Taken at Ness Botanic Gardens on the 2021 holiday
PREVIOUS EVENTS 2020
OUR AUGUST PROJECT - THE BARBARA GOOCH MEMORIAL GARDEN
Our Coronavirus Photo Competition
MARCH PHOTOS PROJECTS IN MARCH
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  From Helen (McIllmurray)
An old chair found in a skip was smartened up, given a lick of paint and planted up with a selection of houseleeks. |
APRIL PHOTOS MAY PHOTOS
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JUNE PHOTOS JULY PHOTOS
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AUGUST PHOTOS SEPTEMBER PHOTOS
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Our winning photograph, taken by Helen Powell.
Taken on 4th August, it was named "Bees on Eryngium Silver Ghost". 
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PREVIOUS EVENTS 2019
Day Trip to Prospect House and High Garden Nursery September 3rd
Our outing to Devon took in two venues: the first, Prospect House, Peter Wadeley’s 1-acre garden on a hill outside Axminster, provided a treat that couldn’t be imagined from the busy road outside. Entering through a gate in a high wall on the roadside, we found ourselves in a beautiful garden overlooking the lovely countryside of the Axe Valley. There was much to delight here, not least the salvia collection (around 200 varieties), together with trees, shrubs and a riot of late summer flowering perennials. To top it off, Fox’s Plants, a salvia specialist nursery, offered plants for sale as well.
The second venue was High Garden Nursery near Exeter, with its attached 5-acre garden. The nursery sale, with its large range of plants including many unusual varieties, was the first port of call for many of us. What a surprise to see several plants of Crinodendron hookerianum Ada Hoffmann for sale! We dived in to buy, and then, laden with our purchases, managed to stagger to the tea-room and around the sheltered garden. The garden offered a challenge to our orienteering skills. Grass paths wound around numerous beds thickly planted with trees, shrubs and perennials, many of which are not commonly seen. Amongst the notables, there was a lovely scented Clerodendron, a big stand of orange Hedychium and several plants that were unfamiliar to me, such as Albizia julibrissin Ombrella, Indigophera, Kiringeshoma, and some delightful little species dahlias, which had clearly flowered their socks off.
I found it a very educational and enjoyable day. Both venues were well worth the visit so many thanks to Judy and the committee for arranging it.
by Rowena Jecock
Our outing to Devon took in two venues: the first, Prospect House, Peter Wadeley’s 1-acre garden on a hill outside Axminster, provided a treat that couldn’t be imagined from the busy road outside. Entering through a gate in a high wall on the roadside, we found ourselves in a beautiful garden overlooking the lovely countryside of the Axe Valley. There was much to delight here, not least the salvia collection (around 200 varieties), together with trees, shrubs and a riot of late summer flowering perennials. To top it off, Fox’s Plants, a salvia specialist nursery, offered plants for sale as well.
The second venue was High Garden Nursery near Exeter, with its attached 5-acre garden. The nursery sale, with its large range of plants including many unusual varieties, was the first port of call for many of us. What a surprise to see several plants of Crinodendron hookerianum Ada Hoffmann for sale! We dived in to buy, and then, laden with our purchases, managed to stagger to the tea-room and around the sheltered garden. The garden offered a challenge to our orienteering skills. Grass paths wound around numerous beds thickly planted with trees, shrubs and perennials, many of which are not commonly seen. Amongst the notables, there was a lovely scented Clerodendron, a big stand of orange Hedychium and several plants that were unfamiliar to me, such as Albizia julibrissin Ombrella, Indigophera, Kiringeshoma, and some delightful little species dahlias, which had clearly flowered their socks off.
I found it a very educational and enjoyable day. Both venues were well worth the visit so many thanks to Judy and the committee for arranging it.
by Rowena Jecock
SNOWDROP TWIN SCALING WORKSHOP Aug 2nd
Galanthophiles take note! If you want to give Nature a helping hand to increase your snowdrop population, then learning the technique of ‘chipping’ or ‘twin-scaling’ your snowdrop bulbs might be just what you need.
Five of us met in Jane Norris’s kitchen in early August to do just that. Jane has a passion for snowdrops and grows many different varieties. Heidi Bateman, Penny Cleaver, Susan Whalley, Debbie Steel and I joined Jane in her garden to dig up and identify some suitable bulbs on which to practice. Firm large bulbs with a single nose are ideal. Jane chose 3 varieties for us: Monostictus, George Elwes and Selbourne Green Tips. We peeled off the brown outer skins, removed the roots and started the surgical operation gathered around Jane’s kitchen table.
Jane impressed on us that good hygiene is key to success. All equipment (scalpels and glass chopping boards) was disinfected before use. Even the bulbs were washed in methylated spirits before we started slicing them into segments, making sure that each piece retained a section of the basal plate. It’s surprising to see how many segments you can obtain from a single bulb, and each has the capacity to produce a new plant. Each segment was dipped in fungicide before popping it into a plastic bag of just moist vermiculite, together with other segments from the same variety of bulb. We each took home 3 bags of chipped bulbs, with instructions to keep them in a dark warm place and give them a shake every fortnight until the end of October. At that point we all hope to see that tiny bulblets will have formed on the segments. We shall then pot up our treasures, and over-winter them in frost-free conditions. While it might take a few years before our new plants flower, this is clearly a great way to increase stock.
Of course, no Hardy Plant get-together is complete without tea, cake and a good chat, which rounded off the afternoon nicely. Huge thanks to Jane for her hospitality, but particularly for sharing her enthusiasm and knowledge of snowdrops with us.
We’ll let you know in a future issue how successful our efforts have been!
Rowena Jecock
Galanthophiles take note! If you want to give Nature a helping hand to increase your snowdrop population, then learning the technique of ‘chipping’ or ‘twin-scaling’ your snowdrop bulbs might be just what you need.
Five of us met in Jane Norris’s kitchen in early August to do just that. Jane has a passion for snowdrops and grows many different varieties. Heidi Bateman, Penny Cleaver, Susan Whalley, Debbie Steel and I joined Jane in her garden to dig up and identify some suitable bulbs on which to practice. Firm large bulbs with a single nose are ideal. Jane chose 3 varieties for us: Monostictus, George Elwes and Selbourne Green Tips. We peeled off the brown outer skins, removed the roots and started the surgical operation gathered around Jane’s kitchen table.
Jane impressed on us that good hygiene is key to success. All equipment (scalpels and glass chopping boards) was disinfected before use. Even the bulbs were washed in methylated spirits before we started slicing them into segments, making sure that each piece retained a section of the basal plate. It’s surprising to see how many segments you can obtain from a single bulb, and each has the capacity to produce a new plant. Each segment was dipped in fungicide before popping it into a plastic bag of just moist vermiculite, together with other segments from the same variety of bulb. We each took home 3 bags of chipped bulbs, with instructions to keep them in a dark warm place and give them a shake every fortnight until the end of October. At that point we all hope to see that tiny bulblets will have formed on the segments. We shall then pot up our treasures, and over-winter them in frost-free conditions. While it might take a few years before our new plants flower, this is clearly a great way to increase stock.
Of course, no Hardy Plant get-together is complete without tea, cake and a good chat, which rounded off the afternoon nicely. Huge thanks to Jane for her hospitality, but particularly for sharing her enthusiasm and knowledge of snowdrops with us.
We’ll let you know in a future issue how successful our efforts have been!
Rowena Jecock
GARDENERS' QUESTION TIME July 23rd
Following a suggestion by our member, Ian Baxter, an application was made earlier this year to bring this popular radio show to Colehill. Ian worked hard on the submission, together with members of the committee, and before we knew it, we were given the go-ahead to market tickets for the event. We set a target, sufficient to fill the Hall, and invited other local gardening groups to join us.
On the hottest day of the year we listened to the brilliant questions, 10 for each programme. The answers were humorous and enlightening, especially as we heard how one of our members pruned his neighbours' apple tree, then it died!
Kathy Clugston chaired the panel of Pippa Greenwood, Anne Swithinbank and Bob Flowerdew. The time just flew by. It was interesting to see how a radio programme is made. From feedback since the event, it would appear that everyone enjoyed themselves so thank you to all those who helped it run so smoothly, and thanks to those who asked the important questions.
Following a suggestion by our member, Ian Baxter, an application was made earlier this year to bring this popular radio show to Colehill. Ian worked hard on the submission, together with members of the committee, and before we knew it, we were given the go-ahead to market tickets for the event. We set a target, sufficient to fill the Hall, and invited other local gardening groups to join us.
On the hottest day of the year we listened to the brilliant questions, 10 for each programme. The answers were humorous and enlightening, especially as we heard how one of our members pruned his neighbours' apple tree, then it died!
Kathy Clugston chaired the panel of Pippa Greenwood, Anne Swithinbank and Bob Flowerdew. The time just flew by. It was interesting to see how a radio programme is made. From feedback since the event, it would appear that everyone enjoyed themselves so thank you to all those who helped it run so smoothly, and thanks to those who asked the important questions.
All photos taken by Eric Watson
Holiday Write Up
Day One Sunday 7th July
A prompt start saw us on our way to Kent with a chattering coach of 49. A dull start, and as we pulled into our comfort stop the rain started but typically optimistic gardeners were heard to say, over the rustle of pac-a-macs and ponchos, ’Good job it is not as hot as yesterday’ and ‘Good, my veg. garden really needs this’. As soon as we crossed the Kent border the sky cleared and out came the sun. Just after midday we arrived at our first garden.
Timbers, East Farleigh, Maidstone.
The 5 acre garden, surrounding a 1950s house, opens for the NGS and Sue the owner is an HPS member. She met us on the coach and provided us with a very useful, extensive plant list, much appreciated as the packed borders brimmed with rare and unusual plants, very careful placed and in borders in immaculate order. As we ambled towards the delicious sandwiches awaiting us in the tea room our attention was taken, time and time again, by the wide range of plants in this exquisite garden. The first garden we came to was a round garden with a central ‘roundabout ‘border, we pored over gems such as Mathiasella bupleuroides ‘Green dream’, Euphorbia mellifera and Nepeta kubanicapai .
The garden was originally a Hazel plat (orchard). We saw the 100 year old remnants of these Kentish cobs, all beautifully maintained and with new ones still being added. We particularly liked the lovely purple filbert. The house however was only built in the 1950s in the Arts and Crafts style.
There was a range of interesting trees dotted around - some mature such as the towering cherries others added by the owners over the years such as various acers including griseum ,Crataegus orientalis, juglans nigra and Morus alba and Gingko. Some trees were given a ‘skirt’ of yew. Beyond the plat, away from the house, was a very steep wildflower meadow dipping down to a valley. This was where Romans quarried the local ragstone, a hard grey limestone used to build part of Old London town.
