TALK: WEDNESDAY 1st NOVEMBER 2023 SPEAKER: SANDY PRIMROSE After his successful stand-in talk last month Sandy Primrose returned in November with a talk titled A Tale of Two Poppies. The two poppies were the opium poppy Papaver somniferum and the red corn or field poppy Papaver rhoeas. Opium is extracted from the poppy by making slits down the length of the seed head. A white latex oozes out, this is left to dry and harden and is then scraped off, this is raw opium. It can then be purified into morphine and can be refined further into heroine. As a plant extract used for medicinal purposes opium is an exception as the leaves or roots are normally used. 85% of the world’s illegal opium is grown in Afghanistan and Australia is the biggest producer of legal opium. The use of this poppy as a sedative can be traced back to 1550 BC, there are pictures of the flowers in ancient Egyptian papyrus and there are Minoan paintings in Crete dating to 900 BC showing poppies adorning headdresses. Homer mentioned nepenthes in his Odyssey which means “that which chases away sorrow”, was probably referring to opium. In sixteenth century Europe laudanum an alcoholic extract of opium was first created to sooth pain. Its use was widespread in Victorian times, in fact it was still on sale in the UK till the 1950s. Numerous famous people, mostly writers become addicted in the nineteenth century, Coleridge, Byron, Keats, Shelly, Elizabeth Browning and even Darwin. Sandy also mentioned the role opium played in the British Empire. When tea became the British national drink enormous quantities had to be imported from China, then the only producer, the Chinese insisted on being paid in silver. Britain struggled to get enough so they started to cultivate opium in India and shipped and sold it to China where production had been banned to pay for the tea. China objected to the British enabling addiction in their country, two Opium Wars were fought in the nineteenth century, to keep the trade open, both of which China lost, and it was as a result of the first War that Britain acquired Hong Kong. The second part of the talk covered the history of how the red field poppy became the British symbol of Remembrance. The poppy seed can remain dormant in the soil for many years and when the earth is churned up they germinate. Obviously in the World War I the shells, horses, artillery all disturbed the soil allowing the dormant poppies flowered. John McCrae, a Canadian serving as a brigade surgeon in WWI and after the Battle of Ypres in 1915 where he lost a friend he was struck by the fields of poppies and wrote his poem “In Flanders Field”. It was published in Punch. Across the Atlantic in the US Moina Michael read the poem in 1918 and wrote her own poem We Shall Keep Faith in response. She vowed to wear a red poppy to remember the sacrifices of Flanders Field. She found 25 cloth poppies for her and her colleagues at YMCA where she was volunteering to wear. After the war she persuaded the American Legion in Georgia to adopt it as a symbol to sell them to raise funds for returning soldiers. Meanwhile in France Anna Guérin championed the symbolic power of the red poppy. Invited to the American Legion convention she persuaded them to adopt the poppy as their symbol. In France she organised women, children and veterans to make and sell artificial poppies to raise funds for war torn France. Within a year she brought her campaign to England where in 1921 the newly founded Royal British Legion held their first “Poppy Appeal” which sold millions. Guérin was the single most influential person in spreading the idea of a Remembrance Poppy. In 1922 Major George Howson set up a Poppy Factory in Richmond where disabled servicemen were employed to make fabric and paper blooms. Today, with its branch in Edinburgh, the factory turns out 45 million poppies made of different materials. It is now only Britain which uses the poppy so universally, in the US and France it is no longer their remembrance symbol despite its origin in these countries.
