Christmas Season and NY Plans

Sandhill Farm, Winter Border. Photo credit: S Sticpewich

Hard to imagine that Christmas is fast approaching but the onset of colder temperatures, overnight frosts and sunsets by 4pm certainly mark its impending arrival. In early December the Society will be celebrating in style with our annual Christmas party at The Winn Hall. The final event of our Centenary year! While we may not have a significant milestone next year, we have been busy planning a full calendar of activities and look forward to introducing a few different events in 2026. As we all recognise, gardening is a constant challenge and joy with mother nature throwing hurdles in front of us in the form of increasingly erratic weather conditions, a plethora of pests and diseases and just bad luck but none of this seems to detract from the joy of filling a vase with homegrown flowers or a plate with vegetables from your own garden. Scale doesn’t matter in gardening as many find creative ways of producing salad, tomatoes, cucumbers or potatoes in a small pot by the back door. Over the course of the year, we hope to explore ways of growing that fit everyone’s requirements be it time, space or money. These will be in the form of talks, workshops and garden visits.

In 2026 the Society returns to in-person talks during the winter months. These talks will be held at The Winn Hall in Dunsfold at 7pm. We have decided to avoid January and what we hope will be the worst of the cold winter nights with our first talk starting in mid-February.

Our first talk takes place on Thursday 12 February when we will be joined by Claire Brown from Plantpassion. Claire grows sustainable, scented and seasonal British flowers at Hilltop farm in East Clandon, on the sunny slopes of the Surrey Hills. Claire is an expert in the field, having been involved in horticultural for over 30 years and written one of the leading books, ‘The British Flowers Book’, on the subject.  This talk will be an absolute must for anyone interested in growing cut flowers for the house and garden over an extended season.

Be sure to mark your calendar for these dates:

12 February 7pm - Plant Passion: Flowers for the Garden and Vase All Year with Claire Brown

12 March 7pm - Piet Oudolf: The Master of Planting Design with Julie Verity

16 April 7pm - Vegetable Growing with Barry Newman

The talks are free to DHHS members and £5 for non-members.  We would really appreciate strong turnouts for these talks, supporting both the Society as well as The Winn Hall. We believe that social interaction and sharing ideas is at the heart of gardening.

Please note that membership is due for renewal from 1 January.  Membership remains £10 per person and can be paid via BACS directly to the Dunsfold & Hascombe Horticultural Society Bank Account, the details are as follows:

         Bank Name:                     National Westminster

         Sort Code:                       60 11 08

         Account Number:            16513371

         Ref:                                 Surname ‘Subs’