Hard to believe that we are nearly getting to the longest day, giving us plenty of time to get into our gardens. I'm sure all our members are full of ideas for their garden after visiting so many beautiful and varied gardens last Sunday at the Bosham Open Gardens Day. A lot of our members opened their gardens and it was so impressive to see the fruits of all their hardwork - only sorry the weather wasn't as bright as the gardens!

Our June meeting was held on the 11 th June. Our chairman Bud Cooper opened the meeting with the sad news of the death of Pam Tomlins. Without her our Society would have failed a few years ago, and she will be sorely missed by us all. We held a few moments of silence for us all to recall our special memories of her. It was wonderful to see so many members of our Society at her thanksgiving service earlier in the week. Bud thanked everyone who helped to make our annual plant sale and coffee morning such a success. We raised £675.00 which will go a long way to help paying for speakers and the general running of the Society. Thanks to you and to the community of Bosham for supporting us so well on the day. The next date for your diary is the Annual Show which will be held on the 8th August. A chance to show off your gardening skills, flower arranging etc. !!

Brian gave us his monthly topical tips for June – spray your gooseberries for any mildew and aphids. Put codling moths traps out (1 trap will do five plants) – spray broad beans for black fly – sow runner, French and cobra beans – also wallflowers and sweet williams. Lastly don't forget to dead head the last of the tulips.

We had some magnificent roses in the monthly competitions (aren't they wonderful this year?) and some amazing perennials. Brian Linkhorn won the Handover Cup and Beryl Cooper won the best in show floral (again!).

Our speakers, Christine Westcott and her son Kester, entertained us with a very interesting talk on Managing Woodland. They have a 63 acre woodland, Bluebell Wood, over the border in Hampshire and their life is devoted to the management of it.

Their enthusiasm and love of their work was very evident. We learnt about the history of the woodland in England , the archaeology from Neolithic times to the present day, coppicing etc. and Kester stressed the importance of management. They accompanied the talk with slides of magnificent trees and the ancient woodland plants including rare orchids. Christine spoke to us about which flora, fauna and insects to look for as you walk through woodland. It is obviously a lifetime's work managing their wood, and as Kester informed us the rarest species in any woodland nowadays is a woodland worker!

Orchids are the subject of next month's talk on the 9 th July. Mr Roger Grier will talk to us on the cultivation - the basics, the truth. Bring along any orchid plants you want advice on – maybe you have a giant plant like me from the West Wittering Nursery and am not sure what to do with it!! I think I need an HGV to bring mine along!! Visitors are always welcome at our meetings!
Rozie Bradley

Bosham, Chidham & District Horticultural Society

May Report

The Society is now getting into the swing of our summer activities and outings. Not to mention all the members getting busy in their gardens! This month we have our annual Coffee Morning and Plant Sale which helps us to raise funds for our expenses and fun during the year. We have two outings planned in June and July to the National Sweet Pea Collection at Bracklesham and to the gardens at Fittleworth.
Our meeting this month was chaired by Rozie Bradley as Bud Cooper was visiting the bulb fields in Holland. She was very happy to report that our past chairman, Pam Tomlins, is now back in Bosham and recovering at home. Welcome back, Pam, we have all missed you! Marlene Whalen read out the topical tips for this coming month – all seeds can now be planted as the ground will now be warm enough – The roses should be fed and sprayed and any die back cut down to the green stems. Feed borders with a balanced fertiliser (i.e. Gromore), feed Strawberries and raspberries with sulphate of potash and water in. And lastly, but not least, for a nice lawn cut twice a week and feed once this month. Now is the time to plant your hanging baskets – why not do one for our hanging basket competition in July (members only).
Competitions – Beryl Cooper won the Best in Show floral. We had some beautiful premature baby cardigans in the interest section which will be donated to St. Richards. ( Marie Gilby’s was awarded first prize).

