Presentation: The Incredible Nature of Brazil by Tracy Foster

 

Presentation: The Incredible Nature of Brazil

Tracy Foster is a frequent speaker at Friday Forum. As well as being a garden designer winning Golds at Chelsea, she is a botanical guide and gives lectures on cruise ships.

This time, Tracy gave us a fascinating insight into the plants and animals of Brazil, from where most of the species of plants originate, thought to be well in excess of 46,000.

We learnt about the Brazil tree, after which the country is named, which produces nuts but also wood for making violin bows and dyes. Living in the Atlantic Forest, the tree needs the special bees to pollinate it. The very heavy fruit which resembles a coconut can be dangerous to collect, especially on a windy day! It is propagated by the rodent Agouti which can chew the thick skinned fruit to get to the seed and disperse it.

Tracy also showed photos of the work of the world famous Brazilian landscape designer Roberto Burle Marx whose stunning signature style uses local plants and mosaic pavements

Display Table

Carol brought Nandina domestica (heavenly bamboo) and Leatris spicata

Sue calls her arrangement Three of a kind and comprises

Persicaria: Blackfield, Orange Field and J S Caliente

Penstemon: Threave Pink, Elgar Enigma and Pinifolia

Crocosmia: Limpopo, Okavango and Severn Sunrise

Kate brought: Ceratostigma willmottianum, Anemone “Dreaming Swan”, Eurybia x herveyi (Aster macrophyllus “Twilight”), Persicaria “September Spires”, Phlox “The King” and Monarda “Deep Purple”

Judith’s arrangement includes: Euphorbia stricta with its dark red stems, the annual Hibiscus trionum, Cynoglossum, Gladiolus papilio Ruby, Senna (Colutea), Crocosmia Paul’s Good Yellow, Phlox, Phytolacca laka boom and Everlasting flower

John brought a container of new Streptocarous sprouting from a leaf

Norma brought a caterpillar of the Box Tree Moth, Cydalima perspectalis, which has come over from Asia to attack our plants!

We had lots of plant on the Sales Table 

Gardening Matters

Here are some upcoming flower shows:

 

Admission

Adults £1 or by membership card

Children under 16 free

Refreshments (available until 3.00 pm )

Raffle, Plants, Calendars, Greeting Cards,

Tombola, Cacti/Succulents, Jams/Chutney

Next Meeting

6^th September – Bulb Bonanza. Hyacinth bulbs will be distributed to members to grow at home. We will also be discussing our favourite bulbs so do bring along any catalogues you have.

Garden Visit to Prospect House in Burton Leonard

It was a warm, sunny day for our visit to Cathy Kitchingman’s delightful and excellently maintained garden at Prospect House in the North Yorkshire village of Burton Leonard.

Cathy talked us through the various areas of this all season garden and patiently answered our endless questions.

We saw shady beds beneath the old trees, beds themed by colour, an ornamental pond, cutting patch and potting shed.  The soil is in tiptop conditions thanks to four compost bins and farmyard manure.  Cathy's friend, Georgina, and a couple of young people help with the garden.  All suitable plants are "Chelsea chopped" and Cathy is always looking for ways to improve the planting and every few years may completely redo a bed or border.

Parts of the house date back to 1785.  The border in front of the house was widened and is planted up with mainly white plants with some annuals added and are repeated along the length. We had delicious refreshments here. 

The ornamental pond impressed us with its planting and water quality

Two small, square beds with ornamental pears

The hot border

This border is planted up with blue, pale yellow and silver

This willow arch houses a bug hotel

Edibles and flowers for cutting which are supplied to a local shop

After having to remove a horse chestnut tree from this bed, it is now planted up and edged with Nepeta Walker low junior

The potting shop made us green with envy!  Tools of all kinds covered the walls, there was a wood burning stove and pretty lights.  Personally, I would remove the clock!

The garden is open to the public several times a year. Cathy runs gardening and floristry workshops in her amazing potting shed. 

A really enjoyable afternoon was had by all.  

Garden Matters

Friday Forum member Norma took a photo of this moth she saw in her garden. She found out from an expert that it is the Box Tree Moth, Cydalima perspectalis.

On Google there is lots of information on how to protect your box hedges from this moth from South East Asia which lays its eggs on the box tree. So anyone with box hedges keep an eye open for caterpillars and webbing.

Next Meeting

16^th August – Tracy Foster is giving a presentation: The Incredible Nature of Brazil

RHS Tatton Park Flower Show

It was lovely weather for the day trip to Tatton Park flower show arranged by Hardy Plants Society.

The event was well organised with plenty of room for everyone to look around. The floral marquee showcased the best plants available by the growers.

There were talks by Arit Anderson, Gardeners’ World presenter and garden designer, and by Jonathan Mosely who gave a presentation on flower arrangements making them look quick and easy to create.  One marquee housed floral installations with the theme of mental and physical health.

Cafes catered for all tastes from Paella to Fish and Chips. There were stalls selling all things gardenrelated from gardening gloves at £1.00 to marble sculptures which would set you back thousands. Other stalls were selling specialist foods and drinks, dresses, scarves, bags and candles.

Live music gave a festive feeling and we sat with our ice-creams and sang along. Gardeners’ World presenters Adam Frost and Frances Tophill were being filmed in one of the many fabulous show gardens.

Happily exhausted, we staggered back to the coach with our newly purchased plants with Ann coming first for buying the most!

Friday Forum Summer Show

The show was well subscribed and we thank the judges, John and Eric, who did a great job. John explained the good and bad points of the plants, giving us more pointers for displaying next time.

Well done to all who entered and the results are as follows:

Dorothy won first prize for her single stem roses in classes 1 and 2

 Sue Gray won first prize for her 3 blooms in class 3

Kate won first prize for her sweet peas in class 4

Judith won first prize for her vase of cut flowers in class 5

 Kate won first prize for her flowering pot plant in class 6

 Dorothy won first prize for classes 7 and 8 for her non flowering pot plant and her vegetables

Also, congratulations to Kate who won the members' category in the Paxton show with her Hosta blue mouse ears

Display Table

 Kate brought in a selection of hardy geraniums including Geranium Rozanne, psilostemon,  Ann Folkard, Patricia, Blueberry Ice and Silverwood

Judith brought the flower of her phytolacca to show us

 As always we had delicious cake and scones provided by Liz

Next Meetings

Thursday 18th July: Day trip for those members who have pre-booked.  An email has been sent out recently from Linda Butterfield.  

Friday August 2nd:  Garden visit.  Details to follow