Whitwick & District U3A - Gardens Group

This group is for those with a general interest in all aspects of gardening. The programme is varied including visits local gardens of interest, member's gardens for social events, speakers and demonstrations.

Timing

Normally Thursday, approx Monthly.

Venue

Hall Lane Methodist Church during winter months

2022

No meeting in January

Thu Feb 10th at our new winter venue, Hall Lane Methodist Church. We will be hearing from Karen Gimson, a BBC Radio Leicester gardening expert who will talk to us about Making a show garden for Rainbows Hospice. There will be a £4 charge to cover roomhire, refreshments, and Karen's fee which goes to Rainbows.

Thu Mar 10th The Acers at Hinckley, an NGS Garden, This is a medium sized garden with a Japanese theme including a Zen garden Japanese tea house, koi pond and more than 20 different varieties of Acers, many alpines, Trilliums, Cyclamen, Erythroniums, Cornus, Hamamelis and dwarf conifers. Although it is not the season to see the Acers at their best there will be spring colour to see. Details will be emailed to group members nearer the date.

Thu Apr 14th Melbourne Hall Gardens. We are very privileged to have been able to book a private tour for our group on a day when then gardens are not open to the public. Lord Ralph Kerr's head archivist will guide us on a Historical Tour of the garden for a real insight into how they have developed over the centuries. Our numbers will be limited and an email with full details will sent to group members.

Thu May 12th Lea Gardens, near Matlock, a large garden renowned for azaleas and rhododendrons. This will be an afternoon visit with an opportunity to have lunch in the café if you wish.

Thu Jun 9th Easton Walled Gardens, Northamptonshire, a garden which should show us some lovely sweet peas. The cost of the garden entrance is £8.25. We will meet at the garden at 2pm and take a self-guided tour. As well as various garden areas there are also a woodland walk and two acres of meadow A small café offers hot and cold drinks, limited light snacks, homemade cakes and ice cream. There is also the option of a pub lunch at The White Lion, Colsterworth which is 2.5 miles away from the Garden.

Thu Jul 14th White House Farm, Houghton-on-the-Hill, an NGS Garden

Thu Aug 11th Summer lunch and Plant Swap at the home of Mary and Les Unwin.

Thu Sep 8th TBC

Thu Oct 13th TBC

Thu Nov 10th TBC

Thu Dec 8th Take and Share lunch, hopefully at Botcheston Village Hall.

Gardens 2020

Pictures from members' gardens can be found on this page

Virtual tours.

A group member's garden

Cambridge University Botanic Garden

National Garden Scheme

Brook End garden

Virtual garden tours on House Beautiful. This site uses a large number of cookies which it invites you to accept, but you can decline and it still functions.

Contact

For further information on any of the garden days contact Fran Johnson at gardens at whitwicku3a dot org dot uk

Please note that as an anti-spam measure e-mail addresses on this site are NOT links, but should be manually copied

Pictures

Below are pictures from a recent Gardens event. More pictures are in the gallery.

Easton Walled Gardens - June 2022

On Thursday, 9th June members visited Easton Walled Gardens, near Grantham. We very much enjoyed the variety of flowers in the garden and although the sweet pea season does not start until next week there were some to see and they were beautiful.

Robin perched on chair back.

Long herbaceous border.

Members standing on stone bridge.

Closeup of delphiniums.

Closeup of a white allium.

Closeup of an orangy pink rose.

Closeup of a pink sweetpea.

Lea Gardens, Nr Matlock - May 2022

Fifteen of us had a lovely trip to Lea Gardens, the rhododendrons and azaleas were spectacular and several members said the cake was pretty good too!

Rhodies of many colours with a backdrop of trees.

Mounds of Rhodies.

Teacups and slices of cake on a table with Rhodies in background.

Closeup of a white flushed with pink flower.

The Acers, Hinckley - March 2022

The Garden Group visited The Acers, Hinckley this month where we were given a talk and tour of the garden by Dave Baggott the owner. He specialises in snowdrops and acers and has an interest in Japanese gardens . The snowdrops were coming to an end but the other spring bulbs were coming into their own and we learnt that a single snowdrop bulb can be sold for over a £1000 pounds! We had a very pleasant afternoon, finished off with tea and homemade cake and I think some of the group will be returning in September to see the acers in full glory.

Members standing in front of a greenhouse viewed across a lawn.