EATON BISHOP GARDENING CLUB
NEWS ITEMS FOR MEMBERS – MAY 2026
Wisteria at Greys Court
I am trying to circulate this month’s mailing in time for the Bank Holiday Weekend. The highlights this month are as follows
4th May Hergest Croft Gardens Plant Fair. 10am – 4pm. Admission £9.50 which includes entry to the plant fair where there will be over 65 plant stalls to tempt you and admission to the gardens for the day and to the award winning tea room.
9th May Kingstone Plant, Cake and Craft sale in aid of Kingstone Sports Association. 10am-2pm. Kingstone Village Hall, Green Lane, Kingstone. HR2 9EX.
15th -17th May St Michael’s Hospice Plant Fair. If you have plants to donate to the sale, these need to be delivered to St Michael’s on Wednesday 13th May. Instructions from St Michael’s are as follows:-
Good Afternoon St Michael’s Hospice Plant Fair 2026 Thank you for offering to donate plants for our Plant Fair 2026. Here are the details for plant deliveries: · Label your plants with name, variety (particularly for tomatoes) and COLOUR (particularly for bedding/annuals) if appropriate; please use compostable labels where possible; · Sort out your GOOD QUALITY pre-loved pots, seeds, tools or other garden-related items for our bring and buy table; · Delivery day is Wednesday 13th May. Please arrive between 10am and 2pm; · Follow the ‘Plant Deliveries’ signage to the Education car park; · Park where you are directed to park, so that we keep the flow of deliveries as efficient and as safe as possible; · Deliver your plants to the table or trolley as directed. Please be patient if the area is busy; · Leave the site as soon as you can to allow others easy access. If you wish to attend the Plant Fair, please sign up here. If you have volunteered to help at the Plant Fair, you will receive an email for each day that you have signed up for, in the next week or so. If you don't receive the email(s) by Friday 1st May, please email Thank you once again and see you on the 13th May. Kind regards Gaynor Gaynor Warren Events and Community Fundraiser |
I you are unable to take your plants to St Michael’s please David Darts and Charlotte Marshall have offered to help. Please liaise with them to arrange delivering the plants to them prior to the deadline date. David is contactable on
Wednesday 20th May, our monthly meeting will be in a visit to Brobury House Gardens. Meet at Brobury House at 6pm or at Eaton Bishop Village Hall at 17.30 if you already arranged a lift with David. Booking and prepayment is required if you intend to attend. Cost is £8. The café is remaining open just for our visit and you will be able to purchase refreshments as required. There will be an introductory talk on the history of the house, followed by a self-led wander around the gardens. There is limited wheelchair accessibility. Please note there will be NO meeting at the Village Hall on 20th. If you are wanting to attend but have not yet signed up please contact Linda Harding on
Looking ahead to our June meeting on 17th, we welcome Jill and Alun Whitehead to talk about Irises for the Natural Garden. This will be at Eaton Bishop Village Hall as usual at 7.30pm.
There will also be our Mid-Summer Competition. The Schedule is as follows
- Rose: 1 specimen bloom
- Roses: 3 stems of any one type, in one vase
- Trees and/or Shrubs in flower: one or more kind in one vase
- Trees and/or Shrubs foliage: one or more kind, in one vase.
- Any flowers not listed above: 3stems of one variety in one vase.
- Any flowers not listed above: 5 stems of more than one kind, in one vase.
- 7. Plate of soft fruit.
Entries will only be accepted from Members of the Eaton Bishop Gardening Club and must have been the Member's property for at least 3 months.
An entrant may submit up to THREE entries per class, but can win only ONE award of points in that class.
There will be no charge for entries.
Points will be awarded in each class as follows
1st place =12 points; 2nd place = 9 points; 3rd place = 6 points; Unplaced = 1 point for entering the class.
There is still time to sign up for our afternoon visit to Llanover Court on 15th July. Again this event requires booking and pre-payment of £20. If paying by BACS please reference Llan-(your name)
Enjoy your gardens or other people’s this Bank Holiday!! Until next month….Happy Gardening.
Lorraine (Club Secretary)
Once again, we will be assisting the Village Hall Committee in running the Village Show in 2026, which this year is being held on Sunday 16th August.
- Cutting back foliage of Hellebores will ensure that emerging flowers are not obscured by old leaves and will help to control Hellebore leaf spot disease. Flowers of Hellebores provide forage to some early pollinators, including bees.
- Start tender Fuchsias into growth, by plunging the pots in water for a few minutes and pruning them back quite hard, cutting out spindly lifeless shoots completely and shortening all other shoots and side shoots to about 2.5-5cm long.
- Hardy shrubs that flower on new wood in summer can be pruned this month.
- This is an ideal time for repairing damage to lawns by reseeding or with turf.
- Lift, divide and replant flowering Snowdrops, as their foliage starts to yellow.
- Continue to prune Roses, although Rambler Roses are normally cut back after flowering. Prune back all growth from the previous season by 30-50 percent, aiming to create a rounded open shape bush.
- Feed with well-rotted horse manure or blood fish and bone fertiliser.
- As soon as winter flowering heathers are past their best, clip them lightly to ensure they remain compact and sturdy.
Kitchen Garden
- Early carrots and parsnips can be sown towards the end of this month, unless the ground remains water logged.
- Plant out seedling onions, also plant out onion sets.
- Sprout or “chit” seed potatoes indoors before planting. This leads to earlier and higher yields.
- Planting of fruit trees and bushes should be completed before the end of this month.
- Sow brussels sprouts and plant out hardened cauliflowers.
Under Glass.
- This is an excellent time to take cuttings of many greenhouse and tender bedding plants.
- Start sowing hardy and half-hardy annuals.
- Pot corms of tuberous begonias.
- Pot up Lily Bulbs for glorious summer colour, keeping an eye out for the red coloured Lily Beetle as the shoots emerge, which can soon devastate your plants if not destroyed quickly.
- French and Runner beans can be sown in pots.
Gardening for Wildlife.
- This month is the start of the main breeding season for garden birds. Putting out nesting material, such as hair and wool, will help to encourage birds to nest in your garden.
- Put up nesting boxes for birds
- Continue providing food for birds. They greatly benefit from additional provisions, when the conditions are freezing. At this time avoid whole nuts and large chunky pieces of bird food that can choke fledglings.
- This is the best time to add new plants to your pond, so they have the whole growing season to establish, as the temperature rises
There will be many jobs that will need to be done in the garden in the weeks ahead, as we come into Spring, but this is just a few that you might like to consider.
