Talks Blog
MEETING ON WEDNESDAY 2 FEBRUARY 2022
SPEAKER: TIMOTHY WALKER
SUBJECT ‘Subtle Art and Exact Science of Pruning’.
Timothy Walker returned for at least the sixth time to talk to us and as usual he did not disappoint, it was an informative talk and he is a speaker who holds his audience’s attention. He began by saying that there is no pruning in the wild so if in doubt leave the plant alone or cut it down and if it dies dig it out and take the opportunity to plant something else.
He recommended the ultimate pruning book, Essential Pruning Techniques by George Brown and Tony Kirkham and reminded us that if a plant is not flowering the cause might be other than a problem with pruning.
He talked about pruning tools and pointed out that if you bought a cheap pair of secateurs every year and throw it away, it would take about a decade before you have spent as much as buying a single pair of Felco secateurs.
Timothy divided pruning into 8 options:
MEETING ON WEDNESDAY 1 DECEMBER 2021
SPEAKER: CHRIS DAY
SUBJECT: The All New A-Z of Fool Proof Gardening
Chris gave it from behind a barrage of plants, pots, packets of bulbs, pest control products, seeds. etc., all of which were for sale. He called it a gallop through the alphabet, but really the letters where a vehicle for giving us a lot of very useful tips and advice on gardening. This is a selection of his most useful letters..
A – Annoying Pests. Number one pest is slugs and snails. Ferrous sulphate pellets are effective but should only be used at a rate of 3/plant. Slug Gone pellets made of sheep wool, the slugs don’t like going over it. For pots use copper tape, two strips, one round the top and one round the middle of the pot and keep pots away from walls and from each other as slugs can pass from a leave of one to the other. Vine weevils, mostly found in pots, especially primroses and fuchsias are prone. He recommends liquid control with something like Bug Clear ultra.
For box blight there is a preventive fungicide called Topbuxus. To strengthen box against blight they should not be allowed to get stressed, so feed then, water them and only clip them if no rain is forecast for 72 hours.
D – Dead Heading. Some plants are ‘self-cleaning’ they don’t set seeds so the flowers fall off. When dead heading don’t just snip off the flower, but take the whole stem too, sometimes it can be pulled out. The stems are sometimes hollow and waster can get in and cause rot.
F – Fighting Growth! This is really pruning. The main rule applies, remove dead, diseased and dying bits. Any plant (Except Prunus) can be pruned now, cut back to where you want them to be. Cut back spring flowering plants and shrubs immediately after flowering. Try to cut above a node where new shoots will grow. If your Acer has some dead trigs, wait till the leaves have appeared to prune them.
H – House Plants. They have become very popular especially among millennials who are renting flats but still want some greenery. The business is now worth £2 billion a year. Certain plants are supposed to remove noxious chemicals found in cleaning products for instance. He recommended spider plants, peace lilies, orchids. He explained how to get Poinsettias to reflower next year, but I rather lost the will to continue after he said in September for 10 weeks you must put them in a cupboard from 4pm-8am everyday and then they are likely to flower after Christmas!
J – Japanese Maple. They need slightly acidic soil. They can be grown in a container with ericaceous compost. They are woodland edge plants so ideally need dappled shade, but also suffer from wind scorch. They need dampness and when they come into leaf feed with ericaceous foliage feed.
L – Layering. You can plant up pots with layers of bulbs. And put some violas on top for interest. Up to five layers of lily bulbs can be planted in a large pot and you will have flowers for at least two months. Don’t forget good drainage and lots of grit. After three years they will have run out of steam so start again.
M – Motivating Growth. He recommended Maxicrop a seaweed feed. Drench roots with it, put it on a pruning cut, it can be mixed with you liquid feeds such as Phosphogen.
P – Planting. If you plant comes in a round pot, dig a square hole, and vice versa as the roots will spread out. Tease out the roots too and above all water well.
R – Rain. He gets asked a lot what plants endure lots of rain: dogwoods, hazel, snowberry, philadelphus, elders, sambucus black lace and viburnum tinnus.
S – Small Gardens and Spaces. He recommended hellebores as many new varieties are being produced, skimmia, euonymus, grasses and carex, bergenia, ajuga, geranium and hardy evergreen ferns.
W – Weed Control. He foresaw that Glyphosate will soon be banned. The same company now sells a Non-Glyphosate. Weed suppressing fabric can be used. When weeds are in flower is the best time to spray them with weed killer.
SPEAKER: TIMOTHY WALKER
SUBJECT ‘Subtle Art and Exact Science of Pruning’.
