Events
We are currently planning the 2027 events in addition to our regular club meetings:
Open Garden Weekend – 3rd and 4th July 2027
Coach Trip to RHS Garden – TBC
In 2026 we hosted:
Garden and Home Produce Show 22nd August: We had a great turn out despite the difficult growing conditions this year, with many non-members placing in our club competitions. It was great to see the local community support for the show.
Summer coach trip Monday 20th July: We had fabulous weather for our joint trip with our friends from Burntwood Gardening Guild to RHS Garden Bridgewater; please see our Blog for a report and some photos, with lots more on our Gallery page.
Wheelbarrow competition and plant stall Saturday 20th June: This was another success; please see our Blog for a report and some photos of this great day at the CannockWood&Gentleshaw Village Hall Midsummer Fair
Guided tour of Shugborough Forest Garden 15th May: We arranged this after Lizzie Pellowe’s excellent talk in September and it was an excellent start to our outings for this year. Please see our Blog for a report and some photos, with more on our Gallery page.
Photos for all our 2025 events below are on our gallery page
Fungi Foray 15th October: Our February speaker Richard Sunter led a guided tour of all the amazing fungi in Gentleshaw Churchyard which was enjoyed by members despite the inclement weather! Those attending donated £64 towards the upkeep of Christ Church.
Garden and Home Produce Show Saturday 30th August: We were delighted with the success of our Show this year with an amazing 247 entries after such a hot dry summer when everything seemed to have gone over early, but our exhibitors did us proud, and with the home produce too! There was a wonderful display in the village hall, and for the first time, both the Lewis Cup for the most points in the vegetable classes and the Tom Ethelstone Memorial Trophy for the most overall points were won by the same person, club member Steve Wroe.
Summer Coach Trip 7th July: A week after our Open Gardens weekend, we had a full coach of members and guests for a wonderful trip to Waterperry Gardens near Oxford. The weather was just right, not too hot with a lovely breeze. As well as the 8 acres of landscaped gardens with so many different areas, we enjoyed the plant centre, gift barn, art gallery, rural life museum and Saxon church. Not forgetting the teashop and strolls by the river!
Open Gardens Weekend 28th & 29th June: We were delighted to welcome 268 visitors to our Open Gardens weekend, raising £1340 in programme sales, which was shared between the Village Hall and the Gardening Club as usual, a real success in stiflingly hot weather. Everybody enjoyed the range of styles and sizes in the 12 gardens as well as some excellent views, with one commenting: “every garden had some take-home inspiration for our own plot”. Our oldest visitor was a sprightly 102, and some had travelled quite a distance. Thank you to everybody involved in achieving this result: the garden owners without whose generosity this event couldn’t happen, the village hall volunteers, all who donated plants and cakes, behind-the-scenes helpers, and all who supported the event by buying programmes.
Garden and Home Produce Show Saturday 31st August 2024: This was another brilliant show.
Spring Coach Trip Thursday 16th May 2024 Bridgemere Show Gardens:
We had a great day out despite the rather inclement weather – the first guided tour of the award-winning gardens was luckier than the second! – with time to explore the garden centre and shopping village with a choice of restaurants for refreshments.
Garden and Home Produce Show Saturday 16th September 2023
We were delighted with the support for the return of our show, please see our Annual Show page for a full report, with photos on our blog and gallery page
Open Gardens Weekend 8th & 9th July 2023: It was a great pleasure to welcome visitors to the 13 gardens taking part, with over 300 attending, a wonderful result, many thanks to all our garden owners and helpers. We had mixed weather on the Saturday, then Sunday was mostly warm and sunny apart from the hailstorm finale! Several people said it was the best event they had been to this year with the variety of sizes, styles and settings, wonderful views, excellent refreshments and a warm welcome everywhere. “An absolute delight” was one of the many great comments. The net proceeds from programme sales will be divided between the Village Hall and the Gardening Club. Hopefully this will now return to being a biennial event in our calendar, to allow everybody the opportunity to recover from their sterling efforts.
Spring Coach Trip to John’s Garden Ashwood Nurseries Wednesday April 19th 2023: We all enjoyed a lovely and full day out, the weather was on the cool side but it stayed dry.
Below is a list of our events in 2019 which was a packed year – and with hindsight we are glad we made the most of it!
Autumn Coach Trip to Wildegoose Nursery & Morville Hall/Dower House on Friday 13th September 2019: Our last outing of the year, this time to Shropshire, was blessed with wonderful weather. Our first stop was at Wildegoose Nursery & Walled Garden at Lower Millichope then the afternoon at the National Trust’s Morville Hall where some of us went round the house & grounds, others visited the adjacent Dower House Garden.
Garden & Home Produce Show Saturday 10th August 2019: A lovely day & well worth all the hard work!! Thank you to everybody who supported it whether by entering, visiting or helping beforehand &/or on the day itself.
Summer Evening Trip Thursday 18th July 2019: Anita Wright of The Garth http://www.nimbus.org.uk/anitawright/html/the_garth.html was our captivating speaker in February this year & we chose her garden for our summer outing & we weren’t disappointed.
Village Open Gardens Weekend 15th & 16th June 2019
We are delighted that despite heavy showers on Saturday afternoon & gloomy skies on Sunday morning impacting the number of casual visitors, we raised £1600 from programme sales, refreshments donations & the plant stall, which will be divided between the village hall and gardening club.
Everybody seemed to have such a good time as summed up by this feedback received via our contact page: “We thoroughly enjoyed touring the open gardens. Whether large or small, formal or with an element of randomness all were a credit to the gardeners and their ‘helpers’. Whatever your tastes in gardens there was something for everyone and we particularly liked the ingenuity demonstrated dealing with the differing shapes and contours. And the abundance of wild flower areas for bees and butterflies was noteworthy. Well done!”
Visitors also commented on the warm welcome that they received as they walked round, and many thanks go to all our garden owners & everybody who helped or supported the event in any way. Cannock Chase MP Amanda Milling enjoyed a couple of hours visiting several of the gardens and made some purchases at the plant stall, as did many others thankfully. There are some pictures on the gallery page and we hope that other garden owners living in Cannock Wood & Gentleshaw will be inspired to join in what we hope will now be a biennial event, with the next in summer 2021!
Spring Trip Wednesday 6th March 2019: For our first trip of the year we headed to the Staffordshire Moorlands to see the National Collection of Hellebores by kind invitation of last September’s speaker Mike Byford of Hazles Cross Farm Nursery, who along with his wife Tricia made us very welcome.
Christmas Social Evening Tuesday 11th December 2018: We were so relieved that the weather was kind to us this year so that this could go ahead!
Sylvia’s Open Garden Evening Friday 3rd August 2018
We all had a lovely evening, thank you again to Sylvia.
Garden and Home Produce Show Saturday 8th September2018: This was another very successful event.
Spring Calke Abbey 2nd May 2018: This was our only coach trip of 2018 but much enjoyed by all who went.