Dear CHAPS member,

We’ve had an excellent start to the year with talks on Planning and Planting a Border and Secret Gardens of Sussex. On the 16th of March we have our next talk on Growing Dahlias by Nick Gilbert.

Our next event is the Spring show on Saturday the 8th of April – hopefully the weather will be kind to us and we’ll have a good show of daffodils. Please have a look through your schedule to see if you can make a few entries. For those of you with children don’t forget to have a look at the children’s classes to see if there is something to tempt an entry. You can enter one of three ways: by completing the form in the handbook and posting it in the CHAPS postbox outside the village hall; by E mailing a list of entries to chaps.membershipsecretary@gmail.com; or by via the CHAPS website through the form in the Members’ Area http://chaps-online.co.uk/

Please don’t forget to sign up for our day visit. This is on Wednesday 21st June when we will be visiting Borde Hill, Haywards Heath. The trip will cost £20.50 and the bus departs from the Village Hall at 9.30am.

You can sign up at the March talk or at the Spring Show or sign up via the CHAPS website through the form in the Members’ Area http://chaps-online.co.uk/
The Churt Fete is on the 10th of June and as usual CHAPS will have a stall selling plants. If you have any plants you can bring along for us to sell and raise funds please bring them to the CHAPS stall on the day. Any unsold donated plants will be passed on to Phyllis Tuckwell to help with their fund-raising.

We have a number of vacancies on our committee and would love to welcome new people on to the committee. We would like to appeal particularly to the younger members of CHAPS to step forward. We have four committee meetings a year and any additional time commitment would depend on the roles any new member choses to take on. If you are interested in joining the committee please contact me on chaps.chairman@gmail.com or speak to me at one of the talks or shows.

Other events which may be of interest to you are:

A talk on Wednesday 15 March on Exbury Gardens – Heaven with the Gates Open by John Anderson at Ewhurst village hall at 7.30 for 8pm. Tickets cost £10.
Dorking Barnado’s Helpers Group have Jim Gardiner talking about Shrubs for Seasonality on Wednesday the 15th of March at Mickleham Village Hall at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £12.50.

The Land of Nod will be opening their 7 acre garden on the 6th and 7th of May as part of the National Garden Scheme and also to raise funds for St Lukes Church in Grayshott. The address is Land of Nod, Grayshott Road, Headley Down, Bordon, Hampshire GU35 8SJ. The garden will be open from 2 to 5pm. Admission will cost £4 and dogs are allowed on leads. Tea, cake and ice cream will be available on the day as well as a plant stall.

Apple Court Garden has been in touch to let us know that after being closed for several years the gardens will be re-opened the public on May 24th of this year. The garden was originally created by Diana Grenfell and Roger Grounds and contains many rare and unusual plants as well as impressive collections of day lilies and hostas. There is a beautiful White Garden and a lovely Japanese Garden with koi pond. The opening hours will be 10-3pm Weds – Fri and 10-5pm on Sat/Sun. The cost will be £5 per person, to include tea and coffee.

The Hidden Gardens of Grayshott will be open again over the late May bank holiday weekend – Sunday 28 and Monday 29 May. There will be 20 gardens open from 12.30 to 6pm and entry will be £6 per person. The entry fee allows entry on both days so you can take your time to visit and enjoy the gardens, homemade teas and plant sales. Entry programmes can be purchased from Pins and Needles in Grayshott from the 28th of April.

Greenhills House in Tilford will be open to members of clubs within the Surrey Horticultural Federation on Sunday 18 June from 2 to 4.30pm. There are 3 acres of walled gardens and grounds including a formal terrace, rose garden, Italian garden, wildflower meadow, fruit trees, dry garden and wooded area. Please let me know if you would like to go as we have been asked to give an idea of visitor numbers from CHAPS.

We have been notified of a book entitled Easy Digital Plant Photography by John Presland who studied natural sciences at St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge, became a biology teacher, then pursued a career as an educational psychologist. Botany and its recording in photographs has remained a major interest for over 55 years. The book is a guide to digital photography of plants. Step-by-step help is provided, firstly in taking effective photos by doing little else but point and shoot and then gradually making use of the other features of a typical digital camera. Editing digital photos is described through a similar approach. The book is fully illustrated in colour and is available on Amazon priced at £11.50.

Happy gardening!

Maggie Wright, Chairman