November Newsletter
November Meeting
This month’s meeting is on Thursday 7th November, 7.30pm in Harewood House. Our guest speaker is George Kestrell with a practical demonstration on Propagation. Free tea and coffee, sales table, raffle, and informal competition.
Coffee Bar
We are once again running the Community Council Coffee Bar - the week following our meeting (w/c 11th). If you can bring along a store cupboard item for the Tombola stall it would be much appreciated. Also, if you should be having a pre-Christmas clear-out, we would welcome any decent items for the bric-a-brac stall. Any donations can be brought along to Thursday’s meeting or taken along to the coffee bar – Monday to Friday, 10.00am – 2.00pm.
Lloyd has most days covered with volunteers but he would value any additional help. An hour or so, especially over the lunch period, would be a great help and would give others a chance to take a break. Please contact Lloyd
07579 767124; lloydhills10@gmail.com
Or, speak to him on Thursday
Seed Catalogues
We have a very few Suttons and Dobies left. Many members now browse and order on line and it is still possible to obtain the discount this way. Discounts are: 50% off packet seed and 20% off other live products including potatoes, garlic, shallots, onions, plants and bulbs & fruit. You will need to quote our unique codes allocated to us, to use when ordering. Please contact Dave Wickstead 01752 319435, or reply to this email for the codes.
Membership 2025
Membership will remain at £5 for next year. Although our membership year doesn’t start until the 1st January, some members have expressed a wish to pay before then. Therefore, we will be pleased to take membership monies from the 11th November (Coffee Bar week) should you wish to pay early – please be assured there is no obligation to pay ahead of the New Year -, but it does relieve the queues somewhat at our February meeting.
Payment can be made in the following ways:
· Bank Transfer (BACS) to the following: a/c Plympton Gardeners
Sort Code 30-94-58
Account No. 00930198
Reference your surname
· By cash at the November coffee bar.
· By cash at the January coffee bar.
· By cash at Monthly meetings from February onwards.
As we will soon be paying bank charges for the clearing of cheques, we would prefer it if you could pay by cash or BACS.
2025 Programme
Carol has been working hard to find a range of different speakers and new topics. This is not an easy task and we appreciate her efforts and look forward to some interesting talks.
JAN 2nd NO MEETING
FEB 6th AGM Followed by a talk by Ben Candlin on “Adventurous Plants”
MAR 6th Daffodils and Saltram–Martin Stott
MEMBERS DAFFODIL COMPETITION
Mar 15th SPRING SHOW
APR 3rd “Lovely Plot” - Olga Grieves
MAY 1st All about Pelargoniums – Brian Carlson
JUNE 5th Knowing your soil – Becky Searle
JULY 3rd Bees and honey -Mark Grieves
AUG 7th How to revive a tired garden- Elizabeth Holman
AUG 16th SUMMER SHOW
SEPT 4th Creating a planted display - Stella Exley
OCT 2nd “A Westcountry girl of colour” – Jacquie Felix
MEMBERS ONION COMPETITION
NOV 6th Floral Celebrations – Sue Minter
DEC 4th MEMBERS CHRISTMAS EVENING
October Newsletter
This month’s meeting is this Thursday (3rd October), 7.30pm at Harewood House. The speaker is the ever-popular Saul Walker and his subject this month is “The Art of Growing in the Shade.” All the usual activities including free tea and coffee during the break.
ONION COMPETITION
At Thursday’s meeting we will be weighing entries for the heaviest Onion Competition. So, all those people who took a pot with an onion seedling back in the spring – now is the time to get it weighed. The onions don’t have to be “dressed” – just shown as they are – so leave on roots and outer skin but remove any soil. Good luck to all.
SEED CATALOGUES
We do have a limited number of catalogues for Suttons and Dobies seeds. (We have reduced the number of catalogues we receive as we often have many left over). There is the usual 50% discount on seeds and 20% discount on other items. As many people browse and order online these days it is still possible to take advantage of the discounts by using the code allocated to Plympton Gardeners. Dave Wickstead will have the discount codes available at Thursday’s meeting, enabling members to then order online in their own time.
CHARITY NOMINATIONS
We are now asking members to think about organisations that they would like to nominate as our charity for 2025. We have, for many years, supported various charities through monies raised during the year. If you know of a worthwhile charity that you think would benefit from a donation then please let us know. Suggestions to Carol Penhallurick please – 01752 336057; 07598 954273; carpen1948@aol.com A vote will be taken at the February meeting to decide the outcome.
Please provide supporting information with your suggestion – we have often favoured local charities as they can suffer from a lack of publicity compared to national organisations.
DRY MATERIAL FOR WREATHS
Some of our members will, once again, be making Christmas wreaths for sale at the Community Council Fair on 13th December. These proved very popular last year. All members can help by providing any dried poppy seed heads or teasels they may have. Please bring along anything suitable you have on Thursday or to November’s meeting.
COFFEE BAR
The next Coffee Bar is w/c 11th November. Lloyd Hills would be grateful for any donations of Tombola prizes and non- perishable sandwich items. Please bring them to Thursday’s meeting. We are very grateful to members who help man the coffee bar but we can always do with more to help to spread the load -just a couple of hours during the week would help – please see Lloyd on Thursday or get in touch with him – 07579 767124; lloydhills10@gmail.com
The coffee bar is open to the public from 10.00am - 2.00pm.
September Newsletter
Next Meeting – Thursday 5th September
The talk on Thursday is “Alpines of all Sizes” delivered by David Carter of Long Ash Garden Centre near
Yelverton. The meeting starts at 7.30pm with doors opening at 7.00pm. Enjoy free tea and coffee during the
mid-session break, buy raffle tickets with a chance to win a quality prize and enter your exhibits in the
informal competition (categories are: fruit and veg; plants and flowers; craft).
Heaviest Onion Competition
The grand weigh-in will be next month.
Summer Show
The 75th annual show was a great success thanks in no small measure to the hard work and total
commitment of Paul Hutchings, Show Secretary. Paul is very mindful and grateful of the help he receives
from many club members - see his report in the associated pdf.
Spring Show 2025
Although the Spring Show is not until Saturday 15th March 2025, we are pleased to give advanced notice of
the categories in the Photography and Floral Art classes. This, we hope, will give members time to plan their
entries.
Photography Classes
Colours of Autumn
Spring Flowers
Alive and having fun
My Favourite Photo
Close-up
Floral Art
Ways with Wood
Into Summer
Fairy Tale
Community Council Coffee Bar
We are once again running the coffee bar during week commencing Monday 11th November. Anyone that
can lend a hand during that week – please see Lloyd Hills. (07579 767124). We would welcome any
donations of tinned corned beef and tinned tuna for sandwiches and any other small store cupboard items
for the tombola. Please bring any contributions to the meetings in either September, October, or November.
Christmas Wreathes
Our dedicated band of volunteers will once again be making wreathes for sale, leading up to Christmas. They
would appreciate it if anyone can help by saving dried seed heads e.g. poppy, teasel, honesty etc. now that
the plants are dying back. Please see Carol (07598 954273) or Chris (01752 344048) for more information.
Knitted and Crotched Poppies
A few of our ladies are members of the Plympton St Maurice W.I. they are planning an ambitious project to
decorate the planters in Ridgeway in November. If anyone would care to help by knitting or crocheting a
poppy or two, then please contact Bernice. 07712 333766