The showstopper for all of us was the soft yellow and strong mauve hummocks all around the edge of the terrace in front of the house - we all got our cameras out. It was a dark Lavender combined with Santolina rosmarinifolia subsp. rosmarinifolia ‘Primrose gem’ (from Beth Chatto), inter-planted with lots of Echevera elegans , replacing an early flowering of tulips. This was clearly a garden where every border was planted for succession. We like that! Throughout the garden we noted very well clipped box cones, pyramids and hedges. One striking use of box was a star-shaped hedge surrounding a sundial. Well chosen sculptures, such as the oversized cut apple, apt for Kent and child seated beneath an Acer ‘Crimson King’, were carefully placed around the garden.
Other beautiful areas included the old tennis court with an Albizhia and a central raised lily pond surrounded by full borders. The hot pink of the waterlily was echoed by Salvia ‘Cerro potosi’ one of seven different ones growing in this garden. Our old friend ‘nachtvlinder ‘ was in abundance ( I have loads to give away, one lump or two ?) so the scent of salvia lingered in this enclosed sheltered spot.
The upper and lower parterres continued to thrill, as did the gravel garden with grasses including my favourite Oryzopsis milliacea and persicaria. Elsewhere was a pretty rock pool, pergola and vegetable beds and glasshouses.
We all agreed - an excellent first garden! A short half hour drive brought us to the next one remembered as the ‘honey garden’.
Orchard House, Marden.
Our venue for tea and cakes (at this bee themed garden) really raised the bar for the rest of the visit following the delicious various honey cakes. Jeanette was an office worker who pined to be a gardener. She volunteered at Knebworth, Hertfordshire and very quickly was made a member of staff. She took RHS level one and after a few years she took the plunge and became a garden designer, moving to Kent in order to be able to have a big plot at an affordable price, not too far from London. Over the next 14 years she created the garden not realizing it was a clay garden and thus prone to flooding, for this is the low Weald of Kent. She started up a nice little nursery, which we plundered. At first we thought this quite a modest garden but it was a bit of a "tardis" extending to its 2.5 acres around the house (built in 1901) with a Bramley apple orchard. A few ancient specimens remained, some supporting rambling roses such as ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’. In the old orchard was a productive quartered potager, one segment each for cut flowers, vegetables, herbs and fruit . A double row of hornbeam under-planted with Cammassia, in long grass, leads down to the drive.
Busy borders full of bee loving plants and narrow paths led to a gravel garden, a tropical border inspired by a holiday in Barbados, and lots of succulents in pots beautifully displayed. Sedums were also a great favourite.
We were interested to hear how she made workable borders out of clay, and it was a method I have used very successfully. She cut out the rim of the new bed and then dug out the turf, revered it and covered it with topsoil. The turf will rot, but meantime will also act as a sponge holding the water as new plants get established.
(I also modified this method but instead of digging in the turf I covered the grassed area with cardboard and then a load of top soil mixed with manure was added. In year one a seed mix of annuals was sprinkled over and by the next year the soil was workable for more permanent planting)
I digress….Salvias were another specialty of the garden and the smell pervaded the garden and also to the coach as we settled down for the journey back to our hotel.
Day 2 Monday July 8th
Great Dixter
A bright and early start, in the coach for 8 am as roadworks may have delayed us. We were lucky enough to have a private visit as Dixter does not open on a Monday, so no shop or refreshments but we did not mind as the nursery was open! We disembarked and were given maps then left to explore on our own which was bliss. We watched the butterflies, listened to the birdsong and the only people we saw were a few industrious gardeners weeding. We were greeted politely and I was helped down the steps by a nice young man (I sound ancient!).
There were a few surprises in-store. We all know that the collection of pots around the porch is normally ablaze with colour, well - they were just green. Every shape and texture of foliage in every possible shade of green. Almost apologetically a dachshund posed beside them to take our mind off it. It was totally reflecting the Chesea trend, of course. The exotic garden was a bit green too, but nevertheless lovely in a jungly sort of way. The pots clustered elsewhere in the garden - on the terrace at the side of the house looked a reassuring colourful mix as always. We were soon on familiar ground with the long border, glorious planting combinations - all our old friends were there. Lots of yellow this year, Inula, Verbascum ‘Christo’s lightning’ and bright yellow anthemis (tinctoria kelwayii??) contrasting with electric blue of the aconitum. The aconitum was also planted, to stunning effect, with orange helenium, vivid magenta lychnis coronaria, yellow hemerocallis and deep blue cornflowers.
The sunken garden looked great too. I normally see it bathed it tulips in May or in October, bravely holding on. We noted the lovely erigeron annus, only an annual, but a great self seeder, threading through the border which was brimming with colour such as more ’Christo’s Lightning’, dark dahlias, bright pink phlox all running through the garden with scabious, evening primrose ,fennel and evidence of much more to come. In a shady corner, I saw the biggest clump of Paris polyphylla I have ever seen.
The higher borders reflected this colourful planting. We saw swathes of glorious opium poppies and towering grasses too. And so it goes on…..so much to take in.
What a good job the nursery was open, some of us just browsed but quite a few purchases were made.
South Grange Northiam
Just a short drive away, delicious rolls for lunch and a very warm welcome awaited us at this pretty cottage garden, packed with fabulous plants - the perfect garden to complement Great Dixter, allowing us to come down gently from the dizzy heights of Dixter. At first it seemed to be a modest sized plot but it opened onto woodland, one and a half acres in all. Linda, the owner, is a longstanding (40 years) HPS member. The garden opens for the NGS and is also a B&B - very handy for Dixter and Sissinghurst.
The garden was a plantsperson’s paradise, packed borders, small winding paths and plenty of sitting areas hidden away, including a lively circular arbor, created by training silver Pyrus salcifolia over a frame. As Linda sold us plants from a very alluring sales table, she chatted away and answered all our questions. There were several stunning plants for sale. I succumbed to a deep copper hemerocallis. There were several unusual richly coloured hemerocallis in the garden, including the colourful border in the front garden, much pored over.
At the end of the garden a gate led through a copse of the signature Kentish cobs once again including a luscious example of the purple one. The house water run- off is diverted to an extensive storage system tucked in here. Any overflow ends up in the large wildlife pond. A productive vegetable plot within a meadow, incorporated lots of self-sown flowers, emphasising the owners' philosophy of gardening for wildlife with foxes and badgers in residence. Truly a garden for everyone.
Boldshaves, High Holden
I did not think I would be able to manage this vast garden, but when Peregrine the owner (the 2010 High Sheriff of Kent) appeared at the end of the very long drive to give the three members ‘stick and walker’ team a lift, I realised this was no ordinary garden visit and nothing was to be missed! The group was settled in the seats between the extensive pond and the little tea house and Peregrine told us the story of the house and garden.
The unusual house was an Arts and Crafts house built in 1909 by Robert Mitchum, one of Luteyns early apprentices, on a very old estate housing a spectacular barn dating back to the 1800s. Various events are held in this barn here including the Wealden Literary Festival. It is bordered at the top by a semi ancient managed 100 acre woodland full of bluebells and wood anemones. It even has nightingales! The seven acre partially terraced south facing garden is on high weald clay and even has an ancient marl pond. We were given worthy advice about managing heavy clay; every bit of it is heavily mulched by the end of April ‘’never let it see the sun’. The mulch of course will disappear eventually by worm action, lightning and feeding the soil, and gradually raising the level of the border.
Little of the original garden remains, bar a magnificent weeping ash in the front drive. Over the past 25 years the garden has been developed with new features added all the time. I wrote down three words to describe the garden, ‘elegant, generous and thoughtful’.
The tour began in the walled garden where a range of semi-tender Southern hemisphere plants grew around a mature mulberry. In front of the house, leading down and framing the magnificent countryside views, there was a wide grass path flanked by the famous red borders - red on the blue spectrum he elaborated. At the end of these generous herbaceous borders, a tennis court is cleverly disguised by the clever use of climbing roses.
When his wife commented that ‘a year spent not visiting an Italian garden is a year wasted ‘so he built her one. Yew hedges enclosed this charming garden with a central water feature surround by four silver and white borders each with an olive in the middle. Opposite we visited a garden planted in 2012 to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in rich royal colours, around a dovecote. There was also a camellia dell, a vegetable and herb garden given over to culinary and medicinal herbs and the smartest, largest hen enclosure I have ever seen. Lucky girls!
A few years later Peregrine decided to plant an arboretum and to celebrate he asked each member of his family to choose a tree. His father chose Taxodium distichum (swamp cypress) which now towers over the oak tree! So we saw quite an eclectic mix, including a gingko and catalpa.
We finished off the visit with delicious tea and cakes in the lakeside Cliff Tea House where Peregrine’s wife told me that, despite working as a London QC, Peregrine squeezes in at least 40 hours a week in the garden working very long days.This knowledge, passion and devotion shone through.
Day Three Wednesday July 9th
Sissinghurst
Described by Harold Nicholson as a ’ramshackle farm tumble’, Sissinghurst is probably the most famous garden in Britain, visited by 200,000 visitors a year. The great joy was that we had a totally private ‘earlybird’ visit. Most of us had been before (20 years ago for me) and we were all eager to see how things had developed since Troy Scott-Smith become Head Gardener, where his brief was to make the garden more Vita’esque. Appointed on a five year contract, Troy was about to leave to take up a new appointment at Harold Peto’s Iford Manor.
Would we be disappointed with the garden?
It was eerily quiet when we arrived and we were divided into several groups, each with one or two guides. My group had two lively characters who did a sort of double act each politely adding their tuppence worth to the others halfpence. The long and rich history of Sissinghurst’s past was relayed to us in some detail as we progressed around the different areas, with the odd risqué comment tossed in to spice up the talk. The living arrangements were fragmented; the Cook and her son lived in their own quarters, Vita and Harold had their own rooms in separate buildings, Vita’s writing room was famously in the tower, and she had no need of a kitchen of her own. (Lucky lady!)
We, of course wanted to know the names of plants, and sometimes we were in luck but there was much googling afterwards and swapping of information.
The basic design was based on two main axis each ending in a focus. Every subsequent path ended with a something to draw the eye. The view of the open countryside was drawn into the garden, but this really only was apparent in the nuttery garden or from the tower or beyond the moat. The orchard and superb wildflower meadow were an important link. Think back to the stunning view from the café over the meadow to the fields beyond.
Much work has been undertaken and still goes on. The yew walk has been very hard pruned on one side after 30 years, the other side will be pruned too. Regrowth was already evident. The herb garden had been refreshed with the fragrant thyme parterre completely replanted. The chamomile seat, constructed from the medieval ruins of the original manor house, is still intact. I am sure no-one dares sit in it though.