Timothy Walker returned for at least the sixth time to talk to us and as usual he did not disappoint, it was an informative talk and he is a speaker who holds his audience’s attention. He began by saying that there is no pruning in the wild so if in doubt leave the plant alone or cut it down and if it dies dig it out and take the opportunity to plant something else.
He recommended the ultimate pruning book, Essential Pruning Techniques by George Brown and Tony Kirkham and reminded us that if a plant is not flowering the cause might be other than a problem with pruning.
He talked about pruning tools and pointed out that if you bought a cheap pair of secateurs every year and throw it away, it would take about a decade before you have spent as much as buying a single pair of Felco secateurs.
Timothy divided pruning into 8 options:
- No pruning needed except to remove diseased branches eg Hammanelis
- No pruning except to deadhead or to keep the plant’s shape, for example cutting fast growing Lonicera Nitida every month pruning Ceaonothus regularly to keep it in check where you can’t cut into old wood.
- Prune down to the ground, such as the Clematis Bill Mackenzie every five years; laurel, Arbutus, Clerondendron.
- Prune plants that flower before Wimbledon and flower on old wood so should be pruned immediately after flowering eg Garrya, Forsythia,Lonicera Winter beauty
- Plants that flower after Wimbledon flower on new wood so should be pruned in autumn eg Lavetera, Nandina
- Create a framework of branches and cut all the side shoots to two buds. Example is Hydrangea petiolaris, Buddleia globosa, Wisteria
- Cut back hard in March to encourage big leaves or coloured stems eg Pawlonia, Cornus, Cotinus
- Plants that flower on biennial stems, cut the old stems after flowering but leave the news stems that will flower next year eg shrubby euphorbia
MEETING ON WEDNESDAY 1 DECEMBER 2021
SPEAKER: CHRIS DAY
SUBJECT: The All New A-Z of Fool Proof Gardening
Chris gave it from behind a barrage of plants, pots, packets of bulbs, pest control products, seeds. etc., all of which were for sale. He called it a gallop through the alphabet, but really the letters where a vehicle for giving us a lot of very useful tips and advice on gardening. This is a selection of his most useful letters..
A – Annoying Pests. Number one pest is slugs and snails. Ferrous sulphate pellets are effective but should only be used at a rate of 3/plant. Slug Gone pellets made of sheep wool, the slugs don’t like going over it. For pots use copper tape, two strips, one round the top and one round the middle of the pot and keep pots away from walls and from each other as slugs can pass from a leave of one to the other. Vine weevils, mostly found in pots, especially primroses and fuchsias are prone. He recommends liquid control with something like Bug Clear ultra.
For box blight there is a preventive fungicide called Topbuxus. To strengthen box against blight they should not be allowed to get stressed, so feed then, water them and only clip them if no rain is forecast for 72 hours.
D – Dead Heading. Some plants are ‘self-cleaning’ they don’t set seeds so the flowers fall off. When dead heading don’t just snip off the flower, but take the whole stem too, sometimes it can be pulled out. The stems are sometimes hollow and waster can get in and cause rot.
F – Fighting Growth! This is really pruning. The main rule applies, remove dead, diseased and dying bits. Any plant (Except Prunus) can be pruned now, cut back to where you want them to be. Cut back spring flowering plants and shrubs immediately after flowering. Try to cut above a node where new shoots will grow. If your Acer has some dead trigs, wait till the leaves have appeared to prune them.
H – House Plants. They have become very popular especially among millennials who are renting flats but still want some greenery. The business is now worth £2 billion a year. Certain plants are supposed to remove noxious chemicals found in cleaning products for instance. He recommended spider plants, peace lilies, orchids. He explained how to get Poinsettias to reflower next year, but I rather lost the will to continue after he said in September for 10 weeks you must put them in a cupboard from 4pm-8am everyday and then they are likely to flower after Christmas!
J – Japanese Maple. They need slightly acidic soil. They can be grown in a container with ericaceous compost. They are woodland edge plants so ideally need dappled shade, but also suffer from wind scorch. They need dampness and when they come into leaf feed with ericaceous foliage feed.
L – Layering. You can plant up pots with layers of bulbs. And put some violas on top for interest. Up to five layers of lily bulbs can be planted in a large pot and you will have flowers for at least two months. Don’t forget good drainage and lots of grit. After three years they will have run out of steam so start again.
M – Motivating Growth. He recommended Maxicrop a seaweed feed. Drench roots with it, put it on a pruning cut, it can be mixed with you liquid feeds such as Phosphogen.
P – Planting. If you plant comes in a round pot, dig a square hole, and vice versa as the roots will spread out. Tease out the roots too and above all water well.
R – Rain. He gets asked a lot what plants endure lots of rain: dogwoods, hazel, snowberry, philadelphus, elders, sambucus black lace and viburnum tinnus.
