ALPINES & PERENNIALS FOR DRY GARDENS

On 12 August, Grayshott Gardeners heard an informative talk from Tim Ingram, owner of Copton Ash Garden, a family-run garden and specialist nursery in Faversham, Kent. Open for the National Garden Scheme, the garden and nursery specialise mainly in alpines and drought-tolerant plants—a particularly relevant subject because of this long, dry summer.

Tim is also a long-standing member of the Alpine Garden Society and Copton Ash belongs to Plant Fairs Roadshow, a co-operative of small, independent specialist nurseries that organise plant fairs across the Southeast.

Tim began by discussing the changing climate, with wetter winters and springs and increasingly dry summers. He showed a chart noting that Faversham recorded a temperature of 38.5°C in August 2023, when the area had even less rainfall than this year.

Tim presented a slideshow featuring a wide range of plants suited to dry climates, including succulents, Mediterranean plants, bulbs, alpines, silvers and umbellifers.

Cyclamens – especially the hederifolium are valuable plants for dry over rooted shaded areas as they can flower in completely parched soil.  They are also suited to woodland areas.

Campanulas, together with primula marginata, daphne, aubrietia and many other plants, grow well in dry conditions. Silver-leaved plants are also well suited to dry gardens. Tim recommended two books on the subject: Mrs Desmond Underwood’s Grey and Silver Plants and Robert Nold’s High and Dry.

Various bulbs, such as crocus, fritillaria, muscari, tulips and muscari grow well in dry soils.  Iris reticulata and gladiolus communis are good as meadow plants but can suffer if it is very dry.

Mediterranean plants, including lavender and other herbs, euphorbia, yucca and salvia, grow well in dry soils. Tim also recommended Olivier Filippi’s book Planting Design for Dry Gardens, which covers a wide range of plants suitable for Mediterranean-style gardens.

Tim touched on the Umbellifers which grow well in dry gardens, his favourite being Ligusticum lucidum, a tall short-lived herbaceous perennial which has fine airy green foliage and white flowers in the summer. 

Tim then went on the describe some of the many cacti and succulents you can grow in the garden.  Cacti can be grown in very shallow containers and in various wonderful constructions (as shown on the slide show).

Tim said that Britain’s Hottest Garden in Ventnor, Isle of Wight was worth a visit as was Tom Stuart-Smith’s The Surge Hill Project which is near Watford. A video of the talk, including the full list of recommended plants, will be available on the website soon.

The Great British Weather has a habit of causing concern in the run-up to the show. In previous years, we’ve had high winds and rain battering our gardens and ruining flowers and crops alike. This year was quite the opposite, with week after week of very hot weather, and no rain, our gardens are parched and looking pretty sad. So, it was with some trepidation that the Club opened its doors on Saturday 11 July: would there be sufficient entries? – would the local community venture out on such a hot afternoon?

We needn’t have worried, as the show was as spectacular as ever with a grand total of 253 entries covering the majority of classes, and 141 attendees. We were very pleased to sign-up three new members too. The judges all commented on how well everyone had done with their entries, given the recent very hot weather. The fruit and vegetables on display were particularly good and for the first time in many years a vegetable won the coveted ‘Best in Show’; won by Alison Lang for her two fabulous aubergines in Class 63 – ‘any other vegetable’. The judge was particularly pleased to be able to award ‘Best in Show’ for a vegetable – a very close runner up was Anne Waddell for her beautiful dahlias.

Of the 29 entrants, we were delighted that there were four new entrants. Brilliant! I do hope that you all enjoyed the day. We know that entering a show for the first time can be rather daunting and so we have adopted a Buddy approach where new entrants are buddied-up with someone on the Shows Committee – feedback from new entrants is very positive, saying that it makes entering much easier and enjoyable. 

This year, some pupils from Grayshott school came along with items they had grown or made; our main judge gave comments on each and every exhibit and all were given a Grayshott Gardeners rosette – much to delight of the pupils. The President’s Award, selected by Gordon, was given to the ‘very wonky’ carrots in Class 53 from Alison Lang.  

