Become a member

  • Welcome gardeners

    Hatch End Horticultural Society provides local people with the opportunity to share their enthusiasm for, and learn more about flower, fruit and vegetable gardening.

    The objective of the Society is “to promote and encourage the cultivation of flowers, fruit and vegetables and the interest of members towards that end”.

    Upcoming events:

    Next Garden Visit

    Wednesday 24th June: Unfortunately due to the high temperatures forecast for the day we have decided to postpone our vist Jordan’s Mill and Kathy Brown’s Manor House Garden. We will advise everyone of the new date as soon as possible.

    Wednesday 15th July : Outing to RHS Hyde Hall.

    Coach leaves Morrisons at 9.45am. An opportunity to get free entry to this outstanding dry garden using our RHS affiliation which allows 55 people to enter one of their gardens each year. Cost £18pp for HEHS Members, £21pp for non-members. Please book by 1 July.

    Saturday 20th June: HEHS Summer Show 2pm-4.30pm

    This year we have a change of venue to the Girl Guide HQ (next to the Scout HQ, our usual venue, which is closed due to building works). The guides have stepped in to help the society hold the show, for which we are very grateful.

    Entry free to the public. Exhibits, plant stall, raffle, tea/coffee and cakes.

    The Harrow Mayor, Cllr Yogesh Teli and the Mayoress, Mrs Neela Teli are delighted to accept our invitation to present the prizes at the show at 4.30pm.

    Next Talk

    Thursday 8th October: Talk: Kerrie Lloyd Dawson “Update on my garden development”. Baptist Church 8pm

    Free teas/coffee and biscuits will be served during the talk. Please remember to bring your own mug so save us wasting paper cups. Doors will open at 7.30pm.

    The AGM was held on Thursday 5 March 2026 with a talk by Michael Holland about the Chelsea Physic Garden (see below).

    Michael Holland

    Chairman’s Report 2025-26
    2025/26 was a very good year for the society with a full social calendar. This included 5 talks, Summer and Autumn Shows and a Quiz Night. We also had 4 Outings to Myddelton House and Capel Manor Gardens, Waddesden Manor and Gardens, Hever Castle and Gardens and finally to RHS Wisley. Vanita Pankhania very kindly hosted a Coffee Morning and Monica and Paul Gerhold hosted an immensely successful Pimm’s Afternoon in their beautiful garden that raised a large sum of money, much of which we donated to the new garden being laid out by our speaker Matthew Biggs at the Mount Vernon Hospital Cancer Centre. Many thanks to them all. Our Summer and Autumn Shows, with full show schedules, were both very well supported by exhibitors and visitors. We held our annual Quiz Supper at the Elliott Hall Arts Centre and the evening was a great success with over 80 people partaking, with 50% of the profit being donated to the St Luke’s Hospice charity. It was very good to see so many members socializing in their usual lively manner. A special thanks to Lesley Morgan and Sheila Reid for organizing the Quiz Supper so efficiently.
    The usual quarterly Bulletins are still published both online and in hard copies so all members were kept up-to-speed during the year. It is interesting that only a few years ago almost half of our members needed hard copies but now we are down to around 10 members so our postage is significantly reduced and Road Stewards are no longer needed to deliver the bulletins.
    We also produced the usual Yearbook giving full details of the year’s events and Show Schedules for both shows. Our activities are also still reported in the Hatch End Association Bulletin and by Harrow in Leaf, so a big thanks to them.
    Several of our members continue to help The Hatch End Association by taking responsibility for the caring and watering of many of the containers in Hatch End Broadway and ensuring that they all looked so very colourful and brightened up our village. They were well received by passers-by and justly so. Thanks to all those who took part.
    John Barton, with active help from Dick Wootten, is currently planning our visits and outings for 2026, including visits to Church Garden in Harefield, to Kathy Brown’s Garden and Jordan’s Mill, to Sissinghurst Castle Garden, and finally to RHS Hyde Hall Garden. Details will be released as soon. A big thank you go to John and Dick.
    Our social events being planned for this year include another Open Garden Afternoon in Brenda and Roy Jake’s beautiful garden on Sunday 7th June. Full details are in the recently published Spring Bulletin.
    Maintaining a high membership level is always difficult but a recent push by our Membership Secretary and those wishing to join our outings has seen an increase in membership numbers. Our current membership number now stands at around 200, about 10 more than this time last year. A big thank you goes to our Membership Secretary, Sarah Prentice, for her hard work in achieving and maintaining this membership level. Following our push last year to encourage members to renew their subscriptions early it is great to report that over 100 members have already done so this year. If you have not yet rejoined the society please do so as soon as possible.
    Special thanks go to our Treasurer, Stephen Lee, who has maintained a tight and accurate control of the society’s budget and who now has a Sumup card reader to enable members to pay cashless whenever they wish.
    Thanks also go to Lesley Morgan in her role as Social Secretary. She put together a very varied and interesting set of talks in 2025. She has also completed bookings for talks for this year. Details are again in the recent Spring Bulletin. Unfortunately Lesley wishes to stand down as Social Secretary and we thank her for her past hard work in that role. Fortunately Maureen Wilson has very kindly agreed to take over as Social Secretary once again.
    Thanks also go to our Vice-Chairman and Secretary, John Barton, who continues to help run our society with vigour and determination, ensuring the smooth running of the Society over the past year. A very special thanks goes to John for all his immensely hard work during the past year.
    It was with great sadness that we learnt of the passing of one of our Vice-Presidents, Alan Wilson, during the year. He had played such a massive part in the society’s recent development, in particular he was the person, as Treasurer, who moved the society’s finances into the computer age. A very sad loss indeed. However to keep it in the family I am pleased to say that Maureen has very kindly accepted our invitation to take over his Vice-President’s role.
    The society’s WhatApp Group continues to be active and informative. Please contact Nitty if you are not in this group but would like to be. Rick Smith is also running the society’s Facebook and Instagram pages so also contact him if you wish to join those social media platforms. Thanks also to Rick for organizing the talk refreshments, much appreciated.
    I would also like to personally thank the rest of the committee and all members of the Society for their active support and hard work over the past year. Without this commitment from our members and committee the Society would not be able to continue. A special thank you to you all.
    This concludes my report for 2025-2026.
    Alan Graham
    Chairman
    4th March 2026

