"March, when days are getting long, Let thy growing hours be strong to set right some wintry wrong." - Caroline May

Presentation: 

 Doug Stewart gave us a hugely entertaining and interesting talk entitled ‘The Way we Were’.  Doug, who has been involved with gardening all his life, trained as a gardener, has been a lecturer, an expert in the development of tomatoes and cucumbers and is now a horticultural consultant.  Doug is presently writing a book on sustainability.

His talk examined how gardeners were trained in the past, gardening trends and the products and tools they used.  We may ridicule some of the methods and harmful products used by earlier generations but realise that, in years to come, some of our own practices may be considered questionable.

Display Table

Ann’s pot of Gypsy Girl crocuses and daffodils Tiny Bubbles

Katherine’s hardy Pinellia pedatisecta, Chinese Green Dragon

Trevor’s Iris Reticulata

Gill J’s spring posy:  Tête-à-tête and Jet fire daffodils, Camellia, Anemone blanda, Hellebores, Pulmoneria, Heather, Arabis and Wallflowers

Amanda’s beautiful Hellebores, Iris and Daphne

Kate’s Pachyphragma macrophllum, Anemone blanda, Narcissus ‘Tête-à-tête’, Pulmoneria ‘Blue Ensign’Ipheion ‘Alberto Castillo’

 Chaenomeles x superba ‘Crimson and Gold’, Camelia ‘Silver Wedding’. Prunus incisa ‘Kojo-no-mai’ which translates as Flight of the Butterflies

Next Meeting:  1^st April – Friday Forum Spring Show

“Spring is the time of plans and projects.” ― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Presentation

Tracy Foster’s presentation, From Eden to Titchmarsh and Beyond. (A brief history of gardening), was up to her usual excellent standard.  She talked us through the fashions in gardens from those first recorded in Egypt right up to the present day.  Who knew that the incinerator in Leeds is a wonderful example of vertical planting which you can visit! What goes on inside Leeds’ vertical garden and the tallest 'living wall' - Leeds Live (leeds-live.co.uk)

A really interesting, informative and entertaining talk.

 

Display Table

Gill’s container:  Primroses including PrimleyPink, Daffy Rip van Winkle, Pulmonaria, Omphalodes verna, Leucojum vernum

Ann brought  Hamamelis 'Aphrodite, Iris unguicularis, Iris reticulata, Galanthus nivalis, Frp and S.Arnott, Crocus tommasinianus, Olsynium douglasii, Hepatica nobilis, Allium triquetrum, Cyclamen coum, Pulmonaria ‘Raspberry Splash’, Helleborus: atrorubens, Ashwood, Yellow, Leucojum vernum and Geranium ‘Spring Fling’ with its decorative leaves

Judith’s hellebores – silver dollar and stenii

Kate brought Viburnum bodnatense Dawn, Skimmia x confusa Kew Green, Ribes sanguineum White Icicle, Helleborus x hybridus SP Sophie and Edgeworthia chrysantha Grandiflora, which was February’s flower of the month Plant of the Month: February 2022 | Hardy Plant Society (wyhps.co.uk)

Next Meeting

Next meeting will be on March 18^th when there will be a presentation by Doug Stewart ‘The Way we Were’

 

 

New Year, new plans for the garden

 

It’s a new year but sometimes it seems like more of the same as our Friday Forum meetings have been suspended for January.

While we are waiting for our gardens to wake up and the weather to warm up, we can plan the changes and improvements to be made in 2022.

Norma has already made a start with this cheerful, welcoming display:

Display of plants at Norma's front door including the chubby robin, a Christmas gift

Our preferences and needs are very different and our gardens reflect this but, if you are considering some modifications or transformations, check out other gardening blogs:

Garden trends of 2022: bold colour and red-fleshed fruit - MandyCanUDigIt

What should you do with your garden in 2022? This year's gardening trends (the3growbags.com)

Garden Ninja: Lee Burkhill Garden Design - Manchester, Liverpool, Southport & Cheshire Garden Design Specialists

What plans do you have for 2022?

 

Fabulous Festive Flower Arrangements

What a scene met our eyes on Friday!  We saw beautiful displays on a long table decorated with lights and candles courtesy of Judith, Norma, Margaret M and Gill E who gave us useful tips and tricks.  Members were then encouraged to try their hand at flower arranging with remarkable results.

