Horticultural Society

Lecture Programme 2012/2013
New Windmill Hall, St Marys Lane, Upminster. RM14 2QH

Lectures are from 7.45pm to 9.45pm with a tea interval. Doors open at 7.15pm. Admission is free to members but a charge of £2 is made to non-members. A raffle is usually held during the evening.

There is a special Charity Evening when an entrance fee of £3 is charged to everyone and the proceeds go to the charity.

13th March 2012 - A Stroll down the Garden - Tim Carter
10th April 2012 - Dig for Victory: the wartime garden in myth and memory.- Franklin Ginn
May 8th 2012 - The Art of the Folly - Russell Bowes
October 9th 2012 - Tips on Designing with Plants - Christine North
November 11th 2012 - New Plants, the future of your garden - Graham Spencer
December 11th 2012 - Being a gardening radio presenter for the BBC - Ken Crowther
January 8th 2013 - All about Daffodils - Reg Nicholl

March 13^th 2012
A Stroll down the Garden - Tim Carter

Tim is no stranger to this Society and we are pleased to welcome him back once more. He, with his wife Jean, runs the Long House Plants Nursery at Noak Hill. He raises home grown hardy outdoor plants on site. He has a wealth of information, which he is more than ready to pass on. Tim will bring with him a selection of plants for his talk and for sale. Any questions on hardy plants will be welcomed.

10th April 2010

Dig for Victory: the wartime garden in myth and memory.- Franklin Ginn

Franklin completed his PhD a couple of years ago and in the process he interviewed a number of us regarding the development of our gardens. He has since cycled to Singapore, which I think is unrelated to his gardening activities! Currently he is a Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Edinburgh. He was Climate Change Protection Project Officer, Christchurch City Council, New Zealand. When he was here interviewing some of us for his PhD he agreed to return and talk to us so, here he is!

8th May 2012 CHARITY EVENING and Members’ Plant Sale

We shall once again be supporting Perennial.

The Art of the Folly - Russell Bowes

You may remember Russell gave us a talk in December 2008 on ‘Dig for Victory’, so we are looking forward to hearing him once again. The Art of the Folly is an entertaining and light-hearted look at some weird, wonderful and whimsical buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries. Some are famous in their own right, such as the Pagoda from Kew Gardens, many are obscure and some no longer exist, but all are entertaining and have stories to tell.

9th October 2012

Tips on Designing with Plants - Christine North

Christine is a very knowledgeable and practically minded freelance garden designer plants woman, topiarist and horticulturist with 25 years experience centred around developing and managing large gardens and country estates. Christine enjoys creating sustainable design and a balanced ecosystem within our gardens be they contemporary or English style. She believes in enabling nature to adapt by contributing to a more self-sustaining landscape and so help mitigate the damage of our changing climate.

13th November 2012

New Plants, the future of your garden - Graham Spencer

Graham is the owner of Plants for Europe, the leading independent plant breeders’ agent. He works to introduce mew plants developed by breeders worldwide. Before that he spent 15 years working in his local nursery.

11th December 2012

Being a gardening radio presenter for the BBC - Ken Crowther

Ken set up his company Crowther Landscapes back in 1966 and has been maintaining gardens in Essex, and more recently in Suffolk, ever since. For nearly 30 years he ran a successful garden centre at Abridge, and since 1986 he has been presenting gardening programmes on BBC Essex. H has for many years been giving talks to horticultural societies and gardening clubs, hosting gardening events and quizzes, and judging horticultural competitions.

8th January 2013 Annual General Meeting

All about Daffodils - Reg Nicholl

Reg is not only a member of our Society but he is also the President of the Daffodil Society of which he has been a Committee Member for 45 years! He has also served on the RHS Daffodil and Tulip Committee for the past 30 years and on the Trials, Show Schedule and Classification Committees. He has been growing, showing, breeding and judging daffodils, as he puts it, for goodness knows how long. He has lectured both in the UK and the USA. He is a man of great knowledge and we are delighted that he has agreed to talk to us.