The Horticultural Society

The Loosley Row and Lacey Green Horticultural Society was founded in January 1981.

click Horticultural Society Reports in Hallmark from Novenber 2023

Ernest A Rivett reported in Hallmark (bi-monthly) until September 1988 when John Spurry reported. (He had been writing an article on gardening for Hallmark since the first editon in June 1970).

Hallmark March 1984 Report by Ernest .A. Rivett (Chairman)

It was indeed a very pleasing sight, to see the Annual General Meeting of the Society so well attended, with almost a full turnout of members, together with those just joining during the evening. The Officials and the Committee are very well pleased that the Society is going from strength to strength, and its foundations are very well rooted durring its three years of growth. With Officials and some members of the Committee due to retire under rule 9 of the Society, nominations had been received for their successors. So the formalities of adopting the Balance Sheet, (as presented by the retiring Secretary, John Plowman, in the absence of the Treasurer, Brian Wicks), was accepted. click John & Frankie Plowman and Brian & Judy Wicks for more about John and Brian.

The retiring Chairman giving a brief survey of how we had spread ‘our wings' since getting off the ground, to be now proud members affiliated to the Royal Horticultural Society. In handing over the office to the new Chairman Brig. John Spurry, the. retiring Chairman, Ernest Rivett, was grateful to accept the honorary status of Vice President. With new Secretary John Hanna, everything augurs well for the future, in conjunction with a good working committee.

Click John & Daphne Spurry, John & Carole Hanna and Ernest Rivett for more about John Spurry, John Hanna and Ernest Rivett.

Bill Cleaver was the show secretary from 1984. (click Bill & Madeline Cleaver for more about Bill).

Hallmark September 1988. report by John Spurry. (John Spurry also reported in Nov 88, Jan & March 89. and Miles Marshall 5 times)

"The people came to see the show, they came to make a show themselves". And so it was on 21 September when the Society held its Annual Show in the Village Hall.

There were 25 exhibitors and 149 exhibits. A ten per cent increase over 1987 reported Show Secretary Bill Cleaver. While the judges looked at, or prodded, and even tasted the various items on display the members and guests talked, enjoyed a drink and some even won the raffle prizes.

Returning to the show floor we found the colourful display tables now with added prize winning rosettes. The judges, in making their report, confirmed everybody's opinion that standards reached were much higher than in the previous year, and that those who had not won prizes should not be deterred from trying to do that little bit better at the next show.

Kathleen Marshall won the "Plowman Cup" for the most points in the Vegetable Section - the cup was won the previous year by her late husband Miles. Kathleen also won the "Hughenden Cup" for the most points obtained in the Vegetable, Fruit and Flower Sections. She and Michael Hardy had the same marks in the three sections but Kathleen gained the award by winning more first prizes and indeed the special rosettes in two sections. Michael, not to be outdone, retained the Society's "Floral Cup" for his decisive win in the Flower Section.

Doreen Ellis and, believe it or not, Bill Cleaver shared top honours in the Domestic Section. Bill's jam tarts looked and tasted superb, and he also is a dab hand at cheese straws (was he ever a Boy Scout?). At any rate, Bill won the prize given by the W.I. Incidentally, it was so nice of W.I. members, most of whom are Horticultural Society members, to give a real boost to the Domestic Section entries this year. Thanks are due to all the workers without whose help the show could not have been Staged.

From April 1991 and May 1997 (inclusive) the Hallmark Horticultural report was written by Denis Croucher 27 times, with Michael Hardy taking his place once in Dec. 1993. Following Denis came Bill Cleaver and Brian Dockerill

Hallmark November 2023. Report by Alison Shreeve

Autumn Show 2023

Autumn Show 2023

Autumn Show 2023

The Horticultural Society held its Autumn Show on the first Saturday in September. It was an excellent event with many beautiful exhibits. We were fortunate with the weather having had a spell of rainy days which alleviated the scorching heat of early summer and allowed flowers and fruit to flourish. Each year is always an unknown quantity with different problems besetting the gardener and each year something different flourishes and surprises one, which is one of the reasons why we never get bored with our gardens!

In the vegetable section we had a couple of outstanding leeks from Luke Cottis, an excellent set of entries for tomatoes, including novelty cultivars, plum tomatoes and different coloured varieties. This year also gave us more entries in the cucumber class than we often see and indeed, as I write this I still have cucumbers in the greenhouse in October! It has obviously been a good climate for these fruits this year and there are varieties that will do well outside as well as in the greenhouse and they come in all shapes and sizes too.

Autumn Shw 2023

The domestic section was well supported, though the jam and jelly classes were disappointing, possibly reflecting a trend to more healthy eating and less use of sugar to preserve our crops. The floral section was stunning with plenty of beautifully coloured exhibits. There are pictures here, but more on the village website https://laceyqreen.com/sections/autumnshow23.php

At the meeting following the show we had an excellent talk from local naturalist John Tyler. As always John showed us amazing photographs, some in extraordinary close up, which depicted what we could expect to see in our locality in the Autumn. These included fungi originating in Australia, flowering and non-flowering plants and insects in abundance. It was a very inspiring talk, though on one of the worst, rainiest nights of the year!

