Garden Society Events
Thursday 18 March
WALPOLE LECTURE AND EXHIBITION AT THE V&A
1.45PM
Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, was the leader of taste from the mid-18th century. An eccentric polymath, he turned his house at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, into ‘a little gothic castle’, filled with his pioneering collection of beautiful objects, examples of which will be on display. Strawberry Hill was surrounded by a small landscaped garden, yet he retained some formality in approaching avenues and around the house, much as current designers do. He also collected flowering shrubs and covered a terrace with plants in pots. The lecture will be followed by entry to the exhibition. We meet at 1.45 in the Cromwell Road entrance hall. Cost: £20. To book, please ring Christine Ingram on 020 7731 3162, M 07540 615486 or email christine.ingram@talk21.com and send your cheque within 2 weeks.
Wednesday 31 March
‘VICTORIA AND ALBERT – ART AND LOVE’ AT THE QUEEN’S GALLERY
10.30AM
Victoria and Albert shared a great enthusiasm for art, and displayed in this exhibition are 400 items which the young couple collected between 1839 and Albert’s death in 1861. Contrasting with her later image as a widow, in her selection of art Victoria is revealed as a passionate and open minded young woman. We meet at 10.30 in the Goring Hotel for coffee, followed by entry to the exhibition at 11.15. Cost:£18. To book, please ring Joanna Willcox on 020 7736 5305, M 07876 221062 or email willcoxjoanna@hotmail.com and send your cheque within 2 weeks.
Tuesday 27 April
VISIT TO DIANA ROSS, 4 MACAULEY RD, (off Clapham Common) SW2 4 0HX
10.30AM
This visit is fully booked. The visit leader is Mandy Yates, 020 7381 0286 or email mandy.yates@harbord141.demon.co.uk.
Tuesday 27 April
PLANT SALE AT 29 RANELAGH AVENUE, SW6 3PJ
12 – 8PM
As usual, there will be a selection of herbaceous plants and herbs, including some that are unusual but very desirable, and also a selection of bedding plants, eg cleomes, that never seem to be available in even the best of Garden Centres, and irresistible angel eye pelargoniums. Coffee, tea, wine etc available for a donation, and please bring friends too. Plant contributions very welcome, preferably delivered any time from after Easter onwards – tel 020 7736 3210.
Wednesday 28 April
GARDENS OF THE CITY OF LONDON ~ A WALK WITH DIANA KELSEY
10AM
This walk has been consistently overbooked so Diana is taking it again. Meet in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral for a cup of coffee at 10 for a 10.30 start. Cost: £15. To book, even if you have left your name before, please ring Dinah Roberton on 020 8563 9697, M 07966 297255 or email dinahroberton@btopenworld.com and send your cheque within 2 weeks of booking.
This walk is fully booked but will be repeated in the autumn
Thursday 6 May
UPTON WOLD, GLOUCESTERSHIRE AND THE OXFORD BOTANIC GARDEN
Ian and Caroline Bond’s 17th century house is set in the Cotswolds with views over velvet lawns to an idyllic valley. Early May is their favourite time, with many flowering trees, a pool with densely planted margins, and meadows bright with bulbs and wild flowers. There is also a flower and vegetable garden, and a herbaceous border edged with a racing rill and embellished with sculpture. Lunch is with Cassie Bassett, whom some of you will remember from trips to Italy, in their weekend cottage in Broad Camden. Then we have a tour of the Oxford Botanic Garden, founded in 1621, and still boasting a remarkable collection of outdoor and indoor plants, and magnificent trees. The coach will leave Parsons Green at 8am and return about 6.30pm. Cost: £70. To book, please ring Jane Theophilus on 020 8789 3144, M 07703 308427 or email janetheophilus@hotmail.com and send your cheque within 2 weeks.
This trip is now fully booked.
Tuesday 11 May
ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, 11 ST ANDREW’S PLACE, NW1 4LE
10.30AM
The garden has been planted within the last 5 years to display plants used in traditional medicines from various cultures, plus plants with known medicinal value and those connected with physicians through the ages. Following coffee at 10.30, Dr Henry Oakley, a distinguished and entertaining expert, will explain what is good for us, and why, and also what is very bad for us. Cost£25. To book, please ring Sally Tamplin on 8785 9355, M 07779 579935 or email sally@sallytamplin.co.uk and send your cheque within 2 weeks.
Wednesday 12 May
GARDEN PARTY AT THE FULHAM PALACE GARDEN CENTRE
6 – 8PM
Come and be inspired by pots already planted with subtle choices of summer flowers, and choose your own mix of colours and styles. Come and see your friends too, and buy marmalade and jam and other savoury food, and win a surprise from the bottle tombola. We look forward to seeing you.
Tuesday 18 May
PLANT SALE AT 29 RANELAGH AVENUE, SW6 3PJ
10AM – 8PM
There will be scented tobacco plants, and the charming Nicotiana mutabilis that fades from pink to cream, single colour and very fragrant sweet peas, herbs and vegetables, and much more. Coffee, tea, wine etc available for a donation, and please bring friends too. Plant contributions are very welcome, preferably delivered in advance. Tel 020 7736 3210.
Wednesday 19 May
STRATFORD AND THE 2012 SITE ~ A WALK BY DIANA KELSEY
10AM
This walk is so popular that we are repeating it. Come and see how our money is being spent for the Olympics, the elegant Aquatic Centre, the stadium, and how the newly cleaned river Lee will be at the core of the site. On the last visit, Olympic sceptics turned into major enthusiasts when they heard the positive side of the Games. We meet at Stratford station outside WHSmith at 10am. Cost: £20. To book, please ring Val Miller on 020 7736 7604, M 07766 707041 or email mv@demiller.demon.co.uk and send your cheque within 2 weeks.
