July Meeting

At our July Meeting the Members Celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the Society. A very good Fish and Chip Supper, supplied by Finley,s, wine, and a delicious fruit cake made by Mrs Pat Inglis were enjoyed by all.

Several Photographs taken of events and members over the years, supplied by Mrs Margaret Keogh, were displayed for the general interest of members. We were pleased to be joined by Ron Kellock, who was one of the founding members and his wife Rene. A quiz covering both Gardening and non-gardening questions was won by Mike Halsall who received a geranium courtesy of Margaret Keogh. A big thank you to all who helped make the evening such a success.

Flower of the month competition - winner Barbara Norton with an Orange Gladiola.

Future Dates - Annual show Saturday 23rd August 2pm. Anyone can enter the show with a view to winning by obtaining an entry form from Tess Burt - 01929 462171.

                        Next evening meeting - Wednesday 10th Sept 7.30pm at the Village Hall - speaker Michael Jordan on Fungi.

April Meeting

With our Summer Show in mind our speaker for April was Mrs. Joy Everington who gave a very amusing and informative talk entitled "The Pleasures and Perils of Showing and Judging". She studied for a General Certificate in Horticultural at Kingston Mauward, then shadowed judges for 2 years before going on the Judges List.

 When Judging vegetables she is looking for size, shape, colour and uniformity. She used carrots as an example, asking the audience to decide the winning plate of carrots.. When showing flowers and plants, all dead leaves, dead flowers and seed heads should be removed, and 70% of the buds should be in flower. Roses need to be half to threequarters open, if you can see the stamens they are open to far. Again she demonstrated the point by showing examples. If entering jams and preserves in a show they need to be in clean glass jars filled right to the top.

Mrs Margaret Keogh thanked Mrs Everington for a most entertaining talk which created a lot of interest.

Flower of the month competition. There was a tie for first place this month with Barbara Norton, Josie Rigler and Jan Ravensdale receiving equal points..

Date of the next meeting - Wednesday 14th May 7.30pm at West Lulworth Village Hall - speaker yet to be decided.

Future Dates :- Coffee Morning and Plant Sale - Tuesday 20th May 10.00am-12.00noon West Lulworth Village Hall.   

March Meeting

Our talk this month was entitled "Delightful Gardens Near and Far " given by Mr Mike Webber.

His slides showed gardens from as far away as New Zealand and America with others from around England and many closer at home in Dorset. Starting with January he worked his way through the year pointing out the different aspects of each season - like the fact that one sees the shape of the garden better in the winter, which is important as a garden should have a well balanced composition. According to Mr Webber one should never see all the garden at once, a good garden should always give surprises and arouse your curiosity. The size of the borders is important, too narrow a border is never going to look good. The ideal size for a border is eight feet deep ( although not many of us have gardens big enough for that!!). Mass planting is always more effective and roses are less likely to develop blackspot if they are grown in a mixed border. He finished his very interesting talk and slide show with examples of many garden features including knot gardens, arches, paths, topiary and statues. 

Flower of the Month Competition was won by Pat Inglis with a Camellia.

Date of next meeting - Wednesday 9th April @ 7.30pm - speaker will be Joy Everington on the Pleasures and Perils of Showing and Judging.

Future Dates :- 20th May - Coffee Morning and Plant Sale 10.00 - 12.00.

February Meeting

Our speaker this month was James Foster-Pegg from the Gardens Group who have Garden centres at Sherborne, Yeovil and Poundbury. His talk entitled" Spring Colour and Interest in the Garden" was very informative and entertaining. He came armed with lots of plants which members were able to purchase at the end of the evening. These included shrubs, bulbs, perennials and spring bedding plants. As he displayed each plant he explained their growth pattern, the soil they were suited to, where to place  in the garden and how to prune them.

He emphasised the need when buying shrubs to check their final growth height and spread as there are many variations of the same species and whilst one variety may suit the space available others may not. His pruning tip was if a shrub flowers before "Mid Summer" prune after flowering, if they flower after that day prune during the winter period. Bulbs should be fed after the foliage has died down  approximately six weeks after flowering. He drew attention to the many different feeds available and that some will only be effective for one week, whilst others will last 4-5 weeks. Since this winter has been particularly wet a lot of the nutrients in the soil will have washed away; this can be corrected by adding a top surface dressing such as manure or  well rotted compost.