Our speaker at this meeting was Jaine Wild from the Badger Trust, West Sussex. As she said some people are crazy about them and others are driven crazy by them when they dig up their lawns, not to mention the question of TB. However this evening was not to discuss the politics of it all but to show us how the Trust cared for the badgers in all aspects of their lives. So many of them are injured in road traffic accidents and the Trust rescues the injured, takes them to the vet and from there if they recover they are returned to the wild. They lobby to prevent roads and property developments from being built where there are setts. They try to prevent badger baiting and snaring of badgers and other wild animals. An offshoot of the Trust is the National Anti Snare Campaign, an organisation endeavouring to ensure that all the horrific snares are banned. The snares are normally anti fox but envitabley end up snaring any wild or domestic animal which happens to pass by. Her talk was accompanied by a slide show and I am sure we all learnt a lot from her. She works tirelessly for the Trust.

Next month (11th June) there will be a talk and slides given by Mr & Mrs Keste Westcott entitled ‘Why manage Woodland’ – look forward to seeing you all there!

Rozie Bradley

BOSHAM CHIDHAM & DISTRICT HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY

  SATURDAY 23RD MAY 2009  
10.30AM – 12 NOON
PLANT SALE & COFFEE MORNING
BOSHAM VILLAGE HALL 
ENTRANCE 50P INCLUDES YOUR COFFEE
  RAFFLE – BOOKS – CAKES

Bosham, Chidham & District Horticultural Society

April Meeting report

At our April Meeting, our Chairman, Bud Cooper, welcomed 39 members, two new members and one visitor. He reminded us of our plant sale and coffee morning on the 23rd May, the two outings in June and July and a hope that a venue could be found for our cheese and wine social evening proposed for July.

Brian Linkhorn followed with his usual excellent topical tips for this April – feed the strawberry plants and all soft fruit including gooseberries. The gooseberries should also be checked for mildew and sprayed with fungicide accordingly. Now is the time to sow your broad beans and finish planting your maincrop potatoes. Runner, french and cobra beans can be planted in pots ready for sowing outdoors in early May. The present conditions are ideal for sowing parsnips. And last but definitely not least one very important tip to dead head your daffodils. Do not let the seed heads mature. We had some wonderful spring flowers and shrubs in this month’s competitions – the Best in Show floral went to Jackie Bowker and the Best in Show domestic was won by Rita Sandy.

Our speaker this evening was Frances Farrar-Brown and she entertained us with a talk and slides entitled “A History of the Gardens of South East England”. She is a Blue Badge Guide for the South East of England, covering Kent, Surrey and Sussex. The slides were beautiful and her accompanying talk was both amusing and fascinating, starting with the Roman Gardens of Fishbourne (which some of us were ashamed to admit we had never visited!) following right up to the present day. We are so lucky to have so many beautiful gardens in this area and I am sure her talk inspired us to go and have a look at as many as possible.

Next month we have a talk with slides entitled “Badgers” by Mrs J. Wild on 14th May and of course don’t forget that we have a plant sale and coffee morning on the 23rd May from 10-12noon in the Bosham Village Hall. Its an ideal time to stock up on your garden plants and vegetables for this summer.

Rozie Bradley

Bosham, Chidham & District Horticultural Society

March 2009 Meeting

Our March meeting was held on the 12th March 2009. Our chairman, Bud Cooper, gave us his topical tips for the month including – spike and put lawn sand on your grass to prevent the moss building up – prune the roses as low as possible (remember the best flowers are on the new growth) and feed and spray– prune your apple and pear trees if you have not already done so – lightly fork the borders to let in the air through to the roots after all the rain and feed with blood, fish and bone meal. So that should keep us all busy! There were some delightful spring flower entries in the monthly competitions. Congratulations go to Sue Sims who won the Best in Show Floral, to Stephanie Fiske who won the Best in Show Domestic and to Don Hall who won the Ernest White Cup.

John Fox gave us an update on the allotment plans following a very positive meeting with the Parish Council. John and a couple of the councillors are to form a working party to investigate in greater detail the number and size of the plots, whether organic on non organic, ground available and the financial side etc. and will report back in July. Please contact John if you are interested in having an allotment.

Our Speaker this month was Miss Monica Lucas from Sidlesham who entertained us with her talk and slides on Glorious Spring. The slides were wonderful and began with woodland snowdrops and concluded with a tulip display. It's easy to forget how many wonderful spring flowers, flowering shrubs and trees there are in the gardens at this time of year and she had photos of a huge range. Her talk was both informative and very amusing. One piece of advice, if the leaves on your mimosa tree look brown and crispy be patient they may well revive!

