ON 29 September Michaelmas Day, Ebrington Gardening Club members and friends visited The Picton Garden, home of Michaelmas Daisies, at Colwall near Malvern. Travelling to Colwall in beautiful sunshine through the Malvern Hills prepared us for a lovely afternoon out with the Picton family. Helen explained that the collection was started by Ernest Ballard who was somewhat forced to buy the present plot of nearby land in the early 1900s as his Gardener did not approve of planting Michaelmas Daisies in the Vegetable Garden. The collection has since thrived and is now in safe hands. The acre and a half Picton Garden is the perfect stage to show them off set amongst mature and unusual trees, some shrubs, alpines, tender perennials and late season herbaceous. The central border holds throughout the trial of 51 New England Aster varieties and a smaller bed has the more traditional small flowered Michaelmas daisies dating back to the late 1800s. As usual we returned home with armfuls of plants. A good day was had by all.

On Tuesday October 11, Jack Willgoss from Wildgoose Nurseries of Munslow in Shropshire gave us an outstanding talk on ‘Colour in the garden throughout the year’. His talk was illustrated by some beautiful slides, lots of helpful tips and concluded with a sale of plants from the nursery. As a result of his talk we shall be arranging a day visit to the nursery in our programme for next year.

Our next meeting is on Tuesday, November 8 when Ian Sadler from Torton near Kidderminster will give a talk on ‘The Dutch Auction at Aalsmeer and 750 Bookshop Nurseries’. Ian has over 40 years involvement with the commercial production of hardy plants in the UK, Europe and North America.

The meeting is in the village hall commencing 7.30pm –all welcome!

JOHN AND SUE CLARKE