On 8 April, Grayshott Gardeners were treated to a very informative and interesting evening talk on plants for shade by Rosy Hardy.
Rosy has 35 years’ experience of commercial horticulture and is the owner of Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants in Hampshire which is known for its high-quality herbaceous perennials and other plant varieties. The nursery has won 24 RHS Gold Medals and two Tudor Rose Awards at Hampton Court. In 2020 she was made Honorary Vice President of the RHS.
Rosy started her talk on what shade is. Shade can be from trees, buildings, no direct light, all time north facing and morning or evening shade.
She emphasized that understanding the soil type in your garden was key whether it be heavy, light, alkaline or acid. Some plants like dry soil and some damp, but observation was the key.
The audience were shown lots of different shade loving plants and she passed samples of SemiAquilegia Australian Form, Epimedium and a viola (to name just a few) around for the audience to have a close look at.
The evening ended with questions and the sale of some of Rosy’s shade loving plants.
Lots of plants for saleA full house and a new seating configurationJohn Price at the video helm!
Barry Newman seen here with our Chairman, Graham Harvey-Browne
On 11 March, the Grayshott Gardeners attended a very informative presentation by Barry Newman who gave lots of advice on how to grow great vegetables.
Barry is a highly accomplished horticulturist, RHS judge and lecturer specialising in growing vegetables for exhibiting. He was Chairman of the National Vegetable Society and renowned for his expertise in producing high-quality potatoes, carrots and onions. In 2022, he was awarded the Kew Guild Medal for distinguished service to horticulture.
He told the audience that the secret to successful vegetables was choosing the right seeds, compost and time. Large seeds (such as runner beans, broad beans and squash seeds) should be sown on their edge (so as to stop rot) in root trainers as the roots are longer and better to put in the ground. He uses polystyrene boxes in the winter months as they are clean and can be put in the airing cupboard! He likes raised beds as they bring the garden up to you instead of your having to bend or kneel,
Seed strips (carrots, parsnips etc) are becoming popular as they are in a straight line. Leeks can be bought in strips and when ready to plant out he cuts the roots and leaves and puts them into the ground. This ensures they are lovely and white. Another tip was to cut the tops off or pinch out seedlings instead of pulling so as not to disturb the plant you want to keep.
Ground preparation and a good, timely start will always pay dividends. He suggests that manure is put on top of the soil, gently raked over and then covered for the winter. The worms and soil will work for you, but an additive will be needed. He uses woodchips/bark as this keeps the moisture in and the slugs at bay.
Good plants will provide good crops. He recommended Sungold tomatoes, Perpetual Beet instead of Spinach and reminded the audience that beetroot was a swollen stem and needed to be earthed up to keep its lovely colour. He recommended Venus and Ambassador courgettes which he grows vertically which stops mildew. He pushes one potato right to the bottom of a polypot and covers with multipurpose compost. This way you can have a good yield, no pests and your crop is in one place.
He stressed that good support for crops was essential. Road pins were good stakes. Pea sticks and runner bean poles should be fixed slanted not straight. He said that runner beans like wet feet and should run North to South to get good sun all day.
The video of his talk (which should not be missed) will be available to watch soon. Detailed notes on the above have been circulated and are also available at the links below:
On 14th January 2026 the Grayshott Gardeners were joined by Jonathan Newell who is the RHS Public Engagement Officer based at Wisley.
Jonathan started work as a teenager on a dairy farm, since then has owned a snail farm, worked in different countries, including Greece looking after turtles, in South Africa where he met Winnie and Nelson Mandela and Kuwait. He worked as a teacher for 25 years and is now the Public Engagement Officer at Wisley where he manages the digital screens and schedules, gives daily talks, demonstrations and interactive sessions in the Hilltop Building at Wisley. In 2023, these talks attracted more than 16,000 attendees and often included seasonal props and content.
In his spare time, Jonathan runs a YouTube channel called EcoGeeko, the topic of which is trees.
Jonathan told the audience that there are 74,000 known species of trees of which 17,000 are threatened. He described how trees were a benefit, and how they can be a disservice as in allergies, the maintenance of them and falling leaves and making them safe (there are 4 ½ deaths per year by falling trees).
Jonathan gave a brief description of some of the many trees known to us.
Olive – Food, culture and more: They are slow growing and can be over a thousand years old. They bear fruit, beautiful little flowers as well as being felled for their wood. Known as ‘Food of the Gods’.
Theobrama Cacao: The Cocoa Beans from this tree are known for their bitter taste. When ground and mixed with sugar and milk they turn into the tasty chocolate we eat. The last Aztec emperor received taxes paid in cocoa beans. 3 beans would buy turkey eggs, 10 a rabbit and 100 a slave.