TALK: WEDNESDAY 4th OCTOBER 2023 SPEAKER: SANDY PRIMROSE At short notice Sandy Primrose stepped in to replace our scheduled speaker who had to pull out due to ill health. His talk was titled ‘Carnivorous Plants’ which was rather daunting as they are not most people’s favourite plants but we need not have worried, it was an enthralling and entertaining talk, not about their cultivation but concentrating on the methods used by these murderous plants to catch and kill their prey. Sandy started with Charles Darwin who we know mainly for his book ‘On the Origin of Species’, but he wrote numerous other books and was a serial obsessive with regard to different species including the carnivorous genera Drosera, commonly known as Sundews which he had found in Ashdown Forest in Sussex. He grew them in his greenhouse. They have tentacles on their leaves with a sticky secretion which attracts insects and entraps them, then enzymes digest them when they are dead. Some types have leaves which curl up round their prey. Darwin discovered they were so sensitive the lightest gnat could trigger the movement, also that their reactions don’t change with light levels so they can attract night insects too. Sundews are extremely widespread found on every continent (except Antarctica) which means they are very ancient. Next he described the Rainbow Plant Byblis which is only found in Australia, it also has sticky secretions on its stems to attract insects, but what it really wants to catch are the lizards that come for the trapped insects and then get stuck themselves and which the plant then digests. The above are all Flypaper Traps. The next type was Snap Traps like the Venus Fly Trap, discovered in North Carolina in colonial times. The trapping structure is the ends of the leaves and they have tiny hairs on the insides. If one hair is touched it sends and electric signal and nothing else happens, it is not until a second hair is touched that the second electric signal causes the trap to shut. This is to stop the trap being activated by a rain drop. Next Sandy explained the Pitfall Traps or pitcher plants named Heliamphora. One characteristic of all carnivorous plants is that they grow in areas with extremely low nutrition in the soil that is why they need insects to get their nutrients. Sandy told us about the Tepui Mountains in the north Venezuelan jungle with vertical cliff sides and flat tops. Virtually all the soil has been washed off the tops where the Picher plants grow. All the species come from South America. The leaves have fused together in a tubular shape or pitcher. Insects slide down the vertical sides of the pitcher and are digested in a pool of enzymes at the bottom. Some have downward pointing hairs to make it even harder for the prey to escape. And others a roof folding over the top to stop rain getting in and flooding them. Sandy showed us pictures of a mouse and frogs falling into the trap. There are some unusual and really rather disgusting variations of pitcher traps. The opening of one plant is exactly the right size for a shrew to rest on, it defecates into the trap and this is what the plant feeds on. Another exists underground and feeds on worms. One has bats living in it and again its food is the bat’s faeces. Sone carnivorous plants live under water, one is the bladder trap, another works like a lobster pot structures so the prey can only go one way. Finally the land based species all have flowers growing on long stems floating above the plant so insects coming to pollinate the flowers are not trapped. Altogether it was an unexpected and enjoyable talking.
TALK: WEDNESDAY 6th SEPTEMBER 2023 SPEAKER: PAUL GREEN Paul Green’s talk was titled ‘Seasonal Plants and Planting’, however the big attraction was the van load of plants he brought to sell. Paul owns Green Leaves Nursery and he explained news plants are being developed by growers all the time with bigger flowers and that are more resistant to disease and cold weather. His talk was hands on, he spoke to the following selection of the plants he brought. Anemone Fantasy series – ‘Belle’, ‘Red Riding Hood’. The Japanese types need watering to establish. Anemone ‘Elfin Swan’ Buddleja – ‘Butterfly Candy Little Pink’, ‘Buzz Indigo’, ‘Prince Charming’. Like other grey leaved plants cut it back in spring. Edgeworthia chrysantha ‘Grandiflora’. It has yellow flowers in January that smell of cloves. It needs protection from the wind. Fatsia japonica - ‘Camoflague’, ‘Spiders Web’. It can be pruned hard in spring, it prefers shade and needs a high nitrogen feed. ‘Spider’s Web’, the variegated form should be planted against green foliage to emphasis its markings. Gunnera tinctoria Hydrangea paniculata ‘Wim’s Red’. There are bluing agent pellets that can be used to make white plants blue. Prune the peniculata ones in spring and only take off a 1/3 of the height. Hypericum ‘Berry Red’. Low growing with red berries, prune when the berries turn black. Molinia caerulea ‘Heidebraut’ Phormium – ‘Licorice & Lime’, ‘Pink Stripe’, ‘Yellow Wave’. They like bright sun. Pull out any leaves that need removing and wrap them during cold spells but unwrap them as soon as the cold has passed. Pulmonaria ‘Shrimps on the Barbie’. A good plant despite its ridiculous name, mid-season after flowering all the leaves should be cut off to encourage new growth. Salvia nemerosa ‘Rose Marvel’. There is a huge range of salvias with different colours and flowering at different times of the year. Herbaceous salvias are hardy and growers have developed shorter types for small gardens. Better not to just take out the spent flower heads but cut the stems down to one inch. Tradescantia ‘Blue & Gold’ Weigela - ‘Black & White’, ‘Wine & Roses’. Smaller varieties that can be grown in pots. Finally Paul gave this advice as the controlling slugs and snails, use ferrous phosphate pellets and cover them with a slate or tile or put them in a tube so birds cannot get at them
