Saturday meetings are held at Crowle Parish Hall, Church Road, WR7 4AZ, on the second Saturday of the month. They start at 2pm unless the programme gives a different time. Entrance is free to Group members. We welcome visitors and ask them to pay £3 for any of the talks. We will invite regular visitors to join the Group.
Refunds – As a general rule for outside trips no refunds will be given later than two weeks before the event. Individual organisers of outings may differ from this policy and it is important to check the information given at the time of booking.
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.
| Jan 13 | Talk: Space, An Illusion and Other Mysteries | Paul Hervey-Brookes |
| Paul will give an illustrated talk which will explore the nature of garden spaces and show ways in which to create a sense of place or feel, before moving on to practical solutions to help make the smallest garden seem larger.
Paul is an award-winning garden designer and plantsman. |
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| Feb 10 | Talk: Perennials in the Urban landscape | James Hitchmough |
| James aims to explore the idea of how to transfer the knowledge home gardeners have of plants into a much more challenging urban environment.
James is a professor of horticultural ecology at the University of Sheffield. He has worked with Nigel Dunnett on the Olympic Park and other projects that have climate change and sustainable futures at their heart. |
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| Feb 16 Pershore College |
Practical gardening sessions: sowing seed | Duncan Coombs |
| March 10 | AGM at 1.30pm followed by Talk: Gardens of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust |
Glyn Jones |
| Glyn’s talk will centre on the gardens themselves, which include the five Shakespeare family homes that extend to over 50 acres.
Glyn has worked for 40 years in horticulture, 29 of them for the The National Trust. He was the former head gardener at Hidcote and spent 17 years restoring missing features and improving the visitor experience. |
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| April 14 | Talk: Ferns | Heather Godard-Key |
| Heather’s talk will cover a brief history of ferns, 340 million years in total, as well as their cultivation, propagation and use in the garden.
Heather is based at Fibrex Nurseries, near Stratford. |
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| Fri Apr 20 | 2pm: 'Coade Stone Tours' at Croome Park | |
| May 16 | Visit High Glanau Manor, Monmouthshire and Abbey Dore Court Garden, Hereford | |
| May 19 | Talk: Summer Splendour | Harriet Rycroft |
| Harriet will concentrate her talk on summer plants, looking at planning and planting exciting container displays. She will demonstrate summer planting techniques.
Harriet is ex-head gardener at Whichford Pottery and is now a freelance gardener, speaker and writer. |
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| Mon June 4 | 2pm: 'Coade Stone Tours' at Croome Park | |
| June 9 Peopleton |
2.30 until 4.30pm: Plant Sale, Peopleton Village Hall | |
| Tues June 12 | 10am until 12: Coffee morning in Tricia and Richard King's garden, Allesley, The Green, Pinvin, WR10 2ET | |
| Wed July 4 | 7pm: Summer Evening Garden Party in Becky Dale's garden, Thorneloe, 14 Stephenson Road, Worcester WR1 3JE Please bring a plate of food to share |
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| July 14 | Social from 12.30pm: Bring a plate to share and a plant to swap. As well as the usual plant table, there will be plants left over from June for sale.
Followed at 2pm by talk: Gardens of New Zealand |
Mick Dunstan |
| Mick has an illustrated talk on the gardens he visited in New Zealand, including our member Linda Marsh’s garden there. | ||
| Wed July 18 | 10am until 12: Coffee morning for Worcestershire Group members in Beverley Powlesland's garden, Hartpury, GL19 3BN | |
| Sat Aug 18 | Cancelled Coach trip to Stockton Bury and Aulden Farm, Herefordshire | |
| Tue Aug 21 | Cancelled 10am until 12: Coffee morning in Babs Jewell's garden, Providence, Besscap, Elmley Castle WR10 3HW | |
| Sep 8 | Talk: A Blaze of Glory - Making your Garden more Colourful in the Autumn | Tim Walker |
| Tim’s talk aims to show how to have colour in your garden right through the autumn until the first frosts. It will look at the ways that different flowers, leaves and fruit can make the garden look clean and fresh right to the end of November. It will include how the Autumn borders of the Oxford Botanical Garden were conceived and constructed.
Tim is a British botanist. He has been the Horti Praefectus of the University of Oxford Gardens and Harcourt Arboretum. From 1977 - 1980 he studied for a BA degree in Botany at the University of Oxford. From 1986 - 2014 he worked at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, firstly as General Foreman, then Praefectus (from 1988) and finally Director (from 2002). Since 2014 Tim has been a stipendiary lecturer in Plant Sciences at three Oxford colleges. He is an experienced lecturer at Oxford and to a wide variety of horticultural clubs. |
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| Oct 13 Pershore College |
Talk: Lessons from Great Gardeners Tickets £10 (free to our group members) from Lyn |
Matthew Biggs |
| In this lecture based on his RHS book of the same name, Matthew examines just what it takes to be a great gardener. He uses examples from around the globe and from history. He considers several examples, among them William Robinson who was inspired by nature, the art of Gertrude Jekyll and the extravagances of Madame Ganna Walska who created a grandiose ‘stage set’ in California. He considers the motivation, techniques and eccentricities that drove the great gardeners to succeed, and using evidence from their lives and gardens, reveals how you can become a great gardener too.
Matthew is a HPS Ambassador. He is best known for his appearances on BBC Radio Gardener’s Question Time. He has made numerous TV appearances and is a contributor to BBC Gardener’s World magazine. He has been a professional gardener for over 20 years. He studied at Pershore College and the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. |
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| Nov 10 | Talk: Plants you Thought you Shouldn’t Like | Josh Egan Wyer |
| Josh is going to talk about the plants he thought he hated when he started managing the nursery at Pershore College but has since come to love, especially some specific forms that are a bit rarer or unusual.
Josh is a member of our group and is the manager of Avoncroft Plant Centre at Pershore College. He helped with our HPS stand at Chelsea. | ||
| Dec 8 | Christmas Buffet Lunch from 12.30pm. Please bring a plate of food to share.
Followed at 2pm by Talk: Snowdrops and other Winter Bulbs |
Jim Almond |
| Jim is tailoring his talk to have a wintery/Christmas theme to link in with our Christmas buffet lunch. He will look at snowdrops, both the species and cultivars, and will give tips on how to grow and keep them. Other winter/early spring bulbs, corms and tubers will be featured including aconites, crocus, iris and the use of cyclamen coum which he feels is the must have plant for winter!
Jim is an experienced speaker specialising in alpines and dwarf bulbs. He is a Plant Heritage collection holder. He is a keen photographer and horticultural writer and has had various articles in “The Plantsman” magazine. |
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