February News 2025

Banish those winter blues by spending some time next Saturday morning at our Seed swap and Social!  Pop in to the Scout Hall from 10.00 to 12.30, entry is FREE but donations are welcome - it all helps to keep your Society thriving.  You are sure of a friendly welcome!

We have literally thousands of seeds to swap: flowers, wildflowers, vegetables, perennial plants and shrubs, just bring your seeds with you. Fancy growing something different from seed this year? How about an ‘arabica’ coffee bush, ‘fiesta’ multicoloured sweetcorn, a quirky ‘turks turban’ squash or luscious purple carrots? - we have them all, and many, many more! 

Not confident about sowing plants from seed? Check out our seed sowing demonstrations held throughout the morning. We’ll show you how to sow and prick out seeds and there’ll be a handout to take away.

No seeds to swap? No problem! Just bring yourselves, enjoy a hot drink and a slice of cake in our Seedy Cafe, browse the seed swap tables and get excited about Spring just around the corner.  Enter the raffle for the chance to win some lovely prizes - we have a special cake again this year in a separate raffle!  

We’re giving away free sunflower seeds for children to grow, all part of our plan to encourage youngsters to grow something from seed; the tallest sunflower grown by a child wins a prize in our Summer Show!  The young girl in the picture above is Harriet, who won our inaugural Tallest Sunflower competition last summer!  There will be lots of other things at our Critters’ Corner for little ones to enjoy, such as learning about wild creatures and plants, plus a goodie bag for them to take away.

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Our Next Event: Zoom Talk, Friday 21st February at 7:30 PM

The Picton Garden, at the foot of the Malvern hills in Herefordshire, is home to the National Collection of Michaelmas daisies or asters. Over 400 varieties of these super autumn flowers make this a stunning place to visit in the autumn. Even when the daisies are not at their peak there is much to see with interesting woodland planting and herbaceous borders. The garden has featured in many gardening magazines and on Gardener’s World in the past. The specialist nursery next door is a great place to pick up some unusual plants, and is owned and run by Picton family member Helen.

I was lucky enough to pay a visit whilst on holiday in the autumn of 2023, and I was bowled over - it’s well worth a visit, or making the effort to watch this Zoom talk. On Friday 21st February at 7.30pm, Helen Picton will be telling us all about the rise, fall and renaissance of the Michaelmas daisy. It should last about a hour and there will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end. There are bound to be some stunning photographs in her talk and we hope you can join us.

This Zoom talk is available to everyone. It will be automatically sent out to members a few days before. If you know someone who is not a member who would like to join in, please contact me, Tessa Crowe, to find out how to pay the £5 entry fee and receive the link - chair@mayfieldhorticulturalsociety.org.uk.

Outing to National Trust Batemans, Wednesday March 26th

The date is Wednesday 26th March, leaving Mayfield at 10.00am in shared cars and arriving back in Mayfield at about 2.30 pm.

There will be between 15-20 people on the visit which includes a tour of the garden on arrival with head gardener Len Bernamont, who you may recall gave us an excellent talk about Kipling and Bateman’s last autumn.  The remaining time can be spent privately touring the house and gardens at leisure and/or enjoying coffee or lunch in the excellent Bateman’s cafe.

Non-National Trust members will need to pay the current group rate entry fee of £16.15, plus the cost of the garden tour which is £5, and which NT members will also pay.  There will be small additional costs for the minibus or shared transport of up to £5.

To book your place on this visit, please contact Claire Montagu at claire.montagu@icloud.com or on 01435 872648 by no later than 1st March.  At the time of booking, we will also need to know whether you are a National Trust member.