The talk finished with a Questions and Answers session much enjoyed by members.

Flower of the month Competition was won by Cath Burt with this anemone.

Date of Next Meeting ;- Wednesday 12th March @ 7.30pm - ~Speaker Mike Webber on "Delightful Gardens Near and Far"

January Meeting

The Garden Society will have been in existence for 30 years this year. For our first meeting in this celebratory year our speaker was Mike Halsall who gave a very interesting talk on "British Wild Orchids". Mike really became interested in wild flowers at the age of 10yrs when he started a pressed flower book which he has kept to this day. His interest in Orchids came from his father.
 
There are 54 species of Orchid in the British Isles, 250 in Europe and approximately 25,000 worldwide. Orchids have three petals and three sepals, produces tiny seed which has to land where there is a specific fungus to germinate. It can be 4-5 years before they flower and sometimes as long as 15 years.
 
With the help of slides Mike described many Orchids and their habitats - the pyramid Orchid is the easiest to find locally especially on Bindon Hill. The smallest Orchid is the Bog Orchid which is only 2 inches high. There are several rare Orchids but, according to Mike, you will never come across one by accident you need to know where to look. He finished his talk with a slide of his favourite Orchid - the Lady Slipper Orchid, which is a critically endangered species and is kept under an iron cage with a 24hour guard in Grassington, Yorkshire!!
 
Flower of the Month Competition -winner - Kath Burt.
 
Date of next meeting - Wednesday 12th February @ 7.30pm a speaker from the gold club will give a talk entitled " Spring Colour and Interest ion the Garden". Non members are welcome to come.
 
Future Dates:- Plant Sale and Coffee Morning - Tuesday 20th May 1000-12.00am.
Annual Show - Saturday 23rd August.

December Meeting

Our Christmas Party at Finley's was a huge success with 28 members attending. The quiz's were won by Martha DeChazel and Kathy Burt. The Chairman Margaret Keogh presented Jan Ravensdale with the Cup presented annually to the person who has won the most times at the Flower of the Month Competition,  she also presented Jan with a Plant as her personal prize.

Everyone enjoyed the meal provided by Sue and her Team at Finley's and the staff were applauded for helping to make the evening a great success.

Next Meeting - 8th January, 2014 at the Village Hall - 7.30pm - Speaker Mr Mike Halsall on British Wild Orchids. New Members and visitors are invited to come along.

November Meeting

The Society's Annual General Meeting was held on November 13th. New Members elected to the managing Committee were Tess Burt , Jenny Mitchell and Pauline Hill. Shirley Jones retired from the Committee and was thanked by the Chairman, Mrs Keogh, for her excellent work in putting together in recent years very good programmes of speakers, including the new programme for 2014. The Treasurer reported on a good financial outturn following a very good Summer Show organised by Tess Burt, which was sponsored for the first time by local businesses.

 

Following the AGM the Chairman introduced the speaker for the evening, Mr Ian Willis, whose talk was entitled "The Secret at Series House", which is were the speaker has lived for at least 30years. He has for the past 11 years opened his garden under the National Garden Scheme. The National Garden Scheme started 80 years ago to provide monetary help for retired Nurses. Nowadays the McMillan Nurses Association receive the largest Donation.

 

Mr Willis originally opened his garden to support the "Wimborne Gardens in Bloom" activity, after articles in the local press and TV he was asked to open the garden under the National Gardens Scheme. It looks a really quirky garden full of objects he has collected over the years from House Sales, Auctions and rescued from demolition sites. These objects either stand alone or in many cases are sculptured by Mr Willis to make interesting garden objects some planted and some stand alone. The garden is in Wimborne and opens at the end of July and closes around the first/second week of September.
We all enjoyed his slides of the garden and his dry sense of humour - an entertaining talk which included an interesting history of some of the buildings in Wimborne .

 

Flower of the Month was jointly won by Jan Ravensdale and Kath Burt.

 

 

Date of next meeting - Wednesday 11th December @ 7.30pm - Christmas Party at Finleys. Tickets - £13 for members £15 for non members contact John Watts 01929 400749.

 

Future Dates - January meeting will be on Wednesday 8th January - 7.30pm - Mike Halsall on British Wild Orchids. All Welcome.