Upcoming Events at a glance
Contact Details:
Kathryn Gardner & Suzanne Snowden: breamgardeningsociety@gmail.com
Diana Standing: bgsprogsec@gmail.com
John Theophilus: secretarybgs100@gmail.com
| Date & Time | Where | What – who to contact |
|---|---|---|
Tuesday 8 September 7:30 – 9:30pm | Bream Sports Club | September Monthly meeting: Severn Treescapes Megan Finn – Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust Diana Standing |
| Saturday 12 September Meet at John’s Garden 11:00am Suggest leaving Bream 9:00am | Ashwood Nurseries, Kingswinford DY6 0AE | Garden visit: John’s Garden at Ashwood Nurseries Booking form for John’s Garden Diana Standing |
| Saturday 26 September 2:00 – 5:00pm | Coalway. Address, directions & parking details will be made available to members following booking. | BGS Open Garden: Visit to member Ken Burrows’ garden BGS Open Garden – Coalway: booking form Diana Standing |
Hello
Welcome to the September newsletter. The main topic is, of course a review of the 161st Summer Show last month by the Show Manager & Show Secretary – the glorious Gardner Sisters.
Just before we published this newsletter, we heard of the sad death of Alwyn Page, (BSc., PGCE(FE), NAFAS National Tutor).
Alwyn was a great friend of the Society having judged the Floral Arrangement Section at our Shows for over 15 years, including just a few weeks ago at our recent Summer Show. In fact, Alwyn was so in demand as a judge that ours was only one of two shows that she judged that day!
Not only did Alwyn judge for us, she also helped to devise the Show Schedules, bringing endless creative ideas and ensuring that the schedules were well balanced and complied in line with NAFAS regulations.
Countless BGS members and show exhibitors learned their flower arranging skills through Alwyn’s classes. Her no nonsense approach to teaching often caught people by surprise at first, but you soon learned of her generosity and kindness and became hooked. Her love of the art was infectious and many students went on to have great success at local shows and beyond – one notable student even won a gold medal at RHS Malvern this Spring!
She will be sadly missed and the Autumn Show will not feel quite the same without her. I’m sure you will all join me in passing on our condolences to her family and loved ones.
John Theophilus – Editor
Jane’s Musings
Jane has been pondering the fairly frightful year we’re having, especially as the long term forecasts predict the “Super El Niño” of next year will be even more super than the one we’re having this year!
She would welcome information on the experiences of our members, to get a better overall impression. Would anyone with a few minutes to spare drop her a line (via secretarybgs100@gmail.com) summarising their gardening experience and wildlife observations so far this year? What has done well, what has done badly? What has thrived and what has died? Please include any pertinent notes about your garden environment (deeply shaded woodland/sun trap with thin sandy soil etc.).
It is coming up towards the time we need to be planning for next year and deciding what to grow. Jane will look through your submissions; muse a while; and then come back with common themes and suggestions in her October jottings.
Upcoming events
BGS Monthly meeting – Tuesday 8 September
“Severn Treescapes”
Please note: This talk replaces the previously advertised talk.
Megan Finn of Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust will be talking about the Severn Treescapes which is a Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Wildlife Trusts’ partnership project working across the three counties.
In the midst of the ecological and climate emergencies, the Severn Treescapes project aims to demonstrate that increasing woodland connectivity at a regional scale, whether through woodlands, hedgerows, orchards, agroforestry and other tree systems, can work alongside productive agricultural systems.
This work will not only be maintaining productivity but also benefiting biodiversity, tackling the impact of climate change, and sowing the seeds of improvements for future generations to enjoy.
“John’s Garden” visit – Saturday 12 September
We will be visiting “John’s Garden” at Ashwood Nurseries, Kingswinford on 12 September.
It is a wonderful eight acre private garden created by nursery owner and Chelsea Gold medallist John Massey VMH. Informal borders, island beds, woodland dells and a wildlife garden are set against the beautiful backdrop of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.
Regarded as one of the finest private gardens in the UK, there are magnificent collections of trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, conifers and bulbs adding to the interest all year round, with an abundance of rare plants as well as familiar favourites.
We had previously intended to have a formal guided tour of the garden but now learn that, on the day we have chosen, they will be having an Autumn Plant Fair so are not offering tours. Autumn Plant Fair | Ashwood Nurseries
However the gardens are still open for “self guided” tours. The chance to visit a garden, plant fair, nursery and, of course, tearoom seemed too good an opportunity to pass up, and so we’re going ahead with the visit.
