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.
Trips Information
If you have any queries about a trip or event, please contact us using the form at the bottom of this page.
All coach trips and garden visits must be pre-booked with Penny Berry via email: p.berry487@btinternet.com or phone: 01278 662720.
The booking form for trips and events is available to download and print off here.
Details of each trip are shown via links in the Programme listings below. Location maps or directions will be supplied once you have booked for a trip or event.
Somerset HPS Programme 2026
All other meeting details can be found on the meeting page.
Lectures begin at 11.00am. Refreshments are served before the lectures.
Saturday 17th January
Fred Rumsey: ‘The Ones That Got Away – Garden Plants in the British Countryside’
Fred Rumsey is a former British Herbarium keeper at the Natural History Museum. Now a Somerset resident and active botanist with a special interest in garden escapes, he will be talking about plants which have broken free from our gardens and become established in the wild, how they have done this and what it may mean to our native ecology. Fred is known to be excellent speaker and a very good photographer, so this promises to be an enthralling talk on an often overlooked topic.
Saturday 14th February
Phil Johnson: ‘A World of Sweet Peas’
Phil is the proprietor of English Sweet Peas, in Maldon in Essex, which lists a fine range of cultivars, all locally grown, and holds a National Collection. This talk will cover all things sweet pea, and will also include the story of the nursery’s triumph at the 2025 Chelsea Flower Show.
Phil’s recent book, A World of Sweet Peas (2024), written with Cecilia Wingård, was favourably reviewed in The Hardy Plant in 2025; it’s a wonderful read and copies will be available at the talk, as well as a good selection of seeds.
Saturday 14th March
Chris Ireland-Jones: ‘Life With a Nursery – and What Comes Next’
Chris Ireland-Jones and his family took over Avon Bulbs, in Bradford on Avon, in May 1987. The business was very small, with only three staff, one of whom was the renowned snowdrop spotter Alan Street. In 1990 the nursery moved to South Petherton and over the next 34 years they built up a reputation on the show circuit, winning 30 Gold Medals at the Chelsea Flower Show over the years.
Familiar and well-liked, Chris will be telling the story of his time at Avon Bulbs: life running a nursery, and what happens afterwards.
Saturday 28th March
Somerset HPS Early Spring Plant Fair
Yeo Valley Organic Garden, Blagdon, BS40 7YE
10.00am to 3.00pm (garden open until 4.00pm)
£5, or £4 for HPS/RHS members
Morning entry is by pre-purchased ticket only (go to www.somersethps.com in January 2026 for a link to the booking website). When booking your entry ticket, if you are coming by car please book a free parking ticket at the same time.
Afternoon entry from 12.00 midday is pre-bookable or payable on the gate (cash only), and parking should have eased up by then so no booking is required for the car park.
The ticket price includes entry to the gardens.
Please note: HPS and RHS members will be entitled to a small discount from the standard entry price of £5 and so should look for the £4 ticket category.
The Early Spring Plant Fair is a wonderful opportunity to snaffle some choice plants and get them into the ground in time for them to settle in before the season gets underway. There are treasures on every stall, and there will be hot drinks and snacks available at the café. You can also wander around Yeo Valley garden itself, which is beautifully laid out and has superb views over Blagdon Lake.
The Group relies on volunteers to help make these events run smoothly, so if you feel that you could help on the day please get in touch with Jane Hunt, or via the Contact page on our website: https://somersethps.com/contact/. Volunteers will, of course, receive free admission to the Fair. We will also need donations of good, labelled plants for our plant stall, so if you can bring any along to the Fair, please do (labelled if possible!).
Saturday 11th April
Andrew Pitman: ‘Where Does It Come From, and Why?’
Andrew runs Monkton Elm Garden Centre. He studied agriculture and horticulture at Brymore School and then attended Cannington College. He worked his way up to Store Manager from a work experience role at Monkton Elm. In this talk, he will be looking at the origins of some of our familiar garden plants.
Saturday 18th April
Somerset HPS Spring Plant Fair
Shanks House, Cucklington, nr Wincanton, BA9 9QL
10.00am to 3.00pm (garden open until 4.00pm)
Entry £8, payable on the gate
This exciting new Plant Fair promises to be a highlight of the Somerset HPS spring calendar. Restored Georgian mansion Shanks House, surrounded by five acres of formal gardens set in 100 acres of parkland, will be hosting a good number of local nurseries with stalls full of tempting plants. The gardens at Shanks House were originally designed by Tom Stuart-Smith and include bulb meadows which should be in flower at this time of the year.
The Group relies on volunteers to help make these events run smoothly, so if you feel that you could help on the day please get in touch with Jane Hunt, or via the Contact page on our website: https://somersethps.com/contact/. Volunteers will, of course, receive free admission to the Fair. We will also need donations of good, labelled plants for our plant stall, so if you can bring any along to the Fair, please do (labelled if possible!).
