Our April meeting was held at the end of the amazing spell of early spring weather and included the Michael Jefferson-Brown bulb competition which was won this year by Diane Hodgson with a beautiful vase of mixed daffodils.
Our information table contained many leaflets and booklets with details of the various local horticultural events we can enjoy in the next weeks and months including plant fairs, talks and open gardens.
The schedule for this year’s Show will be available on the blog soon.
Our speaker was Margaret Thrower, eldest daughter of the late Percy Thrower known to many of us as ‘The Nation’s Head Gardener’. Margaret was an excellent speaker and gave us a detailed and very well illustrated insight into three generations of her family. Both her grandfathers had been head gardeners and we were shown photos of the beautiful houses that went with the job. Percy started with his father then moved on to the Royal Gardens at Windsor, Leeds Parks Department and Derby (during the war) before moving to Shrewsbury and renovating the Dell Gardens. After his untimely death in 1988, Margaret and her two sisters ran the Garden Centre he created.
At our next meeting on 7 May our speaker will be Glenis Dyer on ‘Clematis – the Ultimate Social Climber’. At that meeting we will be holding our annual bring and buy plant stall and we were asked to arrive with our contributions (labelled if possible) by 7pm.
Margaret White