Our next meeting on the 9 th April should be fascinating with a talk and slideshow by Frances Farrar-Brown on the History of the Gardens of South East England. If you are new to the area, please come and join us and see what fun we have! Meetings start at 7.30pm in the Village Hall in Bosham (come earlier if you want a cup of tea and biscuit!)

Rozie Bradley

BOSHAM, CHIDHAM & DISTRICT HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY

At the February meeting, the Chairman, Bud Cooper, welcomed 52 members and two visitors. He announced two proposed visits this Summer. On the 12 th June it was planned to see Roger Parsons' collection of sweet peas in Bracklesham and on 16 th July a visit to the vegetable garden at Fittleworth House. Both are follow-up visits to gardens after talks from speakers last year. Bud reminded members to start collecting plants to sell at our Plant Sale and Coffee Morning on 23rd May. There were 13 competition classes with a Valentine's theme. Best in Show (floral) was Evelyn Lister and Best in Show (domestic) was Hazel Dean

Brian Linkhorn gave his topical tips. He said that as the ground is so wet there is not too much to do in the garden but if the weather is favourable at the end of the month, broad beans can be put in and roses can be pruned if there is no severe frost forecast. Failing that, if the weather is too bad, the lawn mower can be overhauled in readiness for the Spring!

Bud then introduced the speaker, Peter Froggart from Aldingbourne who gave a very interesting talk about Hellebores. He started growing hellebores as a hobby after he retired but this had now become a part-time business. He was a specialist in propagating and breeding hellebores with 1700 plant sales per year. He explained how he had experimented to get the perfect colours of the plants and brought some hellebores for members to buy. Marlene Whalen thanked Peter Froggart for an enjoyable evening.

BOSHAM, CHIDHAM AND DISTRICT HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY

Our programme for 2009 is full of interesting and varied topics (not all strictly related to gardening) hopefully you will find something that will tempt you along to a meeting! We would like to see some new faces; they might bring some new ideas with them.
All of our meetings are at Bosham Village Hall on the second Thursday of each month unless otherwise stated, 7.15pm for a 7.30pm start. Refreshments are available before the meeting, every month we have a wide selection of competitions, ranging from seasonal fruit, vegetables and flowers to Floral Exhibits, Domestic classes and Handicrafts, you don’t have to enter any of them, but see what is entered and I bet you will think – well I could grow/produce that. We also have Topical Tips and a Raffle. In between all of this we have a speaker (see below) I don’t know how we pack it all into 1½ hours but we do.
We also meet socially, in May, June and December added to this we arrange trips out to places of interest for our members.
Come along and meet us, you don’t need a garden – just a sense of humour and an interest in plants.

February 12th

Miss Monica Lucas from Sidlesham : Talk and slides “Glorious Spring”. Plant Stall

Mrs. J. Wild : Talk and slides “Badgers”

Mrs. & Mrs. Keste Westcott : Talk and slides “Why Manage Woodland ?”

Mr. Chris Howkins : Talk on Poisonous Plants

Contact the Bosham, Chidham & District Horticultural Society for further information:

Mr Bud Cooper (tel: 572583)
or email Rozie Bradley

Bosham, Chidham & District Horticultural Society January Meeting

We held our first meeting of 2009 on 8th January and it was wonderful to see so many members attending despite the freezing temperatures. We had the regular Topical Tips from Brian Linkhorn which are always so useful – although he did begin with suggesting we put our feet up and keep warm by the fire!! After that he suggested more energetic jobs like digging the garden ready for the Spring and getting the lawn mower out of the shed and checking it over in preparation for the first mow! The results of the meeting's competition followed. Congratulations to Evelyn Lister who won best in show both floral and domestic. Ivy Linkhorn has very kindly agreed to judge the domestic competitions for us on a regular basis, so keep baking those cakes etc.!

Our speaker for the evening was Mr Roger Parsons from nearby Bracklesham Bay .

