Plant Sale Success Raises £500 for Air Ambulance Night Landing Facility at Uplyme

We donated £500 to The King George V Playing Fields for its night landing facility for the Devon Air Ambulance Trust, from funds raised by the Plant Sale and Coffee Morning on 11th.

Here’s Horticultural Society Chair Robin Britton, pictured right, presenting the cheque to Jim Thomas, left, Chair of The King George V Playing Fields, at the end of the sale.

A crowded two-hour sale saw a wide range of veg plants, herbs, perennials and bedding sold to eager purchasers.  The sale of donated cakes, jams and produce also contributed to the fund raising. In total, the morning raised around £800. The King George V Playing Fields is one of several charities supported by the Horticultural Society, with the summer show in July also raising funds for good causes.

Our next regular event is on May 22nd 2019 (Wednesday) at 7.30pm: Talk ‘Shady Ladies & Damp Damsels’ by Sally Gregson of Mill Cottage Plants

Suggestions for planting in those difficult spots from dry shade under trees to heavy damp areas-includes some epimediums and hydrangeas. Plants for sale.

Our next Coach Trip is on June 12th (Wednesday) to Lytes Cary Manor and Midney Gardens and Nursery. Depart by coach Uplyme Village Hall at 9.15am

Lytes Cary is an intimate manor house featuring a 14th-century chapel and 15th-century Great Hall. Its Arts & Crafts-style garden is an inspiring combination of outdoor rooms, topiary, statues and herbaceous borders. Small tea room and shop. Also home to Midney: 1.4 acre plantsman’s garden and nursery. Cost NT members £18 Non NT members £22. Includes tea/cake at Midney. Please ring Annie Kobus 01297 443346 to book.

Dates for your diary: 

• June 26th (Wednesday) 7.30pm Uplyme Village Hall Talk ‘The Dutch Flower Painters and Landscape Painting – how it evolves’ by Pam Simpson. For art lovers and gardeners alike, Pam will talk about the Dutch flower painters and show how landscape painting evolves.
• Coach Trip July 3rd (Wednesday) leaving the Village Hall at 9.15 to Cothay Manor near Wellington. Please ring Jane Hadley 01297 444147 to book. 36 seats max!
• Don’t forget – our first trip to Highgrove was a complete sell-out, so we are organising a second visit. See  details of how to book – but don’t leave it too long if you missed out the first time!
• And it’s probably time to start thinking about your entries for the Summer Show on July 13th (Saturday). You can download a schedule and programme here (PDF file).

Time to get out into the garden and work off all those extra calories!

Our next regular event is on April 24th 2019 (Wednesday) at 7.30pm: Demonstration ‘Hanging baskets’ by Mark Bugler from Groves Nursery

A practical demonstration of how to plant up four hanging baskets by Mark Bugler from Groves Nursery.

Competition: Also at the April meeting will be the Chairman’s spring-flowering bulb competition. There are two classes:

• Pot or container of flowering bulbs, corms or tubers growing in the pot/container
• Vase/container of cut flowers grown from bulbs, corms or tubers.

Bring along your entries on the night from 7pm. Plug plants will be available to grow on for the Summer Show at the meeting.

Next, we have our popular Plant Sale & Coffee morning on May 11th (Saturday) 9.30am -11.30am at Uplyme Village Hall

Raising funds to support our events. Entry £1. Please bring your donations along at 8.30 on the day so we can price and display them.

Looking further into the future – our first trip to Highgrove was a complete sell-out, so we are organising a second visit. See this page for details of how to book – but don’t leave it too long if you missed out the first time!

We have already filled one coach for June 20th, so are offering a second in September.

Highgrove Royal Gardens nr Tetbury, on Tuesday September 24th

The price for ULRHS members will be a non-refundable total of £30 for entry and coach per person – the Society is subsidising the coach as the entry to Highgrove is £26.  We shall have a 2-hour guided tour with time for coffee and lunch or tea.

We will not be able to refund anyone who cancels on this trip as we have to pay up front for the Group booking and the coach. We would of course offer the place to anyone on the waiting list if you could not find someone yourself.

We shall be leaving early at 7.45/8am. Further details of the day will follow.

Due to security regulations you will need a form of photographic ID on the day – passport/driving licence or bus pass.

Also as Highgrove is The Prince of Wales’ private home the use of mobile phones, cameras, binoculars and all recording equipment is prohibited. Please leave all such items at home, on the coach or switched off inside your bag.

If you would like to go on this trip please phone or email Jenny Harding asap as spaces are limited.  Priority will be given to ULRHS members.