S – Small Gardens and Spaces. He recommended hellebores as many new varieties are being produced, skimmia, euonymus, grasses and carex, bergenia, ajuga, geranium and hardy evergreen ferns.
W – Weed Control. He foresaw that Glyphosate will soon be banned. The same company now sells a Non-Glyphosate. Weed suppressing fabric can be used. When weeds are in flower is the best time to spray them with weed killer.
MEETING ON WEDNESDAY 6 APRIL 2022
SPEAKER: Andrew Halstead
The title of the talk was ‘Beneficial Insects in the Garden”
What one would expect to be rather a dry and technical subject turned out to be fascinating and, as was to be expected from the an RHS Entomologist, Andrew Halstead knew his stuff, his photos were professional and graphic showing microscopic insects, details of their legs and hair and their eggs, sometime on sticks, and their predated bodies. You have no idea what a battle ground of eat or be eaten your garden is as far as insects are concerned.
Andrew started with Pollinators. Any insect that flies from flower to flower collecting nectar or pollen is a pollinator but bees are the best known. With their hairy bodies they are perfectly adapted to the task. Apart from honey bees there are bumble bees and solitary bees where the female tends her nest on her own. She creates a nest in a shaft, such as a hollow stem or in the ground and fills it with nectar, lays eggs in individual chambers, seals each of them up and that’s it. The grubs hatch out and feed on the nectar she left. Tubes for bee hotels should be 7cm long and 7mm in diameter.
Next were Predatory Insects. These include general predator beetles, lace wings which attack aphids and suck them dry, and ladybirds. There are many different types of ladybirds including the Harlequin which was introduced from Japan into the UK in 2004. It has an extraordinary rage of colours from black to yellow and orange with everything in between with spots. It has not caused the expected devastation among the native ladybirds as our most common native, the seven spot, has turned out to be resistant and anyway the Harlequin is a much more efficient predator of aphids.
Then Andrew moved onto Parasitoids which always kill their host and seem to be mostly wasps which lay their eggs in their victim such as a caterpillar and when the eggs hatch the grubs eat the caterpillar from the inside. The photos were very gruesome with quantities of maggots emerging from the caterpillars.
Finally we were told about the various commercially available Biological Controls, mostly nematodes for slugs, vine weevils, and red spider mite. Nematodes are effective but the soil must be the right temperature and they have to be topped up. The RHS website indicates where the various nematodes can be purchased.
SPEAKER: Andrew Halstead
The title of the talk was ‘Beneficial Insects in the Garden”
What one would expect to be rather a dry and technical subject turned out to be fascinating and, as was to be expected from the an RHS Entomologist, Andrew Halstead knew his stuff, his photos were professional and graphic showing microscopic insects, details of their legs and hair and their eggs, sometime on sticks, and their predated bodies. You have no idea what a battle ground of eat or be eaten your garden is as far as insects are concerned.
Andrew started with Pollinators. Any insect that flies from flower to flower collecting nectar or pollen is a pollinator but bees are the best known. With their hairy bodies they are perfectly adapted to the task. Apart from honey bees there are bumble bees and solitary bees where the female tends her nest on her own. She creates a nest in a shaft, such as a hollow stem or in the ground and fills it with nectar, lays eggs in individual chambers, seals each of them up and that’s it. The grubs hatch out and feed on the nectar she left. Tubes for bee hotels should be 7cm long and 7mm in diameter.
Next were Predatory Insects. These include general predator beetles, lace wings which attack aphids and suck them dry, and ladybirds. There are many different types of ladybirds including the Harlequin which was introduced from Japan into the UK in 2004. It has an extraordinary rage of colours from black to yellow and orange with everything in between with spots. It has not caused the expected devastation among the native ladybirds as our most common native, the seven spot, has turned out to be resistant and anyway the Harlequin is a much more efficient predator of aphids.
Then Andrew moved onto Parasitoids which always kill their host and seem to be mostly wasps which lay their eggs in their victim such as a caterpillar and when the eggs hatch the grubs eat the caterpillar from the inside. The photos were very gruesome with quantities of maggots emerging from the caterpillars.
Finally we were told about the various commercially available Biological Controls, mostly nematodes for slugs, vine weevils, and red spider mite. Nematodes are effective but the soil must be the right temperature and they have to be topped up. The RHS website indicates where the various nematodes can be purchased.
MEETING ON WEDNESDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2021
SPEAKER: VICTORIA LOGUE
SUBJECT : HIGHS & LOWS OF VEGETABLE GROWING
This was not your usual talk about growing vegetables usually given by a man and issuing instructions on how to grow perfect vegetables in perfect straight lines.
