Indoor Meeting: Talk on 'Hardy Border Perennials' by Barry Gayton
- Details
- Written by: Chris Davies
- Hits: 5126
10th December 2016
Barry is locally well known as a down-to-earth experienced gardener.
He advised members to compost all garden waste a and leaves, which he finds makes useful compost, unturned, in two years.
He summarised his own strategy for an attractive garden, saying that he believed in using common plants because they work. He likes to use a mix of shrubs and perennials in borders and throws out plants that don't do well.
His own garden is modelled on the Bressingham notion of 'island beds', and includes tall plants, like Verbena bonariensis, that allow the other plants to be viewed through them.
He has included a number of star performers, for example, Daphne 'Jaqueline Postill', - evergreen, with shiny foliage and good early scent, in March.
Barry included special plants like some species of snowdrops, which flower in December.
He noted that his garden, in Santon Downham, on the Brandon to Thetford road is in no way a naturally sheltered garden, noting that the temperature on one night last week read -7C, and that in one of the recent bad winters, it had descended -22C. Barry likes paths to meander through the garden and avoids them looking like aircraft runways!
By growing a great many plants from seed, Barry has taught himself what works, without great expense, and provided himself with knowledge of a huge range.
He advised collecting seed and sowing it as soon as possible, keeping seed trays and seedlings in a cold- frame through Winter..
He recommended buying plants in Autumn. These would have been grown on since Spring and could be divided and planted from September until the weather gets too bad, to give a better and more cost-effective display, the following year. He reminded us that plants might still need watering during Autumn.
Barry recommended using pea--sticks for staking, advising that the tops should be bent over into the centre, where they would soon be grown over. Barry grows his own bamboo!
He also recommended circular wide wire mesh plant supports with long straight legs, and mentioned having used copper piping, which corrodes and could deter some pests.
Barry showed a range of slides, describing the advantages of different styles of growth and flowering habits.These are described in the more detailed write-up which will be published in the next Newsletter.
Chris Davies
Indoor Meeting: Talk on 'The 12 Month Garden - Colour all year Round' by Geoff Hodge
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- Written by: Len Speller
- Hits: 4387
12th November 2016
Web site: www.gardenforumhorticulture.co.uk
Geoff agreed to talk to the Group at short notice when the previously booked speaker withdrew.
He gave a brief resume of his career writing for garden magazines and working for the RHS which included writing eight books and carrying out product testing before being made redundant.
The subject of the books included Propagation, Bulbs, Pruning and most recent Botany for Gardeners.
From his product testing he had brought a Burgeon & Ball Transplanting Spade for a raffle prize.
As we do not have a raffle he explained that he would ask a question at the end of his presentation and the spade would be the prize for the first hand in the air with the correct answer and that he would not accept a shouted out answer.
His first slide was of a Rhododendron for which he professed a passionate aversion to the species. In that it did not fit in with a plant that gives of its best for most times of the year.
Also he warned against the ‘impulse buy’ of which most of us are guilty!
His credo - Have a plan:
Choose evergreens and deciduous shrubs in a ratio of 1:3.
Have groups of a) tall plants,
b) infill plants
c) ground cover.
Regard bare soil as a sin!!
One execution of this idea was propounded by Adrian Bloom in his garden at Foggy Bottom when a variety of conifers were planted surrounded by many species of heathers.
(Which heather is the ‘hard of hearing plant’? Answer Erica carnea (carn ear))
Geoff recommended examples of evergreen variegated plants to add further interest:
Group a) Ceanothus ‘Zanzibar’
Eleagnus x ebbengii ‘Gilt Edge’, strongly scented flowers.
Ilex ‘Golden King’.
Despite its name is a female plant which produces berries if close to Ilex ‘Silver Queen’ which is male plant!
(Sex in the plant world can sometimes be very confusing).
Group b) Leucothoe Scarletta
Pieris ‘Flaming Silver’
Silver foliage on plants is very useful to highlight an area and/or accentuate other plants around them.
Plants that offer more than one season of interest, not necessarily the same season can be used in combination or as focal points in the garden.
Examples: Acer palmatum cultivars
Amelanchier species
Dogwoods
Cotoneaster horizontalis
Hamemalis mollis
If you want long flowering shrubs that will give 365 days of interest choose Viburnum tinus and a selection of roses.
