At first we thought that Father Christmas had come early.  A larger than life man, with a massy white beard and hair, proved to be our lecturer for the evening, Mr Stebbings, producing numerous goodies from the vast sack of his immensely practical knowledge.

However, the majority of his props, actually came from his car - slides, projector, secateurs  (of incomparable sharpness and able to cut his beard), pots, trays, seedlings and pruned material suitable for making cuttings. Initially he claimed to know something of his subject - 'Seeds and Propagation' - in that he has 3 sons! He then went on to expand, in a quietly discursive manner, upon the individual requirements of different types of cuttings, encompassing roots and shoots and layering, methods and subsequent  case, such as watering from below.

Mr Stebbings claimed that all living things desire to live, so all we have to do is try to help them and they will respond.  Seeds can be helped in various ways such as chitting, abrading, soaking  or freezing.  Other plants freely offer up their offspring, brambles and strawberries send out runners, succulents drop leaves and even whole babies which root and lilies produce bulbils in the leaf axils Potatoes and tomatoes will freely root up their stems and begonias are child's play to propagate as are roses; you prune 1" below a leaf node, shove a spade in the ground, thrust the almost leafless twig in and close up the soil.  He is right. I have done it.

Mr Holmes made an announcement about the advent of Elstead allotments. They have been deer- fenced and  ploughed and will  shortly be available in the field alongside the recreation ground.  Access will be from there, so happy allotmenting all.

Next meeting  12^th October 2009 when Mr  G T E Yates will speak on 'Heritage of Cottage Flowers through the ages'.