Dedham Horticultural Society

Affiliated to the RHS

Dear Dedham Resident, October 2019

If you are new to the area, or already a resident, we wanted to tell you more about The Dedham Horticultural Society (DHS), Dedham’s gardening club.

DHS holds speakers’ evenings in the Assembly Rooms, Dedham High Street, at 7.30 pm on the first Wednesday of the month, except for January and the summer months. Evening meetings are friendly and comprise a varied programme of talks and presentations about a variety of horticultural topics and are a good way to meet other people interested in all aspects of gardening and related subjects. Recent DHS speakers’ evenings have covered: Creating my Garden from a Field, History and Development of the National Garden Scheme, and Care and Pruning of Fruit Trees. The subject of planned forthcoming speakers’ evenings include: Willow Weaving of Garden Structures, Propagation and Flower Arranging for Shows.

The Society organises one or more outings per year to gardens of interest, on a non-profit basis for members, with a small supplement for non-members. These are always extremely interesting and a good day out. In June we visited East Ruston Old Vicarage. When arranged, details for 2020 will be provided on our website.

Additionally, the Society presents a Spring and Autumn Show for all ages in the Assembly Rooms where you can exhibit (free of charge) your own produce, flowers, cookery or photographs to compete for various trophies, held for one year on loan, by each Class winner until the next year. Or you can just come along and see the wonderful show and enjoy a cup of tea.

The Society’s annual subscription is only £8 and entitles you to free entry to the seven speakers’ evenings, including tea, coffee and biscuits; non-members are always welcome at a small fee of £2 each session.

In May there is the ever-popular Plant Sale in front of Dedham Church where members’ donated surplus perennials, shrubs, annuals and vegetable plants are on sale at very reasonable prices; many a bargain is to be found! The money raised is used to fund the activities of the Society, help keep membership fees to a minimum and to subsidise outings.

Similarly a fund-raising Coffee Morning is held in June, where members and friends can get together and enjoy a lovely local garden belonging to one of our members.

We have a close relationship with the Dedham Allotment Association (DAA); a number of DHS members are also members of the DAA, and vice versa. This usefully enables both associations to offer horticultural tips to each other. To contact DAA e-mail

Dedham Allotment Association

NEW MEMBERS AND VISITORS ARE ALWAYS VERY WELCOME

For more information about DHS or if you would like to become a member please contact: Chairman, Colin Biggins on 01206 322565, email: colinbiggins869@btinternet.com or Secretary, Elizabeth Ellis on 01206 231164. Also see our website below OR our page on Dedham Parish Council website.

Thank You for reading this letter and we do hope to see you soon at some, if not all, of our forthcoming events.

Dedham Horticultural Society