TALK: WEDNESDAY 7th FEBRUARY 2024 SPEAKER: ANDREW MIKOLAJSKI Andrew Mikolajski began his talk on Hellebores by explaining that Hellebores were native to northern Europe, and through Central Asia as far a western China. The Stinking Hellebore (helleborus foetidus) is a UK native and was considered a weed to the extent that Beth Chatto got into trouble with the RHS judges when she used it in one of her show gardens, but it makes a good garden plant with early green flowers and it bulks up into a big clump. In Europe Hellebores grow in grassland, so they like light soil, in spring when they grow and flower they like wet and sun, after flowering they go dormant and like shade and dryness as they would experience when the grass grows in summer and creates shade and competes for water, for this reason they grow well under deciduous trees. There are lots of hybrids that are more robust and have larger flowers. The two Andrew particularly recommended were x hyericsmithii, they have upward facing flowers and are all whitish, also x harvington hybrids. These Hellebores are expensive because Hellebores cannot be divided like other perennials but must be grown from seed, this takes 3-4 years and the grower never really knows what colour they will turn out to be. Hellebores belong to the Ranunculaceae family like buttercups (many surprising plants also belong to this huge family include aquilegia, anemone, delphinium), What looks like petals are really tepals, a sort of in-between sepal and petal, as a result they are always tinged with green. Before flowering in late winter the leaves should be cut back, the plant fertilised with a slow acting fertilizer such chicken manure and a ring on compost put around the plant. Flowers should be deadheaded before setting seed as it weakens the plant and to stop the indiscriminate appearance of seedlings. If a clump is very congested and flowering has deteriorated the clump can be divided, but it is hard work, the old dark coloured roots should be discarded and the parts with white, newer rooted parts kept. They can be grown in pots, but use a superior compost, such as Melcourt Compost of John Innes No 2 and cover with grit, they will not thrive with a general compost. There is a particularly bad virus disease called ‘Black Death’, if the whole plant is looking black and deformed, dig it up and burn it, but if the leaves just have blacks spots cut of the affected leaves. The niger species is the Christmas Rose that flowers very early at Christmas time and is hard to grow. The orientalis species seeds easily and it is mostly the basis for the hybrids. Andrew showed us lots of pictures of the different colour, petal formations, markings that the new hybrids have. And finally he listed some good companion plants such as lily of the valley, cyclamen coum, aconite, euphorbia, snowdrops and narcissus. Andrew was a very enthusiastic speaker, we learnt a lot and the talk was well illustrated.
TALK: WEDNESDAY 3rd APRIL 2024 SPEAKER: DAN WINTER Dan Winter, the head gardener at Evenley Wood Garden gave us a talk about the garden he is passionate about and to where we have arranged a visit for early this May. He started his talk with a bit of history, the 60 acre site in Northamptonshire no longer has its country house and for most of the twentieth century was harvested for timber. But in 1980 Timothy Whiteley bought the woodland. He had noticed Rhododendrons so knew there must be a patch of acid soil. Timothy Whiteley was a passionate plantsman, he even went on plant hunting trips. He planted all types of bulbs and a collection of Rhododendrons and azaleas and magnolias and refurbished trees and added unusual ones. They now have large and distinguished collections of several plants and some rare specimens. He died in 2017 and his daughter has taken over the garden. Dan started his talk running through the plants flowering through the year starting with Snowdrops of which they have 80-100 named species. Next were Crocuses and Cyclamen coum, the latter, being from the Mediterranean like dry conditions so their season was short this year due to the wet. Next to flower are the Snowflakes, they look like snowdrops but bigger, even up to 2ft. They have huge swathes of daffodils, the first to appear are a particular narcissus cyclamineous from northern Spain with swept back outer petals. Sometime a double will spontaneously appear from their native daffs, these will be picked out and propagated. Again this year the weather meant they went over quickly and the slugs did a lot of damage too. Hellebores are next, the woodland is not ideal for them they prefer more sun, so they mostly have the pinkish ones. Scillas seed themselves around so are semi-naturalised. Timothy planted a river of scillas with hundreds of thousands of bulbs, recently they have re-planted some of the areas of the river that had deteriorated. They have carpets of Bluebells, but mostly the Spanish variety and hybrids as when treplanting starting the early 1980s the Spanish bluebells were considered a good garden plant, but now they are planting natives in another part of the garden. They also have a collection of Erythroniums. Dan then moved on to the shrubs and trees. The Camellias are mostly Japonicas. They have about 80 different types of Magnolias including some very tall trees, they too like the acid soil. There are flowering Cherries, Snowdrop trees and Cornus and of course Rhododendrons and Azaleas. The shrubs include Philidelphus, Viburnum, Lilac and Daphne. They have planted lilies, good for a woodland as they flower later in the year, particularly they have many martegon. In Autumn there is colour from the turning tree leaves and berries. Evenley Wood Garden has produced nine new plants including a maple and lilies. Dan made what could have been a rather tedious list of plants an entertaining talk with lots of information about growing and plant characteristics. He did enthuse us to sign up to the up and coming visit.