TALK: WEDNESDAY 7th JUNE 2023 SPEAKER: GRAHAM TALBOT Graham returned once again after several previous visits to give us a talk titled ‘Growing Fruit in a Small Garden’. Basically he told us how to grow and train fruit in a way that occupies as little space as possible and he gave us lots of realistic ideas. He started by explaining that, incredibly, the RHS considers a ‘small garden’ to be about 2 acres, he then showed us pictures of his own small allotment crammed with fruit trees and bushes. Graham then went on give us different ways to grow small apple and pear trees. To make small trees, they must be grafted onto dwarf rootstock. For training buy 2 year old whips and when it’s apples look for rootstock M27 (extremely dwarfing), M9 (very dwarfing, used for commercial trees to keep them at head height for easy picking) or M26 (dwarfing). There are no dwarfing rootstocks for pears. Pollination: Most fruit trees require a pollinator so more than one cultivar must be grown, but it is possible to rely on neighbours’ trees too. Space saving training methods. Build a large cylinder or pyramid metal structure over the young tree, bring each branch as it grows out vertically and then when it hits the structure train the branch up it. This system has the advantage of allowing air around the branches. Cordons, Fans and Espaliers take up less space than bush form as they are two dimensional, they can be spread against a wall or a wire structure. Soft fruit such as gooseberries and redcurrants can be grown in this way too. Stepover. For apples, bend the main stem over sideways at about a foot high and tie it down. Fruiting spurs will grow along the top edge, but keep them pruned. Arch. Train a tree up an arch as you would a climber. Pillar. Grow a single stem or trunk, prune off all the branches and fruiting spurs will grow from the central stem The best plum variety to grow is the Victoria plum, they self-pollinate and bear lots of fruit, prune when in flower or leaf. Figs fruit better if their roots are restricted so gown in a corner of two walls – this will also provide the tree with protection – they can be grown in a box sunk into the soil or in a container. Blackberries: There is a variety called Loch Ness that has few thorns and is well behaved. Strawberries cannot be dwarfed but instead of buying an expensive pot with holes in it, make a pot tower by putting one pot inside a larger pot, fill with soil all around and put a small pot on the top to water through. Grow the strawberries in the soil in the spaces between each pot. Replace your plants every two years. Gooseberries, which can be grown in the shade, and red currants can be grown as standards, but black currants need to be bushes. They can be grown as a single stem against a wall too. Melons: grow them up canes or string, the fruit will need supporting in nets. Cut our leaves between the melon and one leave to let in air. Pots: small fruit trees can be grown in pots as well. It is best to use a clay pot to provide stability and it must be fed regularly and watered daily. Scrap off the top few inches of compost each year and put a new layer on top. This also provides the advantage that the pots can be brought indoors in winter. A final tip, bees prefer dandelions so don’t let them flower if you want the bees to concentrate on fertilising your fruit
TALK: WEDNESDAY 3RD MAY 2023 SPEAKER: MARINA CHRISTOPHER The talk was titled as: ‘Umbellifers and attracting pollinators and beneficial insects’ and her talk was very informative, professional and held our interest over the hour. Marina Christopher has had a distinguished career as a horticulturist, she is a RHS Trial Judge and she runs the Phoenix Perennial Plants Nursery. For her talk she did not have slides but illustrated it with the plants she brought and large images of different umbellifer types. Marina started her talk by saying how she has been encouraging pollinators for 40 years long before it became usual. She explained that Bumble Bees are hairy which keeps them warm so they can come out in colder weather than other insects so it is important to have nectar flowers all year round. She then went on to list all the plants which are umbellifers and belong to the Apiaceae family, including many surprises: the best know is Cow Parsley (Queen Anne’s lace) a woodland edge plant which is useful in flower arranging,** carrots, celeriac, parsnips, fennel, celery, parsley, coriander, caraway, asafoetida (she then passed around a commercial herb jar for us to small and appreciate how bad it smells), cumin, dill, chervil… and she reminded us some are poisonous. Their characteristics of most include having a tap root, many are monocarpic, they flower once and then die, the flowers originate from one stem. Most have white or yellow flowers. Bees need colour, but white and yellow can be seen at night which is important for the thousands of moths flying at night. The flowers tend to smell foetid so they are important to beetles and flies which are not normally considered important pollinators. In fact there is a greenish white crab spider that hides under the flowers and pounces when a fly land. Even more strange some flower have a black spot, a passing fly seeing it and being a gregarious creature will fly down to ‘join a mate’, this leads to pollination and maybe a spider meal. Umbellifers have joined hollow stems that insects bore into for protect in winder, especially ladybirds, so it’s good the leave the stems. Marina then described some the umbellifers she sells in her nursery, she apologised for their long Latin names, and names some other Apiaceae, such as Eryngium including gitanteum silver ghost which likes poor soil, Eryngium big blue, the best plant for honey bees, and Eryngium alpine that is not spiny. Astantia Roma, which keeps flowering as it is infertile, but needs some damp. She mentioned Baltic Parsley, Cenolophium denudatum which is in all the Chelsea woodland gardens. We had a tip about teasing out roots from a potted plant before planting, instead of teasing out the roots it is better to slice off the bottom, in that way the water absorbing part of the root in exposed and sped up growth. Umbellifer seeds should be planted fresh. They have an oily texture that the freezing night and daytime thaw of outdoor soil helps to breakdown. Finally Marina brought a selection of garden hand tools to sell which she was so eloquent about that she sold out of the best ones and sales of the plants she brought also went well. ** A tip for flower arrangers. Cow Parsley will droop after picking. To avoid this cut off two inches of stem or as much as needed for the desired height, with a diagonal cut and dip the bottom of the stem into about 2 inches of boiling water, this will stop them drooping.
