Good afternoon and welcome everyone. 2025 was another tricky year for gardeners, as we battled with the long drought in the summer, and a very gloomy but thankfully wet, autumn. This is my last Chairmans report as I am standing down this year.
Our speakers last year were very well received, with Widget once again finding the most interesting horticulturalists for us. Alan Gray opened the year with his Pushing the Boundaries talk, with references to his experiences at East Ruston Old Vicarage. From Marina Christopher we had an instructive demonstration on seed planting and propagation, with many of us staggering home under the weight of newly acquired heavy duty root trainers and equipment. Tim and Eileen Tordoff gave us masses of useful tips for growing cutting flowers, and Chris Wiley enchanted us all with his unbounded enthusiasm for Sweet Peas. Timothy Walker finished the year with his talk Sex, Lies and Putrefaction, hugely enjoyable and informative, as always.
Our major disappointment was our celebrity speaker, Tom Stuart Smith, who managed to forget the booking, despite having confirmed it some time earlier. I don’t think we have forgiven him yet!
Visits last year all seemed to be in extreme heat, which in no way diminished their enjoyment. Bridges, Stanley Bates and Micheal Elles wonderful garden in Woolpit with a tour by Micheal, and delicious cakes, was once again, a huge treat. The Two Gardens visit to John Dyter’s plantsman’s garden at Woodbridge, and Linda Weeks delightful garden in Clopton, made a lovely day out, with a picnic at John’s and afternoon tea with Linda, watching the ducks on her pond. In September we visited Green Island Gardens outside Colchester, a 20 acre testament to the power of gardening to heal the body and soul of its owner and designer Fiona Edmond.
The Summer Social was held at Brook House, Long Melford, by kind invitation of Jenny Blackler and Nigel Winmill. We had a welcome talk on the history of the house and garden, and then armed with glasses of wine we set about exploring it all. Supper was sandwiches and wraps, with fruit kebabs and tartlets. Our huge thanks to Jenny and Nigel for opening up their garden for this event. My thanks too to the committee who, as always, worked flat out to make it all happen, and to Nicholas Pearson for once again manning the bar!
The Yorkshire Garden holiday was a huge success, with a diverse range of gardens, and good weather. It was fully booked, and there is a full account on the website, kindly written by Sally Hepher, which I urge you all to read.
We have much to look forward to this year, the details of all our speakers are on the noticeboard, and on the website. Our celebrity speaker this year is Matthew Biggs, with his talk Desert Island Gardens, and I am sure we are all looking forward to that, tickets are now available on the website, so do book your seat.
I am delighted to announce that the Summer Social will be held this year by kind invitation of Stanley and Micheal at their wonderful garden, Bridges. The date will be announced in due course. Thank you both so much!!
The new website is slowly becoming more manageable as the wrinkles are being ironed out. This is taking slightly longer than anticipated, so do bear with us, and we do now have a team who are learning to deal with it all, so ‘ well done’ Widget, Lynne, Louise, Alison and Jenny for taking part in solving the issues. Lynne particularly has been tested to the limit, and amazingly has bravely stuck it out, our huge thanks go to them for all the time and effort this has taken.
Finally my thanks : To all of you who support us by bringing delicious cakes and savouries for the teas – please keep them coming; to everyone who helps in the kitchen, we really do all appreciate the effort you put in for our refreshments, it is so good of you to come forward; to David Brown and Kate Sands for taking on the raffle so efficiently; to Karen Murdoch who helped organise the EAGG Holiday, but then sadly couldn’t go as she had Covid, such bad luck!; to Trevor Jennis-Mc Dermott for frequently stepping into the technical breach, where would we have been without you!
Now to the committee – to Fiona Pearson my eternal thanks for being my chair partner, it has made everything so much more manageable to have you by my side to take over when needed, and to be able to share committee meetings, visits and holiday backups, I couldn’t have done this without you. Huge thanks to Widget who not only arranges the best speakers but now is website editor; to Lynne, our secretary who I know we all agree goes above and beyond to keep all the members informed, and does an amazing job of keeping the committee under control at meetings; to Louise our treasurer, who manages brilliantly, whilst still working full time, to keep us on the right financial road; to Imogen for stepping in to help out on all the occasions that she can. My thanks to the new committee members for coming aboard, Alison and Jenny who will be the kingpins of the website. And finally, to the retirees – Isobel Ashton who has valiantly and for many years edited the Newsletter, our thanks for all of it. The website will now host the news items as they roll in, but, being old school, I shall rather miss those lovely newsletters. We have a small token of our huge thanks for you, which we hope you will find a space for in your gorgeous garden.
Finally as you know, our President Maggie Thorpe is retiring this year. Maggie has been unflagging in her support of the East Anglian Garden Group, she became a member in 1994, 32 years ago, and she has served on the committee for much of that time. She became Chairman in 2009, and then after three years became President in 2012. She has made an outstanding contribution to the success of EAGG, with her extensive horticultural experience, her seemingly unending knowledge of the gardens of this country, and she has guided and developed the group to what it is today. I for one, am deeply grateful for her help and support on tackling most of our endeavours. On behalf of all of the members and committee with our heartfelt thanks and gratitude we would like to make a small presentation and hope very much that it will perform well for you!
ERICA LEGGE
Presentation to retiring President Maggie Thorpe by joint Chairman Fiona Pearson.