Our first meeting of the 2025 season is coming up on Saturday 18th (arrive at 10:30 for 11am).
Ken is a botanist and writer of popular books on botany. He is a retired Senior Research Fellow of Sheffield University and has written for the newspaper Telegraph. He is also an editor for the journal Functional Ecology. (Wikipedia)
His talk will be ‘No Nettles: The Truth about Wildlife Gardening’ – one not to miss
Meetings and lectures are held at West Monkton Village Hall unless otherwise specified. All meetings at West Monkton Village Hall are free to members (except for the Group Plant Sale in April), and there is a modest charge of £5 for non-members (when space is available). The Group has a plant stall and a book stall at most of the lectures listed, and holds a Flower & Pot Plant of the Month competition.
Stella Exley will be bringing plants and bulbs for sale. She is also happy to bring any orders members might like to make in advance to avoid postage costs. Orders would need to reach her by Thursday November 14th.
Over the years my electric soil steriliser has been invaluable when cleansing greenhouse soil ready for the next season or preparing compost.
The time has come for me to move on, but the steriliser is still good and moreover has a new heating element. The committed gardener will be aware of the value of this equipment.
If you want more information or better still would like to take it off my hands, speak to me at an HPS meeting – or use the contact form underneath this news item on the SHPS website.
Paul Cumbleton – ‘A Growing Addiction: Bulbs from the Winter Rainfall Area of South Africa’
Paul Cumbleton was head of the Alpine Department at RHS Wisley Garden for 11 years. He has grown alpines for over 30 years and also has a particular interest in Pleione and the winter-growing South African bulbs. The winter rainfall area of South Africa has some outstanding, wonderful, and sometimes weird but beautiful plants. In this talk Paul will give an overview of this increasingly popular group of plants and explain how to grow them.
Meetings and lectures are held at West Monkton Village Hall unless otherwise specified. All meetings at West Monkton Village Hall are free to members (except for the Group Plant Sale in April), and there is a modest charge of £5 for non-members (when space is available). The Group has a plant stall and a book stall at most of the lectures listed, and holds a Flower & Pot Plant of the Month competition.
Devon Group Hardy Plant Society would like to invite any interested parties to join us for our next meeting. Please share this email with your members if appropriate.
Peat Free discussion/seminar on Saturday 5th October at Longdown Village Hall, near Exeter EX6 7N Doors open at 2 for 2.30pm start. Entry for visitors/guests £3, to include tea/coffee and biscuit. Members plant sales table, cash only.
Panel members will be: Alistair Griffiths, Head of Science and Collections at RHS; Jeremy Wilson, Stretegate Camellias, Bob Brown, Cotswold Garden Flowers and Catherine Dawson, Melcourt Composts.
We are planning two halves to the seminar, the first half hour or so, will be a discussion forum, moderated by the Devon HPS chair. The aim is to discuss some of the fundamentals behind the peat-free debate, to allow the panel members to comment on the up-to-date picture regarding peat-free use, the future prospects and challenges of peat-free, and, as the members of HPS are mostly either users (or potential users) of peat-free bagged compost and/or containerised plants, a discussion on best practice and overcoming known issues while using peat-free.
The second half hour will then be an Audience Q&A, so please have your questions ready. Many thanks
50/50 Plant Sale followed by Sally Morgan – ‘Controlling Pests and Diseases in the Organic Garden’
50/50 Plant Sale starts at 10.00am. Lecture at 11.00am
Sally is an experienced no-dig, organic gardener and plant lover whose most recent project has been the restoration of a walled garden on her farm in Somerset. She is Editor of Organic Farming Magazine, published by the Soil Association, and has a wealth of knowledge about dealing with pests and diseases without resorting to chemicals. For those of us trying to garden sustainably, this will be a really useful lecture.
The 50/50 Plant Sale is a popular event every September. 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.
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 would be most welcome.
The Essex HPS Group is planning a four day coach trip for next year, and plan to come to the west country in early June, with Hestercombe and Iford Manor among their destinations.
Their members (like ours!) are much more keen on visiting private gardens, partly because the scale is closer to their own, and partly in the hope of buying rare and interesting plants ridiculously cheaply.
Tom Fenton, who’s organising the trip, has asked if I could recommend any of Somerset Group’s members’ gardens, or others, that might fit that bill and would take a coachload (about 30) of plantaholics for a modest fee.
Group members have enjoyed a summer social and an afternoon of garden visits since our last Update was issued. Last month, around twenty members gathered in the garden of member Kate Harris near Wiveliscombe. We started by touring the garden which was beautifully terraced on a deceptively sloping site. Kate skilfully grows a wide range of interesting plants in thoughtfully designed borders, salvias being a particular favourite. The large and productive fruit and vegetable area was also most impressive. Following tea and cake we got down to the business of swapping plants and most people went home with some new treasure to add to their own garden.
This week a showery afternoon failed to stop members enjoying three gardens to the east of Wincanton. Our first stop was The Blooming Wild Nursery, specialising in herbaceous perennials, ornamental grasses and wild flowers, with a focus on attracting wildlife into gardens. The nursery has display gardens where many of the plants for sale can be seen growing.
