Saturday meetings are held at Crowle Parish Hall, Church Road, WR7 4AZ on the second Saturday of the month, except for May (third Saturday), June (Plant Sale at Peopleton Village Hall) and August (no meeting). Apart from the Christmas party in December, the talks all start at 2pm. Entrance is free to Group members; visitors' entrance charge is £3 for any of the talks at Crowle. Visitors will be expected to join the Group if they attend regularly.
Please note that the public address system at Crowle Parish Hall does have a hearing loop, so please speak to a member of the Committee if you wish to take advantage of this facility.
| Sat 11 Jan | Talk: Gardens of Brittany and Normandy | Jeff Bates |
| Sat 8 Feb | Talk: Classic, Rare and Unusual Bulbs | Gill Hazell |
| Gill and her husband, John, bought a bulb mail order business almost by chance when their usual supplier of show gladioli went out of business and they decided to take it over. It's now known as Great Western Gladiolus. Gill also grows and shows sweet peas. | ||
| Copy date for spring Newsletter | ||
| Sat 8 Mar | AGM followed by talk: Scented Plants | Geoff Hodge |
| Geoff Hodge is a freelance gardening and horticultural writer, author, editor and radio and TV broadcaster living in the UK. | ||
| Sat 12 April | Talk: A Rainbow of Plants and People | Sue Ward and Jennifer Harmer |
| Jennifer Harmer is the HPS historian while Sue Ward is a self taught artist. Both are members of the Hardy Plant Society and have many articles on the HPS website. | ||
| Thurs 1 May | Coffee morning at Wendy Richards’, Evesham | |
| 8-11 May | RHS Malvern Spring Festival | |
| Thurs 15 May | Evening at Bretforton Manor | |
| Sat 17 May | Talk: Daisy Days – Michaelmas Daisies, the Rise and Fall | Helen Picton |
| In 2009 a third generation of the Picton family joined Old Court Nurseries and The Picton Garden. Having gained a first class degree in Botany at the University of Reading, Helen Picton helps to look after what is probably the largest selection of Michaelmas Daisies in the world. | ||
| Wed 4 June | Coffee morning at Margaret Stone’s, Callow End | |
| Sat 14 June | PLANT SALE, Peopleton Village Hall | |
| Sat 12 July | Talk: Plants for Difficult Places | Sue Russell |
| Sue Russell has over 25 years' experience as a speaker. She was the co-proprietor of a nursery in Suffolk for many years and served on the RHS Pinks and Carnations committee as well as chairing the Pinks Trials Sub-committee. | ||
| Fri 25 July | Evening Garden Party at John and Lesley Bryant’s, Stoulton | |
| Sat 13 Sept | Talk: Colour in a Small Garden | Tim Walker |
| Director of Oxford Botanic Garden since 1988, Tim Walker holds a lectureship in Plant Conservation at Somerville College. He studied Botany at University College and after graduating in 1980, joined the staff of The Botanic Garden as a trainee gardener. | ||
| Thurs 19 Sept | Garden visit: John Massey's nursery at Kingswinford and Preen Manor in Shropshire | |
| 27-28 Sept | Malvern Autumn Show (no HPS stand this year) | |
| Sat 11 Oct | Talk: Wild Flowers of the Cotswolds – Myth and Magic | Sue Smith and Sue Dodd |
| Sue Dodd and Sue Smith are expert butterfly recorders with a very extensive knowledge of wild flowers. | ||
| Sat 8 Nov | Talk: Spring Cottage – Val Bourne’s Garden | Val Bourne |
| Val Bourne is an award-winning writer, dedicated organic gardener and pioneer of the natural garden. She also judges dahlias and perennials at RHS Wisley. Her columns appear in the Daily Telegraph and Gardens Illustrated amongst other publications. | ||
| Sat 13 Dec | Christmas Lunch Talk: Three Generations of Gardeners |
Margaret Thrower |
| The daughter of celebrity TV gardener Percy Thrower is retired from her role as a marketing consultant at Percy Thrower's Garden Centre in Shrewsbury. After Percy's death in 1988 his daughters Margaret, Sue and Ann continued to run the business until The Garden & Leisure Group bought it in June 2000. She is a great flower arranger and has done many flower exhibitions and shows | ||