As Roger said he and his wife are obsessed with SWEET PEAS and hold the National Collection. He gave a most interesting talk with slides, starting with the origins of the sweet pea which still grows wild in Italy . He then continued with the progression of that flower and the task of sowing and growing them for exhibition. A whole new world to a novice like me! I am sure the experts in our Society learnt a lot from him too!

February's meeting will be held on the 12 th and many of the competitions are themed on Valentine's day! Homemade Valentine biscuits, card and ‘Be my Valentine' floral exhibit. Check your new 2009 programme for details(if you haven't got it yet, it will be delivered with the next newsletter).

If you are not already a member, why not think about joining this friendly group. You learn a lot and have fun at the same time! We meet every second Thursday in the Bosham Village Hall at 7.30. Just turn up or call Rozie Bradley on 01243 576057

Rozie Bradley.

The evening began with Topical tips from Brian Linkhorn, how to lift and store your Dahlias for next year and cutting down the Raspberry canes that have fruited this year were just two. Competition results followed with Roy Retallick winning the Manor Cup for 5 dessert apples. Barbara Cowans made a clean sweep with Best in Show Domestic and Floral. The Halloween pumpkins looked really spooky when lit and the lights were turned off. John Letherens talk on Beekeeping included how to assemble a hive and also how the honey is extracted, an amusing talk with lots of questions afterwards.

Our next meeting on November 13, 2008 is our AGM, of course there will still be competition classes, including the Lady Allen Cup for 5 Potatoes, domestic classes for 5 Rock cakes and a Fruit cake, ‘Autumn Colours may prove to be a challenge for floral advanced and novices, topical tips and a raffle. We will also be presenting cups for points throughout the year in Vegetables and Flowers, Domestic, Floral, Interest, Photographic and Handicraft.
New members are always welcome and subscriptions are now due at £4 per adult and £6 per couple p.a. with £2.50 postage contribution.

Our meeting on October 9 th at 7.17pm in Bosham Village Hall will include competition classes for Apples, Pears, Chrysanthemums, Bakewell Tarts and many other topical subjects. Also Mr John Letheren will be talking to us about his experiences of Beekeeping. Do come and join us!

Bosham, Chidham & District Annual Flower and Vegetable Show was held on Saturday August 9, 2008 at Bosham Village Hall. Despite the gathering clouds and the threat of rain, exhibitors battled against the wind to stage their exhibits in the morning. By 10.15 the hall was filled to capacity with colourful exhibits. Silence greeted the Judges and Stewards as they entered and began their very difficult task. The results sheets soon started to come in, and the prizes and Cups were allocated.

At 2pm a steady stream of people arrived to see if all the months of planning, planting and nurturing had paid off, visitors remarked on the high standard of the exhibits ‘how had they been achieved with such diverse weather conditions this year? The only answer is ‘with careful preparation and continual tender care'

The teas and homemade cakes were extremely popular as was the tombola, with smiles of delight when prizes were won. Although running late the hall was still crowded when the Show Manager Mr Bud Cooper presented the Cups, followed by the presentation of Certificates to all the children who entered. The Grand Raffle followed this. All too soon it was time to clear everything away.

Hopefully everyone who visited or entered enjoyed the experience and will be there again next year.

Cups and Trophies Awarded at the Annual Show

At the July meeting there were 33 members and three visitors present to hear an excellent presentation of ‘Fruit for the small garden by Peter Collett. Various ways of growing fruit from one bush or tree to several were shown, including pot or container grown, cordons, espalier, fan etc proving Peter's point that you do not need a large garden to produce fruit!

As well as the usual Raffle and Topical Tips presented by Brian Linkhorn, there were 11 competition classes with a total of 32 entries. New member Angela Messom collected 4 prizes, the ‘Sweet Pea Cup' was presented to Don Hall and Marie Gilby retained the ‘Hamblin Cup'

Our next big event will be the ANNUAL SHOW on AUGUST 9, 2008 if you are planning to enter schedules are now available from Hilliers and Bosham Farm Shop. Do come along and support us on the day at Bosham Village Hall 2pm.

Our next monthly meeting will be held on September 11, 2008 at 7.15pm when Mr Mark Saunders will talk to us about ‘Vegetables at Fittleworth House'
See you there!!