The Lime Walk was looking quiet as, of course, it is a spring garden. Originally it was Harold’s project that eventually Vita grew to like. One senses Harold was more about the design and the plants were Vita’s domain so he was lucky to be granted this little bit for himself.
The Rose Garden was looking fabulous, so tightly packed with complementary plants burgeoning out of the box hedged borders - just as Vita liked it, that you did not notice that some roses were past their best. The famous Sissinghurst method of training roses by pinning them down over a frame was explained to us, this reduces apical dominance and encourages flowering (and also looks pretty cool.)
The White Garden had never looked better in my view. It is notoriously difficult to mix whites as there are so many whites and they do not always blend well. Here we had white, cream, very soft yellow, silver and green. Troy had cracked it.
There was debate over the fabulous tall soft yellow verbascums, possibly ‘Arctic Snow ‘or ‘Polar Summer’, or maybe just ‘Gainsborough’?
The Cottage Garden was planted in the traditional hot colours entered around the four famous Taxus bacata ‘Fastigiata’ which have outgrown their space and are likely to be replaced soon. The Rosa ‘Mme Alfred Carriere’ was planted against the cottage wall on the day that Harold and Vita exchanged contracts, almost 90 years ago. It was in 1938 that Sissinghurst first opened to the public. Entrance was one shilling so visitors were called ‘ shillingses’. Today the plastic token given out for re-entry is a plastic shilling.
The improvements continue. The azaleas in the Moat Walk (planted in 1940 when Vita won £100 in a poetry competition) may soon be replaced and the thick under-planting of Smilacina racemosa reviewed. We were all intrigued by the big project masterminded by Dan Pearson, the complete recreation of Delos, the Greek Island much love by the Nicholsons. Unfortunately the concept never worked, built on clay and facing north. So massive new rocks have been bought to be totally realigned with the garden and the soil altered to be more receptive to Mediterranean planting. Dan is really good at this so I am sure it will succeed. With some rocks costing £3,000 each it is going to be an expensive recreation of an impoverished landscape, but we were told that Sissinghurst is one of only two National Trust properties that keeps all the income it generates, so it will be self-funding.
The coach awaits, we must move on. Were we disappointed? No! it was voted our top favourite. How on earth does one follow Sissinghurst? Well……………
Hole Park, Rolvenden
….When we arrived we were greeted by Edward Barham, the charismatic owner, with two black Labradors, Fidget and Pepper, who promptly came onto the coach in the manner of sniffer dogs and said ‘Hello ‘to each of us. We were all given a useful map and leaflet. A Lunch of sandwiches was ready in the Coach House Café in the Courtyard, and whilst we ate, Edward gave us the full history of the house, and his family.
The estate of Hole Park dates back to the 13th century and is built on acidic High Wealdon clay. It is an extensive 200 acre parkland garden with 15 acres of semi-ancient woodland, set around a house that is the fourth on the site. The first was a Wealdon farmhouse and then in 1720 a Queen Ann style front was added. Thomas Gibbon Moneypenny, M.P. for Rye, demolished this house and built a vast neo-Elizabethan house in 1832.
Four generations of the Barham family have managed the estate and lived here, the family money came from United Dairies. (We like to know these things, luckily the information was volunteered.)
The Barham family acquired the estate in 1911 and Colonel Barham designed the gardens in the 1920s. It already had many significant features including a grade two listed ice house from 1740, in which amazingly, ice could last a year, extensive bluebell woods and a fine bronze statue by the famous C19th sculptor John Bell called Eagle Slayer, which was exhibited in the Great Exhibition of 1851.
During the Second World War the house was used as a barracks and the family did not move back in until 1959. The father of the current owner made the wise decision to demolish much of the house, leaving the central section from the 1720 house intact, and rebuilding in a classical style, a mimic of the second house to be built and just a quarter of the size of the fourth house (but still pretty large!). Hence the rather confusing pictures in the café! He further developed the gardens which are now stunning. A new addition is the obelisk erected in 2011 to commemorate 100 years of the Barham family at Hole Park. It now receives 13,000 visitors a year and hosts quite a few events including, in August, a Proms spectacular, an ABBA revival and a Napoleonic Re-enactment weekend. Hopefully not all three events on at the same time.
We set off to explore the gardens. Lots to see! The current stars were the Millennium borders and a tropical border next to the house, planted with semi tropical plants by Head Gardener Quentin Stark. He was most helpful and very knowledgeable, Kingston Maurward trained and was brought up on the Crichel Estate in Manswood, where I lived for ten years. He helped us a lot with many of our numerous identification queries. Another member of the three strong team is the partner of Troy Scott-Smith.
The tropical borders had Sparmannia Africana (the third garden we had seen this), datura, dahlias , Catalapa, Pennisetum ‘Purple Majesty’, ornamental gourds over a frame, towering bananas and a huge Arundo donax. Richard also pointed out two giant puffballs tucked away.
The millennium borders were fabulous, long and deep, and very well planted with clear colour themes - too many plants to mention but we did ask about an unusual pink daisy rather like a Catanache. It was Tolpis barbatus from Chiltern seeds (Quentin is a fan). What we thought was fennel or dill was Ridolfis segetum, a Sarah Raven favourite. An adjacent old pool was home to a big colony of Great Crested Newts.
This has hardly scratched the surface. We had yet to see the egg (shaped) pond, Sundial garden (where we saw Salvia ‘Robins choice’, much to Judy’s delight), the vineyard, a sunken garden from 1930 said to be acoustically perfect and much more. It was a visit to remember.
The Walled Garden, Hawkhurst
After an exciting journey, due to having to have permission to enter a road closed due to gas board work, we arrived. This visit was to a nursery not a garden and we were delighted with that. Monty and Emma both trained at Hadlow College on Kent. All the plants on sale were grown here in the glass houses, 60,000 a year! Many were unusual, some unique to just a handful of Nurseries such as the chrysanthemum that I bought that was a gift from Hassenhof Nursery in the Netherlands. Emma (ex- Dixter) was the enthusiastic and knowledgeable co-owner and gave us a detailed history of the nursery set within a Victorian Kitchen Walled Garden. Very few exist with all their glasshouses intact. Here there were 13 in all, including a melon house, a cucumber house, a Peach Case, a fernery and ¾ span vinery. The money behind the original garden came from OXO meat extract, a new and cheap idea to nourish the poor. After many owners, and two world wars, decline set in. All the glasshouses were dilapidated when Monty & Emma arrived and restoring them to their former glory has been a lengthy and expensive process, made possible only by sponsorship. The names of sponsors are displayed on a wall in the shop written on plant labels. The granddaughter of the original Head Gardener, Ernest Hardcastle, got the ball rolling with a legacy of £200,000.
Evening Meal at Lime Wharf Café, Bodiam
Adjacent to the river and railway this Boat Hire Company and campsite is something a little bit different. It was light and airy, with stunning borders planted by Emma of the Walled Garden (in exchange for redesigning the kitchen there). It was a lovely evening and we sat outside for nibbles and sangria or a soft drink then trooped in to sit at long communal tables when supper was ready. Most people had the Romney Marsh lamb and declared it delicious. I had an excellent vegetarian stuffed pepper with courgette fritters - the nicest meal I have had in a long time. The pavlova, strawberries with clotted cream and chocolate brownie were all declared to be absolutely divine. Well worth the hour long trip back to the hotel.
Day Four, Wednesday July 7th Homeward bound.
Downderry Lavender Farm
We were wowed by the fabulous display beds showing triple rows of contrasting lavender as well as hearty clumps all artistically designed around a water feature. Simon holds the National Collection of Lavender and Rosemary. The famous oversized Chelsea wicker basket was on display, although not the original. Simon is a charismatic and extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic speaker and in some detail he explained about all the different species of lavender. We were interested to see the a typical ones from Somalia (the lemon/minty Lavandula aristabracteata ) India and South Arabia (ten species in all) as well as the pretty tender Canary Island varieties and of course the Mediterranean species - all so different, many with the ‘bunny ears’.
The world of lavenders is complex and the different groups, both species and cultivars, were explained to us. Simon mentioned ‘Bridehead Blue’ a Dorset cultivar bred by Chris and Judy Yates when they had the National Collection at the Walled Garden, Litton Bredy Dorset.
We were shown how to emasculate a flower ready for hand pollination, after which it must be kept in an insect free environment to avoid an unwanted lavender dalliance by the bees. Micro propagation (tissue culture) is also possible and was explained. In the propagation tunnel we were shown the whole procedure from softwood cuttings to saleable plant. Outside we glimpsed the show plants for Hampton Court, Chelsea etc. in their own tunnel .The nursery has won endless RHS Gold medals; a whole wall full in the shop. A highlight for the group was when he started up the still and after half an hour or so we sampled the freshly extracted oil.
In the fields, Provence in miniature, we saw that the different lavenders have specific uses; for oil, bunches, culinary and for specialist flavouring such as the top secret new variety specially bred and grown for a local gin company. It took ten years to bulk up enough mature plants to provide sufficient stems for the crop required. Simon also has developed new species for farmers to grow locally and can supply plug sized plants. (A tray of these appeared at Colehill off the coach.) Pests and diseases were explained to us, Rosemary beetle and Spittle bug (hand control recommended) and in order to keep out the dreaded Xyella it is important to buy British grown lavenders only. Some unscrupulous nurseries spray their lavenders with growth retardant to create a stumpy dwarf plant. No need when varieties in all heights and colours are available from a specialist nursery like Downderry. There is a wealth of information on the Downderry website - do visit it.
After the tour there was the chance to shop and enjoy refreshments and then we were back on the coach for our final destination. Luckily this was to be our final plant shopping experience as the boot of the coach was already crammed full.
Norney Wood, Godalming
Our final garden, Norney Wood made for a great visit, not least for the stunning generous buffet laid out for us. What a spread! Lunch was served in stunning surroundings - the modern, spacious inside/outside Socialising Suite, built onto the grand Edwardian (1903) house, nestling on the slopes of the Hog’s Back. The house, lived in for 50 years by the Pilkington glass family, was possibly designed by the school of Luteyns, as were many grand houses deep in the stockbroker belt of Surrey. Clues to it’s provenance are the extensive use of the dark ironstone bargate stone (the vernacular stone quarried around Godalmiming), a favourite of Luteyns and the Dutch gables on the house, being another typical feature. The present owners came in 2006 and restored the neglected house and garden with ecological principles in mind. Two and a half kilometers of pipe work was laid for ground source heating pipes. Run off from the roof is collected in vast underground tanks and they even have their own borehole. All the stone setts and flagstones were lifted to be relocated in the garden to build the terracing - 100 pallets in all. The ten acre garden is set within a ten acre wood mainly pine, oak sweet chestnut and beech. The substantially sloping site, with an eight metre drop, was then deer fenced and rabbit proofed. In front of the house there was a magnificent row of Hydrangea 'Annabel' and box hedging enclosing lavender. The shady areas had borders of Gallium odoratum.