Saturday 25th April
HPS Somerset Plant Sale
West Monkton Village Hall, TA2 8NE
10.00am to 12.30pm
Entry £1
This is a chance for members to sell off those extra plants you’ve propagated. HPS members and nursery members can book a pitch in the hall: £5 per table. Email Jane Hunt at hunt.frogshole1@btinternet.com if you’re interested.
For those coming to buy, there are always unusual plants and wonderful bargains to be picked up at the HPS Plant Sale – you never know what you’ll find! Open to the public and members alike.
Refreshments will be available. Free parking.
Tuesday 12th May
Coach trip to Brockworth Court in Gloucestershire and Morton Hall Garden in Worcestershire
£55 per person
Leave Taunton at 9.00am.
Pick up at Clevedon at 9.35am.
Brockworth Court is an informal tapestry-style garden which beautifully complements the period manor house it surrounds. The organic garden is naturalistic, with informal cottage-style planting areas that seamlessly blend. There is a natural fishpond, with Monet bridge leading to small island with thatched Fiji house, and a kitchen garden which was once cultivated by the monks when it belonged to a local Priory.
Morton Hall Garden’s seven acres of gardens and parkland, designed by landscape architect Charles Chesshire, occupies a dramatic position atop a steep escarpment. In the spring, magnificent bulb meadows and woodland gardens take centre stage, as well as sumptuous tulip displays in the herbaceous borders. The garden is well known for its tulip festival and featured in Gardens Illustrated magazine in April 2025.
For full details of the trip, including further details of the gardens, travel timings and refreshments, please click here.
Sunday 17th May
HPS Ranunculaceae Group Day and AGM
Lecture at 11.00am by Derry Watkins: ‘Butter Me No Buttercups’
Afternoon trip to the garden at Elworthy Cottage, TA4 3PX
Hosted by Somerset Group HPS at West Monkton Village Hall
£20 per person
Somerset HPS members are invited to attend the Annual Meeting of the HPS Ranunculaceae Group. The day will include a new lecture from Derry Watkins, and then an afternoon visit to the garden at Elworthy Cottage.
There will be light refreshments in the morning, and afternoon tea and cake. These are included in the entry price.
Please note: Somerset HPS members should book via the Somerset HPS (and not via the booking info in the upcoming National HPS Newsletter) in order to receive the same discounted admission as the Ranunculaceae Group members.
Saturday 13th June
Somerset HPS Summer Plant Fair
Batcombe House, Batcombe, Shepton Mallet, BA4 6HF
12.00 to 5.00pm (garden open to 5.30pm)
Entry payable on the gate: £8.50
The Summer Plant Fair gives us all a chance to buy plants when they’re in leaf, so we can see their growth habit, what colour the flowers are and, when we get home, how they might fit into our borders. It’s a glorious event, full of colour and joie de vivre! Come along and take some gorgeous beauties home with you to help fill those gaps in the border as early summer flowers start to fade. The garden created by Libby Russell at Batcombe House is a wonderfully exuberant celebration of the plantswoman’s craft, too – there’s always something new and interesting to see as you walk around.
The Group relies on volunteers to help make these events run smoothly, so if you feel that you could help on the day please get in touch with Jane Hunt, or via the Contact page on our website: https://somersethps.com/contact/. Volunteers will, of course, receive free admission to the Fair. We will also need donations of good, labelled plants for our plant stall, so if you can bring any along to the Fair, please do (labelled if possible!).
Tuesday, 16th June
Coach Visit to Cotswold Farm and Rodmarton Manor, Gloucestershire
£55 per person
Leave Taunton at 9.00 am.
Pick up from Clevedon at 9.35 am approx.
John and Sarah Birchall took over Cotswold Farm in 2020, since when their priority has been to revitalise the garden. They have pruned and shaped the structural plants and overhauled the centrepiece, the Jewson Terrace, with a pink and mauve colour scheme. The garden comprises a shrub garden, a white border, a step garden, a knot garden, a bog garden fed by a natural stream, a little forest, a rock border and lawn areas. It was featured in The English Garden magazine in August 2025.
The eight-acre garden at Rodmarton Manor was designed originally as a series of outdoor rooms, and has superb vistas and views. The garden was drawn up by Ernest Barnsley when he was designing the house, and it is still his layout which survives, with a terrace, leisure garden, herbaceous borders, a walled garden and topiary. There is a strong architectural style close to the house, which relaxes as one moves towards the farmland beyond. Emphasis is placed on looking after the birds and butterflies in the garden.
For full details of the trip, including further details of the gardens, travel timings and refreshments, please click here.
