National Hellebore Collection Holder Mike Byford will be bringing plants for sale from Hazles Cross Farm Nursery, Kingsley to accompany this seasonal talk on February 14th. Of his passion for Hellebores Mike says –

“I have had a passion for hellebores for over 30 years since discovering them in the gloomy depths of winter illuminating an otherwise drab winter garden in a large stately home. From there I investigated the work of Elizabeth Strangman, Helen Ballard and Will McLewin in studying the wild species and developing further the range of garden hybrids first developed by the early Victorians in Germany and the UK.”

Happy New Year!

Our January meeting is on Thursday 10th, and as it is our AGM meeting it starts a little earlier at 7.30. As we have a lot to get through there will be no plant sales table this month, so please save any spares for February.

Our speaker this month will be David Emley from Staffordshire WIldlife Trust talking about 42 years of watching wildlife. Our advertised speaker – Andrew Dobraszczyc – is unfortunately unable to come this month; we look forward to welcoming him another time.

Wishing all our members – and readers – a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We look forward to seeing you at our meetings, Plant Sale and/or Show next year.

Welcome to a New Year and the first of a series of interesting talks at our Garden Club. This month local historian Andrew Dobraszczyc will be telling us about the Allotment Gardens of Trentham.

Our AGM, open to Members only, is at 7.30. The talk, open to all, will start at 8.00pm.

Our December meeting is on Thursday 13th and starts at the much earlier time of 2.30pm – we will be having an Afternoon Tea instead of an evening supper, which will be served at 3.30. The cost for this meeting will be £3.50, not £1.50 to help cover the cost of the tea. All refreshments are provided so no need to bring anything except yourselves (and your ticket)! If you were unable to attend the November meeting to buy your cream tea ticket please contact Helen Harrison.

Before tea our speaker is Janette Merilion from Billinghay in Lincolnshire who will talking about plants for the Festive Season, the title of her talk being Christmas Crackers. She is a garden designer and historian who has designed over 300 gardens to date and has done a garden-makeover series for Yorkshire Television.

Please remember you will need to pay for parking if you park in the carpark by the Centre.

Our next Garden Club meeting is on Thursday November 8th when Stan Griffin and Vickie Newman from Craig House Cacti, West Bromwich, will be our speakers. They have been RHS Chelsea Gold winners since 2009 for their cacti and succulent displays.

You will be asked to book and pay for your cream tea for the December meeting tonight – the cost will be £3.50.

Our annual ‘Gardenalia’ is on October 11th. This is a very popular sale of garden items and plants – search the back of the shed and the greenhouse and dig out those tools and pots you no longer use as they are almost certainly just what someone else has been looking for.

The evening will start with the GARDENALIA Sale before the talk, so do not miss the bargains and the fun of the sale, come early from 7pm & bring any garden items you have for sale,50/50 or donated to the club, we will as usual have a plant sales table.

The sale will be followed by a ‘Dahlias’ talk from Jason Smith, a National Dahlia Society judge, who has judged our Show on several occasions.

The 32nd Annual Open Show of the Stone Chrysanthemum and Dahlia Society will be held on September 15th at Walton Community Centre, Whitemill Lane, Stone. The Show is open to the public at 2pm. Flowers will be for sale at the show. See the Events page for further details.

Photos from the Show are now available on the Photo Gallery page.

We have no meeting in August, our next meeting is on Thursday 6th September – please note that this is a week earlier than usual. This is because our Annual Chrysanthemum and Dahlia Society Show takes place on Saturday September 15th at Walton Community Centre – further details on the Events page.

Our speaker for the evening meeting is Michael Myers from Craven College, Skipton whose talk is entitled An Alternative Kitchen Garden.  He is an Alpine and bulb/hardy orchid enthusiast, so who knows what grows in alternative kitchen gardens – you will just have to come along to find out!

If you want go visiting gardens over the summer break don’t forget Barlaston Open Gardens on July 14th – 15th and then have a look at our Links page for further ideas. There are over thirty gardens listed in the NGS Yellow Book as opening over the summer.

An interesting evening ahead on July 12th as Dr Steve Reynolds discusses ‘plant problems’. Steve is best known as one of Shropshire’s experts on plant pests and diseases and is a popular speaker on the circuit. He has run garden clinics with the likes of David Bellamy and Daphne Ledward at Southport Flower Show and advises award-winning nurseries such as Ashwoods. Recently he has been teaching Birmingham Botanical Gardens’ trainees to ‘Know Their Enemies!‘. In 2007, Steve was honoured with an invitation to appear on the Celebrity Grow It Stage at the NEC’s Gardeners’ World Live Event. He’s also been present on Gardeners’ Question Time duty at the Holker Hall Festival in the Lake District, the Midlands Summer Gardeners’ Weekend, the Welsh Gardening Show in Llangollen and the Royal Welsh Show on many occasions. In any spare time, he loves volunteer bus driving for Shropshire, plant problem troubleshooting for the National Trust and serious social walking / hill climbing.

Please bring your poorly plants for a diagnosis!

July also sees Barlaston Open Gardens Weekend, this year it is July 14th – 15th. You will find further details on their website or Facebook page.