The garden was designed by Acres Wild in the style of Gertrude Jekyll but with a modern twist. Munstead Wood, Jekyll’s home is not too far away. The layout was on a very grand scale, with generous terraces and elegant broad steps all a mix of stone and chippings. 250 roses, mainly David Austin, were planted throughout the garden. An extensive croquet lawn with borders of just Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ and Geranium oxanianum ‘Wargraves Pink’ adjacent to a double allee of 30 pleached limes, immaculately trained, repeating the planting with the addition of alliums. A sloping bank beside the avenue was planted with restraint with just Bergenia cordifolia and Geraniums thurstonianum and macrorrhizumhi, in front of a great swathe of mature rhododendrons. On the other side was a rose walk again with simple under planting of the same nepeta and geranium. This led to the 'Thunder House' with a decorative ironstone floor, a copy of the garden room at Munstead Wood where Gertrude enjoyed watching storms. From here one could look down a substantial drop to the small pond waterfall, edged with box, falling into the rill and long lily pond, which led to the loggia - complete with sofas and fireplace. Beyond and around, the wood was left natural but easy to walk through. At the very bottom was a vegetable garden used by the adjoining Primary School. They had their own access gate and a little raised, wooden, outside classroom. It had been built especially for their use. Some days the local nursery also use this area as a forest school. Indeed learning is a feature of the garden with Creative Activity days including flower arranging, yoga and photography and visits from a local horticultural school, when practical maintenance days are organised.
Walking back up to the top of the garden, through the woodland, we passed the large 80 year old pond, fire pit and finally the original vegetable garden, now used for soft fruit and dahlias for cutting. A tennis court was tucked away, and on up to the house was a nicely planted tropical border and in front of the house four matching L shaped borders enclosed the terrace. These were planted for a degree of succession, with ferns, hellebores, Campanula lactiflora ‘Pritchards Variety’, Iris, foxgloves and Hydrangrea panuculata. No annual plants that we could see except for the sunset coloured petunias ‘Indian Summer’ in two stone urns and very few bulbs, to cut down work.
The garden currently opens every other year for the NGS, part of the Shackleford Garden Safari receiving around 800 visitors per day. Where do they all park?
After the tour we had delicious homemade cakes and tea and departed for home arriving pretty much on time tired, but happy, replete with cake and plants.
Thanks to the amazing team from the committee for all their hard work putting together such a fantastic holiday. The workload is phenomenal and as soon as they finish one they start on the next one! We truly appreciate your efforts.
Postscript
As I completed this missive surrounded by a sea of notes on my desk and the floor a lone note fluttered into view, I cannot think which pile of garden notes it belonged to, so if you can identify the garden from this tantalising description please let me know………’In the centre was a large decorative butter pot from Cairo, nearby a silver pear was pruned in the style of Princess Sturdza………………. Answers on a postcard, please.
Day One Sunday 7th July
A prompt start saw us on our way to Kent with a chattering coach of 49. A dull start, and as we pulled into our comfort stop the rain started but typically optimistic gardeners were heard to say, over the rustle of pac-a-macs and ponchos, ’Good job it is not as hot as yesterday’ and ‘Good, my veg. garden really needs this’. As soon as we crossed the Kent border the sky cleared and out came the sun. Just after midday we arrived at our first garden.
Timbers, East Farleigh, Maidstone.
The 5 acre garden, surrounding a 1950s house, opens for the NGS and Sue the owner is an HPS member. She met us on the coach and provided us with a very useful, extensive plant list, much appreciated as the packed borders brimmed with rare and unusual plants, very careful placed and in borders in immaculate order. As we ambled towards the delicious sandwiches awaiting us in the tea room our attention was taken, time and time again, by the wide range of plants in this exquisite garden. The first garden we came to was a round garden with a central ‘roundabout ‘border, we pored over gems such as Mathiasella bupleuroides ‘Green dream’, Euphorbia mellifera and Nepeta kubanicapai .
The garden was originally a Hazel plat (orchard). We saw the 100 year old remnants of these Kentish cobs, all beautifully maintained and with new ones still being added. We particularly liked the lovely purple filbert. The house however was only built in the 1950s in the Arts and Crafts style.
There was a range of interesting trees dotted around - some mature such as the towering cherries others added by the owners over the years such as various acers including griseum ,Crataegus orientalis, juglans nigra and Morus alba and Gingko. Some trees were given a ‘skirt’ of yew. Beyond the plat, away from the house, was a very steep wildflower meadow dipping down to a valley. This was where Romans quarried the local ragstone, a hard grey limestone used to build part of Old London town.
The showstopper for all of us was the soft yellow and strong mauve hummocks all around the edge of the terrace in front of the house - we all got our cameras out. It was a dark Lavender combined with Santolina rosmarinifolia subsp. rosmarinifolia ‘Primrose gem’ (from Beth Chatto), inter-planted with lots of Echevera elegans , replacing an early flowering of tulips. This was clearly a garden where every border was planted for succession. We like that! Throughout the garden we noted very well clipped box cones, pyramids and hedges. One striking use of box was a star-shaped hedge surrounding a sundial. Well chosen sculptures, such as the oversized cut apple, apt for Kent and child seated beneath an Acer ‘Crimson King’, were carefully placed around the garden.
Other beautiful areas included the old tennis court with an Albizhia and a central raised lily pond surrounded by full borders. The hot pink of the waterlily was echoed by Salvia ‘Cerro potosi’ one of seven different ones growing in this garden. Our old friend ‘nachtvlinder ‘ was in abundance ( I have loads to give away, one lump or two ?) so the scent of salvia lingered in this enclosed sheltered spot.
The upper and lower parterres continued to thrill, as did the gravel garden with grasses including my favourite Oryzopsis milliacea and persicaria. Elsewhere was a pretty rock pool, pergola and vegetable beds and glasshouses.
We all agreed - an excellent first garden! A short half hour drive brought us to the next one remembered as the ‘honey garden’.
Orchard House, Marden.
Our venue for tea and cakes (at this bee themed garden) really raised the bar for the rest of the visit following the delicious various honey cakes. Jeanette was an office worker who pined to be a gardener. She volunteered at Knebworth, Hertfordshire and very quickly was made a member of staff. She took RHS level one and after a few years she took the plunge and became a garden designer, moving to Kent in order to be able to have a big plot at an affordable price, not too far from London. Over the next 14 years she created the garden not realizing it was a clay garden and thus prone to flooding, for this is the low Weald of Kent. She started up a nice little nursery, which we plundered. At first we thought this quite a modest garden but it was a bit of a "tardis" extending to its 2.5 acres around the house (built in 1901) with a Bramley apple orchard. A few ancient specimens remained, some supporting rambling roses such as ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’. In the old orchard was a productive quartered potager, one segment each for cut flowers, vegetables, herbs and fruit . A double row of hornbeam under-planted with Cammassia, in long grass, leads down to the drive.
Busy borders full of bee loving plants and narrow paths led to a gravel garden, a tropical border inspired by a holiday in Barbados, and lots of succulents in pots beautifully displayed. Sedums were also a great favourite.
We were interested to hear how she made workable borders out of clay, and it was a method I have used very successfully. She cut out the rim of the new bed and then dug out the turf, revered it and covered it with topsoil. The turf will rot, but meantime will also act as a sponge holding the water as new plants get established.
(I also modified this method but instead of digging in the turf I covered the grassed area with cardboard and then a load of top soil mixed with manure was added. In year one a seed mix of annuals was sprinkled over and by the next year the soil was workable for more permanent planting)
I digress….Salvias were another specialty of the garden and the smell pervaded the garden and also to the coach as we settled down for the journey back to our hotel.
Day 2 Monday July 8th
Great Dixter
A bright and early start, in the coach for 8 am as roadworks may have delayed us. We were lucky enough to have a private visit as Dixter does not open on a Monday, so no shop or refreshments but we did not mind as the nursery was open! We disembarked and were given maps then left to explore on our own which was bliss. We watched the butterflies, listened to the birdsong and the only people we saw were a few industrious gardeners weeding. We were greeted politely and I was helped down the steps by a nice young man (I sound ancient!).
There were a few surprises in-store. We all know that the collection of pots around the porch is normally ablaze with colour, well - they were just green. Every shape and texture of foliage in every possible shade of green. Almost apologetically a dachshund posed beside them to take our mind off it. It was totally reflecting the Chesea trend, of course. The exotic garden was a bit green too, but nevertheless lovely in a jungly sort of way. The pots clustered elsewhere in the garden - on the terrace at the side of the house looked a reassuring colourful mix as always. We were soon on familiar ground with the long border, glorious planting combinations - all our old friends were there. Lots of yellow this year, Inula, Verbascum ‘Christo’s lightning’ and bright yellow anthemis (tinctoria kelwayii??) contrasting with electric blue of the aconitum. The aconitum was also planted, to stunning effect, with orange helenium, vivid magenta lychnis coronaria, yellow hemerocallis and deep blue cornflowers.
The sunken garden looked great too. I normally see it bathed it tulips in May or in October, bravely holding on. We noted the lovely erigeron annus, only an annual, but a great self seeder, threading through the border which was brimming with colour such as more ’Christo’s Lightning’, dark dahlias, bright pink phlox all running through the garden with scabious, evening primrose ,fennel and evidence of much more to come. In a shady corner, I saw the biggest clump of Paris polyphylla I have ever seen.
The higher borders reflected this colourful planting. We saw swathes of glorious opium poppies and towering grasses too. And so it goes on…..so much to take in.
What a good job the nursery was open, some of us just browsed but quite a few purchases were made.
South Grange Northiam
Just a short drive away, delicious rolls for lunch and a very warm welcome awaited us at this pretty cottage garden, packed with fabulous plants - the perfect garden to complement Great Dixter, allowing us to come down gently from the dizzy heights of Dixter. At first it seemed to be a modest sized plot but it opened onto woodland, one and a half acres in all. Linda, the owner, is a longstanding (40 years) HPS member. The garden opens for the NGS and is also a B&B - very handy for Dixter and Sissinghurst.
The garden was a plantsperson’s paradise, packed borders, small winding paths and plenty of sitting areas hidden away, including a lively circular arbor, created by training silver Pyrus salcifolia over a frame. As Linda sold us plants from a very alluring sales table, she chatted away and answered all our questions. There were several stunning plants for sale. I succumbed to a deep copper hemerocallis. There were several unusual richly coloured hemerocallis in the garden, including the colourful border in the front garden, much pored over.