We will be travelling to John’s Garden via car share and admission will be £8 per person at the entrance. (I am afraid that there were no discounts available for group or advance bookings.) We have a booking form we’d like you to fill in here: Booking form for John’s Garden
This will enable us to know who is planning to be there and arrange a WhatsApp group, for all who wish to join, so that we can provide assistance to anyone lost or in difficulty. It will also allow us to organise the car shares.
We will be meeting at John’s Garden at 11:00am. Kingswinford is about an hour and a half away, according to my satnav. So, we suggest leaving Bream at about 9:00am. (The gardens open at 08:30am and close at 5:00pm. The Plant Fair is open from 10:00am – 3:30pm.)
I am afraid that no dogs or picnics are allowed in the gardens.
Open Garden – Ken Burrows – Saturday 26 September
Ken’s garden has a key theme to support nature. It has a wide variety of Bird, Bee and insect loving flowers, fruit trees, shrubs, small vegetable plots and ponds and many pots.
Come along and see for yourself. Ken warmly welcomes your gardening advice while you can enjoy some tea and homemade cake.
Please book here BGS Open Garden – Coalway: booking form if you plan to attend so that he can plan logistics etc. We will supply Ken’s address and What3words location in our acknowledgement of your booking.
Summer Show 2026
What started out as a brief ‘highlights and thank yous’ article has turned into a rather unwieldy beast, and so it can now be found as a standalone document here: Bream Summer Show – Highlights & thank yous. This will remain a live document and be updated as information becomes available (eg, final accounts).
We just want to say a HUGE thank you to all involved in making the 161st Bream Summer Show such a fantastic success – to everyone who volunteered, sponsored, entered or visited the Show, or who helped us to promote the event to others. Thanks also for all of the incredibly generous donations to the stalls, games and raffle.
Congratulations to all of our exhibitors. I don’t believe that any of us dreamt that it was possible to put on such a magnificent display given this year’s exceptionally hot weather. A special mention must go to Martin Thompson who exhibited some outstanding vegetables across a broad range of classes, winning the ‘RHS Banksian Medal’, ‘Best exhibit in the Horticultural Sections’ and an astonishing five additional cups!
However, I am afraid that now is not the time to rest and bask in the glory of the Summer Show! There are only 8 weeks to go until the Autumn Show and the schedule will be published on our website on Tuesday! Bream Autumn Show If you are able to help us distribute hard copies of the schedule over the next couple of weeks, please get in touch to let us know where you can deliver. Also, please don’t forget to spread the word at any local hobby groups or events that you attend.
Many thanks again for your support and we look forward to seeing you all at the Autumn Show!
Kathryn and Elizabeth
breamgardeningsociety@gmail.com
Summer Show lost property
We collected together a small pile of lost property after the Show. These will be made available for collection at the meeting on Tuesday 8th September, or please contact me on secretarybgs100@gmail.com to make alternative arrangements.
The items are as follows. Please click on the description to see a photograph.
Plates and other containers either left in the tea tent or used to display exhibits
Pink Hat
Green/blue glasses case containing recipts
Black pads to display exhibits
Cloth bags used to deliver trophies
Other Organisation’s Events
Here are some events run by other organisations you may find interesting. Follow the links in column 3 for more details
| Date & start time | Where | Who/What/Details & Links |
| 4/9/26 10:00am | Charlton Farm, Malmsbury SN16 9DS | The Generous Gardener Autumn Plant sale |
| 5/9/26 1:30pm | Aylburton Memorial Hall GL15 6DE | Aylburton Garden Show |
| 5/9/26 2:00pm | McKenzie Hall Brockweir NP16 7NW | Wye Garden Garden Show |
| 6/9/26 12:00pm | Westbury Parish Hall Westbury-on-Severn GL14 1PF | Westbury on Severn Summer Show |
| 13/9/26 9:30am | Speech House Hotel GL16 7EL | Forest Vintage Vehicle & Machinary Club Forest Vintage Show |
| 13/9/26 1:00pm | Dundry Nurseries, Cheltenham GL51 6SL | Gloucestershire Federation of Gardening Societies Chrysanthemum & Dahlia Show |
Apple pressing
In previous years we have run events to enable our members to juice surplus apple crops for their own or shared use.
Last year there was a bumper harvest and, at the end of the apple pressing exercise, a large number of unpressed apples remained. We took these to a local company who pressed them and produced bottled, sterilised apple juice with a 2 year shelf life. This was generally reckoned to be delicious and we sold it to members and visitors to our events and made a modest profit for Society funds.
This year we are offering two options to our members.
