News

  2025

coming soon...

November

Claire Hart will be returning on Thursday 20th November to speak about her experience managing an award-winning show stand for a seed company 'Chelsea or Bust', which she did in her ongoing role as a PR consultant. She ran a smallholding for years, focussing on pigs, poultry and equine issues, and she writes for gardening magazines as well as giving a wide variety of entertaining talks.

October

On Thursday 16th October, with autumn arriving,  we welcomed Claire Greenslade who talked  about Gertrude Jekyll's Planting.   After a degree in Textile design, experience in organic gardening, and an apprenticeship with the National Trust, Claire worked at Hestercombe Gardens for 17 years, rising to Head Gardener, so she has first hand experience of working with a Jekyll garden and really understanding the designs.  As usual, Claire was entertaining and informative, and gave us fascinating insights into Miss Jekyll's work as well as a thought-provoking duscussion about how to manage historical gardens for the future.

September

On Thursday 18th September, John Addison, previously on the staff of Cannington College and an RHS flower show judge gave a  talk about Pruning plants, a practical and popular topic . John's advice covered a wide range of plants, though he concentrated on roses. A good discussion ensued.

August

This year our members' party was held at tearoom with a wonderful garden, the Rocking Horse cafe at Stogumber!  We were fortunate to be given a short history of the garden she has made there by Julie Long, and enjoyed exploring the garden after a great cream tea.

Saturday 16th August saw the Nether Stowey Flower Show . Congratulations to  member Robin Brierly who won the cup for the Stowey Gardener scoring most points in the show;  several other members were close contenders! We had a stall at the show and even recruited some new members.

July

A small group of Stowey Gardeners discovered  Hangeridge Farmhouse near Wellington  on Tuesday 29th July.  This is a 1 acre plantsman's garden, where there are unusual perennials, shrubs, old roses and specimen trees in a rural site, a farm garden that has been expanded over 30 or more years. A beautiful tulip tree overlooks many island beds full of perennials - we noted lobelias and euphorbias, alliums and a wide variety of thriving plants in spite of the dry conditions. There are rose pergolas, hostas in pots and even a small Japanese garden.  We were warmly welcomed by the owner and his small daughter, who showed us round and provided the essential cake afterwards!  

Spaxton Summer Show took place on Saturday 26th July. Besides all the flower and vegetable, cookery and craft entries filling the marquee, a plethora of entertainments from the Ukelele band to llamas to the human fruit machine and the Scarecrow parade  filled the afternoon.  Despite this year's testing weather conditions, there were many impressive flower, fruit and vegetable entries. 

June

On Thursday 19th June, Abigail Willis spoke  to us about 'Somerset's Glorious Gardens'.  Abigail is a Somerset freelance arts and gardening writer, sometime resident of Nether Stowey, who has previously given us a talk on the Wardian case. This time she celebrated the excellent gardens of Somerset, on which she has written an informative book illustrated as was her talk, by  Clive Boursnell's great photography.  She gave an excellent, detailed and thoughtful tour through gardens of many types, some familiar and some we now will be inspired to visit.

 On Wednesday 18th June we visited Lydeard House in Bishops Lydeard.  Here there is a 4 acre garden with C18 origins and many later additions, featuring sweeping lawns, a lake overhung with willows, a canal running parallel to a Victorian rose-covered pergola, along with box parterre, chinoiserie-style garden, and a recent temple folly, plus wonderful mature trees.  Mrs Wilkins described how the gardens have been restored since 1999 including dredging the lake and reclaming the Victorian pergola, for which she meticulously sourced fragrant climbing roses appropriate to the era of its construction.  There is  a new garden to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III, and a neat sheltered vegetable garden beyond the ornamental gardens. We were given a detailed tour and afterwards enjoyed excellent cake.

May

A busy month for Stowey Gardeners! 

 The  Plant Sale at the Thomas Poole Library Nether Stowey on Saturday 17th May was a great success. All sorts of plants were brought, bought or swapped, raising much needed funds for the club and enabling us to continue to offer talks by good quality speakers!

