Brockham Green Horticultural Society
With origins before 1900, the Brockham Green Horticultural Society (BGHS) has a proud history of encouraging horticulture within our three villages, originally with annual Flower Shows and more recently with events across the year:
- Talks, delivered by outside speakers are held in the darker months at the beginning of each year and recent subjects have included birds of prey, keeping chickens, the secret life of the mole, plus regular gardening tips and advice;
- A plant sale is held in May – the 2024 sale will be held between 10am and noon on Saturday 4th May on Brockham Green;
- Members only open garden events;
- The Autumn Show in September is the highlight of the gardening calendar – an opportunity for members to exhibit the beautiful plants and vegetables they have nurtured over the year. There are also classes for crafts, cookery, photography and children; and
- The November AGM provides an opportunity for members to hear an official report from the Committee and a chance to air their views.
Event posters are published on this website’s events calendar and topical /seasonal updates are published on this page – please scroll down!
BGHS is affiliated to the Royal Horticultural Society and the Surrey Horticultural Federation. The Society is keen to promote the many advantages of gardening as widely as possible and is for everyone, regardless of age, experience or the size of garden.
If you would like to join BGHS please send us an email to ask for more details. Membership is £5 per person and members receive 10% discount on plants at Buckland Nurseries.
Dates For Your Diary
2024 talks, all of which will be delivered in Brockham Village Hall and start at 19:30. Everyone welcome, Members £3 Non-Members £5. Refreshments served:
- Monday 18th March 2024 – Women Gardeners of the 20th Century – Cherryll Sands
- Monday 15th April 2024 Plant Heritage and the National Plant Collection Scheme – David Ford, Chairman of Surrey Plant Heritage Group.
Plant Heritage endeavours to conserve our horticultural Heritage by keeping living examples of all garden-worthy plants in the National Plant Collections which are often featured on TV and in Gardening magazines or with Plant Guardians. Learn about the work they do, and also how you can help by starting a national plant collection or becoming a plant guardian.
April Update
In February we invited The Surrey Bat Trust to give us a talk on bats. It was a lovely, well illustrated and fascinating talk starting with bats from all over the world. We learnt that in tropical forests some small bats behave like hummingbirds, with long tongues to delve inside flowers for nectar, carrying pollen as they go from plant to plant. Fruit bats disperse thousands of seeds from the fruits they eat. South American vampire bats rarely feed on humans, they prefer the blood of cattle, horses and pigs!
In the UK bats hibernate in the winter, emerging with warmer weather to feed on insects. By May, the females will be forming maternity colonies, giving birth to a single pup, which they feed on their milk. After about six weeks the babies are big enough to hunt for themselves. By September the maternity colonies will have dispersed, and the males will be checking out winter roosts. Mating takes place in the autumn, and building up fat reserves becomes crucial for winter hibernation. The disused Brockham Limekilns house many of our local bats over the winter.
We also learnt that threats to bats include pesticide use and habitat loss. Cats are also a major threat, catching bats as they emerge from their roost at dusk. Ideally cats should be kept in at night, but especially at dusk.
There were lots of questions, and we almost ran out of time for refreshments!