Firstly, for those who enjoy pressing their own apples, we will be supporting and promoting the Forest Food Network’s “Apple Day“, which will be run by Blakeney Hill Growers on 11 October at the Dean Heritage Centre and feature a powered apple press (run by James McCrindle) and various apple related fun and frolics. The event is still being organised and we will bring you further detail when it is available.
Secondly, we plan to organise a simple BGS surplus apple collection event for professional juicing and bottling on 10 September. The idea would be that members who supplied apples would be able to get back as much juice as they wanted (up to the volume their apples produced) at a discount. Any processed juice left over would then be sold to members and non-members at a small profit, for Society funds.
Last year this system generated over £100 for BGS, much of it from non-members at shows and events. We are hoping to collect more apples and process more juice this year to make this into a “nice little earner” for the Society and hope you will support us in this venture.
Two of our members with extensive orchards (Louise McGuinness & Julia Brindley) have generously offered to let us pick them over to add to the collection of donated apples.
Our plan is to pick apples from Louise’s orchard in Bream starting at 10:00 am. We’ll have a break for lunch and then start picking at Julia’s orchard in Clearwell at 2:00 pm. At 3:30 pm we’ll be taking the crop to Newent and unloading it.
The plan is to pick apples into garden trugs or suitable sacks, and load up Louise’s large trailer. Anyone with surplus apples to contribute can bring them along to either of the orchard picking events (please bring them in your own trugs or sacks – we will return them to you). If you are just picking and have trugs or sacks we may borrow too, that would be helpful.
If you are available to help at either picking and/or unloading the apples at Newent, (or have apples you wish to contribute) please let me know. I will reply confirming your offer and supplying address details to suit. All at secretarybgs100@gmail.com, as usual.
If anyone felt inclined to make apple cakes or similar to add a festive air to proceedings that would be a bonus! There will be cups of tea etc. available.
Photo opportunities
Firstly, a reminder of the Calendar photo competition. We plan to produce a calendar this year, featuring photographs taken by our members. For sale in time for Christmas.
12 photographs of plants, gardens or nature which epitomise the months of the year and one cover photograph which somehow encapsulates the whole thing.
The members whose photographs are selected will, of course, be recognised and feted and receive nice things from the raffle prize box.
If you’d like to put forward photographs for consideration, please just send them to me at secretarybgs100@gmail.com, telling me what they are (in case I cannot guess!).
Secondly, we want to collect as many pictures of the Summer Show as we can for our records. We want nice pictures which we can use in publicity and internal communications, and we want pictures which capture how the show was set up and laid out for reference in future years.
If you took photographs at the show which meet either (or both) of these requirements and are willing to share them with us (and give us permission to publish them if we’d like to), please just send me an email telling me so (secretarybgs100@gmail.com as usual).
I will send you a personal link to a folder in our photo library where you can upload your photos of the show. You simply open the folder on your computer and drag and drop your pictures in from wherever they are stored (this will give us a copy of your photograph, not transfer the original). Close the folder and it’s all done.
Twiddlemitts
Suzanne says that we are arranging to present the Twiddlemitts we made for the Summer Show to Gloucestershire NHS.
If you have any twiddlemitts that you made, but didn’t enter into the show, we welcome them to add to our collection, please let me know on secretarybgs100@gmail.com.
Entertainment/education?
One of our members has recommended this web site Pollinator Pathways . It entertainingly allows you to create a virtual ‘garden’ from plants presented as pollinators see them. Somewhere between art, entertainment and education.
See what you think.
Offers and Wants
Offered – Safety Glass shower door.
Free to anyone who wants it. Approximately 6′ x 2′. Free delivery available within the Forest.
May be suitable for cold frame lid?
Please contact secretarybgs100@gmail.com if you are interested.
Offered – various garden related things
Member Laura Stevens is offering:
Two compost bins (‘Daleks’) one green, one black £15.00 each
Stock netting 14Metres long x 800mm high New £30
Stock netting 5.5 Metres long x 800 high Used but in good condition £7.00
Calcified Seaweed (organic soil conditioner, breaks down heavy clay , neutralises acid soil, rich in minerals and encourages beneficial micro-organisms). £10 / 3Kgs
Can be delivered within the Forest. Please contact by text to 07771 600274.
Wanted – Hyacinth or crocus vases
Special request for BGS Young Gardeners
Does anyone have any hyacinth or crocus vases they can donate to BGS Young Gardeners please? The glass ones where the developing roots can be seen?
Either bring them to the next BGS meeting or contact Suzanne on breamgardeningsociety@gmail.com.