AGM Plus Andrew Sankey

Bicker & District Garden Club held their tenth Annual General Meeting on the evening of Thursday 19th October. Two new officers were elected with the chairman/secretary being re-elected.
The AGM was followed by a talk from one of our regular and most popular speakers - Andrew Sankey. Andrew's talk was entitled "A Year in the Life of a Cottage Garden" and was illustrated with many photos of his own cottage garden at Stixwould, near Woodhall Spa. A number of years ago members of the club had an afternoon visit to this garden. As usual the talk was very enjoyable and warmly received.
We were pleased to welcome three new members to the club that evening.
The Flower of the Month Competition was won by Kathleen with a fuchsia.

Annual Flower & Produce Show

Bicker & District Garden Club held their annual Flower & Produce Show on the evening of Thurdsay 21st September. As usual the categories included fruit, vegetables and flowers. There were also plenty of entries for the cakes, preserves and pickles categories - all of which the members enjoyed sampling. We all had a very enjoyable evening, with the emphasis being on taking part and having a bit of fun.

Name That Plant

Our August meeting was held on the evening of  the 17th. Tony had prepared photos of various plants for us to identify - a very light-hearted quiz. We did have another focus for the evening, however. Sadly for all concerned, Peter, our vice-chairman, died at the end of June. Both Lyn and Tony spoke about Peter and the contributions he had made to Bicker. As well as his work for the Garden Club, Peter was a longstanding member of Bicker Buds. He was also formerly the vice-chair of the village hall committee. Tony also shared an anecdote about an afternoon spent with Peter and Ronnie at the International Bomber Command Centre. Peter's father, of whom Peter was very proud, will have a memorial plaque there.

Events in July

Bicker Garden Club held two events in July and were very lucky with the weather for both. The first event was the annual garden party. This was held on the first Sunday of July and was kindly hosted by Lyn and Mick in their garden. We all had a very enjoyable afternoon and evening together.

The second event was held on the usual Garden Club evening on the third Thursday. We all met at the village hall then walked across the road to Gill's allotment - which is stunning! We went on to Pauline's very attractive and extensive garden. From there we went to Kathleen and Tony's garden where we had refreshments.

A Walk Round Some Members' Gardens

This will be on Thursday 20th July. We will be meeting at the village hall at the earlier time of 7pm. We will be going across the road to look at Gill's allotment and then to Pauline's garden. We will finish at Kathleen and Tony's garden where there will be refreshments.

Annual Garden Party

The Annual Garden Party will be held on Sunday 2nd July from 12 noon. Further details can be obtained by phoning Kathleen or Lyn.

A change to the 2017 Programme

Andrew Sankey will be our speaker at the AGM onThursday 19th October. His talk will be "A Year in the Life of a Cottage Garden".

A Guided Walk at Springfields Gardens

In April instead of our usual monthly meeting at the village hall we had an evening trip. Andy Boyton, the Garden Manager, gave us a guided walk round the gardens at Springfields in Spalding. As we walked round he told us about the history of the gardens and how they have been developed over the years. The National Collection of daffodils - ninety varieties - is there. Some of them are extremely rare with only a few bulbs left. The tulips were spectacular that evening, again many varieties. Andy also pointed out a number of trees and shrubs that were of interest. We were very lucky with the weather. As we arrived there was torrential rain. It stopped just in time for our walk. It began again as we were finishing our tea and cake, which had been kindly served to us by Inga in the summerhouse. All in all a very enjoyable evening.

Members' Evening

For our March meeting on Thursday 16th we tried a different sort of Members' Evening. Usually one or more of our members speak on a topic of their choice. This time we held a social evening and auction. We had a good number and variety of items for sale. Mick was the auctioneer and David was his assistant. We raised over £100 for club funds and had a very enjoyable evening.
The Flower of the Month Competition was won by Steve with a beautiful hellebore. Its name was Harvington Double Cream Speckled.

An A-Z of Bulbs

We were pleased to welcome Johnny Walkers of Walkers Bulbs on 16th February. Walkers Bulbs is the mail order subsidiary of Taylors Bulbs and Johnny leads this division. Johnny is extremely knowledgeable about bulbs with his particular interest being daffodils. He gave us an interesting talk covering the full range of bulbs, corms and tubers with hints about their cultivation.
The Flower of the Month Competition was won by Pauline with an iris.

Nine Years of Photographing Bicker

The advertised title of our talk for January 19th was "Birds in Your Garden", with the speaker being Dr Chris Andrews who is the Visitor Experience Manager of RSPB Frampton Marsh. Unfortunately Chris had a throat infection and was unable to attend. We hope to be able to reschedule this talk for later in the year.
We were fortunate that Tony was able to step in at very short notice. His talk was divided into a number of sections. There were photographs of buildings, people and farming as well as one of his favourite photographic subjects - semi-abstracts. Tony gave us tips for taking better photographs and his talk was very well received.
Despite the cold, frosty weather we had a good number of entries for the Flower of the Month Competition. The winner was Pauline with some Garrya Elliptica.