PROGRAMME 2024/2025
The programme may be subject to change but the Committee will endeavour to keep to the plan below.
Changes will be updated as soon as possible, please also check the next meeting
The programme may be subject to change but the Committee will endeavour to keep to the plan below.
Changes will be updated as soon as possible, please also check the next meeting
2024 |
Name of Speaker |
Title of Talk |
Description |
17th January 2024 |
Informal Gardener's Question Time |
To be |
An informal meeting for members and visitors. We will have our very own special, knowledgeable GQT panel with Nigel Cox, Sally Gregson and Caroline Cockman . |
21st February 2024 |
Howard Burnett Howard is a retired legal metrologist and trading standards officer working for over 35 years in the field. He has had an abiding interest in orchids and everything to do with them. |
Orchids and an Orchid Doctor's Surgery |
The talk covers how Howard became a hobbyist growing orchids, also covering a bit about the orchid family, a ‘slide show' of some of the different varieties and then discussing how to get the best from them – with the help of anyone’s ‘not looking good’ plants (an orchid ‘doctors’ surgery) which involves how to repot them.' |
20th March 2024 |
Nick Bailey Nick is a gardening designer and TV presenter with over 30 years of experience under his belt. After developing a passion for all things horticultural, he studied at Hadlow College and received an honours degree in Landscape Design from Greenwich University. |
365 days of Colour in Your Garden |
In 365 Days of Colour in Your Garden BBC Gardeners’ World Presenter Nick Bailey shows you how to manage your garden, whatever its size, to ensure year-round colour and interest. Initially explaining simple colour theory principles and how to apply them to your garden, the talk goes on to highlight beautiful plants and planting combinations for every season no matter what type of garden you have. |
17th April 2024 |
Charles Chesshire Charles Chesshire is a garden designer whose creations can be found as far afield as New York, Long Island, Saudi Arabia, London and France. After a lifetime of travelling the world designing gardens, studying plants, writing and teaching, Charles has settled near Bridport in Dorset where his garden design business is based alongside his rare plant nursery. |
Designing with Peonies and Roses |
Roses and peonies have long been classic ingredients of the English Garden; both having been bred to extremes in flower size and colour, most often with the cut-flower market in mind. This talk will focus on those varieties that make good garden plants, especially those with a more naturalistic feel to them, (like the recent Itoh peony range, the cross between tree and herbaceous peonies)how best to associate them with other plants and how to incorporate them into your garden designs. |
15th May 2024 |
Chris Smith Chris has been involved with growing plants all his life, working in Garden Centres and since 2001 co-owning Pennard Plants with Mike Milligan. The nursery is now predominately mail- order having stopped attending the flower shows in 2020 after winning Gold at Chelsea and other important flower shows. Now devoted entirely to edible plants and seeds, it possibly offers the largest range of edible plants in the UK. |
The Edible Garden |
Many plants we grow in our gardens often have a hidden element, delicious fruits, leaves, flowers or roots. Fuchsias, Dahlias, Day Lilies, Campanulas to name but a few all have edible qualities. This talk aims to make these plants better known to add a different element to your diet. 'It must be said, always know your plants, eat only those mentioned and be wary of others'. Preparation of these plants together with lots more will be covered as it is no use growing them and then not knowing how to eat them. |
19th June 2024 Save the date * |
Heale House Gardens |
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17th July 2024 |
Members' Summer Garden Party 5pm - 6.30pm |
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No August meeting |
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18th September 2024 |
Arthur Cole Arthur has been involved in professional horticulture since the age of 19. Having been a Head Gardener in Scotland, a perma-culturalist in New York, a kitchen gardener in Suffolk and a specialist bulb grower in the Cotswolds, Arthur is now Head of Programmes at the Newt in Somerset. |
The Newt, Past, Present and Future |
Head Gardener at The Newt |
16th October 2024 |
Ken Thompson Ken Thompson is a plant ecologist who spent most of his career at Sheffield University. He is now retired and lives in Devon, but he still lectures extensively, including teaching on the Kew Horticulture Diploma. He writes for several gardening magazines, most recently Gardens Illustrated and Which? Gardening, and has published several books on gardening and popular science. |
Modern Gardening Myths |
Gardening has its fair share of myths, some old, some new, and in this talk we'll take a look at a few of the newer ones. What do they have in common? They're all trying to sell you something. |
20th November 2024 |
Gold Club Speaker |
TBC |
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11th December 2024 |
Members' Christmas Social |
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2025 |
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15th January 2025 |
HGC Gardeners' Question Time |
An informal meeting for members and visitors. We will have our very own special, knowledgeable GQT panel. |
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19th February 2025 |
Hilary Little Our speaker is Hilary Little and with her husband Austin, together have compiled a series of talks based on their extensive knowledge and travels. Hilary and Austin have been trekking and travelling the world for well over 40 years in search of alpine flowers from the mountains of Europe to the Arctic Circle and Alaska; from the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush to the Snowy Mountains of South Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand; and from the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa and Lesotho to the South American Andes. Both Hilary and Austin are keen gardeners and for over 17 years have been living in Somerset - south of the Mendips, where they have a one-acre garden in which they grow a variety of unusual trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, grasses and alpines including several of South American origin. Hilary designed this when they first moved to the house, having successfully completed a one-year Garden Design course at the English Gardening School, based at the Chelsea Physic garden in 1985/6. |
'Chile - High and Explosive' |
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19th March 2025 |
Derry Watkins Derry started Special Plants Nursery thirty years ago. She founded the Rare Plants Fairs in 1990 and ran them for many years. "Derry Watkins is mad about plants, and you can see this in her ever-evolving collection. The nursery, small, compact and overflowing, spills almost imperceptibly into Derry's garden, which billows downhill and away below the house." ................Dan Pearson, The Observer . In 1996 she and her husband bought a derelict barn to convert into a house, and they have converted the fields into a remarkable garden which has been featured in the Garden Design Journal, Gardens Illustrated, and on the cover of RHS The Garden. She wrote the monthly Plantsman’s Favourites articles for Gardens Illustrated in 2014. She teaches at The English Gardening School and is author of The Complete Greenhouse Book, and of Sunspaces. |
Late Summer Colour – the big, the bold and the beautiful |
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16th April 2025 |
Charles Dowding No Dig Gardener Charles studied geography at Cambridge University 1977 – 1980. He started an organic no dig market garden in Autumn 1982 – 1.5 acres increasing to 7.5acres by 1986 and his first book in 2007 sparking interest in no dig. |
TBC |
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21st May 2025 |
Christina Angelucci Christina has studied horticulture and have various City and Guilds qualifications and the RHS General Certificate in Horticulture. In 2004 she gained a Diploma in Plants and Plantsmanship from The Chelsea Physic Garden, achieving second top student status that year. She also does temporary work for the BBC at the Chelsea Flower Show. |
Breeding Dahlias |
Christina is a horticulturist specialising in dahlias which she has been growing for 10 years and breeding for 5 years with particular interest in the single varieties. She will bring plants/tubers for sale. |