Newsletter HPS - March 2022

HPS MIDDLESEX GROUP (HPSMG)
NEWSLETTER – MARCH 2022

Dear Members

Our next meeting will be on Monday, 4 April at 7.30 pm when we will be pleased to welcome John Baker whose talk will be on: ‘Heavenly Hostas’ – How to grow, propagate and protect Hostas from slugs and snails. John holds the National Collection of Hostas in his Hampshire garden, which has featured in Monty Don’s BBC programme. We can all look forward to John talking knowledgeably, and no doubt passionately, about the plant he terms “The Perfect Perennial”.

It was good to see everyone who was able to attend our 2022 AGM and thank you to you all for renewing your memberships for 2022, and a very warm welcome to new members. For those who were not able to attend, we would like you to know that all AGM business was voted through successfully by members. We now have a Vice Chair, Linda Martin, who was already a busy Committee member. We also have a new, up-dated Constitution, approved by HPS national and voted through unanimously by members at the 2022 AGM, which we can now take forward into the future for The Hardy Plant Society - Middlesex Group.

First, we would like to thank Jothy Rainbow and her team who have organised and served the tea and biscuits over the past years at our Group meetings. Unfortunately, Jothy is no longer able to do this for future meetings. Therefore, we would like to ask for volunteers to come forward to help with this in the future, otherwise unfortunately there will be no refreshments at future meetings. We are extremely grateful to Jothy for all her past commitment and are even more delighted that she has volunteered to help with the role of Membership Secretary.

We would also like to thank our regular volunteers, John Huard for helping at all our meetings in setting up and clearing away the hall and for his thoughtful purchases for our raffle prizes. And, of course, to Wendy Jones for helping to raise funds for HPSMG by selling the raffle tickets and the beautiful cards. As well as to Diana Dolman for her involvement in the seed collections.

We would also like to express our most grateful thanks to Brian Franklin for having taken the lead for many years to organise the wonderful plant sales at our regular Group meetings and at the Community Hut in Ruislip. We appreciate all the time and work involved and certainly regard the plant sales as an extremely important highlight of our Group meetings and wider community involvement. Of course, not least because it allows us all a unique opportunity to regularly indulge our passion for hardy plants - all being extremely high quality and extremely good prices. We are particularly delighted, therefore, that Ros Penfold has kindly volunteered to take over the lead for the plant sales and, having swapped roles, will continue to work together with Brian to keep our regular and precious Group meeting plant sales and Community Hut plant sales going for the future. We are extremely grateful and are pleased they will be: Starting again in 2022:

Hardy Plant Society Middlesex Group Community Hut Plant Sales, Ruislip: 10.00 am to 12.30 pm:

APRIL: Saturday 16th

MAY: Saturday 7th

JUNE: Saturday 11th

At THE COMMUNITY HUT, St Martins Approach Car Park, Ruislip, HA4 8BD

TRIPS AND OUTINGS:

Lynn has been busy organising future trips, with details below. If any members would like more information, or to book a place on any of the trips, please contact us on the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. email and Lynn will get back to you directly.

26th to 28 April 2022: Keukenhoff Tulip Festival & Floriade Expo 22 - Lisse, Holland. Travel either via Eurostar or BA flight to Schiphol.
Boutique Hotel Estherea, Singel 303-309, 1012 WJ, Amsterdam.

Wednesday, 4 May 2022: Pashley Manor Tulip Festival, Pashley Manor Gardens, Ticehurst, East Sussex, TN5 7HE. Entrance £13.50 plus transport costs of £18.50. Total cost: £32.00 cheques payable to ‘The Hardy Plant Society Middlesex Group’. Pick up from St Martins Approach car park at 9.15 am or from Ickenham Library at 9.30 am. Return approximately 3.30 pm. Lunch is available to buy at Pashley Manor.

Wednesday 11 May 2022: Church Gardens, Harefield. We had an excellent visit to Church Gardens last year with a fantastic guided tour by, Kay, the owner and creator of the truly amazing gardens, which are more or less on our doorstep. It will be exciting to see the garden at this time of year and to follow the progress of this huge family project. The cost will be £10 for the guided tour and £3.00 for cake and beverages. Pay on the day direct to the hosts.