Tel 01297 444034. Email jennyhlyme@hotmail.co.uk

An Extraordinary General Meeting of the Society will be held on Wednesday 27^th March 2019 at 7.30pm immediately prior to the normal monthly meeting.  Members will have heard that planning permission has now been given for a Night-time Landing Site on the King George V Playing Fields, and so landing lights need to be installed which can be activated by the pilots of the Air Ambulance.  There is an appeal to raise £5000.  Since this is a facility that could be needed by any of us who live in the Uplyme / Lyme Regis area, the committee would like ULRHS to make a donation to support this.  Normally, we raise the money first, and then donate, but given that this facility may be needed to save someone’s life, it seems appropriate to donate the money from our reserves, and then raise the money.  For this we need permission from you the members, and so we ask that you attend the EGM and vote on the following proposal:

‘We propose that ULRHS financially support the Air Ambulance Night-time Landing Site on the King George V Fields to the sum of £500, to be raised from the Plant Sale, our stall at the Uplyme Village Fete, and the Raffles at our monthly meetings.  In the event that these sums do not raise the full £500, the remainder will come from any profit at the Summer Show.’

Upcoming events:

On Wednesday March 27th (Wednesday) at 7.30pm, we present ‘Designing a Border’ – a Planting Workshop with Garden Designer Sally Leaney

Sally won best in show for her garden at Taunton Flower Show last year.  She will run a designing/planting workshop where we will discuss planting schedules, growing conditions, planting numbers etc and ‘have a go’ yourself at planning a border.  Please bring a favourite reference book to use.

Our next outing is a Coach Trip on April 10th (Wednesday) leaving the village hall at 9.30am to ‘Sculpture by the Lakes’ Dorchester

Nestling in 26 acres, visitors will find an impressive range of outdoor sculptures in the setting of beautiful gardens, hailed as a modern arcadia. The garden’s design has been inspired by ideas from all over the world and wildlife is also an important element. The sculptures are placed in simple, effective settings that are all the more dramatic for that and several emerge from the water. There are 30 of Simon Gudgeon’s works on display including Isis, which is also in London’s Hyde Park, and there is a gallery where some of his smaller pieces can be seen and purchased. Gallery Café for light lunches. Cost £16.00 total. Please ring Rose Mock 01297 34733 to book. More info here.

Dates for your diary:

• April 24th 2019 (Wednesday) 7.30pm Demonstration ‘Hanging baskets’ by Mark Bugler from Groves Nursery
• Coach Trip May 3rd (Friday) 9.15am from the village hall Garden Festival at Powderham Castle

Wanted – plants and produce for the Plant Sale and Coffee Morning on May 11^th

Our spring Plant Sale and Coffee Morning is a great fund raiser for the Society. We need your help with donations of plants and produce to make it a success please.

Plants that sell well include:

• veg plants such as peppers, chillies, courgettes, beans (runner, French and broad)
• bedding
• perennials.

Please keep a note of the plant variety, and if you can, please provide a picture of the mature plant/veg. It helps sales and fund raising enormously. Any questions please contact Robin Britton (01297 442794 or Brian Tomsett (01297 444962).

Home produce that we would welcome include:

• eggs
• jams, jellies, marmalades
• cakes, traybakes, flapjacks, buns, scones
• any surplus produce from gardens e.g. fresh rhubarb.

Any questions please contact Pam Corbin (01297 442378) or Annie Kobus (01297 443346).

The first £500 of funds raised at the plant sale will go to the Society’s donation for the night time landing light mast at the King George V playing fields for the Devon Air Ambulance Trust. Any funds raised in excess of that will support Horticultural Society events.

Please bring your contributions to the hall at 8.30 if possible, so we can price and display them before the same starts.

(Sign up here if you’d like to get regular monthly updates about our events and outings.)

Sarah Broom, local floral designer, created two stunning floral arrangements from scratch for members  at our January meeting, one for the spring season and one for winter. The winter one (right) used a clay tile as a base to interpret “The Potting Shed”, one of the categories for this year’s Horticultural Society summer show. Sarah used a mix of purchased flowers and those foraged from the hedgerow to create arrangements with a range of height, texture and colour.

Our next regular talk is expected to be very popular, but before we tell you about that, please read this:

SUMMER SHOW CUPS. We have several cups that are awarded at the Summer Show each year about which we know nothing other than their name. If you have any information about the history of the cups or who presented them, we’d love to hear from you.  The cups in question are:

• Thompson Cup
• Bullock Cup
• Cakemakers’ Cup
• Diamond Jubilee Cup
• Junior Photo Cup
• Winemakers’ Cup

Please contact Robin Britton, either at the next meeting or on 01297 442794 / britton424@btinternet.com.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED. Is there anyone with a bit of spare time who would like to help with Facebook, Instragram or Twitter publicity for the society? We currently share events on Facebook and Twitter a few day before they happen, but any extra help or shares we can get will be very helpful. In particular, if anyone’s a member of Facebook Uplyme group or Facebook Lyme Regis Noticeboard, it would be really helpful if you’d be prepared to join a rota to post information to one or both of the groups about forthcoming meetings and events. Wording would be supplied – you’d just need to post it. If you can help, please contact Tricia Boyd (tricia@thegardenersblacksmith.co.uk; 07767 261444).

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On Wednesday February 27th 7.30pm, we have a TALK by Graham Roberts ‘The Otters return to Southern Britain’. Find out about the ecology of these much-loved creatures from an ecologist and former wildlife officer.

