AGM and ALD 2025
The 2025 Hardy Plant Society Annual General Meeting and Lecture Day is to be hosted this year by the Derbyshire Group and will take place on September 13th at the Eastwood Hall conference centre, a venue within easy reach of both the M1 and A38.
Agenda
- 09:00 – Registration. Tea, Coffee and Plant Sales
- 09:30 – Welcome & Housekeeping
- 09:40 – Chair of HPS, Steve Bustin 'Trowel and Error: Creating a city garden, one mistake at a time'
- 10:30 – Tea/Coffee Break
- 11:00 – AGM/HPS Awards
- 12:30 – Lunch
- 13:30 – Troy Scott Smith ‘Gardening Through the Seasons’
- 14:45 – Tea/Coffee Break
- 15:15 – Val Bourne ‘Colour in the Garden, Practical Garden Recipes That Work from Season to Season’
- 16:30-17:00 - Close
Our venue is Eastwood Hall, Mansfield Road, Eastwood, Nottingham NG16 3SS www.eastwood-hall.co.uk
Eastwood Hall is a welcoming hotel and conference venue set in 26 acres of landscaped grounds. It is close to transport links, including the M1, Derby and Nottingham stations.
For details of overnight accommodation please contact them direct on 01773 532 532 and for the delegate rate, quote the date 13th Sept and booking name as The Hardy Plant Society.
Tables or displays
- HPS Derbyshire will be selling plants
- The HPS Conservation Scheme
HPS Specialist Groups
Visit all the Special Interest Groups at the SIG page
- Galanthus
- Peony
- Pulmonaria
- Shade and Woodland
- Variegated
Accommodation
See the map below which shows the locations and website links for each of these hotels.
- 4.3 miles Delta Hotels Nottingham Belfry Mellors Way Off Woodhouse Way Woodhouse Way, Nottingham NG8 6PY
- 4.6 miles Travelodge Nottingham Trowell M1Moto Service Area, M1, Trowell NG9 3PL
- 5.0 miles Premier Inn Nottingham West Hotel The Phoenix Centre Millennium Way West, Nottingham NG8 6AS England
- 5.1 Miles the Morley Hayes Hotel Main Road, Morley, Derby DE7 6QA
- 5.3 miles DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Nottingham - Gateway Nuthall Road, Nottingham NG8 6AZ England
- 5.6 miles Premier Inn Mansfield hotel Carter Lane East Alfreton, South Normanton DE55 2DY England
Nurseries In Attendance
- Potterton’s Nursery
- Specialist, family run nursery since 1971, offering an extensive selection of hardy alpines and bulbs for rockery, scree, raised beds, trough, crevice bed, pots or cold frame - including Allium, Androsace, Campanula, Colchicum, Crocus, Cyclamen, Erodium, Erythronium, Fritillaria, Gentiana, Geranium, Iris, Narcissus, Penstemon, Phlox, Saxifraga, Trillium and Tulipa. Please see our Mail order catalogues available online or in paper format. Chelsea GOLD medal winner and many other awards
- www.pottertons.co.uk
- Morton Nursery
- Retail nursery specialises in quality, homegrown plants and the more unusual and harder to find shrubs and perennials. We are always developing the nursery and gardens and the long-awaited propagation greenhouse is almost complete. This means we will be able to increase our range of plants. Gill and Gayle are happy to advise on plants and growing techniques.
- www.morton-nurseries.co.uk
- Bridge Farm Plants
- A wide selection of rare and unusual plants including: Shade Loving / Tolerant Plants including rarely offered Pulmonarias, Brunneras, Lamiums, Epimediums, selected Hellebores, Asarums, Aconites, Acteaes, and ferns, Variegated Plants, Green flowering plants and shrubs, Large selections of Digitalis, Nepeta, Sedum, Thalictrum, Borderline Hardy / Tender perennials including Salvias, Heliotropes and Scented Geraniums.
- Piecemeal Plants
- Mary Thomas runs Piecemeal Plants from her nursery in South Nottinghamshire. The nursery specialises in hardy herbaceous perennials - unusual varieties and cottage garden favourites plus a selection of flowering bulbs, half-hardy and tender plants
- www.piecemealplants.co.uk
- Wildgoose Nursery
- Is a small independent nursery that started out as specialist growers of hardy perennial violas but now offer an ever-expanding plant list of exciting new perennial introductions and longstanding favourites. They grow plants in an environmentally sustainable way. 95% of the stock is propagated on site from seed, cuttings and divisions, there are no air miles involved in the production of the plants. The plants are also grown without the use of herbicides and pesticides and all perennial stock is grown in peat free compost.
- https://www.wildegoosenursery.co.uk/
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Tissington Nursery
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A small family run plant nursery located in the idyllic village of Tissington. The nursery is approx. 700ft (213m) above sea level and as you can imagine the winters are long and cold. The plants they produce (with a few exceptions) are hardy in Tissington and should do well in your garden. All of the perennials are grown on the nursery using Peat Free Compost.
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Gardens to visit
Chatsworth House (Nr. Bakewell) www.chatsworth.org
One England’s great gardens, with classical features created by the first Duke in the 17th century, and developed in the 19th century by the sixth Duke and Joseph Paxton. The woodland garden has recently been developed by Dan Pearson and other well-known garden designers. The cascade is undergoing restoration but many other features, such as the fountain, the maze and the rockery are well worth a visit.
