Harvest Forum

This was a really enjoyable and well-organised event.  The Harvest Quiz was great fun; we shall never forget what a French Breakfast is (and the answer wasn’t “inadequate”!).  There was a Bring & Buy Sale and an opportunity to sample delicious home-made food including Parsnip and Apple Soup, scones, courgette cake and Homity pie.

Display Table

This reminds us that there is still plenty of interest in our gardens.

 

Gill’s Rhodochiton atrosanguineum; an attractive, tender climber

 Gill’s jug contains yellow impatiens omeiana, cyclamen hederifolium, michaelmas daisies, clematis Mary Rose. Rose, geranium nodosum, sedum, a purple clematis, Japanese anemone, corydalis lutea, Ceratostigma willmottianum

 A book recommendation from Gill

 Kate’s Isoplexis canariensis is an attractive shrub with its orange/bronze blooms

Notice Board

Interested in a day of gardening talks by expert speakers? 

Next Meeting:  Talk – Hedgehogs in the Garden by expert Tracey Foster.  Expect a multitude of questions from Janella!

Awesome October

Talk:  Creating a garden in North Yorkshire by Martin Fish

 

Martin is an experienced gardener and his enthusiasm for gardening shone through as he entertained us with his illustrated presentation. We learnt how, when he moved to Yorkshire, he transformed a blank canvas of ¾ of an acre into a stunning garden which not only looked good but yielded an enormous amount of produce.  He took us through the timeline from the first asparagus bed to the beautiful plot it is today, although Martin, who doesn’t claim to be a garden designer, is the first to say that a garden should never be finished.

Martin’s favourite plants at the moment are: clematis alpina Stolwijk Gold, lathyrus vernus albo roseus, Cardiocrinum giganteum, cornus kousa wietings select, Geum Bell Bank, catalpa bignonioides aurea, Viburnum plicatum Pink Beauty, Hosta albomarginata, Geranium Rozanne, Hydrangea Annabelle, Hesperantha Pink Princess, cercidiphyllum japonicum.

Martin’s garden is open once a year under the NGS scheme and more details about Martin and his garden can be found on his website:  www.martinfish.com

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It may be October, but Friday Forum members still have plenty in bloom in their gardens.

 Carol brought a branch from the shoo-fly plant (Nicandra physalodes) and invited us to take the pods and plant the seeds.  It will be interesting to see the results

 Dorothy’s cyclamen with its enormous corm

 James’ Acteas with their poisonous berries

 

Sue G’s colourful arrangement includes Asters: frikartii 'Monch’, novae-angliae 'September Ruby', novi-belgii Samoa, euonymus alatus and hesperantha

 

 Ann’s dainty Nerines bowdenii Alba, Stephanie and Undulata

 Judith’s Dahlias:  Murdoch, an Orange one and David Howard and a couple of attractive Salvias

 Gill’s arrangement includes salvia, eupatorium rugosum, now Ageratina altissima, hydrangea paniculata, begonia, campanula and Himalayan honeysuckle

 

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We wish Friday Forum member, Celia, a speedy recovery from her recent operation.

Members are welcome to help themselves to plant pots before they are sent to landfill.

Margaret D thanked members for their donations for the recent Paxton show, which was busy and financially successful.

Gill is selling varieties of tulip bulbs at our meetings.

 Congratulations to two of our members, Kate and Carol, were awarded Gold for their gardens by Leeds in Bloom with Carol winning Best in Category.  Very well deserved!

Wharfedale Gardeners are holding an exhibition entitled Painting the Modern Garden at Otley Courthouseon Saturday 15th October.

Next Meeting

21^st October:  Harvest Forum – We are asking members to make an item of food, sweet or savoury, for others to taste.  It would be helpful to provide a copy of the recipe and, if possible, email to me to add to our recipe page on the blog.  There will also be a Bring & Buy sale and our legendary Quiz.

Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn

Forum

In true Friday Forum style, topics were discussed in earnest this week.  They covered successes and failures in our gardens and ideas for winter containers.

Members were willing to discuss their shortcomings, such as inability to grow Mexican daisies and a Hoya plant refusing to thrive but more modest when it came to their successes!

James brought to our attention that Judith won a prize for her foliage display at the recent Cookridge show.

Judith showed us a chocolate and lime planting scheme, plus ideas for containers using a small conifer such as Cypress Goldcrest or cordyline, cyclamen, heuchera, ivy or cineraria.

Display Table

 

Caroline’s impatiens with its variegated leaves and red stems was much admired

 Judith’s  dianthus and begonia luxurians

Ann’s flowers came mainly from south and north America:  Amicia zygomeris, Dahlias Charlie Dimmock and Flaxton, clematis helios, sphaeralcea coccinea, Tithonia rotundifolia, the  Mexican sunflower, Desfontainia spinosa, Crocosmia Star of the East, Ceratostigma wilmottianum Desert Skies, Chelone oblique, Cautleya spicata, the Himalayan ginger and Ligularia dentate Desdemona

Ann’s Sedum Rosea

 Judith’s Eucomis

 

Ann’s bronze Fern which turns pink,  Dryopteris erythrosora, with Fatsia Japonica Spiders web

 

Kate brought Hemerocallis Stella d’Oro (a good flowerer), Rudbeckias Franz Schubert and Goldsturm, Helianthus Lemon Queen, the herbaceous Clematis Wyevale, Aster fricartii Monch, Verbena bonariensis and rigida, verbena bonariensis, the late flowering Clematis Holy/Polish Spirit, Salvia Isad?

 

Notice Board

Reminder – Paxton Show is September 24^th.

Earlier this year, Carol Abbott held a Garden Party to raise funds to purchase electronic games   to give to the patients in Ward 10, Children’s Renal Unit at LGI, who are required to spend long periods of time there.  The event raised over a thousand pounds.  An excellent result!

Sadly we have learned that Barbara Grindrod passed away earlier this month. Barbara, aged 90, was a stalwart member of Friday Forum.

Please note that members are welcome to borrow both the gardening and fiction literature from the Paxton Library.

Next Meeting

October    7^th:  Talk by Martin Fish – Creating a North Yorkshire Garden from Scratch