This year we have enjoyed several outdoor events which were mostly blessed with good weather. Our annual outing by coach was to the Banbury area this year and was most enjoyable. Our thanks to Beryl for finding us two such contrasting gardens and making the necessary arrangements.
We have also had three very pleasant coffee mornings - two at Liz and Kate's nursery and garden at Evesham. The garden is a credit to them and displays the plants to great effect. An afternoon visit to Diane and Rob Cole's garden and nursery at Feckenham was another eye-opener - what a result can be achieved in only a few years! We came away with loaded trolleys and baskets from both nurseries.
Sincere thanks to Becky Dale and her family who hosted our annual summer garden party at their home in Worcester. Again, we enjoyed a fine warm evening with the usual splendid buffet supplied by the attending members.
A reasonable number of volunteers has come forward to help to get the garden 'up to scratch' and hopefully again to be a showcase garden for the Society. Barbara Cooke is kindly co-ordinating the volunteers. Do contact her or any committee member if you want to be involved and have not yet volunteered.
Do any of you have HPS conservation plants which I do not know about? As your group coordinator I am compiling a register of plants we hold. Plants were sent out mail-order at one time (in the 1980s) and have been passed around at AGMs. Recently they have often been given a distinctive green label. If you have any of these plants, do please let me know.
If you have a plant you would like us to pass round to conserve, I should be happy to add it to the list.
How clever of our committee to decide to celebrate our 10th 'birthday' indoors!! It must have been one of the wettest October Saturdays on record!!
Outdoor visits had been discussed but eventually a splendid buffet was organised for us, indoors, at our usual venue, followed by a most interesting lecture given by Diana Standeven from Smithy Cottage.
Several splendid cakes were made by the members of the committee, and one was bedecked with 10 candles! Kate, our first chairman in 1995, blew the candles out. Then she and some of the original steering committee added a few reminiscences of early meetings and garden visits.