At the end of the garden a gate led through a copse of the signature Kentish cobs once again including a luscious example of the purple one. The house water run- off is diverted to an extensive storage system tucked in here. Any overflow ends up in the large wildlife pond. A productive vegetable plot within a meadow, incorporated lots of self-sown flowers, emphasising the owners' philosophy of gardening for wildlife with foxes and badgers in residence. Truly a garden for everyone.
Boldshaves, High Holden
I did not think I would be able to manage this vast garden, but when Peregrine the owner (the 2010 High Sheriff of Kent) appeared at the end of the very long drive to give the three members ‘stick and walker’ team a lift, I realised this was no ordinary garden visit and nothing was to be missed! The group was settled in the seats between the extensive pond and the little tea house and Peregrine told us the story of the house and garden.
The unusual house was an Arts and Crafts house built in 1909 by Robert Mitchum, one of Luteyns early apprentices, on a very old estate housing a spectacular barn dating back to the 1800s. Various events are held in this barn here including the Wealden Literary Festival. It is bordered at the top by a semi ancient managed 100 acre woodland full of bluebells and wood anemones. It even has nightingales! The seven acre partially terraced south facing garden is on high weald clay and even has an ancient marl pond. We were given worthy advice about managing heavy clay; every bit of it is heavily mulched by the end of April ‘’never let it see the sun’. The mulch of course will disappear eventually by worm action, lightning and feeding the soil, and gradually raising the level of the border.
Little of the original garden remains, bar a magnificent weeping ash in the front drive. Over the past 25 years the garden has been developed with new features added all the time. I wrote down three words to describe the garden, ‘elegant, generous and thoughtful’.
The tour began in the walled garden where a range of semi-tender Southern hemisphere plants grew around a mature mulberry. In front of the house, leading down and framing the magnificent countryside views, there was a wide grass path flanked by the famous red borders - red on the blue spectrum he elaborated. At the end of these generous herbaceous borders, a tennis court is cleverly disguised by the clever use of climbing roses.
When his wife commented that ‘a year spent not visiting an Italian garden is a year wasted ‘so he built her one. Yew hedges enclosed this charming garden with a central water feature surround by four silver and white borders each with an olive in the middle. Opposite we visited a garden planted in 2012 to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in rich royal colours, around a dovecote. There was also a camellia dell, a vegetable and herb garden given over to culinary and medicinal herbs and the smartest, largest hen enclosure I have ever seen. Lucky girls!
A few years later Peregrine decided to plant an arboretum and to celebrate he asked each member of his family to choose a tree. His father chose Taxodium distichum (swamp cypress) which now towers over the oak tree! So we saw quite an eclectic mix, including a gingko and catalpa.
We finished off the visit with delicious tea and cakes in the lakeside Cliff Tea House where Peregrine’s wife told me that, despite working as a London QC, Peregrine squeezes in at least 40 hours a week in the garden working very long days.This knowledge, passion and devotion shone through.
Day Three Wednesday July 9th
Sissinghurst
Described by Harold Nicholson as a ’ramshackle farm tumble’, Sissinghurst is probably the most famous garden in Britain, visited by 200,000 visitors a year. The great joy was that we had a totally private ‘earlybird’ visit. Most of us had been before (20 years ago for me) and we were all eager to see how things had developed since Troy Scott-Smith become Head Gardener, where his brief was to make the garden more Vita’esque. Appointed on a five year contract, Troy was about to leave to take up a new appointment at Harold Peto’s Iford Manor.
Would we be disappointed with the garden?
It was eerily quiet when we arrived and we were divided into several groups, each with one or two guides. My group had two lively characters who did a sort of double act each politely adding their tuppence worth to the others halfpence. The long and rich history of Sissinghurst’s past was relayed to us in some detail as we progressed around the different areas, with the odd risqué comment tossed in to spice up the talk. The living arrangements were fragmented; the Cook and her son lived in their own quarters, Vita and Harold had their own rooms in separate buildings, Vita’s writing room was famously in the tower, and she had no need of a kitchen of her own. (Lucky lady!)
We, of course wanted to know the names of plants, and sometimes we were in luck but there was much googling afterwards and swapping of information.
The basic design was based on two main axis each ending in a focus. Every subsequent path ended with a something to draw the eye. The view of the open countryside was drawn into the garden, but this really only was apparent in the nuttery garden or from the tower or beyond the moat. The orchard and superb wildflower meadow were an important link. Think back to the stunning view from the café over the meadow to the fields beyond.
Much work has been undertaken and still goes on. The yew walk has been very hard pruned on one side after 30 years, the other side will be pruned too. Regrowth was already evident. The herb garden had been refreshed with the fragrant thyme parterre completely replanted. The chamomile seat, constructed from the medieval ruins of the original manor house, is still intact. I am sure no-one dares sit in it though.
The Lime Walk was looking quiet as, of course, it is a spring garden. Originally it was Harold’s project that eventually Vita grew to like. One senses Harold was more about the design and the plants were Vita’s domain so he was lucky to be granted this little bit for himself.
The Rose Garden was looking fabulous, so tightly packed with complementary plants burgeoning out of the box hedged borders - just as Vita liked it, that you did not notice that some roses were past their best. The famous Sissinghurst method of training roses by pinning them down over a frame was explained to us, this reduces apical dominance and encourages flowering (and also looks pretty cool.)
The White Garden had never looked better in my view. It is notoriously difficult to mix whites as there are so many whites and they do not always blend well. Here we had white, cream, very soft yellow, silver and green. Troy had cracked it.
There was debate over the fabulous tall soft yellow verbascums, possibly ‘Arctic Snow ‘or ‘Polar Summer’, or maybe just ‘Gainsborough’?
The Cottage Garden was planted in the traditional hot colours entered around the four famous Taxus bacata ‘Fastigiata’ which have outgrown their space and are likely to be replaced soon. The Rosa ‘Mme Alfred Carriere’ was planted against the cottage wall on the day that Harold and Vita exchanged contracts, almost 90 years ago. It was in 1938 that Sissinghurst first opened to the public. Entrance was one shilling so visitors were called ‘ shillingses’. Today the plastic token given out for re-entry is a plastic shilling.
The improvements continue. The azaleas in the Moat Walk (planted in 1940 when Vita won £100 in a poetry competition) may soon be replaced and the thick under-planting of Smilacina racemosa reviewed. We were all intrigued by the big project masterminded by Dan Pearson, the complete recreation of Delos, the Greek Island much love by the Nicholsons. Unfortunately the concept never worked, built on clay and facing north. So massive new rocks have been bought to be totally realigned with the garden and the soil altered to be more receptive to Mediterranean planting. Dan is really good at this so I am sure it will succeed. With some rocks costing £3,000 each it is going to be an expensive recreation of an impoverished landscape, but we were told that Sissinghurst is one of only two National Trust properties that keeps all the income it generates, so it will be self-funding.
The coach awaits, we must move on. Were we disappointed? No! it was voted our top favourite. How on earth does one follow Sissinghurst? Well……………
Hole Park, Rolvenden
….When we arrived we were greeted by Edward Barham, the charismatic owner, with two black Labradors, Fidget and Pepper, who promptly came onto the coach in the manner of sniffer dogs and said ‘Hello ‘to each of us. We were all given a useful map and leaflet. A Lunch of sandwiches was ready in the Coach House Café in the Courtyard, and whilst we ate, Edward gave us the full history of the house, and his family.
The estate of Hole Park dates back to the 13th century and is built on acidic High Wealdon clay. It is an extensive 200 acre parkland garden with 15 acres of semi-ancient woodland, set around a house that is the fourth on the site. The first was a Wealdon farmhouse and then in 1720 a Queen Ann style front was added. Thomas Gibbon Moneypenny, M.P. for Rye, demolished this house and built a vast neo-Elizabethan house in 1832.
Four generations of the Barham family have managed the estate and lived here, the family money came from United Dairies. (We like to know these things, luckily the information was volunteered.)
The Barham family acquired the estate in 1911 and Colonel Barham designed the gardens in the 1920s. It already had many significant features including a grade two listed ice house from 1740, in which amazingly, ice could last a year, extensive bluebell woods and a fine bronze statue by the famous C19th sculptor John Bell called Eagle Slayer, which was exhibited in the Great Exhibition of 1851.
During the Second World War the house was used as a barracks and the family did not move back in until 1959. The father of the current owner made the wise decision to demolish much of the house, leaving the central section from the 1720 house intact, and rebuilding in a classical style, a mimic of the second house to be built and just a quarter of the size of the fourth house (but still pretty large!). Hence the rather confusing pictures in the café! He further developed the gardens which are now stunning. A new addition is the obelisk erected in 2011 to commemorate 100 years of the Barham family at Hole Park. It now receives 13,000 visitors a year and hosts quite a few events including, in August, a Proms spectacular, an ABBA revival and a Napoleonic Re-enactment weekend. Hopefully not all three events on at the same time.
We set off to explore the gardens. Lots to see! The current stars were the Millennium borders and a tropical border next to the house, planted with semi tropical plants by Head Gardener Quentin Stark. He was most helpful and very knowledgeable, Kingston Maurward trained and was brought up on the Crichel Estate in Manswood, where I lived for ten years. He helped us a lot with many of our numerous identification queries. Another member of the three strong team is the partner of Troy Scott-Smith.
The tropical borders had Sparmannia Africana (the third garden we had seen this), datura, dahlias , Catalapa, Pennisetum ‘Purple Majesty’, ornamental gourds over a frame, towering bananas and a huge Arundo donax. Richard also pointed out two giant puffballs tucked away.
The millennium borders were fabulous, long and deep, and very well planted with clear colour themes - too many plants to mention but we did ask about an unusual pink daisy rather like a Catanache. It was Tolpis barbatus from Chiltern seeds (Quentin is a fan). What we thought was fennel or dill was Ridolfis segetum, a Sarah Raven favourite. An adjacent old pool was home to a big colony of Great Crested Newts.
This has hardly scratched the surface. We had yet to see the egg (shaped) pond, Sundial garden (where we saw Salvia ‘Robins choice’, much to Judy’s delight), the vineyard, a sunken garden from 1930 said to be acoustically perfect and much more. It was a visit to remember.
