The Gold Club are unable to send a speaker on Orchids for Thursday 3rd so the talk will be on ‘Plants that changed the world’.  Sorry for any disappointment.

Our Harvest Supper was held on 6th October at St. Nicholas School. Forty two members enjoyed the usual ham and cheese ploughman’s supper followed by home-made apple cake with clotted cream.

There was also a tribute to our late President, Peter Read. His son. Mark, brought along a display of photographs showing Pete’s early days of exhibiting as a child through to winning at the national shows with his dahlias, roses and begonias. He is sadly missed.

Following the meal, we held a short A.G.M. Officers elected were;

President              Mrs. E. Morris

Chairman             Mr. S. Vallard

Vice Chair            Mrs. R. Gant

Secretary             Mr. N. Coad

Treasurer             Mrs. D. Caves

Show Secretary   Mrs. E. Morris

Committee members; Mrs. G. Wilkinson, Mr. & Mrs. C. Seal, Mrs. I. Turner.

Our next meeting is on November 3rd when the Gold Club will give a talk entitled ‘Orchids at Home’.

The Society entered the Dorset Federation Show on September 18th at Durweston Village Hall. A lovely hall in a quiet village just outside Blandford.

We had a successful day, coming home with three awards. The Best Cactus or Succulent Exhibit, Best Exhibit in the Domestic Classes (Collection of 3 Preserves) and the Banksian Medal for the Highest number of points gained.

Some other 1st Prize Exhibits

Dessert and Culinary Apples both won 1st prize.

Our Homecraft Collection of five items. Second Prize.

Our A.G.M. scheduled for 8th September was respectfully cancelled when the death of Queen Elizabeth was announced.

We will now hold a short Annual Meeting after the Harvest Supper on October 6th. The Treasurer will read her report and the election of Officers and Committee will take place.

Please contact us to book your supper (£7 on the night.) Subscriptions are also due now (£6). We will eat as soon as everyone has arrived.

Open to the public at 2pm, there will be the usual display of flowers, vegetables, floral art, photography, cookery and handicrafts including children’s entries. All this plus a tombola, teas and home-made cakes. A good afternoon out !

If you would like to enter, please click on the ‘shows’ link for details.

Our Autumn programme starts on September 8th with the A.G.M. at St. Nicholas and St. Laurence School.

Membership is due on the night when the full year’s programme will be available. There will also be a chance to book your place at the Harvest Supper  (October 6th).

Please remember to bring the Fuchsia and/or Geranium plants that we received from the Gold Club as plugs. These will be judged on the night.

Members’ Gardens Please send your pictures to shows@budhs.org.uk

A colourful border.

Here we are on the 2nd of July. Jubilee celebrations over and Wimbledon on the television. There is plenty to do in the garden, weeding, watering and, hopefully, harvesting early crops.

Our next event is the Summer Show on 20th August. Schedules available from the Show Sec. 813942 or download from the ‘Shows’ link. They will also be available from Read’s florist.

Our new programme can be found on the ‘Calendar of Events’ link.

Upcoming Events,

On Saturday 14th May we are holding our Plant Sale at Upwey and Broadwey Memorial Hall, Victoria Avenue at 2pm.

There is still time to book a table to sell your own plants ( 20% of takings go to the Society), or plants can be donated to the Society stall. We set up from 1pm. Ring 813942 or 814887.

The members’ Jubilee Picnic Tea will be held on Thursday, 2nd June. Ring for details.

Saturday 20th August, Summer Show at the Upwey and Broadwey Memorial Hall. Click on the ‘shows’ link for details and to view or download the schedule.

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For our May meeting, David Ennals gave a fascinating talk on Cacti. He brought along examples and showed us the difference between cacti and succulents. We were also told how to care for them correctly. Many questions from the room were answered in detail.  An interesting talk delivered with humour.

Important Dates: April 28th – Members’ visit to Poundbury Garden Centre 6pm. A talk followed by discounted shopping.

May 5th – ‘Cacti and Succulents’ a talk by David Ennals. 7.30pm at the school.

May 14th – Plant Sale at the Memorial Hall, Victoria Avenue, 2pm.

June 2nd – Members’ Jubilee Picnic – details to follow.

Our April meeting was very interesting. Bob Turner gave us an excellent talk on the River Wey from its source to Weymouth harbour. He gave us a history of the river including the five working mills at Upwey, Broadwey, Nottington and two at Radipole. Two of them (Upwey and Radipole) now producing hydroelectricity. We were told about the past floods and the work done by the Environment Agency and the River Wey Society to alleviate future flooding.  It is now a healthy river.

Two of our members entered the Dorset County Spring Show held at the new Jubilee Hall in Poundbury. Mark Read did very well with his daffodils and Shaun Vallard with some pot plants.

Our next Meeting will be on April 7th at St. Nicholas and St. Laurence School when Bob Turner will give us a talk entitled ‘A Walk Down the River Wey’, starting at 7.30pm.

Spring Show Report

Ready for Judging

Our Spring Show went ahead on Saturday the 18th. It was very well supported both by exhibitors and visitors. This was our first Spring Show since 2019 due to Covid so it was very pleasing to see that people still enjoy exhibiting.

The hall again looked lovely with all the beautiful Spring flowers and plants, floral arrangements, handicrafts and cookery items.

Early morning staging

Judging the Pot Plant

Trophy Winners:

Junior Cup   Highest Points, Children,  Lucy Polley;   Downer Cup   Best Photographic Print,  Meg Rolfe;  Nottington Cup  Best Exhibit, Handicrafts, SarahStudley;  Prospect Cup   Highest Points, Preserves & Cookery, Neil Coad; Ridgeway Cup  Highest Points, Propagation, Bill Howarth; Novice Shield Highest Points, Novice Classes, Fiona Penny;  Society Rose Bowl  Best Exhibit, Floral Art, Jill Hallett;  Grandshaw Cup,  Highest Points, Pot Plants, Bill Howarth;  Silver Salver  Best Exhibit, Pot Plants (excl. bulbs),  Adrian Read;  Golds Shield   Best Exhibit, Bulbs in Pots, Bill Howarth;  Ladies’ Spring Cup  Highest Points, Sections 1-6 (Lady), Darlene Hayward Spring Show Cup  Runner -up to Highest Points 1-6,  Charlie McCormick        Benson Cup   Highest Points 1-6,  Bill Howarth;  Silver Cup  Best Exhibit, Class 23, Bill Howarth;  Silver Trophy   Best Exhibit , Other Cut Flowers,  Charlie McCormick  Diploma    Best Vase, Daffodils, Bill Howarth;  Diploma  Awarded at Judge’s discretion  Frank Newbery; Best Bloom in Daffodils,  Mark Read; Medal for Best Daffodil Exhibit,  Bill Howarth; Championship Salver,  Bill Howarth.

We were pleased to welcome three new exhibitors who all did well. The overall standard of exhibits was high and the number of entries similar to 2019.

Regular exhibitor, Bill Howarth, was surprised and delighted to win the major awards in the daffodil section. He also did well with his beautiful pots of hyacinths and tulips.