‘Views and Vistas – a fresh perspective on Garden Design’ – Carol Smith

Join us this Valentine’s Day to hear local garden designer, lecturer and author Carol Smith. Carol has run her own garden design business for the past 22 years. She has designed medal winning show gardens at Chelsea, BBC Gardeners World Show and Malvern Spring Garden Show.

In 2009 ‘The Tree of Life Garden’ designed by Carol was re-built at St Richard’s hospice, to be used by staff, patients and their relatives. And in 2010 she worked with St Peter’s Garden Centre and BBC Hereford & Worcester to design a showcase garden for the ‘Love Lives On’ appeal for the Noahs’ Ark Trust. Whilst lecturing at Pershore College, Carol was commissioned to write a book on her specialist subject: Planting Design. Her latest book, Gardening On A Gradient was published in 2022.

Saturday’s meeting starts at 2pm. Members of the Worcestershire HPS Group attend for free, and it’s £5.00 for visitors. Refreshments and home-made cakes are available. What an opportunity for a romantic date!

January is when most of our members renew their subscriptions. Membership of the Worcestershire Group is conditional on being a member of the national Hardy Plant Society. The annual membership fee of the Worcestershire Group for 2026 is £35 to cover the cost of a twice yearly newsletter and the monthly meetings at St Peter’s. A joint membership for the year for the local group is £50.

Our Members Secretary will be at this Saturday’s meeting to process payments or help set up a Bank Transfer (BACS) or a Standing Order.

For further info please contact hpsworcs@gmail.com

Our latest Newsletter is now available to view and download. Simply go to the Newsletters page of the website, and click on Download. And don’t forget we always welcome articles and photos from our members – so if you’d like to write something for the next newsletter, please get in touch with the Editor Mike Bentley editor.hpsworcs@gmail.com

‘Stockton Bury Gardens through the seasons’ – Tamsin Westhorpe

Tamsin is an experienced horticultural journalist, gardener and lecturer. She is also one of the judges at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. She has written two books: Diary of a Modern Country Gardener (available in paperback and illustrated hardback) and Grasping the Nettle: Tales from a Modern Country Gardener.

Her first book, Diary of a Modern Country Gardener, became a bestseller on Amazon reaching number one in the top ten horticultural books just a few weeks after being released. The book was also selected as “Book of the week” by The Daily Mail. It’s a humorous read packed with gardening tips. And her second book is a delightfully funny memoir about her career in horticulture – making a living with constantly muddy fingernails, steel toe-capped boots and a can-do gardening attitude.

If you’re looking for a great and easy Christmas gift for a friend who loves gardening, why not consider a Gift Voucher for your local Hardy Plant Society group? The vouchers cost £5, and they can be redeemed at any of our monthly talks in 2026.

The, if they enjoy coming along, you can encourage them to become a member…

The vouchers will be available to purchase at our next meeting on Saturday 6th December.

We usually meet on the 2nd Saturday of each month – but in December we will be meeting on Saturday 6th December at the usual time of 2pm. The hall has been booked for another event on 13th December – which is why there has been a change of date.

We are delighted to welcome Paul Brooks – a local volunteer with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Paul will be explaining about the great work they do here and overseas.

Please join us if you can! Members of the local HPS Group get in for free, and visitors pay £5.00.

We are pleased to confirm that well-known local gardening expert Reg Moule will be our speaker in October.

Reg trained at Pershore College of Horticulture, and went on to manage nurseries and garden centres. He also has a regular slot on local radio – answering listeners’ questions on BBC Hereford and Worcester and BBC Gloucestershire.

He will be talking about modern methods of pest and disease control. Always entertaining, an afternoon with Reg Moule is definitely not to be missed.