Rowan, Sorbus Aucuparia also known as Mountain Ash, Lady of the Mountain and Witch Wiggin Tree: The old saying is that a Rowan should be planted high up in the border in the garden to ward off evil spirits. The trees are good for birds and pollinators.
Catkins – Ament also known as Lambs Tails: These are wind pollinated and are popular with bees.
Douglas Fir – Pseudotsuga: This is the world’s largest and the most important tree. It was recorded as being 68.4m
Pinus Coulterii from North California also known as the Widowmaker as its cones can weigh 4.75kg should one fall on you it would kill you, hence its name. (Pictured here with Jonathan and Graham).
Pinus x holfordiana: Himalayan Pine. This tree has lovely scent.
Pinus Ayachuite first arose at the Westonbirt Arboretum owned and planted by the Holford Family in 1904. It has a sticky banana shaped cone.
King of the Forest is the Quercus known as the English Oak. The Boscobel Royal gets its name as King Charles II hid in the Oak at Boscobel to escape from the Roundheads. One of its descendants resides at Wisley.
Drimys Winterii : Bush Pepper, has a high level of vitamin C and was discovered by Drake in his travels in South America. His second captain Winter’s boat was stuck in the ice, and the crew were suffering from scurvy, the indigenous people told him to treat them with this tree. The peppers are very hot. The bark and leaves have an aromatic herbal quality.
Thuja Plicata: Western Red Cedar. This has a wonderful fruity smell and is high in vitamin C. Jacque Cartier was the first European to explore the Atlantic coast of Canada and is credited with naming Canada.
Hamamelis. Witch Hazel. Its name derives from the Greek hamas and melis. It flowers, fruit and next year leaf buds at once.
Jonathan concluded the evening by announcing that he will be running in The London Marathon on 26 April for his charity MND. He will donate the fee given to him this evening to the charity. The audience wished him well on his run.
The evening ended with Jonathan answering questions and the video of this evening will be online soon.
On 14 January, Helier Bowling gave Grayshott Gardeners a very informative talk with many tips on growing a cutting garden. Helier previously practiced as a lawyer for British Gas but found a new life as a garden designer based in Hampshire as well as running online courses which helps people to sow and grow their own flower gardens. She has won medals at Chelsea and Hampton Court. She also has Instagram followers (@garden_goddess_uk). In 2022 she won a 5 Star Award at Hampton Court Flower Show, in 2024 she won the Wooden Garden at The Royal Windsor Show. First place at Hampton Court Flower Show in 2025 and a Silver Medal for her Balcony Garden at Chelsea, where she had the privilege to meet King Charles and discuss her award.
Helier told the audience that, for her, sowing seeds for flowers was addictive, the flowers encouraged pollinators and described annuals as cut and come again flowers.
Her top ten pick of flower seeds are:
Cornflowers (Blue Boy/Black Ball)
Nigella (Love in the Mist) – will grow anywhere even in gravel.
Salvia Viridis (Blue Monday/Oxford Blue)
Calendula
Ammi Majus/Visnaga – good as seed heads in arrangements for texture
Scabious (Black Cat/Black Knight
Antirrhinums can grow tall and will come back when in the ground
Cerinthe – can pop up all over the garden and are good planted in tubs with tulips
Cosmos – half hardy and should be sown in March/April and put out after the frosts
Sweet Peas – thirsty and hungry plants
Helier grows Narcissi and Tulips in pots. She also grows tulips and Dahlias together. When the tulips have finished, the Dahlias take over.
A Cutting Garden should be situated in a sunny spot and can be any size. The soil should be prepared well. Weed free, rake stones, mulch and water with nematodes (which helps to keep the slugs away). The garden should be neat and tidy, plants in rows which will be easier to maintain and to cut the flowers. When planting out seedlings, think about when they will flower and the flowering height. Staking is very important so that the flowers will not be damaged in windy weather. For this, Helier recommended metal panels which can be bought from builders’ merchants or jute netting.
When cutting flowers, Helier recommended that they are cut first thing in the morning or last thing at night, put straight into a bucket of cold water and put somewhere like the garage and arranged hours later.
The evening ended with questions from the audience and Helier was thanked for her many tips.
Grayshott Gardeners were treated to a very interesting talk by Nick Turrell who is an award-winning freelance gardening journalist. His writing appears in The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The RHS magazine and Daily Telegraph.
He also designs gardens all over the country having studied with the late John Brookes MBE. His design work includes Bowden Park Estate in Wiltshire. He has also worked with Monty Don, Alan Titchmarsh and Carol Klien, presented gardening programmes on TV with Jane Asher, on radio with Steve Wright in the Afternoon on BBC Radio 2 and is a regular garden expert on BBC Radio Leicester.
