Grayshott Gardeners' Annual Plant Sale

The village square saw unusual activity before most of the shops were open on the morning of Saturday May 10. The early riser would have observed a well organized group erecting tables and covering them with a range of plants that would defy most of us to comprehensively identify. The occasion was the annual plant sale organized by the Grayshott Gardeners. The sale was advertised to begin at 10 a.m., but well before the official start, astute gardeners could be seen examining the plants on offer.

They were lured by the opportunity the morning offered to purchase quality plants, of local provenance and therefore well adapted to the local gardens rescued from what William Cobbett accurately described as "rascally heaths."

The weather in the last few weeks could have been programmed by the Gardeners to their advantage. A cool wet April with ground and air frosts and a rare fall of snow in the early part of the month suddenly relented. After a wet May day, a pair of cuckoos flying over the area on their way north, accurately predicted a few days of unbroken sunshine, and suddenly all the trees and hedges burst into leaf and the garden centres were filled to overflowing with people seeking to stock their gardens with expensive bedding plants.



The more canny gardeners in Grayshott restrained their impulse to buy until Saturday the 10 May. On the stalls, neatly arranged in the village square, the prices were fixed on each of the tables and ranged from 50p to £2.50. One of the buyers, who had been unable to restrain a visit to a local garden centre in the previous week, ruefully regretted having purchased there for £5.99 for a smallish pot of geraniums, when he had just been able to buy a magnificent specimen in a pot twice the size for £2.

With most of the plants sold, the stalls packed up and the square restored to its former condition, the sale had raised £1100 with which to further the activities of the Society.




Forthcoming activities include a coach trip to the Chelsea Flower Show on Wednesday 21 May, followed by another coach trip to The Garden Show at Stansted Park on 6 June. A workshop, for a limited number of members, and dealing with the propagation of soft wood cuttings is to be held at RHS Wisley on 24 June.

For more information about the Grayshott Gardeners, contact the Secretary Vanessa Thompson on 01428 607309.