Dear Members,

We hope that you all had a lovely Easter and have been able to make the most of the lovely weather (in between the showers) that we have been having. I am sure that you have made the most of it and are now catching up with all the jobs that we have not been able to do until now because of the rain.

Saturday 23rd March– Spring Flower Show

The Spring Show that we held recently was excellent. We had 176 entries from 33 adults & 14 children. We are hoping that now that our membership is growing every week that more members might like to join in and exhibit. The trophy winners were the Millennium cup for the best exhibit in the Tulip classes Patrick Dealtry, the Peggy Findley Memorial Bowl for the best exhibit in the Daffodil classes Steve Holden, the Silver Salver for the best exhibit in the Cookery classes Liesma Mezulis, the Silver Salver for the best exhibit in the Floral Art Classes Janet Warren and the Innes Brown Memorial trophy for the best exhibit in the Cut Flower Classes Keith Perry. Other prize winners included Sue Pitman, Cherry Williams, Brenda Bailey, David Donovan, Ann Cannings, Eva Pendreich, Laurie King, Christine King, Bob Rogers, Annabelle Heath, Graham Coomber, Margaret Jones, Ted Coomber & Mabel Coomber. More photos to be included next month.

Saturday 6th April– Annual General Meeting– pavilion 10.30

The A.G.M. will once again be held in the pavilion. The doors will open from 10.00, to enable you to renew your subscriptions and enjoy a cup of coffee before the meeting starts at 10.30. The new schedule has even more in it this year, with both the Summer & Autumn shows having 100 classes in each. The Spring Show has grown to have 62 classes. This is a first for us. Never before, in the history that we can find, did we ever offer as many classes as this year. That is not including the children’s classes of course.

Tuesday 14th May.– RHS Wisley.

This trip is free to all members. The coach will leave Maple Parade bus stop at 9.45am and will leave Wisley at 4pm. There are still a few places available. If you would like to join us then please can you let Brenda Bailey know asap. Non-members may be able to join us for £25.00 if there are spaces available.

Sunday 16th June – Walberton Open Gardens

Plans are moving along well for the Open Gardens event this year. If you can help in anyway wewould love to hear from you. The Sussex Snowdrop Trust will be serving refreshemnts in the Village Hall, St. Mary’s Church will be organising the car parking on the playing field. The Gardeners Club are preparing all the paperwork, sorting permissions from the relevant departments, selling plants and serving Pimms by the Village Hall. What we are asking from you is to donate some plants. So if you have too many seedlings, can you please grow them on for us. Or if you are dividing plants and don’t need them all, we would like them too. All donations gratefully received.

Summer Flower Show Saturday 6th July

This year we will be holding our summer Flower Show in the Village Hall, with the Dog Show on the Field, also the Village Fete on the field. We are trying to build on the success of the Fete that we held last year. If you would like to help, either by having a stall, or simply giving us some good ideas of how we can improve, we would like to hear from you. Also, if you would like to be one of the Fete Fixer group please just let us know.