Societies & Associations
The Lambeth Horticultural Society was first established in 1951. The Society is run entirely by volunteers whose aim is to promote horticulture by:
Organising flower shows in Spring and Summer and running the Flower Show section of Lambeth Country Show on behalf of Lambeth Council.
Running day trips by coach to important gardens in the South-East of England.
Organising talks on horticultural subjects.
Running a shop (The Hut) staffed by volunteers and open only to members where garden supplies are available at discount prices.
Publishing a Newsletter three times a year.
There are now about 500 members who pay a fee of £7 per year. Membership is open to anyone – you don’t have to live in Lambeth.
Only members are able to use The Hut (the Society’s shop) and only members receive the Newsletter (electronically or physically) and the monthly e-mail giving details of Society activities. Some activities are open to non-members (the Talks programme and the Flower Shows in particular) but Members get priority for bookings on visits to gardens.
The Little Common Horticultural Society is a warm and friendly society devoted to providing an interesting and enjoyable experience for all our members. We are active in the Little Common and Bexhill communities of East Sussex.
We very much welcome visitors and new members, whether experienced or novice. Do come along and try us out one evening, it costs only £2 as a visitor. Our annual membership is fantastic value at only £7 – this gives you free entry to all our monthly shows and meetings.
Our members range from those with decades of professional horticultural experience, talented amateur gardeners to complete novices who simply enjoy gardening, being in gardens, trips out and cream teas!
It isn’t only gardening. There are also craft, photography and domestic categories in both the monthly and annual shows.
Marlborough Gardening Association, Wiltshire, UK – one of the town’s most active voluntary organisations with over 150 members.
We’re a friendly group of gardeners and horticultural enthusiasts which meets monthly for talks on garden topics at Christchurch Wesley Hall, Oxford Street, Marlborough. We also publish a monthly newsletter and organise events and visits for members.
Our annual programme is packed with interest for active and armchair gardeners alike. Each year the Association arranges a series of talks, a lunch, visits to gardens and nurseries, and a plant sale in Marlborough Town Hall.
New members are always welcome. To join us please complete the Membership Form or come along to a monthly meeting. The annual subscription is £ 7.50.
Members receive the monthly newsletter, free entry to the Monthly Gardening Talks, a 10% discount on gardening sundries at T.H. White and special rates on Events and Visits.
Visit the Scottish branchNational Auricula & Primula Society – Auriculas are members of the Genus Primula which is a large family of plants comprising over 425 species and many thousands of hybrids.
The auricula first appeared in European gardens around the middle of the sixteenth century. The cultivated forms which we grow today have been developed for over 350 years as Florist Flowers. The word florist, used in this sense, refers to a gardener who grows and raises plants to agreed standards. The use of the word to mean a flower seller is a relatively recent development.
The different types comprise Show, Alpine, Double and Border auriculas. Show types include green and grey edged, selfs, stripes and fancies. Alpines are either gold-centred or light-centred.
In addition we also grow the gold-laced polyanthus, the only member of the primrose family grown to florists’ standards.
Although originally formed purely to grow auriculas and gold-laced polyanthus the three independent sections of the Society, all based in England, cover the whole range of primula species and hybrids including such popular plants as primroses and polyanthus.
The National Dahlia Society was formed in 1881 and for over a century has given unbroken service to gardeners interested in this wonderful flower. We are now a registered charity, which seeks to promote the dahlia by means of exhibitions (shows), trials and conferences. We are the world’s largest all-dahlia society and annually hold our main exhibitions at RHS Wisley and the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate, Yorkshire, with reduced admission for members of course!
Twice a year – with our Winter Bulletin and summer publication, The Dahlia Annual – we keep members informed on every aspect of dahlia news, with items covering culture, trials, shows, cultivar selection, etc. These books are issued free to members, and in addition, on enrolment, our current Classified Directory (containing lists of recommended cultivars) and ‘Dahlias For You’ by Ted Collins are also sent free of charge to the new member.
Other events are organised annually, like our conferences, held around the country in March. Mention must be made of the Society’s unique information service, that helps members with any problems they might have and provides for personal contact with our representatives in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. We also have linking contacts with international dahlia societies, this forming a chain of information for our members that spans the globe.
