Wolverhampton Horticultural Society
Programme for 2025/2026
The programme for talks for 2025 and 2026 has now been finalised and full details are shown below. All meetings start at 7.00pm for coffee/cakes/announcements with the scheduled talks starting at approx 7.30pm. All meetings are expected to finish before 9.00pm.
A group of gardening clubs/societies from North Staffordshire have formed the TENDER SHOOTS NETWORK whose aim is to jointly promote Zoom talks on gardening topics during the current Covid restrictions. The Society has affiliated to this network so all of their talks are available free to our members.
As Covid issues have declined it has no longer been necessary to hold Zoom meetings but as these have proved popular with some members we have organised a few meetings in this format. Unless stated, all meetings will now be face to face.
All Zoom meetings are run in conjunction with the Tender Shoots Network group. Registration details/method are shown on the Tender Shoots Network Page.
https://www.wolveshorticulturalsoc.co.uk/tender-shoots-garden-network/
| Date | Speaker | Additional information |
| 30th August 2025 | Annual Show | Penn United Reform Church |
| 8th October 2025 | Jeff Bates | “Great English Gardens”. Britain in Bloom Judge, Jeff Bates, whose Clematis talk we enjoyed last summer, is returning to the Scoety to give his talk on Great English Gardens. Jeff”s career in horticulture began in 1970 as an apprentice gardener in the Royal Gardens at Windsor Castle. After training at the Berkshire College of Agriculture and Askham Bryan College in Yorkshire, he worked in landscape design and construction, finally becoming a senior lecturer in Horticulture in Derbyshire. For the past 20 years he has been a judge for East Midlands in Bloom. |
| 12th November 2025 ZOOM meeting | Martin Fish | “Healthy, Happy Houseplants”. ZOOM meeting Keep all your indoor plants looking great with tips on care and propagation. At 21 Martin became the youngest head gardener in the country before starting his own landscaping, garden maintenance and nursery business. Martin created a series of demonstration gardens on the nursery site which were featured in magazine articles for Garden News, The Garden, Gardener’s World Magazine, Kitchen Garden, Garden Answers and also broadcasts for BBC Radio Nottingham, BBC East Midlands Today and Simply Gardening. After moving to Yorkshire to run the Harrogate Flower Show in January 2014, Martin developed his own garden alongside writing and broadcasting about gardening. Martin is also an accredited RHS judge. |
| 10th December 2025 | Craft Session | Making a table decoration for Xmas. |
More Info: The Society meets on the second Wednesday of the month at Beckminster Church hall, Birches Barn Road, Wolverhampton WV3 7BJ.
| Date | Speaker | Talk | Background |
| 14.1.2026 | Kevin Reynolds | Dragonflies – The Devil’s Darning Needle | Popular naturalist and local speaker |
| 11.2.2026 | Zoom – Adam Pascoe | The Flower Bulb Calendar | A leading gardening journalist in the UK for over 40 years, Adam successfully launched and then edited BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine. He was also editor of Garden News, Garden Answers, BBC Easy Gardening, Waitrose Garden magazine, and a columnist for the Daily Telegraph. He has made guest appearances on Gardeners’ World and Gardeners’ Question Time. |
| 11.3.2026 | Val Bourne | Spring Cottage: Gardening with the Best Beloved | Val is a lifelong hands-on organic gardener, writer and journalist with a passion for plants. A writer for the Daily Telegraph, Val has also produced a number of books, including the Ten Minute Gardener series, all with an organic theme. Val judges RHS floral and dahlia trials and is also Vice President of The Hardy Plant Society. |
| 8.4.2026 | Spring Show & AGM | ||
| 13.5.2026 | Justin Harrison | Spring Awakening | Justin is a grower of hardy and unusual plants, raised in the Staffordshire countryside. He has spoken to garden clubs in Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Cheshire, and Shropshire and the Hardy Plant Society. He will bring along a seasonal selecton of plants which he will share with members and provide advice about keeping plants healthy, planting combinations and site situations. |
| 10.6.2026 | Helen Picton | Plantaholics Paradise | Helen runs Old Court Nurseries and Picton Gardens near Malvern, the third generation of the Picton Family to do so. Famous for Michaelmas daisies, the nurseries also grow a range of other plants. Helen holds the Plant Heritage National Collection of autumn flowering asters and continues to develop the 1.5 acre garden. Helen’s talk will take us on a personal journey to remind us of the simple pleasure of plants and she hopes to inspire us to try some of the more challenging aspects of horticulture. |
| 8.7.2026 | Society Organised Event | ||
| 12.8.2026 | Dr Roger Lloyd | Hydrangeas – A Gentle Obsession | Roger and his wife Jenny (a former commercial plant breeder and nurserywoman) have been opening gardens for the past ten years as part of the NGS scheme, firstly in Cheshire and more recently in Monmouthshire. Highfield Farm Garden is a three acre, densely planted celebration of plants, featuring over 1400 cultivars, with many rarities and a diverse array of herbaceous perennials, shrubs and trees. The garden was featured on Gardeners World in September 2024 and in 2023 it was voted regional winner by readers of The English Garden magazine. All proceeds and Roger’s fee for the evening will be donated to the cancer caring charities of the NGS. |
| 29.8.2026 | Annual Show | ||
| 14.10.2026 | Duncan Coombs | Gardens of Italy Ancient and Modern | Recently retired lecturer in Decorative Horticulture at Pershore College after more than 30 years. RHS Garden Advisor and Plant Hunter |
| 11.11.2026 | Zoom -Vanessa Berridge | What Gardens Tell Us About History | Vanessa is a writer for national and international consumer magazines and national newspapers and launched The English Garden in 1997. Vanessa’s books include The Princess’s Garden: Royal Intrigue and the Untold Story of Kew (2015), Great British Gardeners (2018), Borde Hill: A Plant Hunter’s Paradise (2022) and Garden Heaven (2024). “Kiftsgate Court Gardens: Three Generations of Women Gardeners” won the 2019 GMG Garden Book of the Year. Vanessa is county organiser for the National Garden Scheme in Gloucestershire and opens her garden for the scheme. |
| 09.12.2026 | Christmas Social |
Refreshments from 7.00pm, talks at 7.30pm.
Membership £20 a year, visitors £4.00 a meeting.
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