Fresh greenery and red roses with artificial amaryllis and lisianthus

This pot was topped off with dried kidney beans sprayed gold

Pot a fleur

A long tray, cocktail sticks stuck to candles and secured into oasis were used for this arrangement 

Fresh greenery with artificial Poinsettias with gold wire twisted around

Asymmetrical triangle with fruit arranged in a plant pot

A candle in a base of greenery topped with cranberries with an elegant arrangement using gypsophila a glass candle and foliage sprayed with artificial snow 

This is arranged on a cake tray

Margaret’s basket

Gill makes four wreaths for her family using different bases such as willow frames and sprayed ivy berries

..... and then it was our turn

Next Meeting on 17^th December will be our Christmas “do” so you are requested to dress appropriately.  

Talk on Reginald Farrer

Talk

Talk by Kate van Heel:  Reginald Farrer, Botanist, Plant Hunter and Writer (1880 – 1920)

Kate

In true Friday Forum tradition and following on from Carl and the late Celia,  we were treated to a very interesting and informative talk on the subject of Reginald Farrer.

Kate would take her pupils on residential trips to Ingleborough Hall in Clapham, North Yorkshire.  On one such trip, Kate bought a Viburnum farreri, not realising that this was a plant named after Reginald Farrer which he brought back from China and who once owned and lived in Ingleborough Hall.

Farrer came from a wealthy family and travelled widely bringing back plants from the Riviera and European Alps, where he was accompanied by E A Bowles.  He then embarked on expeditions to Eastern Asia where he developed strong views on rock garden design saying, “where naturalism superseded formal artificiality, and where alpine plants were to grow in surroundings which, though ordered by man, copied as far as possible their original habitats”; clearly ahead of his time.

In 1907, Farrer published his popular and influential book My Rock Garden which was in print for more than 40 years.  While in Japan he was attracted to Buddhism and, when visiting Ceylon the next year, he became a Buddhist.

Farrer later founded the Craven Nursery in Clapham which specialised in Asian alpines hoping to introduce these to British gardeners.

For those members who missed the talk, a more detailed version of the talk is available.

Some illustrations of Farrer and further information can be found at

 Reginald Farrer - Plant hunter and writer - Alpine Garden Society

If any other Friday Forum members would like to give a presentation, please let Kate know.

Display Table

Judith’s display in a basket is made up of small pots of cheap and cheerful plants to give this stunning effect:  Cyclamen Solanum, Hellebore Silver Dollar, The barbed wire plant Calocephalus brownie and Begonia

Gill J’s Rose in full flower mid-November and Fatsia Japonica looking so attractive at this time of year

Kate’s pot of Tulbaghia, a pretty flower from the Amaryllis family with pungent leaves

Kate’s jug shows there can still be plenty of interest in the garden at this time of year:  the scented and floriferous Rosa Blush Noisette, Cotinus coggygria Royal Purple, Persicaria campanulata, Verbena rigida, the early dpring shrub, Edgeworthia chrysantha with yellow scented flowers.  In Japan, the shrub’s bark is used for making durable tissue paper called Mitsumata paper which is used for making bank notes

Next Meeting  3^rd December: Christmas Flower Arranging.  Please bring along anything you have made or some material for an arrangement you would like to make for a Christmas decoration.  Help will be on hand from Judith and Norma.

Dull November brings the blast, then the leaves are falling fast (Sara Coleridge)

Talk:  Gardening to delight the senses by Sarah Hopps

Sarah became interested gardening as a child and now involves her grandchildren.  She certainly delighted all our senses with her entertaining presentation.  We were all nodding in agreement as she reminded us how the garden stimulates all our senses.  We see different shapes and colours, we hear the sound of the wind, water and birdsong, smells evoke other times and places and we can feel the different textures.  Sarah brought along an array of plants to demonstrate this and showed us illustrations of gardens both here in the UK and further afield.

Display Table

Carol’s Flower Carpet Pink roses are still flowering, shown here with white chrysanthemums

In Kate’s jug:  the delicate Fuchsia Hawkshead, Persicaria amplexicaulis Alba, Callicarpa (bodinieri var. giraldii Profusion living up to its name, Cosmos Purity, Saxifraga Wada and the flower of Heuchera villosa Autumn Bride

Ann brought Autumn Lady's-tresses orchid, Spiranthes spiralis which comes from America

Gill brought Michaelmas Daisies, saxifrage fortunii and Callicarpa

Judith’s blue vase contains isoplexis canariensis, the Canary Islands foxglove. Growing out of the pot is what Judith hopes is a seedling.  

This is a cutting of Trevor’s kalanchoe which has grown very large but produced no flowers, yet.  We look forward to an update …

Katherine brought a Datura which came from a cutting from fellow member Amanda. On looking it up, I read that the plant is poisonous but tea made from it has hallucinogenic properties!

Next meeting:  19th November: Forum plus Profile of a Plantsperson – our own Kate van Heel