Saturday, 4 June 2022: Eastcote House Gardens (EHG) Jubilee Fete and Picnic from 11.00 am to 4.00 pm: Eastcote House Gardens, Eastcote - Free Admission.

HPSMG will have a Plant and Information stall to promote awareness of the national Hardy Plant Society, but specifically our Middlesex Group and local membership benefits. Our member, Nitty Chamcheon, has very kindly volunteered to run the plant sale with Lynn for this event. However, any members who are able to volunteer to help on the day would be very welcome, even for a short while, so please let us know beforehand if you would be willing to help us. Otherwise, please visit us if you are attending the event, it is open to all visitors free of charge. Details of the event are on the EHG website: https://eastcotehousegardens.weebly.com/diary-dates.html

Friday, 24 June: Blenheim Palace Flower Show. Entrance fee and HCT transport costs to be confirmed. If you already have a Blenheim Palace annual pass entrance will be free. For more details of the show go to their website: https://www.blenheimflowershow.co.uk/

David Hurrion, Rosie Yeomans and Sarah Cuttle go on a special wildflower, landscape and garden retreat in Northern Italy from 30th April to 7th May 2022

Now, if you are able to be a bit more adventurous and want to travel - we have been contacted by David Hurrion, who gave us an exceptionally good talk last year at one of our Group meetings. He has emailed us with the following:

“Hope this finds you and the group well. I wanted to share with you, the attached details, in case it might be of interest to any of your members. Please feel free to share with them. All the very best and kind regards, David”

There is a video on YouTube with more information. https://youtu.be/i0LIzAT6OxQ

David Hurrion, Associate Editor, BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, RHS Tender Plants Committee member and Shows Judge, www.davidhurrion.com, www.youtube.com/davidhurrion 

MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS FOR 2022:

PLEASE BE AWARE: If you have not yet renewed your membership for 2022, please note that this will be the last communication and Newsletter that you will receive from HPSMG. We will be up-dating our membership list now for 2022 and will not be able to send out information to anyone who is not a fully paid-up member of HPS Middlesex Group and HPS national. However, please do not hesitate to contact us or come along to one of our future meetings as there will always be opportunities to renew memberships at the Group meetings. We do hope more members will renew their memberships with us for another year and we welcome all new memberships. Please spread the word about The Hardy Plant Society – Middlesex Group and our local group meetings, as guests and new members are always very welcome. There is a membership form for new and renewing members on our website www.hpsmiddlesex.org.uk. Forms will always be available at forthcoming meetings or can be requested by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or in writing from our current Membership Secretary, Brenda Armstrong-Prada at 7 Essex Close, Eastcote, Ruislip, HA4 9PX and completed forms and fees can be posted to the Membership Secretary at that address.

Group Speaker Meeting – Monday, 9 May, 2022

For our May Group Speaker Meeting at Field End Road School, we look forward to welcoming Chris and Heather Danpure to talk to us about the fascinating topic of ‘Plants and Animals of Tropical Rain Forests’. They generously request that the very reasonable fee they charge for their talk goes direct to a charity. As well as travelling far afield they have also contributed professionally and voluntarily to our local area and have sent us their resumes, below.

• Chris Danpure: I am Emeritus Professor of Molecular Cell Biology at University College London. I have worked for many years on the causes of inherited kidney stone disease. I am now retired. My main interests now are travel and photography, especially landscapes and wildlife.
• Heather Danpure: I have a PhD in biochemistry from the University of London. I worked for a number of years as a radiobiologist for the Medical Research Council and then I changed careers to work as an OFSTED lay school inspector. In my spare time I have been a Governor at Vyners School, including a stint as Chair. In addition to travel and photography, my main interest is gardening.

Meantime, we look forward to seeing you at the next Group speaker meeting at Field End Road School, on Monday, 4 April 2022 at 7.30 pm. Lynn is working on a full Speaker Programme for the year and we will continue with the wonderful Plant Sales, our Raffles, the sale of beautiful Cards and, of course, please remember our seed collections - if you have spare seeds – please bring them along.

In the meantime, we are sure you are all enjoying the spring sunshine and looking forward to a busy spring in your gardens.

With best wishes,

The Hardy Plant Society Middlesex Group Committee
March 2022