HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY: Members were fortunate to have as their speaker in March, Miss Val Bourne, who is an organic gardener with a third of an acre garden at Hook Norton but who is a freelance garden writer for the Daily Telegraph, the RHS Journal and other monthly magazines as well as having published books.

She was talking on Plant Legends but began by saying that her grandmother had introduced her to gardening as a small child. Many garden plants have been known for hundreds of years, some of them having been introduced by the Romans but Monkshood, which is a very poisonous plant, was used by the Anglo Saxons to poison wolves. Plant names usually have a meaning, Miss Bourne had slides of the various plants to illustrate her points. She was thanked by Mr Everest.

There were seven entries for the monthly competition, a jar of marmalade, which was won by Mrs A Barham with Mr D Wise second and Mrs R Kimpton third.

The speaker at the April meeting will be Mr Dodd, who will be talking on Perennial Solutions, he will have plants to sell. The monthly competition will be five cut narcissi which do not have to be all the same variety.

Bookings will also be taken at the April meeting for the annual outing which, this year, will be on Thursday, June 5, to the RHS gardens at Wisley. This is likely to be very popular so early booking is advised.