Another long flowering combination would be Fuschia and Penstemon cultivars.
Herbaceous perennials that give long periods of interest at different times of the year that could be included in group b)
Helleborus foetidus
Hostas
Phlox
Flowering into Autumn Asters
Dahlias
And in group c) Dianthus
Euphorbia characias subsp. Wulfenii
Lamium maculatum
Bulbs and bulbous plants can be used in many combinations.
For example, growing through group c) plants or grown in pots to fill gaps that occur in a border by sinking the pot in the soil.
Examples: Alliums
Cyclamen
Snowdrops
Narcissus
Tulips
All bulbs should be cared for after flowering by feeding, removing seed heads and allowing the foliage to die down naturally.
Bedding
Begonias Summer flowering
Petunias Spring/Summer flowering
Primroses Winter and Spring flowering
Even Ornamental cabbages!!!!!!
Finally containers of any shape, size or material depending on your taste can be filled with any plant which performs for any season.
His last slide showed a combination of pots filled with upturned blue wine bottles to prove the notion that you can enjoy year round colour in your by consuming the contents of the bottles.
He then reminded us that he would pose a question with the spade as the prize.
“If you sat under the leaves of this plant you would surely die”. Name the plant?
After many guesses the audience admitted defeat. The answer:- A Water Lily!
So a second question was required.
What would you do with the seeds of Aesculus hippocastanum?
The answer: Play conkers!
Yours truly is now the proud owner of a B&B Transplanting Spade.
Len Speller
Garden Visit: "The Harralds", Grove Rd , Gissing
- Details
- Written by: Judy Sims
- Hits: 4592
3rd September 2016
Janet Sleep welcomed us to her garden which it is always a treat to visit. It is some time since the Society visited and possibly not at this time of year so we were looking forward to the afternoon. With spots of rain in the air we had come prepared and set off to explore. The first glimpse of the sundial garden was of a carpet of autumn crocuses beneath a Cornus alternifolia argentea .
Under Deodar tree revealed primulas in flower including Jack-in-the-Green, benefitting gratefully from the shade as were the cyclamen.
We admired the red flowers of Campsis Madame Galen flowering on the end gable. On the nearby wall one of Janet’s cats was posing as the Cheshire cat, almost hidden by the pale yellow flowered Cestum parqui below .
There are a wide variety of fuchsias flowering throughout the garden large and small flowered and with a variety of leaf sizes, several interesting Agapanthus and a vivid collection of dahlias in the cutting garden.
Janet was thanked for letting us enjoy her garden and she informed us we had made a welcome contribution to Gissing church funds, a worthy cause and another highlight of the village.
Judy Sims
Summer Social: The Oaks, Brick Kiln Lane, Suffield
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- Written by: Chris Davies
- Hits: 4130
20th August 2016
This year the event was held in Suffield, near North Walsham on 20th August. Because of concerns about the weather we had taken up our contingency plan of serving lunch in the very pretty little village hall, next to the field where we were parking the cars.
Members were greeted with a cup of tea or coffee, with time to exchange news with friends and acquaintances before sitting down for lunch, either in the gazebo or inside the hall. The weather was breezy but bright all day, except for one little flurry of rain just at the end.
Lunch had been provided by the committee. The highlights were Sue Thurman's wonderful raised pies and Andrew and Cathy Lawes' wonderful confection of chocolate and cream and black cherries. These had a supporting cast of quiches, ham, cheese, salads and pickles and bread rolls, followed by meringues with cream, cheese cakes, mousse and yet more cream. There was also a choice of the usual pale yellow, or the rarer pink elderflower cordial.
Members then walked round to Helen and Peter Burtenshaw's garden, ( or were driven by car, where required) where Len was selling raffle tickets and Colin was selling plants as fund-raisers.
Helen's garden absorbed members' interest as they examined rarities and novelties in the gravel garden, borders, pond and in the ferny shade. Their gasps were rewarded with a soft drink. A quiz had been arranged to see how many plants members could identify, or guess, listed alphabetically. These were marked on their return to the village hall for a last cup of tea or coffee. The plant nobody knew was Dietes bicolor, a not-very-hardy bulb!
A number of members made a point of thanking us for the day, and others wrote emails afterwards.
We were immensely lucky with the weather, and the arrangements were a good team effort, headed by Sarah and Barbra, new committee members this year. Well done to both of them.
Chris Davies
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