The Sweet pea came to the UK in 1699 so in 1899 it was decided by some prominent horticulturists to celebrate this popular flower. The bicentenary exhibition was held at Crystal Palace, London on 20-21 July 1900. It was a tremendous success and prompted the inauguration shortly after of the National Sweet Pea Society.
The society’s first exhibition was held in the new Methodist Central Hall Westminster on 25-26 July 1901. At this show the first Spencer variety was unveiled with much longer stems and larger, frilly flowers.
Over the years regular exhibitions have seen the introduction of countless new varieties. From 1905, the society decided to publish an annual booklet to record the developments of the year and this has continued (with the exception of 1941-43) every year since. The NSPS Annual includes a great diversity of articles and remains our flagship publication. Sample articles from the 2016 Annual are reproduced via links in the Membership section.
The society expanded its publications in 1939 to issue four bulletins a year. The number and size of bulletins has varied over the years but now stands at two per year.
The Society’s objects remain:
To disseminate knowledge of Sweet Peas and other Lathyrus species,
To encourage, improve and extend the cultivation of these flowers by means of scientific trials, the holding of exhibitions and displays, by publications and other actiivities.
For nearly 90 years Newton-le-Willows Gardeners’ Association has been working for the benefits of local gardeners with a membership of about 650 in and around Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, in the United Kingdom. The main attraction for members is our shop on the Rob Lane Allotments site in Newton (generally known as the “Sales Hut”) where composts, fertilizers, and many other gardening requisites can be purchased at very competitive prices.
We also hold a Flower & Vegetable Show in September each year and there are monthly lectures or demonstrations on a variety of horticultural topics. Coach trips are arranged to major flower shows, stately homes, famous gardens, or other places of interest.
Members receive two newsletters each year and the annual membership fee is £4.00
Our origins are uncertain, but the general belief is that it probably all started with the formation of an Allotments Association during the First World War.
Norfolk Organic Group is a membership organisation of about 200 gardeners, smallholders, farmers and others interested in organic food.
We are affiliated to and act as a local group for Garden Organic, the national charity for organic growing (formerly the Henry Doubleday Research Association (HDRA), www.gardenorganic.org.uk) and the Soil Association,who campaign for planet-friendly food and farming (www.soilassociation.org).
Norfolk Organic Group aims to promote the organic movement in Norfolk by encouraging people to grow organically and to use resources sustainably, maintaining the link between people, food and the soil.
The North of England Horticultural Society (NEHS) is a leading gardening charity set up more than 100 years ago to support and promote horticulture across the north. The society organises and runs the twice yearly Harrogate Flower Shows, widely regarded as the biggest and most prestigious independent shows in the gardening year.
Both the spring and autumn events host a range of ‘shows within a show’ enabling dozens of specialist gardening groups to hold their annual shows, promote their work and recruit new members, free of charge. From dahlias to daffodils and bees to bonsai, the specialist societies have become an integral part of our events, including the National Vegetable Society (NVS) and the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS).
Profits from the Harrogate Flower Shows are handed back to the NEHS, to enable the charity to continue its important work in promoting horticulture. In 2012 the society launched a new grants programme to provide funding for community projects in the north of England. More than 70 groups have since benefited from grants, adding to the range of financial support already provided for gardening organisations, such as the Chartered Institute of Horticulture’s ‘Young Horticulturalist of the Year’ Competition.
The Lily Group is the oldest of the RHS plant groups of the Royal Horticultural Society and is based in London, UK. Formed as a Committee in 1931 and as a Group in 1932, we celebrated our seventy fifth anniversary in 2007.
Lilies in the wild are distributed across the Northern hemisphere- China, Korea, Japan, Siberia, Asia, the Caucasus, Europe and North America. Yet given the right conditions they will grow in many other parts of the world. It is a love of Lilies and the challenge to grow them which unites the Group’s few hundred members of all ages, of whom approximately a third are from overseas. Apart from the UK they are scattered throughout Europe, in Canada and the USA, in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, in Japan and Asia. Thus the potential for exchange of knowledge and seed is considerable.