The container and tuber for the sponsored potato competition show class will also be on sale for £2.50.

Our first outing is in March: on Tuesday March 12th leaving the Village Hall at 9.15am, we have a COACH TRIP to NT Saltram House Lovely spring garden with folly and orangery, magnificent Georgian country house, cafés and shop. Cost NT members £14, Non NT £21. Bookings: Annie Kobus 01297 443346. Find out more here: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/saltram

• Wednesday January 23rd 7.30pm DEMONSTRATION by Sarah Broom ‘Seasonal Flower Arranging’: East Devon florist Sarah will make two floral arrangements and give tips for taking part in the Summer Show Floral section.
• Wednesday February 27th 7.30pm TALK by Graham Roberts ‘The Otters return to Southern Britain’. Find out about the ecology of these much-loved creatures from an ecologist and former wildlife officer. The container and tuber for the sponsored potato competition show class will also be on sale for £2.50.

We’ve also been asked by Kilmington Garden Club to invite you to a talk: An Evening with Toby Buckland

The BBC Gardeners’ World Presenter talks about ‘Plants for Plenty’, on Friday 11^th January 7.30pm, at Kilmington Village Hall – tickets are £10 from Lesley Rew on 07900 827689.

The first outing is in March:

• Tuesday March 12th 9.15am NT Saltram COACH TRIP Lovely spring garden with folly and orangery, magnificent Georgian country house, cafés  and shop. Cost NT members £14, Non NT £21. Bookings: Annie Kobus 01297 443346.

November’s regular event is the Society’s AGM, followed by a Talk – ‘Foraging from the Garden’ by Anne Swithinbank on November 28th 2018 (Wednesday) at 7.30pm

Well-known local horticulturalist, writer and broadcaster Anne will be talking about how to turn your plot, however small, into a miniature forest garden with soft fruit, rhubarb, herbs, edible flowers and a few veg. Edibles are as ornamental as any other plant, especially purple-flowered and podded peas, rainbow chard and coloured kales. Anne will also talk on what she grows in her garden for culinary use and explain how this creates more relaxed planting which is wildlife friendly.

You can download the revised constitution that will be discussed at the AGM here: Draft Revised Constitution, and the Agenda (PDF files).

This will be shortly followed by our last event of the year: on December 5th 2018 (Wednesday) at 7.30pm

We will be holding a Christmas Social with a bring and share supper at the village hall. To entertain us, a Quiz/Seed Swap and Sweet Pea planting.

Next year, our first event will be on January 23rd 2019 (Wednesday) at 7.30pm. Demonstration  ‘Seasonal Flower Arranging’ by Sarah Broom – with hints and tips for the floral classes at the Summer Show.

There were some wonderful entries in the Autumn Show last month – here are some of them:

We were pleased to present David Smith with £450 for HospiceCare and Barbara Kidson £450 for the Village Hall – both proceeds from the Summer Show.

This month’s regular event is a Talk – ‘Japanese Gardens’ – we are fortunate to be joined by distinguished speaker Nick Wray, on October 24th 2018 (Wednesday) at 7.30pm

Over a thousand years of gardening traditions have created a unique garden style that is far removed from to our western tastes in garden design and the choice of plants. This lecture looks at the history and evolution of Japanese gardening styles and highlights some of the key features and links between gardens and Japanese culture. The lecture focuses on gardens in Tokyo, Nara and the cultural capital city of Kyoto.

Nicholas Wray MHort. RHS, F.I.CHort. is a professional horticulturist and educator who has worked at the University of Bristol Botanic Garden for thirty-two years. He has travelled widely studying plants in the wild, in particular the flora of South Africa. In 1992 he became a co-presenter on BBC Gardeners’ World working for three years alongside Geoff Hamilton. In 1998 he was appointed South African plant consultant to the Eden Project and in 2002 he became a Fellow of the Institute of Horticulture. He is currently responsible for developing and curating the University of Bristol Botanic Garden, the first new university botanic garden in Britain for over forty years. In 2016 he was awarded the RHS Associate of Honour for services to horticulture and education.

Our next Coach Trip is to the NT’s beautiful manor house at Cotehele
Departing at 9 am from the village hall on November 14th (Wednesday) 

Every year in November, gardeners and volunteers from Cotehele come together to create the most beautiful Christmas garland, handmade using thousands of flowers grown throughout the estate. A tradition since 1956, the giant ‘swag’ is 60ft long and hangs in the Great Tudor Hall during the festive season. Restaurant and shop. Find out more and see a picture here: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/creating-coteheles-christmas-garland

Cost NT members £12.50  Non NT £18.50 Please ring Annie Kobus 01297 443346 or 445618 to book – still a few places available.

A date for your diary later in Autumn:

November 28th 2018 (Wednesday) 7.30pm Society AGM followed by Talk ‘ Foraging  from the Garden’ by Anne Swithinbank, well-known local horticulturalist, writer and broadcaster.