The AGS Young Person’s Weekend 2023 will take place between Thursday, 15 June and Sunday, 18 June 2023

The event aims to bring together young gardeners, students, writers and horticulturists with an interest and passion for alpine plants. Amateurs and professionals alike are very welcome to attend.

From a gardener’s perspective, in the broadest sense of the word, alpines are plants that are suitable to be grown on rock gardens, in troughs and raised beds. These include small hardy herbaceous perennials, hardy and half-hardy bulbs, hardy ferns, hardy succulents (including cacti) and small shrubs.

The group will be visiting gardens and natural reserves in the Lake District. Places at the weekend will be once more partly subsidised by our Society, however travel costs are not included and participants will have to make their own travel arrangements to and from the event. Accommodation in shared rooms with full board will be at YHA Helvellyn, Penrith, Cumbria, CA11 0QR. Participants will be asked to contribute £75 towards the cost of the Weekend.

Programme

Thursday, 15 June 2023

Afternoon arrival at YHA Helvellyn, dinner at 6pm.

Possible evening walk on Helvellyn.

Friday, 16 June 2023

Day trip to RSBP Haweswater reserve where our President, David Morris, will show us around the tree nursery and the farm run by the RSPB. This will be followed by a walk to Mardale Mountain Meadow, a project the AGS has contributed financially from the onset as it aims to restore upland alpine plant communities in an exclosure within the larger Haweswater estate.

Saturday, 17 June 2023

Glenn Shapiro, an AGS member and holder of a National Collection of Hepatica species and cultivars will welcome the group in her garden at Hazelwood Farm, Silverdale. Here, on natural limestone boulders she grows an interesting array of alpines, shrubs, perennials and of course hepaticas.

In the second part of the day we will visit nearby Summerdale Garden & Nursery. Owners Gail and David Sheals specialise in primulas (including a large collection of Auriculas) and woodlanders.

Sunday, 18 June 2023

A morning visit to Hartside Nursery Garden before the AGS Young Person’s Weekend comes to a close.

Neil Huntley will give the group a tour behind the scenes and will explain how they grow and propagate alpines, primulas, autumn gentians, various woodlanders and their speciality, Roscoeas.

If you wish to attend, please fill in the application form below. Once we process your application we will be in touch to arrange payment (£75).