11 members enjoyed a visit to Wick Gardens, Langport on Thursday 22nd May. We were shown round these surprising and imaginitive gardens by Sian, the gardener. Art works livened up every area, from the vegetable patch to the flower garden presided over by a giant hare sculpture, the pleached lime alley, the medicinal plant area and the labyrinth. Our hostess plied us with excellent cake which we enjoyed on the shady terrace.

 The coach trip to the RHS Malvern Spring Flower Show on Sunday 11th May was a great success. 36 of us made the journey in comfort and in excellent time.  The weather was lovely, if a little hot, and innumerable stalls, show gardens and delicious food stands catered for all tastes.

 A talk on 'the Newt, history and recent developments' by Arthur Cole on Thursday 15th May drew several visitors as well as members. Arthur has a background in horticulture, having trained at Edinburgh and been head gardener at Colesbourne (famed for its snowdrops) before becoming head of programmes at the Newt in Somerset.  He outlined the history of the garden and enthusiastically described all the features that can be explored at this exceptional site.

April

On Thursday April 17th there was a talk on Gardens of Madeira by Jonny Hartnell who members may remember from his talk on Orchids in 2023. Jonny has had time to pursue his  passion for plants  since retirement from a career in the nuclear industry. A relocation back to Devon  has given him the space  to expand his horticultural interests. He grows a huge range of plants in various greenhouses, polytunnels, indoors and out,  including South African bulbs (he has previously been chairman of the Nerine and Amaryllid society and continues to be heavily involved), Orchids (including Hardy and Tropical, showing plants at Devon Orchid Society shows), Woodland plants including Snowdrops, Tree Ferns as well as trying to be self sufficient in fruit and vegetables. He gives a range of talks to garden clubs on his interests including his travels to various parts of the world visiting botanic gardens and nature reserves.

Our first garden visit of the year was on Tuesday 29th April to Fairfield, Stogursey where the woodland garden has many bulbs including naturalised anemones and fritillaria, with roses, shrubs and fine trees.

March

Continuing our exploration of West Somerset gardens, our March talk, on Thursday 20th, was  on 'Greencombe Gardens, Porlock', by Rob Schmidt who now looks after this special site.  The garden was developed by his aunt Joan Lorraine over 50years, and Rob grew up visiting and then working in and finally taking over care of the garden, which features many rhododendrons and azaleas, and notably erythroniums, in a sloping, north-facing  woodland site.  While described as ' a ridiculous place to garden' by a magazine a couple of years ago, Rob demonstrated with beautiful photographs and videos what a sensational place it is. Do visit!

February

Stowey Gardeners' new programme for 2025 started with a talk on Thursday 20th February about ' Dunster Castle Gardens - the history up until the present'  by James Cordingly who is Head Gardener at NT Dunster Castle.  James has worked in horticulture for nearly 20years. He oversees care of the gardens at Dunster and at Coleridge Cottage (where some of our members volunteer). As well as hands - on gardening he regularly conducts tours of Dunster's gardens for visitors.  He outlined the history of the site.  The National Trust now cares for 42 acres, which includes a range of microclimates, including terraces where subtropical plants , including the Dunster lemon, now grow, so  perhaps it's not so surprising to learn that vines once covered the tor where the castle stands!  Recent weather extremes have produced challenges for the garden team, with tons of mud deposited by the river Avill as it raced through the riverside garden during autumn storms, and many mature trees toppled by high winds.  But new sustainable plantings are planned and many Stowey Gardeners will have been inspired to (re)visit Dunster to discover it all.

January

The 2025 AGM was held on Thursday 16th January.  A new Chairman, Lucy Haswell, was elected.  Kate Houghton will be taking over as secretary.

The AGM was followed by a talk on Plants of Somerset and the Nature of the Quantocks by Nigel Philips whose  new book on the natural history of the Quantocks will be published in March 2025. Once again, Nigel gave a superb talk, full of information and personalised by hints on where interesting plants may be found locally. We'll all be inspired to go out botanising once the weather has warmed up!