The Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire Group of the Hardy Plant Society is one of 40 local groups active in the UK.  It offers a very wide range of gardening activities to its members and is committed to plant conservation being involved in the Conservation Scheme organised by the National HPS.  We have meetings from September to April on the first Saturday of the month when we have a variety of entertaining and informative lectures from both local and national speakers.  Many of the speakers have nurseries and bring plants for sale at the meetings, many of the plants are unusual.  For 2024 we have returned to normal meetings at our venue the Weatherley Centre in Biggleswade. The hall is large enough for social distancing and well ventilated.  The group sells specialised garden sundries at a competitive price at these meetings and refreshments are also available.   The Group also produces three Newsletters a year which include details of the activities, reports on talks and other relevant information.

During the summer we organise visits to gardens, nurseries and specialist plants fairs.  These trips are very popular.  It is hoped they will be a combination of car-share trips and coach trips. Details will be published later.

The News and Events page on this web site contains regular updates about the group, its activities and other gardening groups/societies.  More information about our programme, visits and plant sale can be found on our Programme page.

The group has two planned Plants Sales for 2024. The Spring Plant Fair is being held on Sunday 12th May 2024 commencing at 10a.m. until 12mid-day and the Autumn Plant Fair is being held on Sunday 6th October 2024 again 10a.m. – 12 midday.  A wide range of plants will be for sale all grown and donated by our members.  They are our main fund-raising event and goes to paying for our speakers some of whom have gained celebrity status.

Amongst our Speakers for 2024 are Tim Fuller, Steve Edney, Razvan Chisu, and Troy Scott-Smith (the Head Gardener at Sissinghurst Gardens).

If you are interested in plants and gardening and are looking for a gardening club or group in the Cambridgeshire/Bedfordshire area, then why not come along to one of our meetings.  The group covers Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, and the surrounding areas.  We look forward to anyone with an interest in ’hardy plants’ to join us either as a visitor to a meeting or as a member.

Let’s hope that 2024 will be a better year and we all look forward to returning to our normal programme of events.

Happy and successful gardening for 2024.