An unusual subject for this time of year perhaps but Mick Poultney’s much-postponed talk finally took place, sharing his interest in growing and showing different varieties of gladioli, with tips and techniques. A bonus was that he kindly brought with him a good selection of his freshly prepared excellent quality corms and cormlets to give away to our members and guests ready for next spring. He was also selling an assortment of fertilisers and his own compost book at discounted prices, and generously gave several prizes for our raffle.

There was only one entry for this month’s monthly competition, a lovely vase of chrysanthemums from Joan. The competition is now closed for the year so the points will be calculated and the Trudi Brearley Challenge Trophy will be awarded to the member who has won the most points during the year. Our printed programme of talks for 2024 was available with an excellent range of speakers and topics thanks to Sue’s hard work, full details on our programme page. There were free hardback books for members to browse over refreshments then take home, these had been kindly donated by the library at St. Stephen’s Church, Cannock, and shared with our friends at Burntwood.