TALK: WEDNESDAY 1st MAY 2024 SPEAKER: KATE WOODS The talk given by Kate Woods (she blogs as the Tea Break Gardener) was titled Japanese Gardens and Cherry Blossom. Whereas Kate Woods had travelled to Japan a few years ago on holiday and visited lots of gardens. She told us what she had learnt about Japanese gardens and illustrated to the talk with her own photos. She was very honest about explaining that Japanese gardens involve so much symbolism, ancient myth and culture that there was a great deal about them she did not understand. Unlike our gardens where plants and trees are allowed to grow and spread naturally, in Japan it is all about control, everything is pruned and placed to create a look that is an ideal. She described three styles of Japanese Garden: Strolling Garden. These are usually the ancient, sixteenth and seventeenth century grand gardens. The idea is you stroll through them slowly to reach a destination such as a Tea House. On the way vistas open up for you, there is water to reflect, little islands, bridges and strategically placed rocks. Floating Gardens. Which are to be viewed from a boat. Rock Gardens. These were mostly built in Buddhist Monasteries and were to be viewed from three vantage points. They had dark stones on raked white gravel representing islands in water. Kate went on to talk about the cherry blossom season called Sakua which is celebrated as a festival all over Japan. He blossom only last about 12-15 days. Cherry trees do not like being pruned so they are not found in gardens but mostly in public places. Collinwood ‘Cherry’ Ingram – 1880-1981 - was a wealthy British plant collector and gardener. He became a world authority on Japanese cherries and in 1926 was asked to give a talk on them to the Cherry Society in Japan. It was on this visit that he was shown a painting of a beautiful white cherry, then thought to be extinct in Japan. He recognised it as one he had seen in a moribund state in a Sussex garden, the result of an early introduction from Japan. He had taken cuttings and so was able to re-introduce it to Japan as ‘Taihaku’, the name meaning 'Great White Cherry'.
