Hardy Plant Society

Next Meeting

19th May, 2012 13.30 to 16.00hrs
Plant Fair
at St. Peter’s Church Hall, Earley, RG6 1EY

10th January, 2012
“TRILLIUMS, ERYTHRONIUMS AND EPIMEDIUMS”
KATIE PRICE
Katie Price is Team Leader of the Alpine and Woodland Displays at Kew. She has travelled widely to study trilliums, erythroniums and epimediums growing in their natural habitats and will talk to us about their cultivation and propagation.

14th February, 2012
“MARCHANTS AND ITS PLANTS”
GRAHAM GOUGH
Graham Gough started his horticultural training with Elizabeth Strangman at Washfield Nursery. In 1998 he started his own nursery and garden on a windswept hill in Sussex overlooking the South Downs. Almost all of his plants are home grown and he talks with experience and knowledge about breeding, selecting and propagating herbaceous perennials, grasses, etc. Plants for sale.
Please note there will be a charge on the door for this meeting of £4 members and £6 non-members

13th March, 2012 Commencing 19:45
Annual General Meeting
Followed by a Question Time On the panel will be:

• Elizabeth Farrer - Researcher on gardening for the BBC, author of “Pansies, Violas & Sweet Violets” and creator of a garden from a derelict wilderness in Hurst.
• Carolyn Foster - Trained in horticulture at Burchetts Green Agricultural College and for 25 years has worked independently, designing, planting and maintaining gardens.
• Lyn Randall - Was Head of the Savill Garden for 25 years and now runs a nursery specialising in herbaceous perennials and unusual plants.

10th April, 2012
“BUTTERCUPS AND THEIR RELATIVES, PLANTS FOR ALL SITUATIONS AND SEASONS”
GILLIAN REGAN
Over thirty years, Gillian Regan has developed a true plantswoman’s garden down a narrow country lane near Faversham, Kent.
It is packed with plants, many quite rare, that she has travelled to see growing wild in many countries.

19th May, 2012 13.30 to 16.00hrs
Plant Fair
at St. Peter’s Church Hall, Earley, RG6 1EY

12th June, 2012
“THREE GARDENS ALONG THE GULF STREAM”
JOHN ANDERSON
John Anderson began his horticultural training 30 years ago. He became Head Gardener at Mount Usher in County Wicklow, then at Inwerewe in western Scotland and now at Exbury, Hampshire. He is also a plant hunter who recently collected seeds in the Arunachal Pradesh, a remote part of N.E. India, near the Burmese border. This talk is based on his experience at the three gardens and aims to show the best of their flowering plants and landscapes.

11th September, 2012
“LATE SUMMER FLOWERS”
MARINA CHRISTOPHER
Those of you who came to the AGM last year will have met Marina selling her plants. In 1985 she started a nursery selling wildflower plants and seeds and, then became a partner with John Coke at Green Farm Plants for 12 years. Now, she has her own nursery, Phoenix Perennial Plants, at Medstead, where she specialises in unusual perennials and grasses. This will be a talk based on living material.
Plants for sale.
Remember our PLANT FAIR at the HARRIS GARDEN on September 9th

Saturday 13th October, 2012
“DOWNSIZING, A TALE OF TWO GARDENS”
HELEN YEMM
Helen Yemm needs no introduction to those who read the Saturday Telegraph and who have bought her books “Gardening In Your Nightie” and “Thorny Problems”. You may also have seen her presenting “Gardening From Scratch” and “Gardening Week” on BBC television. A gifted communicator, she talks effortlessly (without notes, using excellent slides) about being forced to downsize four years ago from 2 acres to a garden 160’ x 60’. She describes herself as a ‘muddy-gloves-and-wellies‘ gardener, not a plantsman, but her garden is full of plants chosen with discrimination and grouped artistically in a careful design. It is immaculately tended and healthy looking. She does everything herself and, keeps an allotment.
Entrance to this talk will be by tickets bought in advance: members £4, visitors £6.

13th November, 2012
“CORNISH GARDENS”
MICHAEL KEITH-LUCAS
Michael has talked to us twice and will be known to you as an excellent speaker. In this talk he will concentrate on the gardens of western Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, looking at local wild plants and what they can tell us about growing conditions there and how they are changing and, then visiting some well known gardens to see the unusual plants that can be grown there.