Forthcoming Events

Nerine and Amaryllid Society 25^th Anniversary Talk

'Amaryllids I have known’ John Grimshaw

Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Westbourne Road, B15 3TR

Saturday, October 8^th 2022 at 10.30am

"John will talk about a lifetime of knowing, growing and enjoying amaryllids of all kinds, in cultivation as well as in the wild (especially in Africa)."

People perhaps think of John Grimshaw and amaryllids and think of snowdrops from his time at Colesbourne Park, the historic Elwes family garden and snowdrop collection and from his co-authorship of the monograph Snowdrops (2002) with Matt Bishop and Aaron Davies. However, his plant knowledge and experience is wide and varied. He holds a first class degree in botany and a doctorate in African forest ecology from Oxford University. His connections to Tanzania are strong and he is proud to be an honorary elder of the Maasai community of Lerang’wa, Tanzania. African plants remain an important botanical interest and amongst those are many from the Amaryllidaceae. We can expect many surprises from his talk.

Following John’s talk Wayne Williams, Head Gardener at Birmingham Botanic Gardens, will give a short introduction to the Birmingham Botanic Gardens and their collection of plants in the Amaryllidaceae.

Price (to include entry to the gardens, tea or coffee on arrival and the talk):

Members £12, non-members £18

Payment by Paypal through online store, click here, or by cheque to the treasurer, MAJ Allison, 79 Byron Road, Cheltenham GL51 7EY

October 8^th to 22^nd 2022 Guernsey Nerine Festival run by Plant Heritage Guernsey at Guernsey Gardens, La Ramée, St Peter Port, GY1 2TW . See www.plantheritageguernsey.org.uk for further details.

October 15^th 2022 (Saturday): Exbury Gardens, Southampton SO45 1AZ: visit to the Five Arrows Gallery and the glasshouses 10.00am gates open with tea served from 10.30 am and the Nerine display opening at 11.00am in the Five Arrows Gallery. Do not use the main entrance to the garden but continue along the road to the Five Arrows Gallery car park.

October 22^nd 2022 (Saturday): Society display in the Atrium of the Hilltop Building at RHS Gardens Wisley. We are planning a similar (slightly larger) display to that mounted last year and will again do ‘bite-sized’ talks throughout the day.

October 26^th 2022 (Wednesday), Visit to Chris Lane’s nursery, at Callaways Lane, Newington, Sittingbourne ME9 7LU meeting at 9.30am, following a ploughman's lunch, we go to Maurice Foster's garden at Ivy Hatch for the afternoon. Cost will be £15 per head to include lunch. Numbers are limited to 20 so booking is essential. Contact Malcolm Allison majallison2000@yahoo.com. Chris has been building up a collection of hardy nerines, has many chrysanthemums and National Collections of Wisteria and Hamamelis, so the autumn colours should be good. Maurice Foster has one of the finest private collections of woody plants in the country & the garden is rarely open…

November 5^th2022 (Saturday): Annual General Meeting, Holton Village Hall, OX33 1PR. The main speaker this year will be Kit Strange on looking for Narcissus Triandrus in Spain: Kit is currently Assistant Ranger at Lee Valley Regional Park Authority. She was previously an alpine horticulturist at Kew Botanic Gardens for many years.

This is definitely one of the most complicated flowers I've painted but the flowers are so beautiful it's worth persevering.

Artist Caroline Rackham

Caroline was working in the Five Arrows Gallery in 2017 producing wonderfully delicate and meticulously rendered water colour paintings.

For information about her work, Caroline can be contacted by email: caroline.rackham@googlemail.com