The first thing Victoria said was that growing vegetables was not easy, they needed constant attention. Then she listed a series of warnings to take into account before starting: be realistic about the area you can manage, pests and diseases can devastate a crop, it will not save you money, only grow what you like, vegetables need sun and decide if you want dig or no dig or raised beds nor not.
She emphasised crops rotation was important, if you don’t do it you get diseases in the soil. Don’t plant root crops in freshly manured soil. The crops she thinks hard to grow, and by extension don’t bother, are celeriac, cauliflower, bulb fennel and sweet peppers.
She peppered he talk with her own experiences and likes and dislikes and successes and failures and showed pictures of disasters mostly caused by pests and diseases. She listed the main ones and how best to combat them. She’s had success with Slug Gone, which are pellets made from sheep’s’ wool and dung, against slugs and snails. It is important to protect crops before it is too late by installing mesh and netting in good time to protect against, caterpillars, pigeons and flies.
She also reminded us that some plants, runner beans, tomatoes and lettuces need a lot of water. The latter should be sown in small qualities and often or else you will end up with all the lettuces reaching maturity at the same time and far more than you can eat.
She finished her talk by reminding us not to take the instructions on seed packs too seriously, take into account the weather and where you live. It was a very useful talk and reassured us that we do not need to be experts and to expect degrees of success.
SPEAKER: VICTORIA LOGUE
SUBJECT : HIGHS & LOWS OF VEGETABLE GROWING
This was not your usual talk about growing vegetables usually given by a man and issuing instructions on how to grow perfect vegetables in perfect straight lines.
The first thing Victoria said was that growing vegetables was not easy, they needed constant attention. Then she listed a series of warnings to take into account before starting: be realistic about the area you can manage, pests and diseases can devastate a crop, it will not save you money, only grow what you like, vegetables need sun and decide if you want dig or no dig or raised beds nor not.
She emphasised crops rotation was important, if you don’t do it you get diseases in the soil. Don’t plant root crops in freshly manured soil. The crops she thinks hard to grow, and by extension don’t bother, are celeriac, cauliflower, bulb fennel and sweet peppers.
She peppered he talk with her own experiences and likes and dislikes and successes and failures and showed pictures of disasters mostly caused by pests and diseases. She listed the main ones and how best to combat them. She’s had success with Slug Gone, which are pellets made from sheep’s’ wool and dung, against slugs and snails. It is important to protect crops before it is too late by installing mesh and netting in good time to protect against, caterpillars, pigeons and flies.
She also reminded us that some plants, runner beans, tomatoes and lettuces need a lot of water. The latter should be sown in small qualities and often or else you will end up with all the lettuces reaching maturity at the same time and far more than you can eat.
She finished her talk by reminding us not to take the instructions on seed packs too seriously, take into account the weather and where you live. It was a very useful talk and reassured us that we do not need to be experts and to expect degrees of success.
MEETING ON WEDNESDAY 6 OCTOBER 2021
SPEAKER: BILLY STOTT
SUBJECT: TRAVEL OF A HORTICULTURAL STUDENT
Billy Stott, the owner of Stott’s Nursery on the road to Ibstone, came to talk on his studies for a B.Sc. in Horticulture (Commercial). He studied at Hadlow College in Kent. There were only 7 people on his degree course which rather explains why the Horticultural world has been crying out for trained people for some time now.
As he explained, the course was a long way from the traditional idea of growing plants in garden, the key word was commercial. The students learnt the techniques of growing endless identical plants for sale to supermarkets and plant centres. They were taken to visit commercial nurseries which huge green houses with mechanised robots to fill pots and plugs with compost, plant the seedlings, water, control the light, the temperature and move plants around the different areas of the green house to according to the heat they need. During much of the work there was only one person, the robot operator.
The supermarkets paid one student to grown a range of tomatoes, different types, sizes and colours; they would then decide which type they wanted for their shelves. The rest of the students were the unpaid assistants who had to doing the weeding etc.
Another trip was to Spitalfields Wholesale fruit and vegetable market where they saw the cells where green bananas where ripened with ethylene gas, different supermarkets want different shades of green for their deliveries. There was also a heated room to keep the cut flowers.
Bill visited Iceland (the country) where they have so much thermal energy that they have underfloor heating for the pavements so they are never covered in snow and ice and they grow all sorts of fruit and vegetables including bananas in heated greenhouses despite touching the Arctic Circle.
He finished his telling us how he set up his nursery. We enjoyed his talk, it was a personal story of the ups and downs and quirks of being a student.