TALK: WEDNESDAY 5 APRIL 2023 SPEAKER: ANDREW BABICZ The talk was titled as: ‘Seasonal Container Gardening’ Andrew started his talk at the basics and ran through the different possible containers:Terracotta that tend to have just one drainage hole, he suggested covering it with a piece of J-Cloth so slugs and insects to not enter by it; the pots can also crack in cold weather, he mentioned using Milliput to mend them (this is an epoxy paste purchased on line and from personal experience it is excellent), Wooden Barrels that once filled with soil and watered will expand to close any gaps, Plastic which is indestructible if rather unsightly, Lead containers which is so heavy that they will not be stolen in those areas where this happens. He also suggested putting large pots on trollies so they are easier to move. Next he covered Soil: John Innes No 3 will provide several months of nutrients for the potted plants and it is the same recipe wherever you buy it. Other generic composts are not a nutritious. It is worth using water storage crystals as they hold 10 x their weight in water so you can get away with less frequent watering. Feeding: Andrew recommended Tomorite. He said buy any own brand such as B&Q as it’s the same and cheaper than branded ones. The plants need as potassium not nitrogen feed which makes them grow too fast. Seaweed is also very good but expensive. Pest and Diseases: Copper rings round pots or pellets are effective against snails and slugs. Andrew suggested that instead of making a gift of flowers which usually only last up to a week, but give a potted flower, it will last much longer. After flowering, feed it and put it in a sunny position and when it dies down plant it out into the garden. (Depends of the plant of course) If you have a completely pot bound plant Andrew said you could try shoving a hose as far down into the pot as possible, then turn on the tap full blast. The earth should bust out and also loosen the roots. It’s messy, but may work. Certain plants do well in pots, Agapanthus which like to have their roots restricted, begonias do well in shade, Cordylines and Phormiums, bay trees, annual bedding, standards all do well in pots. Narcissus can be layered, choose ones which flower at different times, it does not matter what order they are planted but try to not place one bulb directly above the one below, cram them in and put a layer of soil between each layer of bulbs. The next section of the talk covered pictures of different containers, planted with different combinations of plants, including old stone troughs, sempervivums in holes in bricks, old tyres, he showed a pictures of tyres used in the tiny space in front of a London home, the whole street copied the idea and this can raise the house values by up to £10,000. Finally vegetables, especially potatoes can be successfully grown in containers.
