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Subscriptions are now due!
If you are a member of the Painters Forstal Gardeners Club and you've yet to pay your annual club subscription then please do!
Once again subscriptions are just £5.00 per person for the year and can be paid using online banking, if you've not already recieved the banking details then please get in touch and we can share this with you
Coming up next...
Previously...
This club members event will be a little different from previous years and will be held at The Alma in Painters Forstal. If you are interested in coming then you will need to let us know in advance. The plentiful festive nibbles will be subsidised by the club so the cost to club members will be £5.00 only. This will need to be paid in advance so do please get in touch with us and we'll tell you how you can pay, either by emailing the club chairman directly or by using the online contact form.
There will be some party games (participation is optional!) and a festive quiz, all you have to bring is the fun and some festive cheer!
Steve Edney - 'The Long Border'
Monday 9th October
Steve Edney, former head gardener at the Salutation Gardens visited us again on 9th October, this time to tell us all about the work that he and his partner, Lou Dowle have been doing on their new site, specifically focussing on ' The Long Border'
The talk was exceptionally well attended, thanks to all of you for coming to support this popular event.
Steve also took the time to judge the pelegonium plug plant category that should have been judged at the Autumn show. The winner was Frances Moscovits, the runner up was Graeme Bowman
Club Garden Picnic
Churchmans Farm
Monday 7th August
Very many thanks to both Andrew and Mary who took the time to take us on a tour of their wonderful garden.
It was great to see some new faces along with a fair few familiar ones who all enjoyed some late evening sunshine.
If you didn't get a chance to come along then don't worry, the garden will be open as part of the NGS garden scheme and will be open on 8th and 9th September so do make a point to go and visit!
Club Visit to Tram Hatch Gardens
Wednesday 14th June
A beautiful heritage English country garden, boasting a wonderful combination of formal and natural settings, with beautiful rose gardens, secret hideaways, tumbling planted riverbanks, pergola's and archways, specialist trees, orchards and much more, the sun shone and it was a beautiful day.
Everyone who came were treated to something very special, below are a selection of pictures that really don't do justice to this amazing garden.
The Plant Sale
Saturday May 13th
The plant sale was once again a very popular event, raising an excellent sum for the club, thank you to everyone who both donated and bought plants, thanks too to the volunteers on the day who made this event a success
Best in Show - Spring 2023
The Spring Show
April 1st
Lorenden School Hall
Thank you to everyone who took part and made this such an excellent Spring Show. Entries were significantly up on last year making for a superb display.
Given the recent cold weather the quality of the entries was amazing, thank you to everyone who took part.
Here are some photos of the event, hope you enjoy them, I'm already looking forward to the Autumn Show
Spring Show 2023 - Winners
Winners of the Spring Show 2023
The Spring Show Cup for most points overall Frances Moscovits
Best Bloom in Show Carole Warrener
Runner-up Best Bloom in Show Val Anderson
Culinary Section Jenny Fagg
Photographic Competition Pat Younger
I don't suppose this fooled you for a moment, hope you enjoyed our little April Fools Joke!
Propagation
A Talk by Alan Harvey, 13th March 2023
Lorenden School Hall 7:30pm
A late change to the programme saw Alan Harvey, Head of Horticulture at Hadlow College, replacing Kevin Tooher. And what a good talk on propagation that was, I don't know about you but I fancy trying the trick with the potato and the tomato, if you try it and succeed do please send in a photo!
The talk was extremely well attended which given the road conditions was amazing, thank you all for coming along, I'm sure you'll agree it was worth it!
Christine Walkden
Wednesday 12th October
What an absolute treat this was, I'm sure those of you who came along will agree that Christine's presentation on Water Wise Gardening, was remarkably informative and entertaining.
The Autumn Show
Saturday 10th September
After a particularly dry summer and a hose pipe ban it goes without saying that this years show was always going to be a challenge but it didn't stop you. Thank you to everyone of you that submitted entries, the quality of exhibits was incredible, exceeding all expectation. Well Done!
