Plant hunters’ blooming role

Clifton WI

WE were all looking forward to an interesting speaker and getting together for a catchup at our meeting night this month.

Everyone was welcomed by the president, Tina Harbinson, and we covered all the group news, which included dates for the group business meeting, the autumn group meeting, together with the date for the spring group meeting which Clifton will be hosting next year.

Two outings were announced - a trip to see Tim Peake’s spacecraft at Peterborough cathedral, and a shopping trip to the Boundary Mill outlet, in Walsall.

One of the members is arranging a reverse advent calendar for the food bank in Ashbourne, and everyone was requested to take something along to the next meeting.

The speaker for the evening was John Hawkins and the subject was ‘stories behind plants.’

We had met John before when he discussed plant hunters. This talk followed on from that one.

We were told of the origins of a number of easily recognisable flowers from our own gardens and these originated from places like South Africa and Tibet.

We were told stories relating to the plant hunters who found these plants, and everyone enjoyed hearing about how our plants and flowers originated from all over the world.

The date of our next meeting is November 14 at 7.15pm in Clifton-smith Hall. If you are interested in joining us contact our secretary, Phyl Kirkman, on 01335 343948, or Tina on 01335 343749.