ON a hot July evening, the speaker was Elaine Gorton, from Tinpenny Farm, Fiddington, near Tewkesbury.

Elaine is a plantaholic and chairman of the Hardy Plant Society and a member of the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens and also a member of the National Garden Scheme.

Her garden has large collections of hosta, hellebore, hemerocallis, iris, geraniums, aster and grasses with thousands of other plants, many of which are on sale in the nursery. Her talk was on herorocallis and companion plants.

There are 40,000 registered cultivators of hemerocallis but it is best to buy one when it is in flower. Although it lives up to its name as the day lily with each flower only lasting one day, there are usually so many buds that you get a succession of flowers.

Some varieties open in the morning and some at noon and some in the evening, so if you are out all day make sure you buy an evening one.

They originated in Japan and China, but these days a lot are bred in Australia and America.

There will be no club meeting in August as members are visiting Cranesbill Nursery and the September meeting will be a talk about Batsford Arboretum by Sue Burn.

We meet on the first Wednesday of every month at 7.30pm the village hall, Alcester Road, Wythall, near Beckett's Island.