NIDG 35th anniversary

Hi All,
At the recent november meeting the Northern Ireland daffodil Group celebrated the 35th anniversary of its formation in 1976. The very special guest speaker was janis Ruksans from Latvia. Janis has introduced many bulbs from his journeys in Eastern Europe; corydalis, iris, crocus, tulips etc. and is well known for his books ‘Buried Treasure’ and more recently ‘Crocus’. He described how he grows his bulbs under fairly adverse conditions (winter temps of below -20C together with lots of snow. He also showed how his growing methods had changed over the years. ‘raised beds are much easier on the back’ and ‘smaller containers are lighter when it comes to moving them’. Members,past members and guests then had a meal and reminisced over the changes that 35 years had brought.
Photos (by Victor Houston) attached the cake and our chairman, James Smyth presents Janis with a present.

Regards
Derrick