The Club Year 2025 in Review 

The Chairman's Report from the 2026 AGM

We started 2025 with a bit of hands-on flower arranging fun with Janet Arm and her daughter Jacqui guiding us in making a hand-tied bouquet on a twig framework.  I think the written instructions were more complicated than it actually was as there were so many excellent creations by the end of the evening.  Flush with our success in January, this twig-framework design also became one of the classes in our Summer Show and proved even more spectacular.

February is always our AGM which was followed last year by some gardening Q&A by Geoff Peach with ‘Solving Problems in the Garden’ which included the top-tip of using a poultice of tomato ketchup to remove rust and crud from the blades of secateurs.  Then in March, Peter Smith exposed the ‘Secret World of Moths’.  Their more-showy cousins, the butterflies, tend to get most people’s attention, but Peter reminded us that moths outnumber butterflies by about 40:1 and have a crucial role to play in the pollination of night-flowering plants and the garden ecosystem as a whole.

April saw us take a view from 500km up with a talk by Viki Webster on the Space4Nature project – a joint People’s Postcode Lottery, Surrey Wildlife Trust and the University of Surrey project to combine satellite imagery and on-the-ground vegetation surveys to assess the current diversity of our local area, including Puttenham and Chobham Commons.

As the weather warmed up in May, Richard Ramsey from Withypitts Dahlias reminded us why these magnificent plants have once again become one of the most popular plants for a spectacular summer and autumn show in the garden.  With over 60,000 named cultivars to choose from, there really is a Dahlia for everyone.

We have had talks in the past on the importance of the soil microenvironment and the complex interplay between soil bacteria, fungi, nematodes and other invertebrates, but when it comes to potting compost, the necessary transition to peat-free compost has left a lot of us gardeners somewhat under-whelmed by the peat-free options.  Ray Broughton talked us through many of the ‘Alternatives to Peat’ at our June meeting and gave us some advice on additives such as perlite or vermiculite that can beneficially affect the drainage or water retentive properties of peat-free compost.

An historical trek through New England with Paul Whittle in July gave us a glimpse of the magnificence of ‘New England in the Fall’ and primed us for what was later to become one of the best years for long-lasting autumn colour. 

Our Summer Show and Social in August was a reflection of just how hot and dry the summer of 2025 really was.  Although the number of entries were down on the previous year, the quality of exhibits were first-rate and the evening’s combination of show and social was as enjoyable as ever.

We took a virtual walk around Newdigate Brickworks Nature Reserve in September with Stephen Woodcock from Surrey Wildlife Trust.  Stephen is voluntary warden at the reserve situated just south of Dorking.  As its name suggests, the site was once a brickworks, but for the last 20 or so years, the 42-acre site has seen the clay pits transformed into lakes surrounded by a mosaic of scrub, marsh, grassland, and woodland, which support a huge diversity of plants, moths, and bird species.

We were reminded of the heady days of summer and the buzz of bees on flowers with a virtual visit to Lordington Lavender in October.  Andrew Elms told us of the Trials and Tribulations involved in diversifying a dairy farm into commercial lavender production, and how it’s always necessary to check on the delivery date for orders you make and ensure all the preparation of the beds has been completed.  Especially so when there’s over 25,000 lavender plants arriving!

With a beautiful autumn still all around us, we concluded our speaker programme for the year with a talk on ‘Colour in the Garden’ with Simon Horrill.  In a really interesting talk, Simon provided us with some of the tools we might need to successfully combine different hues, tints, and shades of colour effectively in our own gardens, whether we are after hot and spicy, or cool, calm and collected.

Finally, we rounded the year out with our Christmas social and combined the tricky with sticky – some head-scratching puzzles and quizzes together with some lovely mince pies and mulled wine.  Made all the better with the excellent company of our fellow members.

Of course, our speaker programme is only part of what we do during the year - we also had the pleasure of a variety of social events.  These began with our annual lunch at Hog’s Back Hotel, which, despite the appalling weather on the day, proved to be an excellent venue for a nice get-together.  Our plant sale in May perfectly combined plant shopping with some tea and cake, and on a scorchingly beautiful afternoon in June we visited Claire Merriman’s NGS garden at Shamley Wood Estate.  The summer highlight of Gill and Mel’s barbecue once again proved the weather gods are on our side with another brilliant barbeque banquet, and finally, our Members’ Open Gardens in August reminded us how amazing the summer had been and how lucky we are to have gardens to visit and enjoy.

A huge thank you to Gill and Mel, and their helpers, Mick, Danny and Klara for the barbecue, and to Maggie Wall and Katie Lewis for opening their gardens to us.

As I always say, these activities do not happen spontaneously, and they certainly wouldn’t be possible without the help and support of both the Committee and the many contributions from Members including the provision of the raffle prizes and the assistance with teas and coffees.  I would again like to thank Linda Fry for collecting the church keys every month and Jennifer Collins for providing all the supplies for our tea breaks.  I am sorry to say that Chris Vigurs will be standing down from the Committee, but I would like to thank her for five fantastic years helping both behind the scenes and with the plant stall and most recently, the catering for the Summer Show.  Thank you, Chris for everything.

Finally, I would like to thank all of you, our members, for making Worplesdon Garden Club so vibrant and enjoyable.  Thank you for your support, and I look forward to another fantastic year in 2026.

Tim Bonnert, Chairman      10th February 2026