january 18th
coffee Social
We have started our 165th year with a coffee social. Our celebration cake was cut by Val Forester and Sue Thompson, two of our longest serving members. Val was chair twice and a member of the committee for many years, Sue has been our show secretary for over 20 years now. The society was delighted to present Dawlish Community Transport, The Strand Center and the Methodist Church with cheques for £165 each as a thank you to all the support they give us through the year to hold our plant sales and our summer show. We were delighted to see so many of our members there alongside visitors.
november 2024
Trials and Tribulations to Growing Tea in Devon with Kathryn and Jo Harper
When they moved to Ashburton and had renovated their house, they decided that they wanted to use the 14 acres that went with their house in a purposeful way. They considered chickpeas and lentils; they ruled out wine and decided on tea. Their unexpected journey into tea started on new years day 2015 when they bought 500 seeds on the internet, along with 4 bags of compost and a mini greenhouse, starting themselves up for £48. Unfortunately, the seeds were of such a poor quality that only 12 germinated. Next, they went down to Penzance and took cuttings, ending up with 800 leaf node cuttings. After 2 years of trying, they had just 250 plants.
Then Nigel entered their lives, he is a tea specialist and an international consultant, he sourced good quality seeds from Nepal and from the 2,500 seeds within eight weeks they had 2,480 seedlings. As the plants need to grow on for 2 years before you plant them out and have a stem that is pencil thin, there next task was to purchase a poly tunnel to bring them on.
Still without a business plan and still working blind they started to plant up a tea garden. Then they needed to find out how to process tea, and build themselves a micro factory, importing the equipment from China. A tea house and classroom followed. The tea garden now has over 7,000 plants and they pick four times a year, starting in late May.
Tea is the second most drunk beverage after water.
Their tea tastes so good due to the low UV levels and low rainfall leading to slow growth leading to great flavour. They have just won an international for their teas. As the tea they sell still have the bud and two leaves compete you can achieve 4 to 5 infusions.
october 19th
Dawlish - A town of flowers with Suzanne Jones
At very short notice, Suzanne our secretary stepped in when our advertised speaker called in unwell. to walk us though the lanes of Dawlish over the last 100 years. Suzanne has slowly been researching and writing up the history of horticulture across the area of Dawlish, encompassing Holcombe and Cofton. For most of the 20th century this was a major flower producing area, at its height in the 1920's and 30's, 300 acres were given over to the growing of violets, a major cash crop to the area. Suzanne explained that the geography and soil, along with the access to the London markets via the railway made it ideal. After WW2 the violet industry dwindled and then the pinks took center stage, with lots of them grown in the small holdings along Port Road. It is said that in early summer you could smell pinks all down the valley from Houndspool to the town center. However, these were not the only flower crops with Anemones grown widely and a diversity of flowers, such as polyanthus, gladioli, freesia, roses, chrysanthemums and carnations. The horticultural industry across the area came to an end slowly through the 1970's to the 1990's as more nurseries were built on for housing, cheaper plants were air freighted in and young people did not want to take over the work. Suzanne finished her talk with a quick walk around the lanes introducing us to plants now growing in the wild that were at one time just garden flowers.