Well, Spring has sprung, so let’s hope it’s in full bloom together with all the fragrances this coming Sunday in Lowdham Village Hall. Our annual show is open between 1.00pm and 4.00pm and only costs £1.50 to enter with no admission charge for children. There are displays of floral art and artwork by village groups. Perhaps you may like to ‘have a go’ and enter some flowers or shrubs in the show, in which case, this may be done between 9.30 and 11.30am on the day. There will be hot and cold drinks plus delicious home made cakes available. We welcome all visitors who come along and support the village event. See you there🌻🌺🌼💐

Well, here we are in December 2015, the bulbs and bulbous plants are coming through  and there’s so much colour in the gardens. What’s the date of the annual Spring Show?

Never mind all this, the above image is of the Lowdham Horticultural Society entry in the Lowdham Community Christmas Tree Festival of Journeys which was held on the 12th and 13th December 2015 in St Mary’s Church, Lowdham. The tree was decorated to depict the journey from seed. We hope those of you who visited the church enjoyed this and all the other beautifully decorated Christmas trees.

Finally, after a most enjoyable year of village shows, plant sales, evening talks, socials and wonderful visits may we wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and a Happy,Peaceful and Healthy New Year 2016.

We enjoyed an excellent and most informative talk by Michael Walker of the Nottinghamshire Bat Group which was supported by a selection of images. We were told about the numerous types, sizes and locations of bats, both in the British Isles and also some from around the world. The habitats of bats was explained, this leading us to the importance of habitats in the wild and the need for instance, for bats to have hedgerows to follow in flight. It was explained that we can play our part in helping these fascinating nocturnal animals by having gardens which support lots of insects for the bats to feed on. The group has been succesful in getting Heritage Lottery Funding for a 3 year project to ‘map’ bats in Nottinghamshire.

As a society, it was agreed that we could no doubt help in this cause by inviting our members to consider having a ‘bat detector’ in their gardens for a few days. Volunteers would be contacted, possibly from April or May next year to arrange for a detector to be placed in their garden. If you are interested in taking part in this project please contact us and we will then decide on the best way forward in conjunction with the Nottinghamshire Bat Group.

The speaker, on a number of occasions, referred to bats flying around Lowdham cricket field during the late summer evenings. Having played and been heavily involved in Lowdham cricket club over many years, it was only at the end of the talk that I realised I knew the speaker, he used to sell cricket ‘bats’!!

Once again that time of year has arrived for those keen gardeners, and also novice gardeners, to plan ahead and look forward to 2016 in our gardens, allotments, courtyards, window boxes and those other pieces of ground which I can’t think of at the moment.

As a benefit to our members, we are offering the substantial discount (50%) on seeds and plants which are ordered through the Society from Suttons. Furthermore, a 10% discount is available on other garden equipment in the Suttons catalogue.

If placing an order this year, would you please return the order forms by Monday 7th December 2015 to the Society.

So come on, place an order and have a go at ‘grow your own’ and perhaps you may then decide to enter some of the results as exhibits in one of next years shows.

Wow, another enjoyable visit on a fine day. Bit of a slow approach for us as we arrived at the entrance gates to the parkland just as some of the ‘runners’ were completing a 10k event, which finished adjacent to the parking area. Eventually, after great patience by our driver we alighted from the coach, being given our specific times to tour the house and gardens. After all that coffee beckoned! The house with peeling paintwork and overgrown courtyards depicts the dramatic decline of a grand country-house estate. We visited the many walled gardens, orangery, auricula theatre, kitchen gardens and the orchard with many varieties of fruit. This trip brought an end to our 2015 visits which have been very well supported. I’m sure that you will join me in giving an enormous thank you to our chairperson who does a tremendous job in organising the visits. Furthermore, let’s give ‘three cheers’ to our committee for their efforts this year and all those who have helped. Finally, we hope to see you at our AGM which is on Thurs 15th October 2015 at 7.30pm in Lowdham W.I. hall.