Thursday 24th September 2026
Geoffrey Smith Memorial Lecture
This year Nick Bailey will be presenting our annual Geoffrey Smith Memorial Lecture on Thursday 24 September at 7.30pm at the Conference Centre
A freelance horticulturalist, best-selling author, award-winning TV presenter, garden designer and speaker his talk is entitled
“Confessions of a TV Gardener”
His last two books “365 Days of Colour in your Garden” and ‘Revive Your Garden’ can be purchased on the night (cash or card) and Nick will be available afterwards to sign your purchases.
This is a ticketed event only and members free tickets (non-members £10) will be available on and after the club AGM on Thursday 23 April 2026 in person at club meetings or by emailing askhambryancollegegardenclub@gmail.com
Thursday 15th October “Dahlias”
Our own committee member, Tracey Parkinson, will be sharing her passion for dahlias, her knowledge of growing them and her experience of showing them.
Tracey is a respected figure in the UK dahlia growing community and is known for competing successfully at horticultural shows, specialising in small pom- pom dahlias, staging exhibition displays at major flower shows and being a committee member of the National Dahlia society.
Tracey is guaranteed to be a knowledgeable and very entertaining speaker.
She will be bringing along some of her favourite dahlias, lifted tubers to buy (cash or card) and limited free seed.
Thursday 12th November 2026 “The Garden Under the Sea”
by ‘ SeaGrown’, Scarborough
Inspired by the resilience and restorative properties of seaweed the founders of ‘SeaGrown’ embarked on a mission to improve the health of our oceans and combat climate change through sustainable seaweed cultivation.
We will hear about how seaweed has the power to heal our oceans by absorbing excess nutrients, reducing pollution and improving water quality. In 2018 they moved from wild harvesting to a site four miles off shore from Scarborough , the Uk’s first seaweed farm.
Their work not only cleanses our oceans it educates in the ways that seaweed can be used for foods, drinks and hair and skin products.
These products will be on sale at our meeting in time for you to buy for Christmas. Cash or card.
Thursday 10th December 2026 Our Christmas Social Evening
“Being Curator of Harlow Carr “- Fiona Slight
Fiona became the Curator of Harlow Carr in 2025, taking responsibility for the garden’s development, plant collections, staff and volunteers.
Her horticultural career started as a trainee with National Trust, Scotland, before moving to New Zealand where she was a propagator.
On returning to the UK she worked as a lecturer at Askham Bryan College. She later became the kitchen gardener at Mount St John, moving on to the role of Head Gardener at Rudding Park Hotel.
Fiona arrived at Harlow Carr in the role of Garden Manager responsible for alpines and woodland and finally in September last year she became their Curator.
Fiona will tell us about the day to day work of being the curator of one of RHS’s most visited gardens