TALK: WEDNESDAY 1 MARCH 2023 SPEAKER: GRAHAM AUSTIN The talk title was ‘Elatum Delphiniums’. Graham runs the Home Plants Nursery in Bovington where he grows, propagates and produces new named cultivars of the Elatum Delphinium. Graham started by explaining about the Pacific Giants which is the most common type of delphinium available, they were developed in the 1950s and 1960s on the Pacific coast of America. The original native plants were rather spindly with thin stems so they were crossed with European varieties with thicker stems and for many years they were very successful with vivid colours. To develop then they were crossed seven or eight times, each year the best three were chosen to cross again. But they have not been improved since then and should be treated as an annual as they are not reliably hardy. Graham said they are giving delphiniums ‘a bad name’. The name delphinium comes from the Ancient Greeks who thought the flower buds looked like dolphin heads, their common name is larkspur as the flowers have spur like backs. Graham then went on to describe the Elatum delphinium, it has been bred from wild alpine delphiniums so they are very hardy down to -15deg C. They hate wet and need free draining soil. Some cultivars grown to 8 foot high, they have thick multiple stems. And curiously if you cross pink and blue you don’t get mauve, but CREAM!! Furthermore they do not come true from seed, so you can never be sure what colour will result. The next part was to talk us through a year of growing Elatum delphiniums. In early spring put a thick layer at least an inch thick of sharp sand (not builders sand) or grit over the crown, the plant won’t mind they are used to growing through screed in the Alps. This protects against slugs and snails. Next when the plant reaches about 2 inches high cut out the thinner spikes to leave no more than eight. At the end of March feed with fish blood and bone meal. Later stake them with three 5ft canes in a triangle and tie string round the stakes adding higher ties as the plant grows up to the level of the lower flowers so the plant is enclosed within the stakes. Good watering will make them grow taller. The flowers should last 6-7 weeks. When they are over cut the stems down to the ground and give feeds of Tomorite at each watering. They should give a second flush in September. Tidy in October and put on a layer of grit or sharp sand which can be topped up in spring and a ring of compost outside the grit. As Elatums do not come true from seed Graham told us how to take cuttings. In the spring when the plant is a few inches high cut a spike and include a bit of the hard crown. Dip in rooting powder and put into a pot of pure perlite, three cuttings to a pot. After four weeks pot on into free draining compost, trim the tops and plant outside in June. During the last part of the talk Graham showed us images of some of the wide range of Elatum Delphiniums. Blue Nile AGM, a deep blue is probably the best know. Others were Austin Dawn Chorus - mid blue suffused with purple, Sunkissed - creamy with yellow eye and Pink Ruffles - a pale pink double. Finally slugs….. By thinning out the stems in spring it makes the plant less moist and attractive. The grit or sand make an effective barrier. Graham explained that slug pellets can be used very sparingly, each pellet 6” apart. They give off a pheromone to attract the slugs so the more there is the stronger the attraction. They don’t kill the slugs immediately so they have time to eat the plant before they die. Graham bought plants to sell including a lot of delphiniums grown from seed at very reasonable prices which were pot luck as it is impossible to tell what colour they will end up being.
TALK: WEDNESDAY 1 FEBRUARY 2023SPEAKER: CHRIS DAY The talk was billed as: ‘Taming the Indoor Jungle - Everything you need to know about growing foliage and flowering houseplants successfully, plus a look at orchid growing and how house plants can improve your health! We got all that and more. Chris Day started his talk by telling a bit about his early experience with houseplants, he started an apprenticeship at Rockford’s Nursery in Hertfordshire where they supplied every type of house plant and exhibited at Chelsea Flower Show. He then moved on to a bit of history about the market. House plants were very popular in the 1960 and 70s but in 1985 the market for British grown plants collapsed as they could not compete with the Dutch nurseries which had government subsidised gas to heat their green houses. Then in the 1990s everyone fell out of love with house plants. In the last 4-5 years there has been a surge of demand for house plants again fuelled by millennials who often live in flats with no garden and they use social media to show off their plants. The market is now worth £2.2billion. Chris brought crates of house plants that covered two large tables and used them to illustrate his talk. An early houseplant was the Aspidistra, called amongst other names the cast iron plant because it could survive in Victorian homes burning coal and gas for lighting. Other plants such as Fatsia Japonica used to be house plants but now grow outdoors. As a general rule the bigger the plant’s leaf the less light it needs. People often put moisture loving plants in a bathroom, but they can also be misted, but as Chris said the misting should be done regularly. 2-3 times a week. Or put the plant pot on a tray filled with gravel and keep it damp. Terrariums and bottle gardens started in Victorian times using the glass cases that plant hunters used to bring their collections back by ship. To make them buy tiny plants in ‘tot pots’, a carbon activator is needed too, ferns make good plants and decoration with stones, moss and bark chips can make them almost a work art. - Some indoor plants such as the peace lily and the spider plant help to purify the atmosphere. - Some plants can root in water from a cutting, these should be started around February as spring is starting and the plant should not be left too long in water before being planted up. - In order to keep architectural plants such as Ficus from getting too big, the growing tip can be removed in spring, they will then grow outwards. - Cacti like lots of light and a cool dry environment - Browning on leaves usually indicates overwatering or cold and chill. - As for watering, give plants really good soak and then let them dry out, don’t keep them waterlogged as the roots need air to breath. - Feeding should be during the growing season in summer, tomato feed is recommended as is Baby Bio which has nitrogen for foliage. - Do re-potting between spring and September. A trick is to remove the plant from the pot, place the pot into the new bigger pot and fill the new compost into the gap between the two pots, then remove the inner pot and slide the plant root ball into the space. - Multipurpose compost is good as is peat free house plant compost. - Moth orchids should be in transparent pots as they roots need light. At the end of the talk Chris offered the plants he had brought with him for sale which our members thoroughly appreciate.