We had a sunny day for our recent club trip to The National Herb Centre at Warmington followed by Thenford Gardens and Arboretum, the renowned garden of Lord and Lady Heseltine. Here’s a few of our group braving the windy conditions for a photo opportunity in front of the famous Rill
We’ve just heard about a new website for gardeners and the horticulture industry – thedirt.news brings together news from every corner of the horticulture industry, condensed onto a single platform. Accessible to all, thedirt.news informs, enlightens and entertains with light hearted to more serious industry news, digests and reviews.
Balsall & District Horticultural Society are hosting a recording session for the BBC Gardeners’ Question Time on February 13th 2024. Contact details for tickets are shown below.
On October 18th the club visited Batsford Arboretum in the Cotswolds. We’d booked it some months earlier and had kept our fingers crossed for good weather and good autumn colour. There was a fabulous aroma from the Toffee Apple tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) but we were a bit early for the Acers and most of the autumn colour. We didn’t allow that, or the rain, to dampen our spirits and everyone enjoyed a walk around the grounds and then made the most of the cafe and the garden centre.
We were sad to hear that Margaret Dyson passed away recently. She was a long time, supportive member of the club who looked after the archive files for many years. Her funeral will be at Canley Crematorium on Wednesday 11th October at 10.30am.
Our condolences go to all her family and friends
Growers, Bakers and Jam makers on display
The annual Earlsdon Flower and Produce Show took place on Saturday 2nd September at St Barbara’s Church Hall. There was a variety of homegrown fruit, vegetables, flowers and homemade cakes and preserves on display. Following the judging of the produce, the show was opened to the public.
The Lord Mayor, Jaswant Singh Birdi and his wife attended and later awarded the trophies to the winners.
This year’s trophy winners were:-
John Mason, best in vegetables;
Michael Cheetham, best in fruit;
Robert Spragg, best in dahlias;
Molly Whorlow, best in chrysanthemums;
Denis Crowley, best in floral arrangement;
Derek McIlwain, best in pot plants;
Chris Hall, best in home made.
The winner of the Alan Watson Vase for the best exhibit in show went to Robert Spragg for 3 blooms of dahlias.
The RHS Banksian medal, which is awarded to the exhibitor with the highest point score, went to Denis Crowley.
At the end of the afternoon the produce was auctioned off to the public with any profits going to help support the local allotment societies.
As we take our summer break at the end of our 2022/23 programme it’s time to think about renewing your membership (or joining) for next year. If you didn’t collect a form at our July meeting, you can download a form here and post it to us or bring it along to our next meeting on September 11th.
The schedule for this years show (September 2nd) are now available. Download a copy here
Our recent trip to Ashwood Nursery and the John Massey gardens was a sell out success. It boded well as it was a dry, warm day when we left St Barbara’s Church for the hour plus drive. On arrival we were greeted by our tour guide and after a cup of coffee and time spent browsing the adjacent greenhouses we had a tour of the John Massey Gardens. The gardens were beautiful at this time of the year with lots of spring flowers in bloom and it actually felt that summer was on its way.
The canal was a beautiful backdrop especially with the boats gliding past. The gardens were a pleasure, so much to see and enjoy, and also to sit on the benches dotted around so that we could enjoy the warm sunshine.
Lunch was enjoyed by many of our group who said how excellent the food was, lasagne seemed a favourite on the day, also hot jacket potatoes with various fillings, the scones and cakes were so tempting, particularly to me.
A few glorious hours were then spent browsing the various greenhouses and displays at the nursery, a lot of our members purchased plants, bushes and even small trees to fill their own gardens even more. Ashwood Nursery appreciated our support because when we eventually departed they had seven trolleys of plants to put on the coach for the homeward journey.
The chatter on the return trip was all about the plants, the gardens and our warm welcome at the nursery. A lovely day enjoyed by all our members.
We are now looking forward to our next trip to RHS BRIDGEWATER on 6th June, which we are happy to say is totally sold out. We also have a visit planned for 18th November to Batsford Arboretum, so look out for details at our June meeting.
We had a fabulous evening on March 21st when BBC Radio 4 recorded a couple of programmes for the popular Gardeners’ Question Time. We were pleased to welcome visitors from other local gardening clubs and allotment societies and would like thank everyone who submitted questions.
If you’d like to find out which questions were answered by the panel of Pippa Greenwood, Anne Swithinbank and Bob Flowerdew, then tune into Radio 4 on April 14th and 21st at 3pm.