The Walled Garden, Hawkhurst
After an exciting journey, due to having to have permission to enter a road closed due to gas board work, we arrived. This visit was to a nursery not a garden and we were delighted with that. Monty and Emma both trained at Hadlow College on Kent. All the plants on sale were grown here in the glass houses, 60,000 a year! Many were unusual, some unique to just a handful of Nurseries such as the chrysanthemum that I bought that was a gift from Hassenhof Nursery in the Netherlands. Emma (ex- Dixter) was the enthusiastic and knowledgeable co-owner and gave us a detailed history of the nursery set within a Victorian Kitchen Walled Garden. Very few exist with all their glasshouses intact. Here there were 13 in all, including a melon house, a cucumber house, a Peach Case, a fernery and ¾ span vinery. The money behind the original garden came from OXO meat extract, a new and cheap idea to nourish the poor. After many owners, and two world wars, decline set in. All the glasshouses were dilapidated when Monty & Emma arrived and restoring them to their former glory has been a lengthy and expensive process, made possible only by sponsorship. The names of sponsors are displayed on a wall in the shop written on plant labels. The granddaughter of the original Head Gardener, Ernest Hardcastle, got the ball rolling with a legacy of £200,000.
Evening Meal at Lime Wharf Café, Bodiam
Adjacent to the river and railway this Boat Hire Company and campsite is something a little bit different. It was light and airy, with stunning borders planted by Emma of the Walled Garden (in exchange for redesigning the kitchen there). It was a lovely evening and we sat outside for nibbles and sangria or a soft drink then trooped in to sit at long communal tables when supper was ready. Most people had the Romney Marsh lamb and declared it delicious. I had an excellent vegetarian stuffed pepper with courgette fritters - the nicest meal I have had in a long time. The pavlova, strawberries with clotted cream and chocolate brownie were all declared to be absolutely divine. Well worth the hour long trip back to the hotel.
Day Four, Wednesday July 7th Homeward bound.
Downderry Lavender Farm
We were wowed by the fabulous display beds showing triple rows of contrasting lavender as well as hearty clumps all artistically designed around a water feature. Simon holds the National Collection of Lavender and Rosemary. The famous oversized Chelsea wicker basket was on display, although not the original. Simon is a charismatic and extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic speaker and in some detail he explained about all the different species of lavender. We were interested to see the a typical ones from Somalia (the lemon/minty Lavandula aristabracteata ) India and South Arabia (ten species in all) as well as the pretty tender Canary Island varieties and of course the Mediterranean species - all so different, many with the ‘bunny ears’.
The world of lavenders is complex and the different groups, both species and cultivars, were explained to us. Simon mentioned ‘Bridehead Blue’ a Dorset cultivar bred by Chris and Judy Yates when they had the National Collection at the Walled Garden, Litton Bredy Dorset.
We were shown how to emasculate a flower ready for hand pollination, after which it must be kept in an insect free environment to avoid an unwanted lavender dalliance by the bees. Micro propagation (tissue culture) is also possible and was explained. In the propagation tunnel we were shown the whole procedure from softwood cuttings to saleable plant. Outside we glimpsed the show plants for Hampton Court, Chelsea etc. in their own tunnel .The nursery has won endless RHS Gold medals; a whole wall full in the shop. A highlight for the group was when he started up the still and after half an hour or so we sampled the freshly extracted oil.
In the fields, Provence in miniature, we saw that the different lavenders have specific uses; for oil, bunches, culinary and for specialist flavouring such as the top secret new variety specially bred and grown for a local gin company. It took ten years to bulk up enough mature plants to provide sufficient stems for the crop required. Simon also has developed new species for farmers to grow locally and can supply plug sized plants. (A tray of these appeared at Colehill off the coach.) Pests and diseases were explained to us, Rosemary beetle and Spittle bug (hand control recommended) and in order to keep out the dreaded Xyella it is important to buy British grown lavenders only. Some unscrupulous nurseries spray their lavenders with growth retardant to create a stumpy dwarf plant. No need when varieties in all heights and colours are available from a specialist nursery like Downderry. There is a wealth of information on the Downderry website - do visit it.
After the tour there was the chance to shop and enjoy refreshments and then we were back on the coach for our final destination. Luckily this was to be our final plant shopping experience as the boot of the coach was already crammed full.
Norney Wood, Godalming
Our final garden, Norney Wood made for a great visit, not least for the stunning generous buffet laid out for us. What a spread! Lunch was served in stunning surroundings - the modern, spacious inside/outside Socialising Suite, built onto the grand Edwardian (1903) house, nestling on the slopes of the Hog’s Back. The house, lived in for 50 years by the Pilkington glass family, was possibly designed by the school of Luteyns, as were many grand houses deep in the stockbroker belt of Surrey. Clues to it’s provenance are the extensive use of the dark ironstone bargate stone (the vernacular stone quarried around Godalmiming), a favourite of Luteyns and the Dutch gables on the house, being another typical feature. The present owners came in 2006 and restored the neglected house and garden with ecological principles in mind. Two and a half kilometers of pipe work was laid for ground source heating pipes. Run off from the roof is collected in vast underground tanks and they even have their own borehole. All the stone setts and flagstones were lifted to be relocated in the garden to build the terracing - 100 pallets in all. The ten acre garden is set within a ten acre wood mainly pine, oak sweet chestnut and beech. The substantially sloping site, with an eight metre drop, was then deer fenced and rabbit proofed. In front of the house there was a magnificent row of Hydrangea 'Annabel' and box hedging enclosing lavender. The shady areas had borders of Gallium odoratum.
The garden was designed by Acres Wild in the style of Gertrude Jekyll but with a modern twist. Munstead Wood, Jekyll’s home is not too far away. The layout was on a very grand scale, with generous terraces and elegant broad steps all a mix of stone and chippings. 250 roses, mainly David Austin, were planted throughout the garden. An extensive croquet lawn with borders of just Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ and Geranium oxanianum ‘Wargraves Pink’ adjacent to a double allee of 30 pleached limes, immaculately trained, repeating the planting with the addition of alliums. A sloping bank beside the avenue was planted with restraint with just Bergenia cordifolia and Geraniums thurstonianum and macrorrhizumhi, in front of a great swathe of mature rhododendrons. On the other side was a rose walk again with simple under planting of the same nepeta and geranium. This led to the 'Thunder House' with a decorative ironstone floor, a copy of the garden room at Munstead Wood where Gertrude enjoyed watching storms. From here one could look down a substantial drop to the small pond waterfall, edged with box, falling into the rill and long lily pond, which led to the loggia - complete with sofas and fireplace. Beyond and around, the wood was left natural but easy to walk through. At the very bottom was a vegetable garden used by the adjoining Primary School. They had their own access gate and a little raised, wooden, outside classroom. It had been built especially for their use. Some days the local nursery also use this area as a forest school. Indeed learning is a feature of the garden with Creative Activity days including flower arranging, yoga and photography and visits from a local horticultural school, when practical maintenance days are organised.
Walking back up to the top of the garden, through the woodland, we passed the large 80 year old pond, fire pit and finally the original vegetable garden, now used for soft fruit and dahlias for cutting. A tennis court was tucked away, and on up to the house was a nicely planted tropical border and in front of the house four matching L shaped borders enclosed the terrace. These were planted for a degree of succession, with ferns, hellebores, Campanula lactiflora ‘Pritchards Variety’, Iris, foxgloves and Hydrangrea panuculata. No annual plants that we could see except for the sunset coloured petunias ‘Indian Summer’ in two stone urns and very few bulbs, to cut down work.
The garden currently opens every other year for the NGS, part of the Shackleford Garden Safari receiving around 800 visitors per day. Where do they all park?
After the tour we had delicious homemade cakes and tea and departed for home arriving pretty much on time tired, but happy, replete with cake and plants.
Thanks to the amazing team from the committee for all their hard work putting together such a fantastic holiday. The workload is phenomenal and as soon as they finish one they start on the next one! We truly appreciate your efforts.
Postscript
As I completed this missive surrounded by a sea of notes on my desk and the floor a lone note fluttered into view, I cannot think which pile of garden notes it belonged to, so if you can identify the garden from this tantalising description please let me know………’In the centre was a large decorative butter pot from Cairo, nearby a silver pear was pruned in the style of Princess Sturdza………………. Answers on a postcard, please.
DAY TRIP May 18th
WHAT A GREAT DAY AT THE SAVILL GARDEN!
In mid-May some 50 of us joined the coach to take us for our visit to The Savill Garden. We were full of anticipation about what we would see during our visit and we were not disappointed.
The garden covers some 35 acres, divided into a diverse range of planting for every season of the year and I think it would take several visits to explore the whole area. This was my first visit to the garden and I concentrated on the individual gardens that had plants that were of special interest to me –
Many thanks to the HPS Committee for all their hard work in organising this visit, I thoroughly enjoyed the day.
Marion Davies
WHAT A GREAT DAY AT THE SAVILL GARDEN!
In mid-May some 50 of us joined the coach to take us for our visit to The Savill Garden. We were full of anticipation about what we would see during our visit and we were not disappointed.
The garden covers some 35 acres, divided into a diverse range of planting for every season of the year and I think it would take several visits to explore the whole area. This was my first visit to the garden and I concentrated on the individual gardens that had plants that were of special interest to me –
- The Azalea Walk with banks of glorious scented plants in a huge variety of colours shimmered and shone, even though the day was a little overcast.
- The Golden Jubilee Garden, glowed with many varieties of euphorbia and a fascinating array of companion planting, almost too much to take in on a first visit.
- Spring Wood, again packed with wonderful rhododendrons, magnolias, ferns and woodland perennials.
- The New Zealand Garden, opened in 2007, with an impressive array of Kiwi grasses and shrubs.
- Finally, the Queen Elizabeth Temperate House where plants from near and far were beautifully displayed – one that caught my eye was a very vibrant climbing pelargonium, Antik Orange – stunning!
Many thanks to the HPS Committee for all their hard work in organising this visit, I thoroughly enjoyed the day.