SPEAKER: BILLY STOTT
SUBJECT: TRAVEL OF A HORTICULTURAL STUDENT
Billy Stott, the owner of Stott’s Nursery on the road to Ibstone, came to talk on his studies for a B.Sc. in Horticulture (Commercial). He studied at Hadlow College in Kent. There were only 7 people on his degree course which rather explains why the Horticultural world has been crying out for trained people for some time now.
As he explained, the course was a long way from the traditional idea of growing plants in garden, the key word was commercial. The students learnt the techniques of growing endless identical plants for sale to supermarkets and plant centres. They were taken to visit commercial nurseries which huge green houses with mechanised robots to fill pots and plugs with compost, plant the seedlings, water, control the light, the temperature and move plants around the different areas of the green house to according to the heat they need. During much of the work there was only one person, the robot operator.
The supermarkets paid one student to grown a range of tomatoes, different types, sizes and colours; they would then decide which type they wanted for their shelves. The rest of the students were the unpaid assistants who had to doing the weeding etc.
Another trip was to Spitalfields Wholesale fruit and vegetable market where they saw the cells where green bananas where ripened with ethylene gas, different supermarkets want different shades of green for their deliveries. There was also a heated room to keep the cut flowers.
Bill visited Iceland (the country) where they have so much thermal energy that they have underfloor heating for the pavements so they are never covered in snow and ice and they grow all sorts of fruit and vegetables including bananas in heated greenhouses despite touching the Arctic Circle.
He finished his telling us how he set up his nursery. We enjoyed his talk, it was a personal story of the ups and downs and quirks of being a student.
MEETING ON WEDNESDAY 1 SEPTEMBER 2021
SPEAKER: SANDY PRIMROSE
Sandy Primrose returned to give us as very interesting and well-presented talk full of information, history and anecdote on Daises, Dahlias and Dendranthemas – which we all know as Chrysanthemums.
The Daisy family is the largest plant family with 8,000 species and 1600 genera. They are a very complex flower and in fact what we consider to be petals are in fact individual flowers. So when you are doing the ‘loves me, loves me not’ game you are pulling off flowers. Sandy continued with facts about of some of the different types of daisies. Marigolds in Mexico are associated with death, but in India they are used on happy occasions. There are edible daisies – chicory, and endive. The Shasta Daisy was named by its American breeder after the snow covered Shasta volcano in California. The sunflower was first domesticated in Mexico 5,000 years ago. In the sixteenth century it was brought to Spain, but did not take off until the 1700 hundreds when Peter the Great started to grow it and now after 100 years of breeding Russia is the world’s biggest producer of sunflowers which are used for oil and cattle food. Although the flower’s name, Helianthus, is derived from the Greek word for sun it is a myth that the flowers follow the sun. Once fully out they face east and stay there.
Dahlias are also natives of Mexico and were brought to Europe by the Spaniard Francisco Hernandez. But it was the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt who brought back numerous varieties. Now 9 types based on flower shape are recognised. The tubers are edible, they taste a bit like parsnip, and were eaten by the Aztecs.
Chrysanthemums originated in China and have been known there for over 2500 years. They have always been particular favourites of the emperors and a stylized Dahlia is the symbol of the Japanese monarchy. Pyrethrum, the insect repellent is made from Chrysanthemums and it has become an important crop in Ethiopia and Kenya.
Finally Sandy told the story of China’s role in developing a malaria treatment (not prevention). In the 1960 the North Vietnamese army was ravaged by malaria and Ho Chi Min asked the Chinese if they could help. Artemesia annua, belonging to the daisy family, had long been used in traditional Chinese medicine as an anti-malarial, and as part of the research for a cure the Chinese scientist Tu Youyou trawled through thousands of old Chinese medicinal recipes and discovered the compound artemisinin in Artemesia annua. Using it she developed a drug that became the best treatment for malaria at the time. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for this discovery in 2015.
MEETING ON 4TH SEPTEMBER 2019
SPEAKER: CAROLE PETIPHER
SUBJECT: MONET’S GARDEN AT GIVERNY
Carole Petipher is a lecturer in art and has been a guide at Giverny for many years so she was the ideal person to give us a talk on the famous garden. Her really excellent talk was as much about Monet the artist as the garden he created through his passion for painting. Her talk was illustrated with slides of Monet’s paintings and of his garden and was much enjoyed by her audience.