    Autumn Show Gallery

    The Autumn Show 2026 was another successful and enjoyable community event.

    Pimms Afternoon

    The society held a very successful Pimm’s Afternoon hosted by Monica and Paul Gerhold in their garden in Nugents Park on Saturday 26th July. The garden was looking beautiful, full of spectacular plants in full flower and many interesting features. Over 120 members, friends and acquaintances joined the event helping us to raise over £800 for the society. In accordance with Monica’s wishes she did not want any expenses but asked that the money be donated to the Mount Vernon Hospital Cancer Centre Garden fund. As you may recall the broadcaster and horticulturalist Matthew Biggs (see below) told us at his talk earlier this year that he was raising funds to renovate and refurbish the garden which was now looking tired and neglected. The committee has decided that 50% of the money raised should be donated to the garden fund and therefore £400 is being sent to Matthew to help fund the garden renovation. Thank you to all of you who came on Saturday and supported the event and a very special thank you to Monica and Paul for all the hard work they put in to make their garden look so wonderful and to their helpers Nitty, Rick and others who ensured the event was such a success. Kind regards Alan Graham (Chairman)

    AGM

    The AGM was attended by over sixty members, a fantastic turnout. The society is in good health with 190 members. The committee was re-elected with just one change. Maureen Wilson has stepped down as Vice Chairman with John Barton taking over. Maureen, thankfully, remains on the committee. There was also an excellent talk by the engaging Matthew Biggs. http://matthewbiggs.com/

    Matthew Biggs at the AGM
    Matthew Biggs at the AGM

  • Bulletin

    Spring 2025

    With January and February having almost come and gone, we should now all be putting our minds towards our gardening plans for the coming year and getting everything ready for a successful horticultural year in 2025. The recent wet and very overcast weather has not proven to be a great start to the year. The committee are currently putting together a mixed and varied programme of events for our society this year, much of which is mentioned in this bulletin. We hope they are of interest to you and look forward to seeing you at as many of them as possible.

    Following a successful year and to give members a reward for their support we have decided to allow all 2024 paid-up members FREE ENTRY to our next two talks in March and April, so do come along to those talks to support these events and to benefit from this bonus benefit.

    Please check out our Outings and events page for the upcoming talks and garden visits for the remainder of the year.

    Just a quick reminder that live talks take place in the Hatch End Baptist Church, known as the Sanctuary, not the adjoining Church Hall which we used to use. For garden visits the coach leaves from Morrisons.

    If you need to contact the society please email: info.hehs@gmail.com

  • Spring/summer schedule

    The first outing of 2025 is as follows:

    Monday 14 April: Myddleton House and Capel Manor Gardens. Coach leaves Morrisons at 9am. visiting Myddelton House and Garden – with free time to explore the extensive Arboretum and Ornamental, Kitchen, Alpine, and Rock gardens and the small Museum.

    After lunch the coach will transfer us the short distance to Capel Manor Gardens.

    At Capel Manor you have the option of joining a 60-90 minute guided garden tour (for an extra £5 per person) but this has to be booked in advance, or you can opt to “self explore”.

    Entrance to Myddelton House Gardens is free. Entrance to Capel Manor Gardens has to be paid on the day as follows: Under 60s £9.50, 60+ £8.50, Gardeners World 2 for 1 cards admits 2 for the price of 1 full price ticket (£10)

    The price of the outing, including coach cost but excluding the entrance charges at Capel Manor, are as follows:

    Excluding Guided Tour – HEHS Members £16.50, Non-Members £19.50

    Including Guided Tour – HEHS Members £21.50, Non-Members £24.50

  • Autumn 2024 Show Gallery

    Autumn 2024 Show Gallery

    Autumn 2024 show took place on Saturday 21st September and it was once again a hugely enjoyable, successful and busy event. The committee would like to extend their thanks to all those who attended and helped to make it such a wonderful occasion, to the people who helped set up and clear the the room, to all the exhibitors, to the judges, to the plant and raffle stalls, to the kitchen and especially to those who baked such a delicious range of cakes.