Photo taken by Judy Spratley at Gilberts Nursery

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Debbie Steel

Chair

​Debbie has now been in post since Jan 2017 having been elected to the position of Chair, to replace Eric Watson, who stood down after 18 years service. She has been a member of the Group since Oct 2013. During that time she was our Treasurer, Membership Secretary, and on the Events Committee, organising our Day Trips and Holidays. She continues on the Events Committee whilst serving as Chair.
She works part time in a Finance Dept for a local Waste Recycling Company in Canford and spends a lot of her time in the garden, with her long suffering husband Dave, and looking after her Mum.

Penny Cleaver

SECRETARY

​Penny was voted on to the committee as Secretary in January 2019. She was born and bred in Poole but has lived in Cheshire for a number of years more recently. She was an active member with their Hardy Plant Society Group and now works as a gardener so has an amazing amount of knowledge and experience in both gardening and the running of HPS Groups.

Richard Cooke

TREASURER

​Richard had been a member for a few years before volunteering to be Treasurer, keeping his wife, Jan, company at some meetings, the holidays and Day Trips. He is an avid rugby follower so don't expect to see him on a Saturday when there is an important match on! Luckily for us he is also a "semi" retired accountant and is happy to join us on the committee.

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Janet Riggs

COMMITTEE MEMBER MEMBERSHIP

Janet has been a member for a number of years and has helped with events such as the Colehill Gadabout and Plant Fayre last year. She moved to Parkstone 7 years ago, after retiring from working in HR, but got bored  and after trying several jobs now happily works for a local supermarket part time.
She shares her garden with 2 cats who aren’t very good gardeners and is always trying, and failing, to make her garden look like the books. She is looking forward to getting to know the members better. Janet will be taking on Membership and may be contacted via the website, or by our email address dorsethps@gmail.com 

Barbara Gooch

COMMITTEE MEMBER
COMMUNICATION

​Barbara has been with the Group for so many years, too many to mention. She has done pretty much EVERY job except Chair. Having stood down in 2017, having exceeded the maximum for committee members under the Constitution, she was co-opted back on to fill the role of Hardy Times Editor (as well as sitting on the Events Committee). 

Now there are so many more things to do, Barbara will be responsible for Group  Communications. So she may not write the Hardy Times, Magazine, Website etc......but she will co-ordinate their production. She is checking our new email address daily and will forward any query emails to the relevant person.
  
Her wealth of knowledge about places to visit is invaluable for planning successful Holidays and Day Trips. She also knows everyone in Colehill so when we organised the Colehill Gadabout, she was the one who found the gardens and their owners, then encouraged them to open their gardens to the public.

Jane Norris

RAFFLE

Jane too has been on the Committee for many years organising the Raffle Prizes. She is also responsible for the Plant Stall, growing many of them herself. If you have any queries re growing plants or propagating them, she is your lady. Jane encourages members to produce more plants so that we can sell them on our Plant Table, with the members making money out of it, whilst we take a small commission.

She has also been helping with the narrative regarding the Speakers on our website.
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As with Barbara, Jane stood down from the Committee in January 2017 but, as we did not have a full committee, she was co-opted back on as we needed her special skills. She is now a full member of the Committee and continues helping the group in whatever way she can.

Judy Spratley

COMMITTEE and events committee member

​Judy has been a member of the group for a number of years. She volunteers at Knoll Gardens on a Friday and is involved with the Highcliffe Horticultural Society as well.
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In 2018 she joined the Events Committee and has been heavily involved in planning the 2019 Holiday and Day Trips. She will be representing the Events Team as the demand for our "events" increases so that there is some cross over between the 2 committees.

Janice Walters

COMMITTEE MEMBER REFRESHMENTS

Janice has been longstanding member of the Group, with her husband Hugh. She joined the Committee and threw herself into the Refreshments role and is doing an excellent job of keeping us fed and watered at each  meeting.
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Hugh & Janice's special interests include wildlife and organic gardening.

Andrew Haynes

PRESIDENT

We do have a President, and whilst he is not a member of the Committee, Andrew has an important role to play within the Group.
He is a professional gardener, working as Head Gardener at Edmondsham House for a number of years. You will always find him behind our Plant Table, and he too is another of our members who has a huge amount of horticultural knowledge which they are happy to share with you, so please feel free to test him some time.

Eric Watson

FACEBOOK ADMINISTRATOR

​Eric too is not on the current committee, but headed it up for 18 years. He has taken over our Facebook page and is still heavily involved with the Group.