Monet’s family had no history of gardening and he started life as an urban sophisticate in Paris where he went to study art. His first pictures to include gardens usually had people in them and were more about the shadows and dappled shade than the flowers. But he and his wife were in debt so they moved to Argenteuil outside Paris where rents were cheaper. Their house had a garden and gradually he started to enjoy the country and his garden
When he was 43 in 1883 he rented Giverny with its two acre garden. Carole explained that the location was much like Watlington with chalk hills behind, it is in the River Seine valley and the climate is similar with mild winters and warm summers. The first thing Monet did in his new garden was remove all the little box hedges and started to create a cottage style garden far removed from the formality characteristic of French gardens. He visited Holland and was fascinated by the way the tulips are planted out in the fields in blocks of colours and he returned home with as many bulbs as he could afford to buy. Today Giverny has 20,000 tulips. In 1990 Monet had enough money to buy the property outright and could then make more substantial changes to the garden. He created an artist’s garden, Marcel Proust called it ‘a colour garden‘ Monet liked bright colours, his favorite flowers were showy: irises, dahlias, agapanthus chrysanthemums…
In 1893 an adjacent plot of land came up for sale and Money purchased it, it was marshy with a little tributary which he dammed to create his famous pond where he planted his water lilies. He wanted to create an eastern effect so on the banks he planted azaleas, acers bamboos, and weeping willow trees. He built the rounded bridges and planted the famous wisteria bridge. He also started his series of painting of water lilies, he made hundreds of them.
In later life Monet developed cataracts and could no longer see colours properly which is obvious in some of his later pictures. Monet dies in 1926. He donated many of his water lily paintings to the French state. The garden at Giverny was donated to the state by his son in 1966. It was very neglected and after restoration it was opened to the public in 1980.
SPEAKER: SANDY PRIMROSE
Sandy Primrose returned to give us as very interesting and well-presented talk full of information, history and anecdote on Daises, Dahlias and Dendranthemas – which we all know as Chrysanthemums.
The Daisy family is the largest plant family with 8,000 species and 1600 genera. They are a very complex flower and in fact what we consider to be petals are in fact individual flowers. So when you are doing the ‘loves me, loves me not’ game you are pulling off flowers. Sandy continued with facts about of some of the different types of daisies. Marigolds in Mexico are associated with death, but in India they are used on happy occasions. There are edible daisies – chicory, and endive. The Shasta Daisy was named by its American breeder after the snow covered Shasta volcano in California. The sunflower was first domesticated in Mexico 5,000 years ago. In the sixteenth century it was brought to Spain, but did not take off until the 1700 hundreds when Peter the Great started to grow it and now after 100 years of breeding Russia is the world’s biggest producer of sunflowers which are used for oil and cattle food. Although the flower’s name, Helianthus, is derived from the Greek word for sun it is a myth that the flowers follow the sun. Once fully out they face east and stay there.
Dahlias are also natives of Mexico and were brought to Europe by the Spaniard Francisco Hernandez. But it was the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt who brought back numerous varieties. Now 9 types based on flower shape are recognised. The tubers are edible, they taste a bit like parsnip, and were eaten by the Aztecs.
Chrysanthemums originated in China and have been known there for over 2500 years. They have always been particular favourites of the emperors and a stylized Dahlia is the symbol of the Japanese monarchy. Pyrethrum, the insect repellent is made from Chrysanthemums and it has become an important crop in Ethiopia and Kenya.
Finally Sandy told the story of China’s role in developing a malaria treatment (not prevention). In the 1960 the North Vietnamese army was ravaged by malaria and Ho Chi Min asked the Chinese if they could help. Artemesia annua, belonging to the daisy family, had long been used in traditional Chinese medicine as an anti-malarial, and as part of the research for a cure the Chinese scientist Tu Youyou trawled through thousands of old Chinese medicinal recipes and discovered the compound artemisinin in Artemesia annua. Using it she developed a drug that became the best treatment for malaria at the time. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for this discovery in 2015.
MEETING ON 4TH SEPTEMBER 2019
SPEAKER: CAROLE PETIPHER
SUBJECT: MONET’S GARDEN AT GIVERNY
Carole Petipher is a lecturer in art and has been a guide at Giverny for many years so she was the ideal person to give us a talk on the famous garden. Her really excellent talk was as much about Monet the artist as the garden he created through his passion for painting. Her talk was illustrated with slides of Monet’s paintings and of his garden and was much enjoyed by her audience.
