The AGM draws near, so here’s a quick reminder to all HPS Somerset Group members that you need to book seats for yourselves for Helen Dillon’s presentation following the AGM and also tickets for any guests you are inviting. This is for catering purposes (so we know how much to buy) and because there is limited room in the hall. So far there has been a great demand for tickets so please contact Janet Murley (janet.murley@btinternet.com 01884 820840) as soon as possible if you intend to come along.

Please note that non-members of the Somerset Group cannot attend the AGM portion of the meeting so are advised to come along to the hall at 11.15am when they will be able to book in and pay for their seat for the lecture from Helen Dillon which will commence at 11.30am.

In view of the limited space in the hall, the Committee has decided not to have the usual book and plant stalls on this occasion so we will not be able to accept any donations of plants and books at this meeting.

Our guest speaker on 18 November is Helen Dillon, whose talk will follow our AGM.  Details are set out in the programme already posted on the website, but this will be a special occasion open to visitors. There will be a finger buffer and drinks to follow her talk and give people a chance to chat with her afterwards.  Helen’s garden in Dublin has been a horticultural mecca for many years and she has recently moved and is creating a new one with her usual robust approach to its design and the best plants to put in it – “only the best come too!”

Prior booking will be important for this popular event so that we know how many people we will be catering for.  Booking should be made through Janet Murley in the usual way (janet.murley@btinternet.com 01884 820840) If you have already signed up (at our meeting last Saturday) to say that you are coming you need do nothing more apart from turning up!   If you have not yet told us you are coming, please contact Janet as indicated above. Visitors will be very welcome.   Janet will confirm by email wherever possible.   There is no need for visitors to pay in advance, but we will ask them to pay £5.00 when they arrive.  There is no charge for paid up members of Somerset Group.

Members and visitors who have dietary requirements should tell Janet at the time of booking.

Roy

Saturday 21st October – 11.00am 

Mary Benger – ‘The Development of Burrow Farm Gardens’

Mary Benger moved to Burrow Farm, near Axminster, almost 60 years ago and has since transformed the accompanying ten acres of fields into the stunning garden it is today.  Encompassing a variety of different garden styles, Mary’s creation is a feast for the eyes, both within the garden itself and in the views which surround it.  In this talk, Mary will be bringing the development of the gardens to life and guiding us around some of the highlights.

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

This Saturday 16th we resume our season of meetings with a talk from Kevin Hughes and also the 50/50 plant sale.

50/50 Plant Sale

The 50/50 Plant Sale prior to the talk 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 9.40am – 10.10am 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 10.20am and 11.00am, at which point the lecture begins.  Offers of help with selling on the day will be most welcome.

Altogether, it promises to be an excellent opportunity to bag some choice plants while the soil is still warm enough to plant them.

Saturday 16th September – 11.00am 

Kevin Hughes – ‘Less Common Trees and Shrubs for the Smaller Garden’

Kevin Hughes Plants is based at Heale Gardens, near Salisbury, where he grows a superb choice of good quality hardy trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials, many of them not widely available elsewhere.   With a vast horticultural knowledge yet an unassuming manner, he is a popular and absorbing speaker.  In this talk, he will be showing us some of the more unusual plants we can enjoy in our own gardens.  Bring a notebook!

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

Roy would like to point out that Lyn’s pots are not in fact 150cm (5 feet) wide, but that the plants are 150cm in height. The original announcement is amended below to clarify the dimensions. The largest pots are 18 inches (46cm) wide by 13 inches (33cm) deep, but most are smaller than this.

We hope this will assure any hesitant carers.

Lyn Spencer-Mills has asked if we can find caring homes for the plants in her conservatory.  Ken is currently in hospital having fallen and broken a hip and Lyn herself has to go into hospital on 25th of this month and in both their absences the plants will receive no care whatsoever.

There are good and interesting plants available and these are listed below.  Any arrangements to take them away will need to be made before the end of next week, so quick responses are essential.  Lyn has said that any donations for the plants should go to Group funds.  Please contact me (Roy Stickland) urgently if you are interested in helping this humane cause (email; herongates@hotmail.com or phone 01934 843280).  A few plants have already been spoken for, those remaining are as follows:

• Hibiscus rosa sinensis, assorted colours, biclours, singles and doubles
  • 2 pots X 150cm tall (5 feet tall)
  • 8 pots X 80cm – 100cm (2.5 – 3 feet tall)
• Sansevieria ; 5 trifasciata and 1 large trifasciata ‘Black Gold’
• Amorphophallus Konjac

Roy Stickland, Chairman

For information Dulford Nursery is closing down and currently they have 50% off all containerised plants. There are some choice plants including a good selection of Malus, check out their web site.

Via Graham Salmon

Lyn Spencer-Mills has asked if we can find caring homes for the plants in her conservatory.  Ken is currently in hospital having fallen and broken a hip and Lyn herself has to go into hospital on 25th of this month and in both their absences the plants will receive no care whatsoever.

There are good and interesting plants available and these are listed below.  Any arrangements to take them away will need to be made before the end of next week, so quick responses are essential.  Lyn has said that any donations for the plants should go to Group funds.  Please contact me (Roy Stickland) urgently if you are interested in helping this humane cause (email; herongates@hotmail.com or phone 01934 843280).  A few plants have already been spoken for, those remaining are as follows:

• Hibiscus rosa sinensis, assorted colours, biclours, singles and doubles – 2 X 150cm pots, 8 X 80 -100cm pots,
• Sansevieria ; 5 trifasciata and 1 large trifasciata ‘Black Gold’
• Amorphophallus Konjac

Roy Stickland, Chairman

The raffle which precedes our monthly lecture meetings continues to be popular. However we need your help – in order to have prizes each month which will encourage everyone to buy lots of tickets, we need to source some attractive items. If you are able to donate something that would make a nice raffle prize please would you bring it along to our next meeting in September or any subsequent meeting. If there are more than five or six items donated, we will keep back some of them until the next meeting.

Our raffle organisers are both currently unable to attend our monthly meetings through circumstances beyond their control. We are therefore looking for one or two people to take on this role which will involve acquiring and storing raffle prizes and bringing five or six to each of our monthly meetings, arriving early enough to sell tickets to people coming to the lecture meetings and folding up tickets for the draw. If you feel you could help us with this task please get in touch with Roy or Jane.

Funds raised by the raffle help us to continue to provide an attractive programme for members of the Group at our current low subscription level.

Thanks for your help.

Jane Hunt

Our final “public” event of the year is the Toby Buckland Garden Festival at Forde Abbey which takes place on the 16th and 17th of September. You may have realised that this means a clash of events for us as we have our September lecture meeting (and 50/50 plant sale) on Saturday 16th of September. However we have been spared the dilemma of working out how to be in two places at the same time as the HPS Devon Group have stepped forward to man the stall on the Saturday and we will then take over on the Sunday.

If you can spare us a couple of hours of your time on the Sunday to tell people about the HPS and sell some plants, please get in touch with me (Jane). Volunteers will be able to collect their free entry ticket to the Festival at our meeting on the 16th of September. We will also need plants to sell at the Festival so if you have any to donate please either bring them along on the day or bring them to the lecture meeting on the Saturday.

Thank you!

Jane Hunt