This walk is now fully booked but will be repeated in the autumn.
Saturday 22 May
THE HURLINGHAM CLUB OPEN FOR NATIONAL GARDENS SCHEME
11 - 4PM
£5 The 42 acre gardens are renowned for shrubberies, roses, herbaceous, sub-tropical and lakeside borders and a riverside walk by the Thames. A guided tour starts at 2pm. Fairbridge Garden Society plant stall.
1 – 6 June
WINE, ARCHITECTURE AND GARDENS IN NORTHERN SPAIN
This trip is fully booked
Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 June LONDON OPEN GARDEN SQUARES WEEKEND
Thursday 24 June
GLOUCESTERSHIRE ~ EASTLEACH AND THE STONE HOUSE, WYCK RISSINGTON
Eastleach is one of these rare gardens which has had little publicity but is absolutely breathtaking. In 14 acres surrounding a Cotswold house, Stephanie Richards has created a series of gardens of great variety and with immense skill. Colours, shapes and forms have been artistically selected to complement each other, and round each corner is yet another delightful surprise. Katie Lukas at the Stone House will give us lunch, and thereafter we can explore her 2.5 acre garden, which makes imaginative use of flowing water on a sloping site. The garden radiates stylish simplicity in both design and planting and shows how best to mask a tennis court and swimming pool from sight. Roses, box, hostas, rare shrubs and a crab apple walk are just a few of the treats. We hope to be able to visit the unusual village church with a fine tower where Gustav Holst was organist for a period. The coach will leave Parsons Green at 8am and return about 6.30. Cost £70. To book, please ring Olivia Maynard on 020 7225 0424,
M 07816 328349 or email o.maynard@tiscali.co.uk and send your cheque within 2 weeks.
Tuesday 6 July
EVENING PARTY AT 5, GARDEN CLOSE, SW15 3TH
6 – 8PM
Vivien Fowler and Tom Jesstico have built an ultra modern house, all of whose outer walls are glass, in what used to be William Pitt’s walled garden in Putney. Lawn, trees and pots surround the house in rural fashion, and black bamboo, swathes of box, hebe and lavender, a pond and some new planting are part of the composition. The owners are kindly also opening the house. Cost: £20, to include wine and canapés. To book, please ring Jane Roundell on 020 7736 7854, M 07974 823787 or email janeroundell@googlemail.com and then send your cheque within 2 weeks.
Thursday 9 September
TEMPLE CHURCH AND INNER TEMPLE GARDENS
2 – 4PM
Temple Church, known to some from The da Vinci Code, was founded 800 years ago by the Knights Templar, the order of crusading monks whose role was to protect pilgrims on their way to and from Jerusalem. The church is in two parts, the Chancel and the Round, the latter being the shape always favoured by the Templars. Our guide will reveal many other fascinating facts of its history through the centuries, before we meet the head gardener of the Inner Temple gardens. Huge clumps of perennials and shrubs fill the borders, with the extra buzz of imaginatively planted annuals against the splendid backdrop of Inner Temple buildings. Meet at 1.50 in front of Temple Church, ready for the tour at 2pm. Cost: £20. To book, please ring Dottie Lundell on 020 7731 0128, M 07904 257974 or email dottie@lundell.uk.net and send your cheque within 2 weeks.
Thursday 16 September
KENT ~ GOODNESTONE AND RESTORATION HOUSE
Lady Fitzwalter has been gardening here since the 1960s, restoring the greater landscape, adding a millennium box parterre, and bringing it up to date with a gravel garden created by Graham Gough and planted with grasses that wave and rustle in the breeze. A mature woodland contains fine specimen trees, and a young Golden Aboretum is beginning to take shape nearby. The walled gardens are truly magnificent, and so is the view beyond to the Norman church tower. After lunching on Lady Fitzwalter’s home cooked ham with salad, we go on to Restoration House in Rochester, about which Simon Jenkins wrote “There is no finer pre-Civil War town house than this in England.” Situated in the heart of historic Rochester, the house takes its name from the stay of Charles 11 on the eve of the Restoration, and it was also immortalised by Dickens as the home of Miss Havisham. Privately owned and superbly maintained and furnished in period, it also has a good collection of English portraits. The garden has historic features as well as colourful vegetable and cutting gardens and a well stocked greenhouse. Cost £70. To book, please ring May Woods on 020 7736 3210, M 07958 912271 or email maywoods1@btconnect.com
All our trips are carefully planned but may be subject to last minute change due to events beyond our control.
REFUND POLICY
Refunds are not available for day events: a) Costing less then £15 b) When cancellation is less than 14 days before the event and there is no one on a waiting list who can take the place. A 20% administration fee will be deducted if a refund is due. For overnight trips, members are required to take out insurance to cover cancellation as well as medical expenses and loss of baggage. Deposits for overnigh trips are not refunded.
It is essential that, first, you book your place for the event and give your name and phone number. Then after confirmation that you have a place, complete the booking form, and send it with a cheque made out to the Faribridge Garden Society to Dottie Lundell, 1 Edenhurst Avenue, London SW6 3PD (Tel. 020 7731 0128). Please include an s.a.e if you would like a receipt. Tickets are not issued.
Membership of the Fairbridge Garden Society costs £20 per annum per person or per couple. Pick up a form from the Garden Centre or ring the Membership Secretary on 020 7736 7854.
All profits go to Fairbridge.