TALK: WEDNESDAY 5th JUNE 2024 SPEAKER: LUCY HARTLEY Lucy’s talk was titled Climate Change and our Gardens. Lucy is a scientist and garden designer and her talk had lots of science, diagrams, charts and maps on climate change. We have all seen the changes, tomatoes can now be grown outside, tender plants might soon survive the winter, while some plants and trees will struggle. So do we try to hold on to the past or adapt to what’s coming. The science started with the Carbon Cycle: vegetation pulls in Carbon Dioxide from the air and using the sun and water it makes starch and carbohydrates. Two billion years ago there was more carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere and the temperate was too hot for life. Gradually microbes started to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, then with the improved atmosphere, plants emerged and pulled more CO2 cooling the earth so it was inhabitable. Over time the vegetation sunk into the soil storing the CO2 it had absorbedand formed coal, oil and gas. The British invented the Industrial Revolution and started to extract the coaland later oil and gas and released the CO2 back into the atmosphere. With the rise in temperature the air holds more water so our climate will not only get hotter but wetter. Lucy showed us maps showing the world at different degrees of temperature rises. The highest would bring the earth back closer to where was pre-life. It was scary. Lucy did point out the gardeners are the goodies. There are 23 million gardens in Britain covering 10 million acres and they are providing bio-divers habitats and food for pollinators. The majority of hedgehogs and toads are now found in gardens. There are more things we can do so our gardens thrive in climate change and to help the environment in general. She listed things we should do: Avoid peat, peat stores 30 times more CO2 than the Brazilian jungle. Peat free compost in a pot dries no top but stays moist underneath so always check it by sticking a finger deep into the compost as you can. Nutrients leach out quicker so add fertiliser. We are like pigs in our gardens disturbing the soil when we weed or plant but avoid digging as it disturbs and microorganisms in the soil. Cover flower beds with mulch Leave areas of lawn unmown till later in the year, July or even September/October, mow paths. Avoid petrol mowers as they emit more CO2that the lawn cut can sequester. Plant hedges instead of fences, if there’s room, they provide green corridors and don’t rot or blow over. Grow climbers on trellises and grow ivy or creeper on walls, they reduce the heat and insulate houses and provide habitats. When you clip hedges shove the clippings under the hedge as mulch. Buy small plants in small pots or bare root to avoid the extra transport. Make hard surfaces porous using crushed aggregate instead of concrete or stone, unusual ones are available such as crushed There are flowers that will withstand both drought and flood better, Lucy named potentilla, day lilies, dog wood and philadelphus, lamb ears, lavender and rock rose, Finally join a nature or environmental charity and write to your MP urging more government action on climate change.
TALK: WEDNESDAY 2nd OCTOBER 2024 SPEAKER: MIKE SAALFELD Mike’s talk was titled Growing Citrus in the UK. He explained that he had started growing citrus as a hobby but it had become an obsession. He has more than 100 varieties growing in pots in his garden in Denham. In April he brings them out into the garden for summer and in September moves them into his greenhouse and polytunnel for the winter. Mike explained that he was contacted by the RHS, they sent a team to visit his garden and then invited him to give them a talk, later he was put onto their speakers list and became a member of the RHS Citrus Committee. It would be assumed that growing Citrus is rather a narrow subject but Mike was a relaxed, chatty speaker who included much information and anecdote which allowed the audience to ask questions and make comments throughout the talk. Mike started by running through all the citrus, starting with the basic orange, mandarin (which includes satsuma, clementine and the small soft easy to peel fruit), lemon, lime and grapefruits. Then he moved to the many hybrids including Pomelo, Kumquat, Bergamot and Citron. There are also unusual varieties both huge such as the pomelo and tiny, and some are figure shaped. There are variegated plants, which are very hard to grown and Citrus Chimeras, which are a strange mixture, the leaves can be half one type of plant and the other half divided by the centre vein is another type of citrus, for example half red and half green, The fruit can also have half rough skin and half smooth and the difference goes right through the fruit. Citrus all seem to originate in the orient between India and China, with some unique ones in Australia. They all belong to the Rutacae or rue family and all are descended from three types, the Clementine, Pomelo and Citron. Next Mike moved onto how to grow them in the UK. Plants can be purchased in Garden Centres where most are imported from Italy. They are all grafted as growing from seed takes 10-20 years to fruiting. They need free draining soil, Mike has his own mixture of perlite, slow release fertilizer, hard bark, grit and a type of ‘cat litter’ made from absorbent Danish clay. It can be bought more cheaply when sold in big bags as industrial spillage absorbent. Citrus do not need pruning except to keep in check, they need regular nitrogen feeding in summer. They also suffer from all manner of pests There is one citrus tree that is hardy in the UK, Citrus Trifoliata. The fruit are bitter and basically inedible and it has vicious thins. Mike brought what he called his magic box, with samples of different fruit including a huge pomelo and samples of plants so we could see what he was talking about. Mike ended by recounting some of his plant hunting trips to Australia to find the rare and strange Australian citrus, many of which are in the outback, including one that was only identified in the 2000s.