Painters Forstal Gardeners Club Autumn Show winners
The Ros Williams Cup - Best Bloom in Show: Henry Bryant
The Colin Mitchell Cup - Best Dahlia: Henry Bryant
Best Vegetable in Show Cup: Sandie Willis
Banksian Medal – most points in sections A, B and C: Frances Moskovits
Statuette for Section A Frances Moskovits and Henry Bryant
Statuette for Section C: Angela Jeffrey
Vase for the most points in section D: Jenny Fagg
Bell for most points in Culinary: Jenny Fagg
If you're reading this thinking "My Tomatoes are better than that" or "That looks like fun" then do please consider entering next years competiton, it's really easy to enter and you might be very pleasantly suprised! Thanks again to everyone that came along this year, looking forward to meeting you at the next event
August Garden Meeting
Monday 8th August (6:30pm)
Thanks to Bill and Sally Harbour the club had an excellent walk around the paddocks in the warm evening sunshine followed by a picnic in the garden. Everyone had a really lovely evening!
June visit to Mt Ephraim
Wednesday 15th June at 1pm
What a wonderful way to spend an early summer afternoon. The sun shone, it was a beautiful day and a beautiful garden
Thank you to those of you who were able to come along
Plant Sale
We had a very successful plant sale and the chairman, together with the committee, would like to thank those of you who supported this fundraising event. A big THANK YOU to committee and members who donated wonderful plants all lovingly grown. Also thank you for helping to run the morning and man the tables and sell sell sell. And a special thank you to Andrew and Mary Bruce for providing such an idyllic venue.
Best Bloom in show Spring 2022 Roger Jeffrey
The Spring Show
Saturday 9th April 2022
Held at Lorenden School Hall
Ah, it was good to be back wasn't it? Our first show in 2 years and, as a consequence, we reduced the number of categories so, as expected, there were a lower number of entries submitted from previous shows but the quality of the exhibits didn't fail to impress.
If you joined us then I'm sure you'll agree it was wonderful to get back to being normal!
Winners of the Spring Show
The Spring Show Cup for most points overall Val Anderson
Best Bloom in Show Roger Jeffrey
Runner-up Best Bloom in Show Val Anderson
Photographic Competition Paul Moskovits
Entries for the photographic competiton - Natual Beauty
AGM
14th February 2022 at 7:00pm
Once again this year's AGM, was held online, thank you to everyone who was able to attend
Previous minutes were read, the treasurers report was given and accepted. There were no additions to the committee although Mary Williams has moved away so can no longer serve on the committee. If you're interested in joining the committee let us know, it's not too late if you'd like to nominate yourself, so do please get in touch.
I hope you enjoyed the quiz, well done to any of you who got 5 or more correct!
It’s not all sand, the mountains of Yemen
A talk by Fraser Henderson
December 6th at 7pm
Frazer Henderson is an active member of a number of horticultural societies, including the Scottish Rock Garden Club, the Alpine Garden Society, the Sedum Society, Plant Heritage and the Wakefield & North of England Tulip Society. An enthusiastic amateur botanist and geographer, Frazer has travelled extensively to address his interest in island flora, mountain flora and wild tulips.
This talk, drawing on multiple visits to Yemen, shines a light on the little known world of the Haraz mountains, with an exploration of its botanical riches, from succulents to alpine plants, and its cultural heritage, from deserted Jewish towns to walled Ismaili villages. A particular feature of this 50 minute talk is an in depth look at Primula verticillata which was discovered in previously unrecorded locations.
Apocynaceae - "Dogbane"
This event was held online for members and was a marvelous insight into just how green and interesting Yemen is as a country. Fraser clearly has a passion for searching out the undiscovered, we were delighted to have him give us his perspective on his visits to seemingly remote and inhospitable areas of the world.
There was good selection of entries for the best dahlia, the winner being the deep pink water lily variety dahlia in the middle submitted by Marilyn Chantler
Visit to Churchmans Farm
Winner, vase of flowers Marilyn Chantler
Monday 16th August 2021
We had a lovely get together and relaxed evening by the lake with picnics and much catching up. Thanks to Mary and Andrew Brice for their hospitality. This event was combined with a casual showing of your best dahlia and or a vase a flowers.
Judging was done by the members who selected their favourites and the winner of BOTH categories was Marilyn Chantler!
Here are a selection of other entries submitted for the vase of flowers category, thank you all so much for coming along and making this a very enjoyable event.
Crossword challenge!
Following the positive feedback from last years Dingbats challenge, which is still available to do if you've not attempted it yet (see below), we've added another challenge for you to try while you're waiting to get back out into the garden. This time it's a crossword with a horticultural theme. The clues are a mixture of local knowledge, anagrams, hidden words, easy and cryptic so hopefully a little of something for everyone. The file is in the form of a spreadsheet so you'll need a spreadsheet program (such as Excel) to view it.
