Steve Bustin, Chair HPS
If you prefer to read Steve’s message above, the transcript can be downloaded here.
The Hardy Plant Society News
Seeds for Charities and Local Authorities
Now that the seed distribution is complete, we have surplus seeds that are available to any charity, local authority or any worthy cause, all for free. If you know of any likely beneficiaries, please ask them to email me via seed@hardy-plant.org.uk
Diane Puncheon, Post-holder (Seed Distribution Scheme)
Awards Scheme Sponsors
HPS Awards Scheme
We are delighted to announce our line-up of sponsors for this year’s HPS Annual Awards to be held at the Annual Lecture Day in September 2025.
David Austin Roses will be known to all of you as one of the world’s top breeders and growers of roses, renowned in particular for their ground-breaking English Roses. PlantGrow is an award-winning producer of a range of organic fertilisers and composts made entirely from plants via a renewable energy process. British Garden Centres is the UK’s largest family-owned garden centre group founded in Lincolnshire and now with 65 garden centres dotted throughout the country.
The generosity of all our sponsors is much appreciated and is a reflection of the value the wider garden and plant community places on the work of the Society and its army of enthusiastic volunteers. Details of the gifts provided by all of our sponsors can be found on this website.
Nominations are still open. If you’ve been impressed by the contribution any particular individual or team has made to the Society over the past couple of years, please consider submitting a nomination to highlight the work they have done. Whether that’s organising a lecture series, putting together a show stand, writing for publications or raising the Society’s profile, any activity that you think makes a difference counts.
The deadline for submissions is Sunday 16th March 2025. Thank you to all members who have already submitted nominations. Further information about the Awards as well as the nomination form can all be found on the website.
James Lennox, Trustee
Movement for Good: Vote for the Hardy Plant Society
Help us win £1,000 to fund a project for the HPS by voting in the Movement for Good. The Benefact Group is a collection of financial services firms which fund a trust to benefit good causes.
If you nominate the Hardy Plant Society from January 1st onwards, we will be included in the six regular draws and five special draws for £5,000. Visit their website here, put Hardy Plant Society in the box, and make us your nomination.
Should the society win an award we will conduct a further consultation on what to spend the money on. We want to ensure the money funds something tangible and is chosen by members.
New Postholders
We are pleased to announce three new volunteer postholders:
- Marina Lindl is taking on our social media accounts, and is already engaging with our public audience
- Carolyn White will be getting involved with our publications and bring her professional experience
- Gilly Jenks will eventually take over Media and Public Relations, as Ann Franks completes a few remaining projects
A short biography of Marina and Carolyn is on our Who are We? page, Gilly’s will follow.
Vacancies
Can you help? We would love to hear from people with experience in these areas:
1. Marketing and Communications
We’re looking for someone to help with promoting the HPS through marketing activities such as placing print and/or digital adverts, email marketing, promotions and partnerships, external events etc. Also to oversee our internal communications such as our new monthly email newsletter.
Some marketing experience would be useful but we can offer some support and coaching.
2. Fundraising
If you have experience of fundraising to support charities, donations and giving, or legacies, let us know.
3. Be a Trustee
Some of existing Trustees complete their term at the September AGM and we would love to hear from anyone who would like to be part of steering the society to a bright future.
For more information about either of these roles, please contact our Chair, Steve Bustin, on chair@hardy-plant.org.uk for an informal chat about what’s involved.
New on the website
If you haven’t already please take a look at a new article from our regular contributors
- Sheila May, On a Chalk Hillside for January
- Kevin Line, Planting for pollinators, Erysimum Bowles’s Mauve
Our Horticultural Advice Team handle questions of all sorts, we’ve published many of their previous questions and answers on their page. New for January include:
We always want to hear from anyone who can write about plants and gardening. If you have something you’d like to see published, please get in touch.
Bursary Reports
We also have new Bursary reports which make interesting reading from recipients of the Kenneth Black Bursary Scheme, all Bursary Reports are available to read here: https://hardy-plant.org.uk/bursary-scheme-reports/
New this month, two reports from the same trip around France and Spain, with extensive photography. James and Zac used their trip to see which plants and thriving or struggling, to predict how a warmer UK might see those plants become feasible for us. Their trip was in September at the end of a long hot summer, where Barcelona was technically in a drought since 2022. Their trip took in Nantes, Tours, Monaco, Marseille, Montpellier, Barcelona and Catalonia. Their reports feature plants from the wild and also botanic gardens.
In their conclusions they envisage the climate in London being more like Barcelona now, but also consider the reduction of the Gulf Stream and the opposite scenario where the UK is more like Canada.
- A report from James Horne here
- And a report from Zac Willets here
Each original PDF report is too large to publish using our normal website means. If you’d like a link to download the full resolution reports with their many great photos then please contact us via the helpdesk@hardy-plant.org.uk
Events at Local and Special Interest Groups
Below is a listing of Local & Special Interest Group Events around the Country. Most are open to guests for a fee. For more details click the link below and check with the organisers of the specific event for more details including the venue location.