Second stop was Forest Lodge where the group was given a relaxed tour of the gardens in the company of the three knowledgeable garden staff. The planting was carefully orchestrated with some areas featuring contrasting colours such as the blue, white and yellow beds around the immaculate circular lawn, and some with more complementary colours. The soft, cottage garden style areas sharply contrasted with the powerfully sleek and modern stainless steel obelisk and rill. On then to the wilder reaches of the garden which had a frightening amount of mare’s tail amongst the woodland style plantings and finally, via the large pond, to the beautiful specimen trees and shrubs, some almost reaching maturity but still quite a number of more recent plantings, including a beautiful calycanthus ‘Aphrodite’.
Our third garden visit took us to Gaspar Cottage where much of the garden was designed to take advantage of the views across the valley as a “borrowed landscape”. Planting around the house was largely colour themed with a striking “hot” bed featuring beautifully grown dahlias, alstroemeria ‘Indian Summer’ and tall growing marigolds set around topiary. Elsewhere, planting featured softer pastel colours. Further away from the house shrubs and trees have been planted into the grass and there is a much more distinctly wild feel to that part of the garden.
Don’t forget that coming up on 21st September we have our 50/50 plant sale at the West Monkton Village Hall. If you wish to bring plants to sell they must have two identical labels in each pot with the name of the plant, seller’s name or initials and price on each one. One label will be removed upon sale of the plant by the person manning the stall and used to add up the value of the plants sold. so that 50% can be returned to the seller at the end of the meeting. Use pencil to write your labels and you can then easily reuse the labels returned to you. Plants can be brought to the stall from 9.30am and selling will start at 10.00am. Please bring your own bags and boxes to take your purchases home with you. If you would be able to help with selling plants please let me know.
After the plant sale the talk will begin. Sally Morgan will be telling us about “Controlling Pests and Diseases in the Organic Garden”. This year slugs have really been on the rampage in gardens so any help to control them would be very welcome!
Help Run Our Group
Finally, I should remind you that we are looking for a couple of folk to join our merry band on the committee from the AGM in November. Caroline is stepping down as Chairman after several years in the role and Hester wants to hand over the reins as Speaker Secretary.
The 2025 lecture programme has already been booked so if you take on this role you would have plenty of time to think about and book speakers for our 2026 programme. Of course, you will receive ideas and support from the rest of the committee and Hester will be on hand to answer any procedural questions you might have. The job could potentially be shared between a couple of people.
We also need someone to take on the Newsletter Editor’s role as there won’t be another until we have a volunteer.
Mike Vernoum needs two volunteers to help with tea and coffee, for each of the remaining 2024 meetings:
21st September
19th October
16th November
Please feel free to chat to the current role holders at the next lecture meeting if you want to know more.
The good news is that we have had a response to my request for a volunteer to organise the “Plant of the Month” competition at our monthly meetings. Jill Jones will be taking over from Helen Stickland.
A reminder of the Self drive visits to a nursery and 2 gardens near Wincanton
Thursday 12th September
Our final visits of 2024 are just over a week away and there are still a few places available. The self-drive day has a rather different format than our usual one, with 2 gardens in the afternoon after an optional visit to a nursery where we have been invited to picnic in their display garden.
The Blooming Wild nursery, as seen in our HPS nursery list, is just south of Wincanton and has been under new management since 2022. Steven and Lindsay Lister hold an enthusiasm for wild plants combined with naturalistic planting. They have a solid base in Horticulture and had been growing wildflowers as ‘PlantWild” but have now expanded into herbaceous perennials and Grasses. They are kindly offering us a 10% discount on purchases mae by HPS members on the day.
We then proceed a short distance down the road to the gardens at Forest Lodge just east of Wincanton at 2.00pm. This 3 acre mature country garden opens out to the surrounding farmland and landscape. One of the features that sets the garden apart is the amphitheatre effect of the concentric circles of terracing towards the South West which give stunning views across the Blackmoor Vale. The garden is on acidic greensand with a similar pH to nearby Stourhead Gardens and in addition to interesting perennials there is an enviable collection of ornamental trees. The garden plans are based loosely on some of the Arts & Crafts gardens created by Lutyens and Jekyll, with more formal borders around the house. We will be offered tea and cake at the end of our visit.
We then go just over the border into Wiltshire to Gasper Cottage just off the A303. This is a good contrast to Forest Lodge with its secluded country garden surrounding the classic thatched cottage. The garden extends to about 1.5 acres and also has glorious views. Thoughtful colour combinations have been developed in the different areas of the garden and there are luxurious plantings of dahlias, grasses, asters, cardoons and other late summer specialities. Many tender plants are also bedded out each year for that extra sizzle and wow factor. A perennial meadow hosts an orchard and a nascent forest garden with wildlife pond. The owner’s art studio is in a secret garden with exuberant planting and a sophisticated formal pond.
The charge is £22 per person. To book please contact Penny Berry p.berry487@btinternet.com or phone: 01278 662720. Penny deals strictly with bookings only, so if you have any queries about a trip or event, please contact Kate Harris at nunnington@aol.com
Kate Harris, Higher Nunnington Farm, Wiveliscombe TA4 2AE
The Hardy Plant Society Somerset Group 