Good Luck!
Spring Show Photo Competition 10th April 2021
This years Spring Show Competition was once again held as an on-line photographic competition. As we are not charging subscriptions, there were no prizes awarded this year other than the pure joy of besting your fellow gardeners!
You've not let us down, the number of entries this year has been very high. Judging is now complete and the winners are announced!
Head over to the Gallery Page to see all the winners and entries
Well done to all of you who took part, you really have excelled yourselves this year!
The 7 classes were as follows:
1, A houseplant
2, Tulip(s) in situ in the garden
3, A single bloom of a spring garden flower, in situ
(Excluding tulips or daffodils in Divisions 1, 4 or 6)
4, Daffodil Division 1. Trumpet (3 in a vase)
5, Daffodil Division 4. Double (3 in a vase)
6, Daffodil Division 6. Cyclamineus (3 in a vase)
7, Wildlife (Colour or black and white)
AGM
8th February 2021 at 7:30pm
This years AGM, due to the ongoing Covid limitations, was held online via Zoom, thank you to all of you who were able to join us. It's possibly ironic that because of the snow we had on Monday it would have been unlikely the public meeting would have gone ahead anyway!
Previous minutes were read, the treasurers report was given and accepted. There were no changes to the committee members although it's not too late if you'd like to nominate yourself, do please get in touch.
It was agreed that this year we would not be charging an annual subscription and we'll continue to run the club online until such time as the advice on meetings changes and we can all once again meet up in person.
A Zoom lecture on ‘Exotic Gardening’
By Steve Edney.
Monday 7th December at 7pm
Thank you Steve Edney for a super talk last evening via Zoom. He gave us a great insight into ‘Exotic Gardening’, how to choose the right plants and how to make the most of our gardens. A great tonic for club members to join in and a chance to hear you share great knowledge.
Thanks too to all of you that joined us, what an excellent turnout and it was great to see you all!
Dingbats challenge!
If you've come in from the garden, you've got a little time on your hands and you fancy a bit of a challenge then you might find this a bit of fun.
Dingbats are picture or visual word puzzles, either as a single image or a collection of images and words which, when you put them together will form a well known phrase or saying. In this challenge you'll be looking for plant names, that could be anything from trees, shrubs, herbs vegetables or flowers etc.
You'll find we've been a little free and easy with spelling and grammar but when you've got a few of them, well, you'll start to get the hang of it I'm sure.
The puzzle is in a powerpoint presentation document so you'll need a powerpoint reader to be able to view.
There are no prizes other than the reward of having worked them all out, once you've downloaded the challenge and you think you've worked them all out download the answers to see how well you did.
Good Luck!
40th Anniversary Party
The weather held fair, the Alma provided a wonderful setting and an excellent meal, and Paula Hammond baked us a celebratory cake that not only looked amazing but was utterly delicious!
To all of you who joined us at the party I think you'll agree this was a great way to celebrate the clubs 40th anniversary!
And let's not forget the entertainment, Dan the magician was simply amazing, a very big thank you to him (have you worked out how he did it yet Paul!)
If you missed the end of party skit, or if you want to see it again, here's some of the Painter's Forstal Gardeners' Club committee members and others in action...
As this was a very special anniversay the awards for the Spring and Summer Shows were presented here instead of at our usual Christmas social event.
2019 award winners
Spring Show 2019
The Spring Show Cup, Violet Croll
Bell for the Culinary Section, Joint First:
Jenny Fagg & Angela Macey
Best Bloom in Show, Alan Warrener
The David Green Photographic Trophy, Roger Clements
Dahlia Show 2019, the Colin Mitchell Dahlia Cup for most points, and Best Bloom in Show, will be awarded on 9th September
Summer Show 2019
The Den Reynolds Cup winner of Class 1 Fuchsia in a pot, Violet Croll
The Ros Williams Cup Best Bloom in Show, Marilyn Chantler
Best Vegetable in Show Cup, Marilyn Chantler
Ospringe Parish Council Cup for most points cumulatively, Frances Moskovits
The Roy Frier Challenge Trophy most points Section B Vegetables, Frances Moskovits
Stuatuette for Section A Flowers and foliage, Frances Moscovits
Statuette for Section C Fruit, Paula Hammond
Best Fruit in Show, Peter Hammond
Vase Floral Art, Jenny Fagg
Hanging Basket Cup, Richard Annand
For more on what we did in previous years take a look at the News Archive