Haddon Hall (Nr Bakewell) www.haddonhall.co.uk/
A wonderful historic hall from the middle ages, there is an Elizabethan walled garden recently redesigned by Arne Maynard. The Hall itself is well worth a tour.
Renishaw Hall (Nr Chesterfield) https://renishaw-hall.co.uk/
The ancestral home of the Sitwell family has a famous Italianate Garden as well as a woodland garden and a lakeside walk. Tours of the Hall are available and there is an award-winning cafe.
Bluebell Arboretum (Nr Ashby- de-la-Zouch) https://www.bluebellnursery.com/
The arboretum is relatively young but it is packed with rare trees and provides a wonderful woodland walk. Many of the trees are available in the nationally famous nursery.
Felley Priory (Nr Eastwood) https://www.felleypriory.co.uk/
In Nottinghamshire but only a few miles from Eastwood, this is a beautiful garden developed in the late 20th century with the house dating from the 12th century. There is a collection of rare hydrangeas which should be at their best at the time of the AGM. There is a small nursery and a good cafe.
Hardwick Hall ( Nr Mansfield) https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/peak-district-derbyshire/hardwick
Built by Bess of Hardwick during the reign of her namesake, Elizabeth 1, this National Trust site is visible on the hill from the M1. It is famous for its tapestries and furniture and also has a less well known walled garden with a large herb garden, orchard and mixed borders.
Melbourne Hall (Nr Derby) https://www.melbournehall.com/
Marvellous example of the early 18th century garden style, in the style of the landscape architect Le Notre, it has been restored but kept faithfully to its original form. It is notable for a wrought iron arbour made by Robert Bakewell.
Gardens open for the National Garden Scheme on the Sunday 14th September
HOLMLEA, Derby Road, Ambergate, Belper, DE56 2EJ
1.5-acre garden wide variety of plants for late season colour.
The Old Vicarage, Middleton by Wirksworth, Matlock, DE4 4NH
Glorious all-season gardens with mixed flower borders and mature trees
For other gardens open by arrangement or more details about the gardens above https://ngs.org.uk/
Botanic Garden at Wollaton Hall and Deer Park
Open on Sunday 14th September (the day after the Annual Lecture Day and AGM). The Nottingham Group will open it for members from 10am to 4pm. Plants for sale.
The what3words reference is flies.ladder.trend for the main gate and dishes.slate.loaf for the side gate in the Stable Courtyard. Further directions, including drone video of how to get there can be found on our website www.nottmhps.org.uk
Our speakers
Val Bourne - ‘Colour in the Garden’ - Practical garden recipes that work from season to season.
The Lecture will reflect her love of colour and the way the plant palette changes throughout the year. Spring flowers can be mixed together under the soft light of spring because most of them are woodlanders. High Summer sun tends to wash out colour, but many summer-flowering plants have pastel-coloured flowers, so they mix together easily. However, the summer border needs verticals and pops of stronger colour as well otherwise it looks pale and anaemic. As the days shorten again, Southern Hemisphere plants tend to dominate, and these are colourful, and pigment packed. Oranges and warm yellows add richness and there are lots of daisies on offer. This plant-led talk will feature favourites grown at Spring Cottage - a cold and exposed third-of-an-acre garden in the Cotswolds.
Val Bourne is an award-winning garden writer, hands on gardener and committed plantaholic. She manages her third of an acre garden without using chemicals – something she has always believed in. Val worked in Vegetable Research for five years and grows vegetable and fruit organically. Her book, The Living Jigsaw, is all about her eco-friendly Cotswold Garden and her latest book is Tough Plants. Val has been interested in the natural world since childhood and has actively tried to influence gardeners to be greener in order to help the survival of our planet. Val judged RHS plant trials for over 16 years and she appears in many publications. She is proud to be the Vice President of The Hardy Plant Society.
Troy Scott Smith ‘Gardening Through the Seasons’
With a lifetime of gardening at arguably some of the finest gardens in the world, Troy has seen and done it all. In this talk Troy will share his tales from the garden, the highs and lows, his favourite and worst liked plants and much more besides.
Troy Scott Smith was born in Yorkshire into a family of committed naturalists and spent his childhood exploring the geology and flora of the National Parks of England. He began his gardening at a young age, quickly developing a style of relaxed planting that mixed native wildings together with exotics.
In 1990, after a total of 5 years studying horticulture and design, Troy joined the National Trust, Europe’s largest Conservation Charity and became their youngest Head Gardener. In the years since Troy has led the gardens at The Courts, Bodnant and Sissinghurst, where he has been Head Gardener since 2013.With a short intermission at Iford Manor in 2019
Troy combines his work at Sissinghurst with design and consultancy, writing, teaching and lecturing. Troy has recently taken on a small farm back in his home county of Yorkshire, where he continues to gently experiment, laying down sustainable planting for the future.
Steve Bustin - Chair of the Hardy Plant Society - 'Trowel and Error: Creating a city garden, one mistake at a time'
Steve Bustin is Chair of HPS and gardens in a relatively small garden in Brighton, at the top of a hill directly inland from Brighton Pier.
Originally a BBC News journalist, Steve has written for gardening magazines including Amateur Gardening, Beautiful Gardens and Pith & Vigor and gives talks to garden groups on topics including the life and times of Ellen Willmott and the history of gardens built purely for pleasure.
He shares his garden with his husband John and Gordon Setter Ari.
