Plant Fair at Lower Severalls – 11th June

The HPS (Somerset Group) Summer Plant Fair at Lower Severalls near Crewkerne (TA18 7NX) on 11 June is fast approaching. The Fair will open at 10am and finish at 3pm. There is no need to pre-book – just turn up on the day. Entry is £4 per person (£3.50 for HPS and RHS members). Pay on the gate (cash only please). There is free onsite parking adjoining the Fair and your entry ticket includes the garden. Light refreshments will be available from the farmhouse.

We have the following excellent nurseries and garden metalwork stallholders coming along:

  • Blooming Hill Plants 
  • Champion Plants 
  • Charles Chesshire Plants 
  • Derek’s Fuchsias 
  • Gardeners’ Blacksmith 
  • Gardeners’ Delight 
  • Hare Spring Cottage Plants 
  • Heartsease Plants 
  • In Clover 
  • Japonica Plants 
  • Leesa’a Not Just Alpines 
  • Plant Wild (Blooming Wild)
  • Sow and Grow 

Wild Thyme Plants

We look forward to seeing you on 11 June!

Bampton Hidden Gardens

Good day Fellow Members

We hope you are enjoying the sunshine and beautiful spring flowers.

We are opening our garden along with nearly 20 other gardens in the Bampton area on the 1st and 2nd July from 11 am – 5 pm.  The admission fee will be £5 per person to visit all the gardens, which is really good value! The first of nearly 20 gardens is just over 5 miles from Wiveliscombe on the B3227.

Attached is a poster with the link to the website for more information.

It would be lovely to see you if you are able to make it.

Best wishes and happy gardening in this glorious sunshine!

Angela and Jon

Summer Plant Fair – Sunday 11 June 2023

Thank you to those of you who have already come forward to offer your help at the Group’s Plant Fair at Lower Severalls near Crewkerne. However we still need several more people to help on the “gate” to the plant fair, collecting entrance money. There are three “shifts” starting at 9.30am, 11.00am and 1.00pm and anyone who feels unable to stand for an hour or two is welcome to bring a chair to use. As an added incentive, entry to the fair and garden is free for volunteers.

If you can help please get in touch with Jane Hunt (via the website) as soon as possible, stating your preferred start time.

Many thanks,

Jane

Badgworth Court Barn

This 1 acre plot surrounds old stone barn buildings. A small orchard leads to a colourful part-walled garden with areas of perennial meadow and multi-stemmed trees. Gently curving beds are flanked by a more formal oak pergola walk. The planting is a relaxed contemporary mix. In the atmospheric courtyard, planting is more established and leads on to a new sand garden in front of the barns.

  • Notting Hill Way, Stone Allerton, Axbridge, Somerset, BS26 2NQ
  • Open on the 3rd and 4th of June

Full details on the NGS website here: https://findagarden.ngs.org.uk/garden/43089/badgworth-court-barn

Croft House

Two gardens on the Blackdown Hills, where donkeys, Pekin bantams and pet sheep will greet you. Croft House offers spring shrubs, a woodland, allotment garden and apiary next to giant lime trees. Walk through the donkey paddock to Smithycroft Cottage, with fruit trees and a vegetable patch. Both gardens boast stunning borders dancing with alliums, hellebores, cammasias, peruvian lilys, clematis, tulips and foxgloves and both have lovely views offering corners for quiet contemplation to relax and draw breath. Parking in the village. 

https://www.st-margarets-hospice.org.uk/croft-smithycroft-gardens

Address: Chard, TA20 3NA / TA20 3LY
Open:Sunday 28 May 
Time: 2pm – 4pm 
Admission:£5 

Elworthy Cottage

Mike and Jenny Spiller’s garden at Elworthy Cottage, Elworthy is open for the National Garden Scheme on Tuesdays 23rd & 30th May and Sunday 28th May fron 11am to 4.30 pm admission £4.50. Tea, coffee and cake available in aid of the Childrens Hospice South West. The adjoining nursery will also be open. Phone 01984656427 www.elworthy-cottage.co.uk

Elworthy is on the B3188 12miles NW of Taunton (postcode TA4 3PX)

Reminder – Thursday 8th June – Coach Trip to Dewstow Gardens, Caldicott and Pan Global Plants, Frampton

Our next coach trip is just 3 weeks away when we head off to South Wales and Gloucestershire.

Our first stop will be at the Dewstow Gardens where, at the end of the 19th century, a director of the GWR took over the estate and indulged his interest in the growing and cultivation of ferns, tropical flowers and plants. However shortly after World War 2 the original gardens completely disappeared under tonnes of spoil from a nearby road development.

It was not until 2000 that the current owners began discovering the full extent of the original layout with a labyrinth of tunnels, underground grottoes and sunken ferneries which had been buried for more than 50 years. The garden is full of variety and has interesting planting. In many places water adds a special touch with pools and streams, waterfalls and fountains, ponds and rills.

https://www.dewstowgardens.co.uk/

We travel on to visit the nursery Pan Global Plants who hardly need any introduction. For well over two decades they have been supplying gardeners, collectors, arboreta and public gardens with one of the most inspiring and desirable collections of plants available in the UK. Every variety is chosen and vetted by Nick Macer, owner and well-known plantsman/plant explorer, who has travelled the temperate world extensively for inspiration. Here ‘rare’ and ‘unusual’ are used in the true sense of the words.

https://panglobalplants.com/

The coach leaves from Taunton (at 8.30 tbc) and wlll stop to pick up at Clevedon. We should be back in Taunton by 6.00pm. The cost is £22. To book please contact Penny Berry p.berry487@btinternet.com or phone: 01278 662720. For any other information about the trip please contacct Kate Harris nunnington@aol.com

On 13th July we will be visiting Hardy’s Plants and Spring Pond Garden near Andover and it would be helpful if you would book these visits at the same time. Further information cant be found on the programme page on the website https://somersethps.com/programme/

Trip Reminder : Upton and Dulverton

Tuesday 16th May

Self-drive trip to Sperry Barton, Upton, TA4 2BZ and Hollam House, Dulverton, TA22 9JH

£15.00 per person

Sperry Barton is on the top of the Brendon Hills to the West of Taunton, nestling into the hillside which give it some protection from the elements. The garden was a blank canvas when the owners took on the property nearly 20 years ago, but having moved less than a mile up the road, they were used to both the climate and the terrain. Knowledgable planting combined with a painterly eye have resulted in a gem of a garden which sits comfortably in its surroundings.

Hollam House is a stunning four acre spring garden on the edge of Exmoor.  This is the private garden of Annie Prebensen, half of the design team behind the award winning Donkey Sanctuary Garden at Chelsea in 2019. With rhododendrons, magnolias and thousands of tulips in the borders and grounds, there is a riot of colour in May.  Meadow areas are full of bulbs and wildflowers, and there are ponds, a water garden and a rill. Please note: Hollam House garden is not suitable for people with limited mobility.

Elworthy Cottage – Tuesday 25th

Our members Mike and Jenny Spiller’s garden at Elworthy Cottage, Elworthy is open for the National Garden Scheme on Tuesday 25th April from 11am to 4.30 pm admission £4.50. Tea, coffee and cake available in aid of the Childrens Hospice South West. The adjoining nursery will also be open. Phone 01984656427 www.elworthy-cottage.co.uk Elworthy is on the B3188 12miles NW of Taunton (postcode TA4 3PX)