A bare tree stands with roots on both ends in December days. ~Kiran Bantawa, "Bare Trees"

Creative Crafts

Have you ever wondered what gardeners do in the winter?  Well we can see what Friday Forum members get up to!

 

 Gill's wreaths and holly with ivy attractively sprayed gold.  Tips: when using sprays, hold upside down to stop bunging up.  Also cut a v shape in oasis to make watering easier

Outide pot with robin.  Easy to change plants for others as the season progresses

 Lovely silver and purple colour scheme.  Includes Eucalyptus and Senecio vira vira

 Liz B' made this ribbon tree

...  and a lovely tree of sweets

 L Norma brought these beautiful wall hangings, Janella's book Homemade Christmas, Kate's angels and Gillian J's figure called Brownie which her grandmother bought from Germany and comes apart to be filled with sweets

 Maggie framed cards and buttons

Linda's shadow frame, initial and painted stone using materials from beach and Celias paper angles made from a paper pattern

 Edna's pin cushion made from a kit and Janella's frames

 for cards

 Celia showed us how to fold a party serviette

 Janella brought this trough and matching pot which her friend made for her with decoupage

Display Table

 

There is still plenty of colour in the gardens of some of our members:

Phyllis had an impressive 44 plants flowering in her garden:  8 x fuchsias, 7 salvias, 3 x penstomens, 3 c perpetual wallflowers, primula, marigold, 3 x geraniums , scabious, kafir lily, sweet rocket, nasturtium, 2 x hellebores, 2 x heathers, jasmine, viola, 3 x cyclamen, 2 x rudbeckias, 2 x roses and an unidentified red flower

 Out in Ann’s garden are at least 24:  Clematis cirrhosa Lansdowne gem and Freckles, Iris unguicularis, Amicia zygomeris, Jasmininium nudifllorum, Hesperantha (red and pink), Astrantia, Alstromeria Indian Summer, Liriope muscari, 3 x Brunnera (Jack Frost, Sea Heart and Looking glass) Dahlia australis, Anemone, Nerine, allium italicum marmoratum, Pittosporum Tom Thumb, Persicaria, Rudbeckia, Erysimum and  Bupleurum

 Gill’s container with Cyclamen, Malus Red Sentinel, Viburnums  hortense dawn and tinus

Kate brought Pittosporum Tom Thumb, Ferns (polypodium cambricum Richard Kayse and Polystichum setiferum 'Pulcherrimum Bevis) and roses

Gardening Matters

"We garden for tomorrow, and thereafter. We garden in expectation, and that is why it is so invigorating. Gardening, you are no longer stuck in the here and now; you think backward, and forward, you think of how this or that performed last year, you work out your hopes and plans for the next. And for me, there is this abiding astonishment at the fury for growth, at the tenacity of plant life, at the unstoppable dictation of the seasons." Penelope Lively

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Garden-Penelope-Lively-ebook/dp/B073CB96DD/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543483646&sr=1-1&keywords=life+in+the+garden+penelope+lively

Notice Board

The Friday Forum Programme 2019 page is now up on the Blog so you can enter the dates in your diaries. 

Next Meeting

21st December:  Friday Forum Christmas Party.  Activities include flower arranging and mince pies.  Festive dress obligatory, whether it be simply headgear or full costume!

  

Harvest Forum 2018

 

This year our Harvest Forum took the theme of Brexit Bash and members brought typical foods from the EU member countries which we washed down with a very British cup of tea.  Political debate was not encouraged!

 

 

 

 We also had the annual Bring & Buy to boost our funds

Both events were a great success.

Display Table:

Kate still has lots of colour in her garden.  She brought the grass hakonechloa, Hesperantha, Callicarpa, Astrantia Buckland, Penstemon, Mahonia Charity, Salvia, Verbena rigida, Geranium, Rosa Max Graf, Echibeckia Summerina

 

Eileen's succulent brought for indentification

Gerry read an amusing poem

called the Master and the Man as head gardeners on grand estates did all the work and received none of the credit.

Gardening Matters

I just love the way Alison describes her garden on her blog https://themindfulgardener.blog/2018/11/16/twinkle-twinkle/

Notice Board

See notices below about next meetings.

Next Meeting

7^th December:  The presentation by Pat Hutchinson may have to be postponed, so we are asking members to bring in any arts/crafts which they undertake and could talk about for a few minutes.

21^st December is the Christmas Forum and one of the activities will be to make a festive flower arrangement.

  

So who was Joseph Paxton?

 

In celebration of 50 years of Paxton Horticultural Society moving into our current premises and 25 years of Friday Forum, what better way to mark the occasion than an illustrated talk  by John M Sheard FRICS, a former manager of the Bolton Abbey Estate,  entitled ‘The Life and Achievements of Joseph Paxton’.

You can find out more about the history of our society at  https://sites.google.com/site/paxtonhorticulturalsocietycouk/ 

 Eileen brought some photos and documents of earlier days

 John M Sheard FRICS, a former manager of the Bolton Abbey Estate,  gave an excellent presentation entitled ‘The Life and Achievements of Joseph Paxton’.

We learnt how Sir Joseph Paxton (1803 – 1865), last of 9 children of a farm hand from Milton Bryan, Bedfordshire, worked his way up to a notorious gardener, architect and MP.

In his early 20s, he became head gardener to the 6^th Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth where, on his first morning, he met his wife Sarah.  He constructed huge water features and rock gardens, innovative glasshouses and a model village. 

Paxton embraced the new technology of the day and built wonderful parks such as Birkenhead, which became the model for New York’s Central Park, and the People’s Park in Halifax.  He became fascinated by business and became a director of the Midland Railway and perhaps best known for designing Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Sir Joseph Paxton was committed to promote welfare for the working classes.  Originally sited in Hyde Park, Crystal Palace was moved to Sydenham and Paxton wanted this to serve as a pleasure gardens for ordinary people.

Display Table:

Derek brought his Canna, one of many he grew from seed collected from a plant in his hotel garden in The Canary Islands.  Derek’s flowered this year, giving him more seeds, as did the Cannas of other members who acquired a plant from the same batch.  Let’s hope they overwinter.

Just look at the colour of Jenny’s Geranium Bloomtime

 Jenny reminded us of Celia’s talk on Thomas Fairchild https://gardenersfridayforum.blogspot.com/2018/09/autumnthe-years-last-loveliest-smile.html  and  brought this flower called the Ingenious Mr Fairchild after the title of the book by Michael Leapman

 This is a spike from Judith’s Eucomis Sparkling Burgundy

Some autumnal colour from Kate’s garden including Hydrangea Limelight and the fragrant Viburnum bodnantense Dawn

 Ann’s still got lots of colour and interest in her garden.  She brought Amicia zygomeris, aconitum Spatlese, Clematis Freckles and Mme Julia Correvon, Liriope muscari, Tricytris Empress, the striking  Centaurea John Coutts, Nerine bowdenii, Hypercium olympicum and Hesperantha coccinea

Gardening Matters:

I came across this poem by Rudyard Kipling:
 The Glory of the Garden:
“Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
By singing, ‘Oh, how beautiful’ and sitting in the shade
While better men than we go out and start their working lives
At grubbing weeds from gravel-paths with broken dinner-knives.”

Notice Board:

Saturday 17^th November is Paxton Late Autumn Show.  If you can support this by providing cakes or a donation, Dorothy will appreciate it.

Next Meeting: 

16^th November - Harvest Forum.  This year, as well as the Bring & Buy, we are having a Brexit Bash when we ask you to bring a food/drink item from an EU country.