know any questions you have. Your enquiry will will reach me directly.
After the first meeting there will be a list sent around to arrange volunteers for subsequent meetings.
Thanks for your help, Ruth.
Welcome to the new site
This new website is very similar to the old site but updated and intended to also link with our new Twitter and Facebook accounts. The same information is available but the layout has been updated, by moving the site to a new publishing platform, WordPress.
The site is now being maintained by Bill Hodgson, a new joiner to the group, recently moved from Hertfordshire, with his wife Marion Jay.
If you need to make contact you can now use the form on this page to send a message, we’ve hidden our email address to avoid spammers.
If you have news, articles, announcements or events that are of interest, please send them to us via email using this address:
We hope you like the news site, all feedback welcome.
The Hardy Plant Society Somerset Group 