Marion Davies
PREVIOUS EVENTS 2018
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October 27th 2018
Jon Evans Jon came to talk to us about the garden surrounding "The Blackthorn Nursery", Kilmiston, Hampshire. Since March 2012 he has had unique access to the garden, which enabled him to take thousands of photos, some of which he shared with us. When the owners of the 1.5 acre plot, Robin & Sue, decided to retire, they wanted to keep the garden private for their own enjoyment, so this was the best way to see some of the rare and unusual specimens in the garden. |
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September 26th 2018
Alan Edmondson Nick Gilbert was due to come and see us to talk about dahlias. However he had to cancel for personal reasons, so luckily Alan stood in at the last minute to talk about primulas and auriculas. Some of our longer standing members may remember when he came to see us last in 2003. |
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RHS WISLEY, including the Plant Fair - 8th September 2018
Write up by Diana Guy As the coach pulled out of Wimborne for a smooth journey of less than two hours to Wisley, Debbie reminded us that this was the final trip of the HPS year, but it definitely felt more of a beginning, not an end. For September is definitely the start of a gardener’s year, the ideal month for new planting and to split early perennials with bulb orders to be unpacked (I shall have over 2,000 to plant,) but still plenty of colour around with dahlias peaking and stalwarts such as Rudbeckia fulgida deammi and ‘Goldsturm’ giving an endless display, and with grasses, asters and autumn flowering bulbs to look forward to. The trip was a welcome chance to reunite with old friends after what seemed to be an endless summer and to recharge our gardening batteries, inspired by good planting and small specialist nursery people to chat to. With over thirty big coaches parked in a very full car park you would have presumed it to be packed out but the crowds soon thinned out as there was so much to see and do spread over extensive grounds. For some, the main draw was the plant sale with 50 stalls, for others it was to the opportunity to see splendid late season planting at Wisley and to assess how the garden had fared after such an exceptional summer of drought and heat. As you would expect, many borders looked a little tired as so many things had ‘gone over’ so quickly. Even the grasses looked as though they had peaked. The highlight was the sumptuous new exotic border where the towering Ricinus communis, cannas, dahlias and Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelli’ (red Abysinnian banana) had luxuriated and thrived in the tropical heat. The rose garden was bearing up well and the colourful fruit garden was displaying great productivity. Elsewhere trees, some showing just hints of autumn tints, were carpeted by cyclamen hederifolium and colchicum. There was something for everyone in the plant sale, it was well spread out giving a leisured and relaxed air. Seating was adequate with only modest queues at the ample eateries. From the sales area it was easy to slip into the soaring glasshouse currently featuring aroids and housing a stunning art exhibition of colourful larger than life sized flower studies causing much interest. Outside, the Surrey Sculpture Trail peppered the grounds. Plant buying was easy, something for everyone from salvias to airplants, many of our lot were seen poring over alpines and succulents. Prices were reasonable with many bargains to be had. (Oh, how I wished I could have carried that £10 blue hydrangea!) Choice trade stalls prompted a clutch of metal garden ornament and plant supports to be squirrelled away in the coach. I enjoyed the dahlia show, never having seen such a vast array before, but would have liked to see more of the more-modern single varieties and species. Giant, decorative and cactus rule! I tried hard in the floral tent to like the startling and often contorted floral arrangement put together by talented floral artistes, but it is all a mystery to me and I was much happier in the glorious floral bus where TV florist, Jonathan Moseley, championed the resurgence of British-grown cut flowers. The array and range of blooms simply plonked in containers was breathtaking and Johnathan’s bouquets, put together very quickly but with great skill, showcased the flowers themselves, no floral acrobatics here. Well done the committee for organising such a perfect day, plenty of time to explore and relax and the best possible start to our new season. HANHAM COURT & Special Plants Nursery - 28th June 2018
Write up by Susan Solomon On a beautiful Summer’s day 45 members and friends enjoyed a visit to 2 gardens near Bath. Our first stop was at Hanham Court. Our arrival, just as a coach of Dutch visitors was leaving, caused a traffic jam in the narrow country lane and meant that our driver, Alan, had to reverse some distance back to the garden. There we were met by our guides and were treated to a very welcome drink and delicious home-made cakes, which were enjoyed outside in the shade of the loggia. Its walls were festooned by the dark red rose ‘Étoile de Hollande’ with a beautiful fragrance; a bloom was passed around the group, so everyone could enjoy the scent. Our guide gave us a potted history of the house; the oldest part was the barn, with foundations dating to 1048. The gardens are much newer, having been laid out by the garden designers Julian and Isabel Bannerman who moved to Hanham Court in 1983. The garden was described as nostalgic and romantic, but I felt that it had a modern feel with its straight lines and oddly-shaped yew sentinels, out of scale with the rest of the planting. There have been 2 owners of the house and garden since the Bannermans left in 2012. The walls of the house are almost obscured by Wisteria and roses. With plenty of mainly pastel-coloured flowers near the house, including massed planting of Eryngium bourgatii ‘Picos Blue’, the garden gave way to a less manicured, greener space as you moved away from the house. In ‘The Dell’, the forlorn sight of large black trunks of dead tree ferns was sad to see. They were killed by frost a few years ago, but we were told that the current owners intended to plant new small ferns of the same species into the trunks in the hopes that they would grow. There was also a stumpery - a smaller prototype of the one the Bannermans later installed at Highgrove House. A tree-house high in a yew was a reminder that this was a family garden, not just a designer’s showpiece. On then to Derry Watkin’s garden and Special Plant Nursery. Leaving the coach at the top of a very narrow lane, we were ferried by car to the garden a mile away. From the 11th century house at Hanham Court we moved to the 21st century house designed by Derry Watkins’ husband, the architect Peter Clegg. The garden was everything you would expect of a renowned plantswoman, with mixed plantings of annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees and unusual plants jostling for space with old favourites. I was surprised to see the pendant blue trumpets of a large specimen of Iochroma australe, as it is generally thought to be half-hardy. A series of pools was alive with the darting movement of blue and red damselflies. An interesting modern twist was provided by clipped shrubs making ‘Shapes in the Landscape’; at the centre of one was a large stone slab which I thought could have been a sacrificial altar. The crunch of dead leaf clippings underfoot as I walked through the shrubs added another element. On the far side of the shapes a massed planting of blue Triteleia contrasted well with the dark green box. Moving away from the riot of colour around the house, the garden became calmer and greener with a perfect circle of mown grass surrounded by meadow grasses and a view of the hills beyond. Following the path through the wood there was a large seat positioned to catch the sunset and beautiful view over the landscape. A roller-coaster wooden path wound its way back to the house and the nursery, which was a Hardy Planter’s dream with a huge range of plants and seeds to tempt us. After a shopping frenzy, we made ourselves at home in Derry Watkins’ kitchen where we were served with a drink and more delicious cake. Thanks to the helpful staff at the nursery our many purchases were ferried with us back to the coach. Thanks also to Alan who is always smiling and helpful and doesn’t complain no matter how many plants we put in the hold. Overall, a very enjoyable and stimulating visit with plenty of inspiration to take home to our own gardens. A very big thank you to all those who researched and organised the day. HOLIDAY 2018 to Midshires June 10th-13th
Write up by Joyce Pullen How exciting! A bright fresh morning in Colehill - all these eager faces - great to see Alan at the wheel again, we’re going to have a fabulous time! The first excitement was spotting scores of minis en route to the National Mini Day at Beaulieu, and then, as we went further north, red kites! At one point, obviously a feeding station, there were a dozen or so wheeling around. Driving through the countryside at this time of year, with views from the elevated position of the comfortable coach, is just grand, vast panoramas of fresh green fields. The ‘Mid Shires’ are beautiful: farms, pretty villages and thriving towns. Two Old Vicarages and two Old Rectories were on the list and at the first one, in the idyllic village of Sudborough, we learnt about the history of Rectories and Vicarages and why so many of their gardens have good ‘bones’. There was a Potager designed by Rosemary Verey; Ben the very helpful Head Gardener; lunch in the courtyard; the church through a door in the wall; and plants to buy. The second one was in Whissendine, another idyllic village and another one with access through the wall to the church next door where we had our coffee and cake. The owner, so welcoming (she’s from Dorset), is the Lord Lieutenant of Rutland, a passionate gardener whose husband built the Gothic orangery, the henhouse, the beehives, the greenhouse, the conservatory and the cocktail lounge! What a team, such attention to design detail throughout the garden. The third vicarage, at Burley, was a fairly new garden of 3 acres with stunning planting, wonderful peonies amongst the roses and around the semi circular terrace a strip of purple iris behind lavender. Standard wisterias symmetrically planted, clematis and geraniums everywhere. The final rectory was at Quinton: it was designed by Anoushka Feiler only four years ago with everything you could possibly desire - a swimming pond, trampoline, tree house, golf, maze of Calamagrostis Karl Foerster, meadows, living walls, roof planting and even a zip wire to get from across the garden! Two other gardens: firstly Dumbleside, owned by Patrick Bates , a man in his mid eighties who had built the garden over 45 years. Precipitous, narrow paths threading down to the Dumble running through the valley, with tree ferns and miriad treasures. Christopher Lloyd was a friend who regularly stayed there, how about that!! On to Riseholme, a smaller garden with every inch beautifully designed, a tropical corner, a jungle area, a gravel garden. Unique and interesting objects complemented the planting - imaginative and inspirational. We couldn’t visit Rutland without seeing Barnsdale Gardens - Geoff Hamilton was an inspiration to so many of us and a very early organic gardener. In addition to the thirty or so of his gardens there are additional ones by Adam Frost, now a regular on Gardeners’ World. The chosen nursery for opportunities to fill the hold was Andrew and Helen Ward’s at Norwell. Andrew described how he had bought a field, not realising that it flooded and was a frost pocket in winter with temperatures as low as -15˚C. However, it is now an extensive nursery and a garden showcasing all the plants he sells. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge: a perfect nurseryman in a perfect nursery, a real treasure these days. And finally, Coton Manor, a 10 acre garden on a hillside extending down from the 17th century manor house. Landscaped on different levels, it has a series of distinctive smaller gardens, enhanced by flowing streams, fountains and a pond with coral coloured flamingos. The garden merged into the countryside with beautiful meadows. An excellent café and nursery too. This was the favourite garden of the group, although we did find it very difficult to choose as there was such variety. Not forgotten of course, the cakes! All were excellent, but the memory lingers on of Burley Vicarage, with tea and strawberry cakes in the garden ..... Alan met the challenge of getting all the plants in the hold by laying out the suitcases and putting the pots in large boxes on top. I don’t think there was room for even one more! All in all, a superb selection of gardens to visit and explore, in great company. Thank you to the Events Team for a wonderful holiday - yet another winner! |
                                                                                              
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MALVERLEYS & Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants - 26th & 30th April 2018
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Write up by Sue Miles who was on the first trip