Our next event is a Fish and Chip Supper and Quiz night, to be followed in January with our first talk of the new year on Snowdrops. In March we have local grower extraordinaire, Simon Bolton, who will be telling us all about his Badger’s Garden business growing unusual salad crops for some of the top chefs in the country. And if you have eaten any of Simon’s produce you will know that a bag of salad is a cornucopia of wonderful flavours, colours and shapes! This is no ordinary food – this is locally grown and exceptional food!

Autumn Show 2023

Visitors are welcome for a small charge. Contact any of the committee if you would like any further information.

Hallmark November 2024. Since the last Hallmark edition we have had our Autumn Show. In spite of a difficult growing year, with a very late and gloomy spring things picked up enough to provide a good range of exhibits for vegetables and flowers. The fruit was excellent this year, unlike last year, so, as usual the gardening year has been full of surprises!

Well done to everyone who exhibited. We had a good range of exhibitors and the younger growers proved once again that they were as good as any of us older people. That looks promising for the future. We hope that more younger people will have a go at showing. It’s great fun to see how well your produce compares to other keen growers and there is always plenty of help to learn how to display your veg to its best. The judges look for good condition – freshly picked, clean veg. The uniformity of your exhibits will win over size: if you have three small carrots that look fresh and of similar shapes and sizes they will win over large, irregular sized, lumpy carrots for example. There is a rule book which we are happy to share if you wish to know more – just ask!

One area in which entries were down on last year was the domestic section. Disappointingly the numbers of exhibits have declined in the last couple of years. Perhaps we have less time for baking? I don’t know, but we do have a great domestic judge who ran a workshop for us on how she judges exhibits. She will also be giving us a demonstration on how to work with chocolate. That will hopefully solve a few Christmas presents. If you enjoy baking do think about having a go and entering next year. Our Spring Show is in March, so plenty of time to practice once we send the schedules out in the New Year.

The weather has of course been a big point of discussion this year. As I write we have a mild but dull Autumn. There are still plants flowering which I wouldn’t expect to see, like Gladioli; clematis, which usually flowers in July/August plus the usual annuals which go on until the first frost. My perennial Lathyrus latifolius didn’t flower until August and carried on until the end of September; it’s normal flowering time being June/July. Something is definitely happening to our climate and affecting the normal patterns of flowering plants. I just hope that we have more sunlight than we had last winter and spring plus some nice cold frosty sunny days – that would be nice! Good gardening to you all and good health over the winter months.

Alison Shreeve Chair - LRLGHS

Hallmark February 2025. The year saw the society off to a flying start with an excellent and very well attended talk by John Tyler, our local wild life expert. John talked about the Ridgeway, the long distance path which passes through Princes Risborough’s outskirts and on over the Chilterns to Avebury. Having walked a large part of that it was interesting to see John’s excellent photographs and to hear about the people who made and used the track and lived alongside it. This, together with snippets about the flora and fauna to be encountered on the Ridgeway made a very entertaining evening.

We look forward to our AGM, the third Wednesday in March. As always, we will keep the business part of the meeting to a minimum and this will be followed by a talk entitled ‘What’s in a Name?’ Heather Houston will talk about people who have given their names to plants.

We also look forward to our Spring Show to be held on March 22nd at the Millennium Village Hall. At the time of writing things are not looking promising, wet and dull! However, there are signs of spring already in the snowdrops beginning to flower and the daffodils peaking out from the earth Buds are also showing green on many of the shrubs and climbers, so it won’t be long before things burst into bloom and things look optimistic again.

Now is the time of course to start planning your vegetable plot and what to grow. Annuals can be sown in a greenhouse or on the windowsill from now until April, depending on the variety. If you are not keen to sow your own try coming along to the Plant sale in May.

Sowing is not difficult and provides a lot of satisfaction! You can grow in pots and grow bags; you don’t have to have a massive vegetable plot to benefit from delicious home-grown vegetables. A few climbing French beans will provide you with wonderful produce for up to 3 months. Pumpkins are great fun for children as they scramble along the ground and up fences and even trees! There are very tasty varieties to be had too. Why not give something new a try this year? If you are new to growing veg then please ask the society. We can usually answer your queries or if not, we know someone who can!

In my other role as Chair of the National Sweet Pea Society we are currently busy planning activities to celebrate 125 years since the foundation of the society. Sweet peas are annuals which provide so much pleasure. I have just finished a second sowing of seeds in a heated greenhouse and will move them to a cold and airy place as soon as the shoots appear. They then go into the ground in my vegetable plot and if the slugs and mice leave them alone, they should be flowering by the end of May. I hope this year will be better than last year; the cold spring caused the plants to drop their buds, so flowering was very late. If you don’t want to sow your own, but like to smell them and see them make a plan to visit the Early National Show at Millets Garden Centre, near Abingdon from 21st-22nd July. More details of growing and showing Sweet Peas can be found on the NSPS website: https://sweetpeas.org.uk