Monet’s family had no history of gardening and he started life as an urban sophisticate in Paris where he went to study art. His first pictures to include gardens usually had people in them and were more about the shadows and dappled shade than the flowers. But he and his wife were in debt so they moved to Argenteuil outside Paris where rents were cheaper. Their house had a garden and gradually he started to enjoy the country and his garden
When he was 43 in 1883 he rented Giverny with its two acre garden. Carole explained that the location was much like Watlington with chalk hills behind, it is in the River Seine valley and the climate is similar with mild winters and warm summers. The first thing Monet did in his new garden was remove all the little box hedges and started to create a cottage style garden far removed from the formality characteristic of French gardens. He visited Holland and was fascinated by the way the tulips are planted out in the fields in blocks of colours and he returned home with as many bulbs as he could afford to buy. Today Giverny has 20,000 tulips. In 1990 Monet had enough money to buy the property outright and could then make more substantial changes to the garden. He created an artist’s garden, Marcel Proust called it ‘a colour garden‘ Monet liked bright colours, his favorite flowers were showy: irises, dahlias, agapanthus chrysanthemums…
In 1893 an adjacent plot of land came up for sale and Money purchased it, it was marshy with a little tributary which he dammed to create his famous pond where he planted his water lilies. He wanted to create an eastern effect so on the banks he planted azaleas, acers bamboos, and weeping willow trees. He built the rounded bridges and planted the famous wisteria bridge. He also started his series of painting of water lilies, he made hundreds of them.
In later life Monet developed cataracts and could no longer see colours properly which is obvious in some of his later pictures. Monet dies in 1926. He donated many of his water lily paintings to the French state. The garden at Giverny was donated to the state by his son in 1966. It was very neglected and after restoration it was opened to the public in 1980.
MEETING ON 5TH JUNE 2019
SPEAKER: PAUL PATTON
SUBJECT: GROWING FOR THE KITCHEN
Paul Patton, who is an expert on plant care including pest control, feeding and general growing techniques, emphasisedall through his talk the importance of creating a balance in your garden and vegetable patch and the importance of encouraging pest predators such as birds (for eating caterpillars, snail and aphids), ladybirds (for aphids) frogs and toads (for slugs) and pollinators for your crops.
Paul reminded us how important it is to catch predators early, get rid of a single aphid or caterpillar or white fly when you see it, or next time you look there are hundreds of them. He constructs protection for his vegetables with hoops covered with fine mesh, which keeps out the pigeons, butterflies and moths but lets in the small pollinators. And don’t forget to net soft fruit before it ripens or the birds will get there before you.
He listed many types of vegetables to show the enormous variety and number of unusual vegetables that are now available and explained how they can be used in the kitchenAll the seed companies are developing reduced sizedcultivars, especially fruits so you can grow strawberries in small hanging baskets, pears up what is no more than a single stem pinned to a wall and blueberries in pots.
We did not get information on growing methods, planting and harvesting times, but he did say crop rotation, feeding and soil improvement with compost are essential for good results.
Paul ended his talk with a little quiz and the prize for each correct answer was a small borage plant in a pot. Borage attracts pollinators.
SPEAKER: PAUL PATTON
SUBJECT: GROWING FOR THE KITCHEN
Paul Patton, who is an expert on plant care including pest control, feeding and general growing techniques, emphasisedall through his talk the importance of creating a balance in your garden and vegetable patch and the importance of encouraging pest predators such as birds (for eating caterpillars, snail and aphids), ladybirds (for aphids) frogs and toads (for slugs) and pollinators for your crops.
Paul reminded us how important it is to catch predators early, get rid of a single aphid or caterpillar or white fly when you see it, or next time you look there are hundreds of them. He constructs protection for his vegetables with hoops covered with fine mesh, which keeps out the pigeons, butterflies and moths but lets in the small pollinators. And don’t forget to net soft fruit before it ripens or the birds will get there before you.
He listed many types of vegetables to show the enormous variety and number of unusual vegetables that are now available and explained how they can be used in the kitchenAll the seed companies are developing reduced sizedcultivars, especially fruits so you can grow strawberries in small hanging baskets, pears up what is no more than a single stem pinned to a wall and blueberries in pots.
We did not get information on growing methods, planting and harvesting times, but he did say crop rotation, feeding and soil improvement with compost are essential for good results.
Paul ended his talk with a little quiz and the prize for each correct answer was a small borage plant in a pot. Borage attracts pollinators.
MEETING ON WEDNESDAY 3rd APRIL 2019
SPEAKER: HEATHER GODARD-KEY
SUBJECT: PELARGONIUMS
The family owned Fibrex Nurseries holds the National Collections of Hedera and Pelargoniums and Heather is in charge of the Pelargoniums. She started her talk with a short history of the nursery which was founded 61 years ago by Hazel, her mother-in-law, and now specialises in ferns and begonias as well. The unusual name for a plant nursery was adopted when the family took over a rose nursery that sold its plants in a special fibrex pots.
Geraniums, our native plants (named cranesbill after generos, crane in Greek as the seed head looks like a crane’s beak) are the same family but quite different to Pelargoniums (named after pelargós stork in Greek as the seed head looks like the stork’s beak). Both have five petals but in the Geranium they are equally distributed while in the case of Pelargoniums they have two top petals and three below with a marked separation between the two.
