by Roger Hirons
After a glorious sunset we met for our first meeting of 2019. Roger Hirons got us off to a wonderful start to the year speaking on “The Winter Garden”. Years of experience and study at such prestigious establishments as Pershore and Hilliers, came across in a tide of knowledge and enthusiasm for plants. Beginning with guide-lines on garden planning Roger used examples from his array of lovely plants to illustrate his points, showing large colourful photographs portraying variants of evergreen foliage; flowers and berries produced; striking silhouettes of bare winter boughs; and stand-alone specimen trees.
Laughter was evoked when Roger enacted, with our chairman, a conversation between St. Francis and God, who had not understood the human obsession with lawns. St Francis explained “humans sow grass seed, pay to fertilise it, when it grows they cut it off and pay someone to take it away”. Hmm . . . point taken.