Posts by
Pamela Adams
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The Wildlife in my Garden
We were blessed to have Nick Martin for our talk on Tuesday, 14 January, 2025. On his own admission, Nick was born a naturalist. As a child, he was fascinated with wildlife and after initially working for the RSPB he is now warden at the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust. A month spent photographing wildlife in gardens…
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Growing Flowers and Floristry
A large and enthusiastic crowd turned out on June 11th 2024 to listen to Maria Heywood from The Flower Patch in Measham. She had always been a keen gardener and in 2014 she set up her floristry business using homegrown flowers. She became a member of Flowers from the Farm, an association of well over…
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The Potty Plotters
Julia and Elaine know how to entertain an audience as Ticknall Garden Club discovered when they attended their March meeting. They are a couple of larger-than-life personalities who have developed a loyal following on Radio Derby and their podcasts under the striking title of The Potty Plotters. They challenged the audience to answer questions in…
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Texture in the Garden – Bark Berry and Leaf
On 13 February 2024, Steve Lovell gave us an interesting talk on his approach to garden design after spending many years as a garden designer based in Lincolnshire. He encouraged us to think beyond flowers and look at ‘plants’ from the perspective of their foliage, structure, colourful stems, berries, seedheads and bark when choosing trees,…
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Dierama, the Hairbells of Africa
Dierama plants have the reputation of being difficult to grow. Ruth Plant came to the July meeting of Ticknall Garden Club hoping to persuade otherwise. She has a large collection of dierama growing in her Stafford Garden. In fact, she now cares for the National plant collection. They are evergreen, clump forming plants with long…
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Growing and Showing Bonsai
All the best things come in little packages, so they say and Rodney Young aimed to prove it when he came to the June 2023 meeting of Ticknall Garden Club. He has perfected the art of growing bonsai trees over many years and the examples he displayed were impressive in shape and variety. The art…
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The World of Ferns
Neil Timm came to the May meeting of Ticknall Garden Club on 8 May 2023 to talk about a rather underrated group of plants, the world of ferns. They are quite unlike any other plants in that they do not produce flowers and seeds but spores. On a warm summer’s day their fronds bend and…
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Ticknall Garden Club
Green Fingers? Or just green with envy at other people’s success? Whatever your involvement in horticultural pursuits you will be made most welcome at the regular meetings of the Ticknall Garden Club. The club was established in 1990 and has over 100 members. Knowledgeable speakers cover a wide variety of topics of interest to experienced…
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Bugs & Slugs, Spots & Rots
John Scrace was the first speaker of 2023 at the January meeting of Ticknall Garden Club. He came with in-depth knowledge of pests and diseases that can plague the plants in our gardens. He is a freelance pathologist whose advice can be readily accessed on the Royal Horticultural Society website. www.rhs.org.uk He started with the…
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Flowers Every Day of the Year
Karen Gimson came to talk to Ticknall Garden Club at their November meeting. As well as being a garden designer she broadcasts on gardening topics at Radio Leicester and writes articles for Garden News. Her wide experience was very evident as she interspersed her talk with very practical advice. She set out to show that…
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Well-known Gardener Comes to Ticknall
Chris Beardshaw proved to be a popular speaker at Ticknall Garden Club’s October meeting. There was a full house to hear what the well-known gardening personality had to say. He believed that gardening links lives together; giving satisfaction and a purpose to life. He would also show how driving ambition can achieve success against all…
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Encouraging Wildlife Friends into the Garden
Steve Lovell from Lincolnshire has always combined his passion for nature with his horticultural career of thirty years. In fact he is about to publish a nature diary written during covid called Clowns to Cuckoos. He came to the July meeting of Ticknall Garden Club to talk about encouraging wildlife into our gardens. He emphasised…
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Monkey Cups, Hens ‘n Chicks and Fresh Air
Ticknall Garden Club was treated to a highly entertaining presentation at their June meeting. Doug Stewart travelled from Beverley in Yorkshire to convince us that keeping houseplants was a rewarding experience. He pointed out that it can evolve into a long-lasting love for gardening as happened in his own case. He started by explaining how…
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No Plot? No Problem!
Philip Aubury came to Ticknall Garden Clubs meeting in May to reassure his audience that there is plenty of scope for planting even without a garden. He included the use of gro-bags, pots, hanging baskets, plastic bags, raised beds and window boxes with lots of useful advice along the way. Tomatoes are ideal subjects for…
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Showing and Growing Herbs
Malcolm Dickson from Hooksgreen Herb Nursery near Stone came to talk at Ticknall Garden Club’s April meeting. He traced his progress from selling bedding plants on market stalls to establishing a successful Nursery selling herbs. During that journey, he was the first to introduce, the now staple, cosmos to the gardener. Along the way, he…
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Perfume in the Garden
Nick Bailey, a familiar face on Gardener’s World, attracted a sell-out attendance at Ticknall Garden Club’s March meeting. He came to talk about the place of perfumed plants in the garden. His first task was to explain why plants might have a scent at all. Mainly it is there to attract insects for pollination purposes.…
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Hardy Geraniums
Gary Carroll came to the February meeting of Ticknall Garden Club to talk about geraniums. But it did not involve the bright and showy bedding plants with which we are so familiar. Gary grows 142 varieties of the humble hardy geranium at his Cranesbill Nursery in Walsall. Hardy geraniums are widespread around the globe in…
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Life as a Head Gardener
Ticknall Garden Club enjoyed a most interesting talk on the working life of a head gardener at its January meeting. After gaining qualifications in horticulture and landscape design, Pip Smith worked as Head Gardener at three different prestigious locations before now branching out into his own garden design business. He first worked at Winterbourne House…
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Over the Garden Wall
Ticknall Garden Club attracted a good attendance on Tuesday, October 12th with an audience keen to hear all about plants that are suitable for putting by fences and garden walls. Janette Merilion was the speaker with all the answers. With many years experience in gardening and garden design, she was well qualified to do so.…