After I read an article in Gardens Illustrated and visiting the garden during the Malverleys' Fete Day, suggesting an outing was a ‘no brainer’. Debbie worked hard to successfully persuade Head Gardener Matt Reese to lead us on a tour of the wonderful Malverleys. Lady luck was certainly with us on our visit, for in spite of rain all around we spent our time wandering in the sunshine. Matt and his team made us very welcome with cake and coffee. Although not keen being a tour guide, Matt led us on a visual journey of the last eight years. Gone the football pitch, roads and Tom Stuart Smith walled garden design. Now a softer, more relaxed ten acres, full of delights. Yew hedged rooms with masses of tulips, a vegetable garden with striking cages sits within the walled garden and a wonderful white garden full of treasures is a joy. Not to be missed the Coade Stone ‘Neptune Calling the Seas’ in the Cloister Garden. Matt was most generous, sharing his plans for the future plantings and changes to the gardens as they mature. The packed lunch was much enjoyed on our journey through villages and countryside looking lovely in the spring sunshine on our way to Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants. I had planned to visit for years so it was great to have this very special Nursery as part of an outing. We were made very welcome, again with refreshments served before we had a tour by Rosy Hardy of the very impressive operation she runs. Benches of seedlings nurtured and slowly moved from one poly tunnel to the next. The importance of light, heat and careful watering was stressed.The use of organic pest deterrents was explained in detail for each plant type. Rosy has wonderful staff who propagate thousands of plants which are brought on, mainly outside to produce robust material as she calls it. Many of the plants in the final tunnel were for Chelsea and for the many other shows at which Rosy stars. Of course, many of us were eager to visit the comprehensive plants sales area where we enjoyed spending money. I came home with several treasures to put in my woodland garden.They will have to wait to be planted as a pair of very tame Sparrow Hawks have decided to nest in a Silver Birch along the path! A big thank you to Debbie and her team for making this outing so very enjoyable. |
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April 7th 2018 David Hurrion The first half of David's talk concentrated on the different types of soil. In the second half he then went on to talk about composting, mixing brown and green waste so that they reacted well together. He was asked so many questions that by the end of the talk, we didn't need to have an Answer and Question session as we had already "asked" as we went along. It was clearly a subject that many of the audience were very interested in. We all came away with lots of good ideas - but will we see them through? Another excellent speaker, well received by all. February 24th 2018 A.G.M. and Ray Broughton Our A.G.M. went well as we remembered how the Group was founded 20 years ago. Lyn Ovens stood down, after serving for 3 years, and Roy Hole, Hugh Walters and Barbara Melton all stood down as well. Janet Riggs joined the committee so we now have 9 members on the Main Committee. Ray's talk was well worth the wait. He gave us so many hints and tips. Where do I start? From telling us how to avoid leggy seedlings (which is due to lack of carbon dioxide emissions rather than light deficiency), that it is dead marigold heads that keeps white fly and thrip away from veg (so DON'T deadhead or just leave the deadheads around the veg), wiping vinegar around the inverted holes under your pots to deter slugs, about 2 spot ladybirds and so on. If I tell you anymore, you won't go to any of his talks....and you would miss a treat. At the end he offered an information sheet which we have offered to distribute to the members that were at the meeting in return for a donation to his Gardening Charity "Perennial". January 27th 2018
Helen Yemm We had been looking forward to welcoming Helen who had been to see us several years ago. As always she was extremely friendly and was amazed to see how many people turned up. Both the Day Trips and Membership tables were kept extremely busy, especially as a 2nd Malverleys trip had to be hastily arranged, when the 1st sold out before the meeting. We even wondered if there would be sufficient chairs. Anyway Helen did not disappoint with her entertaining and humorous style accompanied by some beautiful slides. She showed how common perennials, shrubs and annuals can still produce a wonderfully colourful and interesting autumn garden. Amongst the many discussed, she praised the Agaranthemum "Jamaican Primrose" and the Diascia Personata, both of which are regularly propagated and found for sale on our Plant Sales Table. Despite one of our largest turnouts, 160 in all, we surprisingly managed to squeeze everyone in! |
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PREVIOUS EVENTS 2017
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November 25th 2017
Neil Lucas Famous for his grasses at Knoll Gardens, Neil entertained a large enthusiastic audience (of 126) Hardy Planters and visitors. His talk, entitled "Using Perennials in the Modern Garden", was well demonstrated with many beautiful slides from his garden. Neil is always very humorous and couldn't resist joking about the grasses, which of course appeared in the slides. There were also plenty of quips about the excellent homemade cakes which were to be served half way through the lecture. He also told us how he had embraced the natural aspect of his garden -with experts frequently making surveys of the garden covering butterflies, bumble bees, moths and birds and also bats - He also explained how many self seeders such as oenethera, verbena bonarienses, gaura and violets had placed themselves naturalistically within the garden. It was a very happy and informative afternoon, hopefully enjoyed by all. |
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October 28th 2017
Roy Lancaster-Afternoon Talk, and Evening Meal What a fabulous way to celebrate the National Society's 60th anniversary. The idea to issue tickets proved to be a good one as the afternoon was a complete sellout. The room was packed with 165 in attendance. Roy Lancaster gave an extremely interesting talk about his life, from when he first showed an interest in plants, up to the present day. He signed and sold many copies of his latest book, happily posing for many selfies with members and visitors alike. September 30th 2017
Marina Christopher Another packed hall saw Marina as she talked about Gardening with Gravel, explaining how deep her gravel beds were dug and the details of the different layers of pebbles, grit and stone. She then listed many of the plants that grow well in such conditions and explained how little care many of them need. The ultimate aim being to attract and sustain as many beneficial insects as possible. She specialises primarily in Mexican and Mediterranean plants that love such conditions. As always she was very entertaining and remains a favourite with our Group. |
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SHERFIELD ENGLISH - 31st August 2017
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As we got on the coach at Colehill the torrential rain (and sleet) started. Not the greatest of omens. However by the time we reached Ringwood, to pick up the rest of the party, the rain had almost stopped. Once we reached Sherfield English it had stopped completely and the sun meant that Nick Gilbert needed to wear his sunhat to protect his head. Cake was wonderful, the brief talk Nick gave us was just enough to get us interested in advance of his visit to Colehill later next year. The range in size and colour was wonderful - there was truly something for everyone. Next it was on to Andy McIndoe's private garden which was literally "just around the corner". We were 15 minutes early but he was not phased at all. In his gardening clothes, rather than his fancy colourful shirts, he took us into the garden and gave us a guided tour explaining the transformation since he moved in 17 years ago. He shared many nuggets of information with us and kept us all amused as we wandered around. Finally we relaxed with a glass of wine and some nibbles - a perfect ending to a lovely afternoon out. Saturday July 8th 2017
Plant Stall at the COLEHILL SUMMER PARTY Some of us took plants to the Summer Party and met several of our members who live in Colehill. Many local residents had come to buy cheap plants and it was lovely to chat to them and tell them all about our Group. Hopefully some will come in September, when Marina Christopher will be coming to talk to us. The event was organised with a view to raising monies for the Colehill Library and I am sure it was extremely successful. The disco outside and accordion player inside added to the wonderful atmosphere. We made a donation, based on a percentage of every plant sold, of just over £50 to the Library. A good time was had by all! |
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HOLIDAY 2017 to Norfolk July 2nd-4th
The holiday was a tremendous success - a further write up and some photos to follow shortly. Apologies never got around to doing it!
Sunday, June 25th
Sapling Cottage, Blandford
On Sunday 25th June member Elaine Lofthouse’s garden was open, along with 15 other gardens for Blandford Hidden Gardens. This was the 10th year for the event and the second time Elaine has opened Sapling Cottage in the 2 years she and husband Mike moved in. Sapling Cottage is situated on one of the few remaining private burgage plots in the town. The day was overcast and cooler than earlier in the week and proved popular with 345 visitors during the day. This included about 20 Hardy Planters as this was combined opening with HPS 60th Anniversary celebration. The first visitors were none other than HPS chairman Cathy Rollinson and her husband, who went on to visit all the other gardens open in Blandford before heading home to Surrey.
Many visitors were surprised that there was a garden at all behind the shops in Blandford and commented on the old brick, flint and dressed-stone boundary wall and the marvellous view from the garden of the parish church tower amongst the rooftops. Lots of plant names were requested and HPS mentioned.
Teas served with macaroons or shortbread, plant sales and a donation bucket brought in £150 for the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance.
At the end of an exhausting but enjoyable day Elaine and Mike said it was all worthwhile to have the privilege of sharing their garden with so many appreciative visitors.
If you missed the opening in June, Sapling Cottage is open by appointment for HPS Jubilee Gardens throughout 2017
MANOR FARM OPENING - 11th June 2017
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We were lucky with the weather. It was dry and sunny. With over 120 visitors to the garden, many came to the Plant Stall and bought lots of plants. Luckily we had plenty to sell! Almost £300 worth of plants were sold - not bad in one afternoon.
There is always a good atmosphere as we see how many cups of tea and cake we can get out of the Lupus Group! Anne and Guy, as always, made us so welcome. We spoke to many about the Group, and what we do, so who knows who may come and join us at the next Meeting in September, when Marina Christopher comes to talk. The visitors included a couple from Germany and some friends from Holland - a truly European gathering. |
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RHS ROSEMOOR DAY TRIP - 6th June 2017
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A wonderful day at RHS Rosemoor. It’s a long way to go so necessitated an early start but it’s always a joy to drive through West Dorset and Devon, the views are vast and spectacular. The weather was worrying, and we drove through downpours, but the sun shone the whole time we were at the gardens although the wind was lively. New to me was the extensive meadow, with orchids dotted about and plenty more colour to come. The hot garden wasn’t hot yet, but the roses were wonderful, the vegetable gardens immaculate, the cottage garden delightful, etc. etc. There’s so much to see at Rosemoor, even a kingfisher on the lake! And always new plants to desire and ideas for your own garden. (B Gooch) |
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Saturday, June 3rd 41 Wimborne Road West, Wimborne Our member, Marie Fitzwalter, opened her garden for the first time ever. With the help of her friends and family, she welcomed 84 visitors to her garden on a perfect day weatherwise. Her sister, Elaine, made some wonderful cakes which everyone enjoyed immensely. Marie would also like to thank everybody for their support. She added "It was really lovely to have so many people enjoying our garden and taking the time relaxing with a cuppa, a piece of cake and chatting to friends". In addition many plants were sold. Marie has £84 to go to National Hardy Plant Society and a further donation will be made to a local charity. Thank you Marie & Co and thanks to everyone who came along. |
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April 29th 2017
Kevin Hughes Yet another excellent speaker with an incredible in-depth knowledge of his plants. Kevin's talk Stars of the Spring Garden included some highly unusual plants, as well as some of those we all know and love. He also brought along with him some very different plants for sale that are not often available, but of course would be at his own nursery, Heale House, near Salisbury. We are lucky to have such a resource relatively close to hand! April 22nd 2017
Knoll Gardens Information Stand 8 Members of the Group and Committee ran an Information Stand at Knoll Gardens' Plant Fair. It was a busy day with many coming to see the Specialist Nurseries and walking around the garden, which was looking particularly good. March 25th 2017
Ken Thompson came to talk to us about Dealing with Plants that Behave Badly. It was a highly amusing talk, describing problems that all of us experience in our gardens and how to cope with them. An extremely entertaining and interesting afternoon. |
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