Our day out 2015

Once again, Janella came up trumps and organised another wonderful trip for us this year.  I think I can speak for all of us when I say we thoroughly enjoyed the day, ate our fill of cake, admired the gardens and were like children in a sweetshop when faced with the range of plants on sale.

 

Our first stop was Ellicar Gardens where we were greeted by Sarah who offered us coffee and scrumptious cake before visiting the garden.  As well as the geese, hens and a rather large sow, there is a natural swimming pond complete with hot tub in this beautiful garden. 

 

 The parterre

 The children's garden

 The swimming pond

 The wildflower garden

 

 The playground

Sanguisorba 'Tanna'

 

We were in good company as the editor of English Garden, Tamsin Westhorpe, arrived while we were there.  Laden with our purchases from the nursery, we returned to the coach.

Next stop was Norwell Nurseries.  Andrew and Helen came to this plot in 1994 from a terrace house with tiny garden near Spaghetti Junction.  They have worked hard on their clay soil which is in a frost pocket to produce a stunning garden and nursery.  Andrew gave a short talk followed by a tour round the garden, happily and knowledgeably answering all our questions. 

 

 Water irises

 The shade garden

We finished with tea and cake; it would have been rude not to!  Again we returned to the coach armed with plants galore.

Final stop was the National Trust Garden Clumber Park.  We arrived later than scheduled to view the lovely walled gardens and hothouse.  Some of us felt that the signage was poor, over 100 species of rhubarb were left to go to seed and we couldn’t find the cafe which was a six minute walk from the gardens.

 This is the red section of the walled garden; the other two sides were white and blue

 He wasn't with our group

Our thanks go to Janella for her hard work in planning the day so well and to Ken the driver of the Dalesman Coach who cheerfully stowed our many plants, hazel stakes and obelisks in the hold and calmly drove his coach in traffic jams, under low bridges, through narrow gates and along country roads.  Although I purchased some interesting plants, my wish list has grown even longer.

Notice Board

Our own Kate Van Heel is appearing on Instant Gardener BBC1 Friday 4.45.

Next Meeting

7^th August:  Forum

A Summer medley

Talk:  The Lady Gardener

Friday Forum’s own member Celia delighted us with her fascinating and amusing findings on the female gardener through the ages.  Celia took us through from the nuns who tended the convent gardens, the wives of the villagers who looked after the cottage gardens, the Ladies of Kew and the Land girls through to the medal winning plants women and landscape gardeners of today. 

Mini Summer Show

Congratulations go to:

Dorothy A’s Virgo Rose,Phyllis’ pink rose and Maragret’s Graham Thomas yellow rose

 Dorothy’s pink Sweet peas

Sue G's Pinks Doris

 Sue G's arrangement

 

 

Margaret D’s Begonia escargot (on left)

Thanks to Graham and Peter for judging and offering constructive criticism and advice.

Display Table:

 Peter’s Physoplexus Comosa

 Sally’s Cosmos and unknown plant which was identified as Dalmaticum geranium

An interesting fact about Trevor’s vase was that the majority of the contents were plants that grew over into his garden from neighbouring gardens!

 

Russian Olive (Elaeagnus 'Quicksilver) Rose, euphorbia which is planted above a wall of Bavarian limestone which was used in the printing industry, pyracantha, Rose, golden hop, solanum, clematis, yew, Russian vine, two types of honeysuckle.

 

Judith brought some Weld (Dyers Rocket which gives grey/blue dye)  , Begonia grandis, meconopsis double orange.

 In Ann’s jug there are a variety of clematis including Clematis helios texensis Princess Diana and Duchess of Albany, Clematis fusca and Buckland Beauty.

Ann's Sandersonia

A bitter/sweet tale

Graham invited us to help ourselves to envelopes of seeds to sow and told us the story behind them.  An old gentleman had passed away and his home was being cleared when the clearance people came across a large number of envelopes of seeds.  These seeds, many of which were quite exotic, had been purchased from various countries around the world.  Sadly, he never got the chance to sow them but hopefully some of our members will manage to do so.  This would be a fitting legacy and we will report back on our successes.

 

Seed from house clearance

Next Meetings

17^th July:  For those who have booked for the day trip to Nottinghamshire, it’s a 9.00 am start from Paxton.  Remember to bring a picnic lunch and NT membership card if you have one.  We expect to be back for approximately 6.30. 

7^th August:  Forum