Many congratulations to the following winners:

Staging a show is a huge team effort and many thanks go to our Shows Committee, led by Pamela, who work tirelessly to pull together all the varied strands to produce such a brilliant show. A special thank you to all the many volunteers who help on the day: Plant sales;  our bakers who bake delicious cakes for the Teas; setting up the hall; the tombola and finally a huge ‘Thank You’ to the local Scouts who stayed on to help us clear-up after the show, thereby making such a welcome difference to our exhausted exhibitors.

Here are some more photos from the day:

Thank you to all our members for sending in their photos – not an easy task!

Thank you to all our members for sending in their photos.

Thank you to all our members for sending in photos!

The inter-village clubs hold several competitions each year, including Floral Art.  Hosting the competition rotates around the clubs, and this year it was Grayshott’s honour to host at our Spring Show 2026.

Sue Erler took the lead, even though she’d not planned a competition before. Sue set the title of ‘Ever Decreasing Circles’, and a special dedicated space was set up in the Village Hall on Spring Show Day.  Four clubs indicated their interest beforehand, and one surprise entry arrived on Friday evening! It was such a great turnout, especially as three of the other clubs also had their Spring Show on Saturday. The judge was very impressed with all the entries, saving her best comment for the winner – “Amazing” – which was Grayshott. So, as well as organising the competition, Sue won it for us too – hurray!

Many thanks to the surrounding villages for entering; Thursley came 2nd, Tilford 3rd, Headley 4th, and Churt was Highly Commended.

The Spring Show was a wonderful event for all the community and there was a lovely vibe all afternoon with lots of compliments from visitors, six of whom were impressed enough to become members. Although visitors had come to see the show they all also enjoyed the delicious homemade teas, plant sales and tombola which were as popular as ever.

As I read through all the individual reports on our wonderful show, a few sayings leapt to mind:

1. ‘Practice makes Perfect’ – many congratulations to Sue Erler for winning the Floral Art Inter-village competition. Not only that, but she also won the ‘Best in Show’ with her Stem of a Rhododendron.

2. ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again’ – despite their first attempt at the Jamaican Ginger cake which exploded into a sticky mess in their oven, Pamela and Alan persevered and went on to win the Home Produce cup. 

3. ‘Be brave and dip your toes into the water’ – many thanks to our three new members who decided to enter the show. I do hope that you enjoyed the experience and are now inspired to enter future shows.

The Show was a huge success and the village hall looked glorious with 219 entries on display. Many thanks to all our 27 entrants – without all your hard work there simply wouldn’t be a show.  The Judges were hugely impressed with the very high standard of the exhibits, in particular the camelias and thought that it was a lovely show.

Prize Winners

Most of the classes had clear cut winners – here are the close seconds:

The Gardeners Cup was very hotly and closely contested: Pamela and Alan had the same number of points as Judith, but as Judith won more classes, she won the cup! Gill Purkiss and Gill Foster came second with only one point less!  Gill Purkiss has been showing for many years with beautiful exhibits while Gill Foster has only recently joined in and is doing so well – hooray!

The Novice Cup was won by Sue Wheeler, who has exhibited for some years, both Gill Foster and Lesley Benson were only one point behind! Gill Foster as above, and Lesley started showing last year.

Finally, behind every successful show is a very hardworking and dedicated team. Many, many thanks to Pamela and her show team who did a brilliant and professional job in staging the show and even found time to enter exhibits themselves. They now only have a few months respite before it’ll be time for the Summer Show on Saturday 11 July.

Floral Art Inter-Village Cup – 2026

This year it was Grayshott’s honour to host this cup at the Spring Show and more details and photos can be found here.

Here are some more photos from the Spring Show 2026:

Thank you to all our members for sending in photos!

Thank you to all our members who sent in photos!

Following on from our January Club Night where speaker Helier Bowling mentioned in her talk that there is always something to cut in our gardens… Thank you to all our members who took up the challenge to venture out into their garden to pick some flowers in January! As you will see we had plenty of responses and some very lovely arrangements and posies, many of them scented!