Presentation: Heligan and the Eden Project
 |
| John Freer is modelling his own knitted top and collects donations for his talks for Martin House |
John, who is chairman of Paxton, spoke about the lost gardens of Heligan and the Eden Project in Cornwall.
Nobody was initially interested in Heligan and the land had been allowed to grow wild for 70 years. The National Trust turned it down, estimating a 10-year renovation project at a cost of a million pounds. As a result of two men, Smit and Nelson, going on local radio, 200 volunteers turned up to make a start on clearing the gardens.
The history is really interesting and John, a regular visitor to Cornwall, was able to show us slides of his visits in the early days of the renovations.
We saw the gardeners’ sheds and the tools they used. The gardeners enlisted in WW1 and never returned. In the vegetable garden, lead plant labels were discovered under the soil and, from these, they were able to recreate the vegetable garden.
John went on to tell us about the making of the Eden Project. This began in 1988 on the site of an old clay mine. Housed mainly in biomes, giant greenhouses, this project was turned down by the lottery. Students from a university climbing club helped to erect these enormous structures. Again, John showed us slides of how the project developed and the many problems they had to overcome.
Display Table
Some members brought in the Hyacinths which members started off as forced bulbs at the beginning of September and were supposed to flower at Christmas. Some did, but others are still to flower
 |
| Gill brought Snowdrops 'Mrs Macnamara' |
 |
| Derek brought in his tiny cacti ‘Golden Barrel’ produced from seed and grows very slowly |
 |
| Judith’s Amaryllis |
 |
| Trevor’s early flowering Hellebore ‘Christmas Carol’ |
 |
| Ann has plenty of colour in her garden: Skimmia ‘Kew Green’. Hamamelis mollis, Hellebores: Molly’s White and a yellow one from the garden of the late Elizabeth Bidgood, Cyclamen coum and Iris unguicularis |
Next Meeting: 7th February: Forum - Looking after garden wildlife in Winter.
