President: Carol Nicholls
Members of Committee
David Baker (Chair), Mary Pillon (Treasurer), Helena Kent (Secretary)
Patsy Cooke, Hollee Cooper, Fay Grist (Competitions), Jenny Jones (Raffle), Jo Nowak,
Rachel Salisbury (Programme)
It’s show time!
Malvern Vale
Saturday, 20th August
10.30am – 4.30pm
Programme
Staging 10.30am – 12 noon
Judging 12noon – 1.30pm
Viewing 1.30pm – 3.00pm
Refreshments
Plant sales
Raffle
1.30pm -3.00pm
Presentation of Awards 3.00pm
Dismantle and clear room 3.15pm – 4.00pm
July Meeting
July meeting: Wednesday, 27th July
Visit to 2 members’ gardens in Leigh SintonGardens will be open between 6.30pm and 9pm.
Full details in newsletter emailed to members
Royal Three Counties Show June 2022
To my knowledge, three of our members entered the flower show at the Royal Three Counties show this year, namely Rachel Salisbury, Trish Robinson and myself, Helena Kent and successfully came away with first, second and third prizes in various classes. As it was my first time exhibiting, I was extremely pleased with the outcome and I would recommend all of our members to take part in showing. You won’t win big money but you will feel a great sense of achievement, just by entering! Have a go at our own show in August, where there is no money involved but there will be prizes!
Madresfield Court visit
Report by David Baker
Just over thirty members enjoyed a private tour of the gardens at Madresfield Court, led by David Butt the Head Gardener. David started the tour at the front of the Court and gave a brief history of the house and its owners. The Lygon / Beauchamp family have owned the Court for hundreds of years. The house is said to be the oldest in continuous ownership by one family, and the inspiration for Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited – he was a friend of the family and regularly visited the house.
David then showed us the tulip trees and the ginkgo trees before we moved into the formal gardens beside the moat. The statue of Mercury which has for many years been banished away from the house has recently been renovated and returned to its original location. It was apparently too risqué for Edwardian ladies. A new fountain is planned which should be spectacular. From this point we could see the cattle grazing on the estate, Gloucester Drive which has hosted motor rallies for many years and the several kilometres of newly planted wildflower strips.
We passed through formal gardens and Caesars Lawn (named after the busts of Roman Emperors), to see the first of the wildflower meadows. David is clearly very keen on improving the biodiversity of the estate and the meadows have a very impressive range of flowers and orchids. We then passed hidden, sunken roads which allow estate workers to reach the gardens unseen from the house.
We then ended our tour back at the Court and moat. Everyone had really enjoyed the two hour tour and David was given a round of applause. He achieves all this work with four staff, most of whom are currently ill so he is almost managing the work almost single handed. We made a donation to Perennial at his suggestion as they are supporting one of his team.
Malvern Hills Gardening Club 