Next Sunday’s BBC edition of Gardeners’ Question Time (from 2 to 2.30pm on the Home Service) will be of particular interest to Rickmansworth listeners.

Last Saturday, BBC engineers and the now famous team – Franklin Engleman, Fred Loads, Bill Sowerbutts and Professor Alan Gemmell – were at the Ebury Hall, Rickmansworth, to record the programme.

They were given a red carpet welcome by members of Rickmansworth and District Horticultural Society, who made it a gala occasion and part of their silver jubilee celebrations.

The range of questions was described as “wide and varied – an excellent bouquet.” The oldest questioner was founder member and the society’s dispenser of tea Mrs G.E.Hunt, who wanted to know about chrysanthemums, and the youngest, 11-year-old Malcolm Thurlby, who asked about American blight on apple trees.

[From the Watford Observer of December 15, 1961]

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