Wednesday, 15th July
Self-drive Visit to Two HPS Members’ Gardens
£10 per person
The Maples, Watts Quarry Lane, Somerton, TA11 7JD
Paul Cumbleton and Colin Everett
Paul was head of the Alpine Department at RHS Wisley Garden for 11 years before taking early retirement in 2015. He and Colin have developed their half acre mature garden over the past ten years. There are three greenhouses dedicated to Fritillaria species, South African winter-flowering bulbs, and the third is used for propagation and summer veg. The garden is filled with herbaceous plants, and there are ponds, a crevice garden holding alpine collection, a small area of bog garden and small woodland area.
The Zephyrs, Martock Road, Long Sutton, Langport, TA10 9LW
Dick and Sue Sheppard
The Zephyrs is a mature garden created over the past twenty years with a huge variety of herbaceous plants and a big walnut tree. Dick describes the garden as containing “a bit of all sorts”. The garden is colourful in high summer, with agapanthus and salvias at their best.
For full details of the trip, including further details of the gardens, travel timings and refreshments, please click here.
Sunday 16th August at 2.30pm
Somerset HPS Members’ Plant Swap
Postbox Cottage, West Bagborough TA4 3EF
£5 per person. This is a members-only event and numbers are limited, so booking is on a first come, first served basis.
Somerset HPS Chairman Martin Jones’s stunning garden is situated on the Quantocks with fantastic views. Martin and his wife Jill have created the garden over the last 15 years and it is planted for all-year-round interest, but is particularly good in late summer. At the top a walled garden features roses, climbers and unusual perennials. August is a good time to see salvias; heleniums; sedums; ornamental grasses; dahlias; ginger lilies and cannas. Contrasts of texture and colour are carefully chosen. There is an orchard area with a wildlife pond and flowering shrubs, and seating areas to enjoy the magnificent views.
Refreshments will be served.
Joining instructions, timing and parking details, etc, will be added to this listing closer to the event.
Wednesday 2nd September
Self Drive Garden Visits to Charles Chesshire Nursery and Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, Dorset
Charles Chesshire Nursery: £6 per person.
Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens: pay individually (concessions available)
Garden designer Charles Chesshire’s rare plant nursery offers a wide range of gems, including clematis, Itoh peonies, maples, camellias and lace-cap and species hydrangeas, as well as a great selection of other shrubs and herbaceous plants for both the novice and connoisseur gardener. The nursery range is constantly expanding, and offers an enticing choice of unusual perennials for both sun and shade.
Charles will be giving an introductory talk. Card payment is available. Please note: loo facilities are limited on site at the nursery, so you’re advised to find a WC before you arrive!
Many unusual exotic plants thrive in the sheltered wooded valley of Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, as the maritime microclimate enables this Mediterranean and southern hemisphere garden to grow rare and tender plants. Late-flowering ginger lilies, cannas, salvias, kniphofias and hydrangeas create vibrant displays, interspersed with acers, bamboos, tree ferns, aeoniums and giant gunneras. The National Collection of Hoherias should still be flowering in the New Zealand Garden.
For full details of the trip, including further details of the gardens, entry charges for Abbotsbury, travel timings and refreshment options, please click here.
Charles Chesshire Nursery
Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens
Saturday 19th September
50/50 Plant Sale followed by
Val Bourne: ‘Bombproof Roses for Modern Gardens’
50/50 Plant Sale starts at 10.00am. Lecture at 11.00am
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.
Popular garden journalist Val Bourne grows lots of roses, but they have to be disease-resistant because she’s a life-long organic gardener. In this talk she will reveal all about choosing and growing roses which perform brilliantly in the garden without the use of chemicals. She will also recommend companion plants and tackle rose pruning and feeding.
Saturday 17th October
Julian Sutton: ‘A History of Garden Plants in Twelve Shrubs’
Julian was the proprietor of former nursery Desirable Plants, which specialised in unusual varieties of plants, especially bulbs and shrubs. Here he will be exploring the historical development of garden plants, focusing specifically on twelve representative shrubs. Using his expertise as a nurseryman and botanist he will provide insights into the evolution of plant cultivation and the stories behind the plants we grow today. He is an excellent speaker, informative and lively.
Saturday 21st November
AGM followed by
Jonathan Webster: ‘RHS Rosemoor – Its Plants, Landscape and Ethos’
AGM starts at 10.30am. Lecture starts at 11.15am
The AGM Agenda will be sent out to members before the meeting.
RHS Rosemoor is a breathtaking 65-acre space gifted to the RHS by Lady Anne Berry in 1988. As the Garden’s Curator, Jon brings a personal and passionate insight into Rosemoor’s development and the must-see plant gems that make it so special. He will talk about the garden’s various different environmental conditions and plant habitats, showing us brilliant examples of ‘right plant, right place’. Under his direction the garden is unarguably the best it’s ever been, so this talk promises to be a star turn!
Visits & Trips
If you have any queries about a trip or event, please contact us using the form below.
The Hardy Plant Society Somerset Group 