- Sat 1st Feb at 13:30 Devon group: Devon Group AGM and Talk- Nick Macer
- Sat 1st Feb at 14:00 Hertfordshire group: Confessions of a Plantaholic – Razvan Chisu
- Sat 1st Feb at 14:00 Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire group: Diamonds are Forever – Jaime Blake
- Sat 1st Feb at 14:30 Shropshire group: My Gardening Experiences: The Magic Courgette Seed – Stephanie Hafferty
- Mon 3rd Feb at 19:30 Cheshire and Friends group: Lily Hunting in the Mountains of Northern Greece – Ruth Plant
- Wed 5th Feb at 19:30 Galanthus group: Westcroft and its Snowdrops – Lyn Miles
- Wed 5th Feb at 19:30 South Pennine group: Sissinghurst – Revitalising Vita – Troy Scott Smith
- Sat 8th Feb at 14:00 Cumbria group: The Rocky Road to Chelsea – Dr David Rankin
- Sat 8th Feb at 14:00 South Wales group: Plants of the Season – Paul Green
- Sat 8th Feb at 14:00 Herefordshire and Mid Wales group: Hellebores – Edward Smith
- Sat 8th Feb at 14:00 Worcestershire group: NIGEL HOPES – WINTER INTO SPRING
- Sat 8th Feb at 14:30 Monmouthshire group: Container Gardening – Harriet Rycroft
- Sat 8th Feb at 14:30 West Midlands group: Water Gardens – Mike Hinton
- Sat 8th Feb at 19:00 Galanthus group: Snowdrop Supper & After-Dinner Speaker MEMBERS ONLY
- Sun 9th Feb at 9:00 Galanthus group: Galanthus Group Study Day MEMBERS ONLY
- Sun 9th Feb at 14:00 Essex group: The Wild Side of Beth Chatto’s Garden – Chris Gibson
- Tue 11th Feb at 19:30 Shade and Woodland Plants group: Meconopsis – Helen Knowles MEMBERS ONLY
- Tue 11th Feb at 19:45 Berkshire group: Plants, Murder and Medical Mysteries – Sandy primrose
- Wed 12th Feb at 14:00 Wiltshire and Avon group: Reach for the Sky
- Fri 14th Feb at 19:00 West Yorkshire group: Succession Planting – Steve Edney
- Fri 14th Feb at 19:30 Nottingham group: The Shrunken Garden: Oxford Botanic Garden, 400 years of Botany and Gardening- Timothy Walker
- Sat 15th Feb at 14:00 Derbyshire group: Woodland Plants for the Connoisseur – Michael Myers
- Sat 15th Feb at 14:15 Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire group: Crazy Daisies – Robin Pearce
- Sat 15th Feb at 14:30 Hampshire group: Revive Your Garden, How to breathe life, style and good health back into tired gardens – Nick Bailey
- Sat 15th Feb at 14:30 Fenland group: Winter Colour in the Garden – Geoff Hodge
- Mon 17th Feb at 19:30 North West group: Grounded in the Garden – TJ Maher
- Tue 18th Feb at 19:30 Clwyd group: The World’s First Gardeners: The Ancient Egyptians – Sarah Griffiths
- Wed 19th Feb at 7:15 South Wales group: Winter Garden Trip
- Thu 20th Feb at 19:00 Hardy Geranium Group group: An Introduction to Hardy Geraniums – Jenny Spence (Zoom)
- Fri 21st Feb at 19:15 Staffordshire group: AGM & Don’t Go To Sleep for Winter – Kevin Pratt
- Sat 22nd Feb at 13:45 Western Counties group: Gardening at Kiftsgate – Mrs Anne Chambers
- Sat 22nd Feb at 14:00 Lincolnshire group: A field, a fork, a barrowful of ideas – Martin Walker
- Sun 23rd Feb at 14:00 Sussex group: From City Courtyard to Seaside Sanctuary – Geoff Stonebanks
- Sun 23rd Feb at 14:30 Kent group: Our Jungly Journey with Exotics – Steve Edney and Lou Dowle.
- Mon 24th Feb at 19:15 North East group: Re-Wilding, the Planting at Knepp Castle – Charlie Harpur (Zoom Talk)
- Fri 28th Feb at 14:00 Salisbury Plain Mini-Group group: Alex Learmont
Join the Hardy Plant Society
Help us spread the benefits of plants and gardening. Our members tell us they feel relaxation, happiness, satisfaction, calmness and love from plants and gardening. We want to see these benefits reach everyone, and at the same time improve our environment.
Since 1957 we’ve been promoting plants and helping our members adapt to changes in our environment. Entirely member funded, we run a network of local groups around the country and are always looking to start more.
All memberships provide many benefits including
- The option to join any of our local or special interests groups
- Two copies of The Hardy Plant (in full colour, by post)
- Three copies of The Newsletter (in full colour, by post)
- Immediate access to the members area of our website with access to all our news and articles
- Free plant advice through our advisory service
- Participation in the Conservation scheme
- Participation in the Seed Distribution Scheme
- The option to subscribe to Cornucopia for an additional fee
Thank you for reading!