Next came a history of Pelargoniums. They are shrubs and sub-shrubs and the first plant was brought back to Europe from South Africa in the late 1500s by one of the maritime journeys round Africa. The first species was Triste. By 1630 Kew had the plants. In the wild the different species grew in separate areas so they did not cross, but once in Europe they were kept together andstarted to hybridise naturally. By the 18th century intentional hybrids began. The Victorians were really mad about Pelargoniums and used them in their mass plantings. The number of species, hybrids and sports -where a single stem of a plant grows differently and can be grown on as a cutting - expanded into the thousands and Fibrex has over 2500 in their collection, the largest in the world. Heather ran through all the different groups illustrating them with actual plants she had brought. She also passed around numerous sprigs for us the sniff the different smells, from lemon to peppermint, coming from the essential oils in the leaves.
Heather explained the leaves can be used to flavour teas, sugars, cakes; the best way to extract the scent is with infusions. She serves Pelargonium flavoured cakes in the Nursery’s café.
Pelargoniums grow well in pots, and are useful as gap fillers in flower beds. They don’t like peat and are best grown in John Innes No 2 mixed 10-20% with multipurpose compost to soften it. Start with a general purpose feed and then at every watering use 1/2 strength tomato feed. Pinch off shoots to make bushier plants and deadhead to keep flowers coming, plants can be tied up with secateurs.
They need to be overwintered in a frost free, well ventilated and not too damp area, so avoid kitchens and bathrooms, and not crowded too tight as this causes die back. Cuttings can be taken between August-April, i.e.when not in flower. They should be potted into sterile compost with grit. Plant several to a pot round the edges but not touching the bottom, they like company and to be near the edge.
Heather’s enthusiasm, love of her plants and extensive knowledge resulted in a very good talk that our members enjoyed and learnt from. Heather also brought a large range of plants for us to buy.
SPEAKER: HEATHER GODARD-KEY
SUBJECT: PELARGONIUMS
The family owned Fibrex Nurseries holds the National Collections of Hedera and Pelargoniums and Heather is in charge of the Pelargoniums. She started her talk with a short history of the nursery which was founded 61 years ago by Hazel, her mother-in-law, and now specialises in ferns and begonias as well. The unusual name for a plant nursery was adopted when the family took over a rose nursery that sold its plants in a special fibrex pots.
Geraniums, our native plants (named cranesbill after generos, crane in Greek as the seed head looks like a crane’s beak) are the same family but quite different to Pelargoniums (named after pelargós stork in Greek as the seed head looks like the stork’s beak). Both have five petals but in the Geranium they are equally distributed while in the case of Pelargoniums they have two top petals and three below with a marked separation between the two.
Next came a history of Pelargoniums. They are shrubs and sub-shrubs and the first plant was brought back to Europe from South Africa in the late 1500s by one of the maritime journeys round Africa. The first species was Triste. By 1630 Kew had the plants. In the wild the different species grew in separate areas so they did not cross, but once in Europe they were kept together andstarted to hybridise naturally. By the 18th century intentional hybrids began. The Victorians were really mad about Pelargoniums and used them in their mass plantings. The number of species, hybrids and sports -where a single stem of a plant grows differently and can be grown on as a cutting - expanded into the thousands and Fibrex has over 2500 in their collection, the largest in the world. Heather ran through all the different groups illustrating them with actual plants she had brought. She also passed around numerous sprigs for us the sniff the different smells, from lemon to peppermint, coming from the essential oils in the leaves.
Heather explained the leaves can be used to flavour teas, sugars, cakes; the best way to extract the scent is with infusions. She serves Pelargonium flavoured cakes in the Nursery’s café.
Pelargoniums grow well in pots, and are useful as gap fillers in flower beds. They don’t like peat and are best grown in John Innes No 2 mixed 10-20% with multipurpose compost to soften it. Start with a general purpose feed and then at every watering use 1/2 strength tomato feed. Pinch off shoots to make bushier plants and deadhead to keep flowers coming, plants can be tied up with secateurs.
They need to be overwintered in a frost free, well ventilated and not too damp area, so avoid kitchens and bathrooms, and not crowded too tight as this causes die back. Cuttings can be taken between August-April, i.e.when not in flower. They should be potted into sterile compost with grit. Plant several to a pot round the edges but not touching the bottom, they like company and to be near the edge.
Heather’s enthusiasm, love of her plants and extensive knowledge resulted in a very good talk that our members enjoyed and learnt from. Heather also brought a large range of plants for us to buy.
