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ESTABLISHED 1892

Our 2020 Programme of Talks, outing and events

​JANUARY	Thursday 9th                    "The Holly and The Ivy"                     Roy Cheek
FEBRUARY	Thursday  13th   "The Art & Science of Compost Making",      Lois Phillips
MARCH	​Thursday  12th     AGM and members' SPRING SHOW ​ followed by                         "Call my Bluff"   with                      Ivan Crode & co.
​APRIL	​Thursday   9th                     "Weeds & their Control"                Adrian Hutchison
MAY	Thursday  14th        "Hanging Baskets"                      Thorngrove's Chris Francis Saturday   ​16th  SPRING PLANT & JUMBLE SALE – Stalbridge Hall, 10.30am.
JUNE	​Thursday  11th     "What to plant in your Greenhouse"             Castle Gardens members' ROSE COMPETITION
JULY	Thursday  9th         ​Evening Outing
AUGUST	Thursday 13th         "Trees and the Law"                                  Mark Hinsley Sat. 15th ANNUAL PRODUCE & FLOWER SHOW, Stalbridge Hall, 2.30pm
SEPTEMBER	Thursday 10th    "The Glories of Westonbirt Arboretum"       Westonbirt staff. and members DAHLIA COMPETITION
OCTOBER	Thursday 8th    "Getting the Garden Ready for Winter"         Caroline Pakenham members' APPLE COMPETITION
NOVEMBER	Thursday  12th  "Plants that should be Better Known"            Katherine Crouch
DECEMBER	Thursday  10th        Christmas buffet and Quiz                            Martin Young

January 2020 Meeting
Tony Moore, our chairman, welcomed everyone to the first meeting of 2020, he gave out notices and reminded the Society about our meal out at the Green Man on Thursday 16th at 12.30pm.
He then introduced our speaker for the evening Roy Cheek , whose talk was entitled “The Holly and the Ivy”.
Roy is widely experienced and qualified: he has progressed from gardener to director of parks and gardens around Britain. He has also been the senior lecturer at the Somerset College of Agriculture and Horticulture, where he also amassed around ten thousand plants including National collections. Finally he worked on restoring the Jekyll gardens at Hestercombe in Somerset, and has since become the chairman of an RHS Trials Forum, a Designer and Writer, what a list!
Roy began his talk with the humble “Holly”, although it is not as humble, as different species of it is found all around the world. Roy explained how the holly is very versatile, it can grow in shade and sun, it is tolerant of most types of soil, grows in dry shade and damp conditions.
The holly comes in many different forms, plain green, variegated, small and large leaf, sometimes it has spikes and it can be smooth. It can  have male and female parts on the same plant, berries can range in colour from yellow, orange and as we know red.
The holly can grow from one foot, up to sixty feet tall, so something to suit all gardens. Finally Roy told us some names to look out for, Mundii (Downton Abbey), Golden King (variegated), JC Vantol (male and female on the same plant), Cerops the hedgehog holly, I have just bought one of these for the school garden as we have hedgehog class, Somerset cream, Golden Queen and a Silver weeping holly called Perry’s Weeping. But there are hundreds more and Roy produced a list of some of them.
We now had the second part of the talk on “Ivy”, again Roy told us that there are many, many different types and forms
They are found all over the world, the near East, where you have the Persian ivy, Europe and beyond. The ivy will grow upright, trail, grow on walls, through trees, in containers up the wall of a house or building: in fact it grows almost anywhere and in most conditions and soil types!
Again it comes in its green form, variegated and also mottled. Roy gave us a list of the ivy (Hedera Helix) cultivars, which included plants such as, Little diamond, Calico, Tricolour, Sunrise, Buttercup,  and Melanie to name but a few, Roy has lots in his garden and brought in cuttings from the ivy and holly plants for us to see, along with many slides.
We all learnt a great deal about the “Holly and Ivy” plants I had no idea there were so many forms of each plant and they are definitely not humble.
We all finished with some songs which included these plants, a singalong for our club, it was fun and a first, we all enjoyed the talk.
 Next month’s Talk is “The Art and Science of Compost Making” with Lois Phillips.
In the hall at 7.30pm Date Thursday 13th.
Enjoy the spring bulbs just beginning to peep though the soil, it has been so wet and mild everything will be early again this year unless we have a cold spell, which we need it  to keep the garden pests away!
 Michelle Howell

Stalbridge Garden Society Annual Produce, Craft & Flower Show 2019 was held on Saturday 17th August. During the previous evening and the morning of the show, the halls slowly filled with exhibits of all colours, shapes and sizes, from miniature flower displays to decorated wheelbarrows; from beetroots to bonsai.  More than 60 exhibitors put on a display featuring in excess of 400 items, giving the five judges a huge but pleasant challenge.
Despite the vagaries of the recent weather, there were lots of entries achieving a very high standard, as usual, including in the childrens’ sections.
26 impressive trophies were there for the winning, and the displays did not disappoint!
The newest trophy in the cabinet was presented in memory of long-time member Bev Hall, by her husband, Ray.  The trophy, a carved outline of a tree, framed in a beautiful bowl, all contained in one piece of wood and called ‘Bev’s Bowl’ was presented for the best Rose in the show and was won by Marigold Edwards.

Although advertised as opening at 2.30.pm, there was a queue at 2.15pm, so the doors were opened.
A ‘Peoples Choice’ exercise was undertaken to decide the best exhibit in the whole show. Visitors were invited to vote for their favourite. The prize was a £15 voucher kindly presented by Williams’ Florist and was won with a beautiful quilt, hand-made by Wendy Bailey.
The village Hanging Basket competition saw 12 entries this year, - the most ever - competing for the William Dike Memorial Cup. This was judged and photographed ahead of the show by the management of Dikes, who also kindly provided Dikes Vouchers for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. The winner was Wendy Bailey.

The spread of trophy winners was wide; the overall winner was Chris Jeans who was presented with the Westminster Rose Bowl for most points across the whole show, although there were only 6 points separating 1st and 3rd.
The trophies were presented by our Postmaster, Paul Wavish, wearing best bib and tucker, a sight many villagers hadn’t seen before! The organisers thank everyone for making the show such a success: club members, exhibitors, judges, our photographers, visitors and our guest of honour, Paul Wavish.

Many thanks to Wendy Bailey, who took the 'pre-judged' show pictures, and to John Foster-Pegg for the photos of the trophy winners.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSES
FOR NEXT YEAR’S
ANNUAL PRODUCE, CRAFT & FLOWER SHOW
TO BE HELD ON AUGUST 15th 2020
 
ADULT CLASSES
POPPIES.
TREE REFLECTED IN WATER.
SUNFLOWER.
RAINBOW.
PLANTER - PLANTED TUB.
 
CHILDREN’S CLASSES
WILD FLOWERS.
AN INTERESTING GATE OR GATES.

The Society, established in 1892, meets on the second Thursday of each month
in Stalbridge Hall at 7.30.pm 

Why not come and join us?
We would love to see you.
​
Annual subscription £10.00
or just come as a visitor for £2 per evening.

Each month we have a talk by an expert
 on an aspect of gardening or garden related topic.
Alongside some of our talks we hold
season-related informal competitions.

Just come along,
or for more information please telephone:

Tony: 01963 365848

Look at the map below to see where the Hall is in Stalbridge