Nick started his talk by telling the audience that it was the bone structure of a garden as to why we liked some gardens more than others. Gardens need a strong design, colour is only a small part of the jigsaw, and he set out ideas for a bone structure.
Repetition – to use fewer plant varieties and repeat them
Symmetry – to engage you. Pots either side of a bench, a path either side with lavender.
Framing – a window cut into a hedge focusing attention to the other side.
Optical illusions –mirrors can create interest by reflections in the garden and vanishing points and texture
Accessories – large pots do not need to have plants in them; they can be in a flower bed. Use as an exclamation mark. Consider the outlines and shapes which can add maturity to an immature garden.
Height – Uninteresting gardens lack height. Obelisks are a great way to create height and for plants to grow up.
Lighting – uplighting is great for highlighting interesting plants and creating mood.
Water – interesting for any garden, whether you have running water or still. Encourages wildlife and tranquillity.
Nick ended his talk by saying that impatience is the enemy of good garden design and that you should enjoy your garden, have fun with them as they are so good for our wellbeing.
Dynamic Planting – Combining plants, materials and places
On 8th October, the talented Matthew Wilson treated the Grayshott Gardeners to an informative and entertaining talk on combining plants, materials and places for dynamic planting.
Not only is Matthew a singer, song writer, he is an award-winning landscape gardener and designer, writer, lecturer, radio and television broadcaster. He is a regular panellist on Radio 4’s Garden Question Time. He has nearly 30 years of experience in horticulture and garden design, owns a small business designing and managing garden projects from Large neglected London house gardens to a 1.5-acre garden in Northumberland. Matthew has also worked for some large corporate, hospitality and heritage establishments and has won numerous awards including the Gold Award at Shenzhen Flower Show in March 2022 for his garden ‘Home’ design.
Matthew took the audience through some of his projects demonstrating how he recycles materials and plants where he can. How there is always a plant for any sort of garden, including dry gardens or wet gardens. Using water as a feature (as a mirror), creating a vista, using topography to enhance planting and using architecture and materials to enhance the garden. His advice for designing steps is that they should be long, wide and shallow.
The evening ended with Matthew answering questions from the audience.
Elizabeth Sawday from Apuldram Roses gave the Grayshott Gardeners a very informative talk on 10 September.
Apuldram Nursery was set up by Diane Sawday in 1979 and Elizabeth and her husband Jonathan have run it for over 30 years. Their nursery is based in Chichester West Sussex where you will find hundreds of different varieties of roses and they run various seasonal courses on growing roses, pruning and propagating. Their roses have been exhibited at national rose shows and have won medals at Hampton Court Flower Show.
Elizabeth described the difference between the various types of roses covering the Hybrid Tea, Floribunda, Climbers, Ramblers, Shrub and Ground Cover. Good advice was given on pruning and Elizabeth recommended that Burton & McColl secateurs, although expensive, were the best.
Elizabeth stressed the importance of feeding roses especially as they can flower from May until the first frost. Increased feeding will keep black spot at bay, Suphur Rose is ideal and do not use Tomorite as this is too strong. Alphids should be sprayed with water and not soapy water as the soap will dry out the leaves.
Elizabeth pointed out the way in which to tell who cultivated the rose by the letters under the name of the rose on the label, i.e. fry which is Fryers in Cheshire.
The evening ended with an ‘abundance’ of questions.
Carol Gubler of Little Brook Fuchsias gave an interesting and entertaining talk to the Grayshott Gardeners on 13 August on fuchsias.
Carol Gubler with our President Gordon Rae
Her family’s passion for fuchsias started when, in 1963, her late father stopped to admire the plants growing in a neighbour’s garden which were fuchsias. He was given a cutting and gradually his garden and the house were overtaken by fuchsias and in 1979, when he took retirement, the family moved to Ash Green, a little village outside Guildford where the 2-acre derelict plot was made into a garden with greenhouses and fuchsias, starting his dream of a nursery. Sadly, he died before the nursery opened in March 1986, but Carol and her mother carried on his dream and now produce over 500 different fuchsias.
Carol is now assistant secretary of the British Fuchsia Society and has a fuchsia named after her called President Gubler.
Carol showed the audience different types of fuchsias, cuttings and even an elephant hawk-moth caterpillar which was found munching on a plant.
Now is not a good time for taking cuttings but Carol said that hard wood cuttings could be taken as long as they were kept frost free. The roots of fuchsias should be kept safe from the frost in the winter, and they should be cut back for a better show of flowers next year.
Fuchsias need feeding regularly and watering well in hot weather and the fruits can be used to make gin, jams, muffins and wine.
The fuchsia bull mite which probably came from Brazil on a cutting, cannot be seen, damages the plant, stunting its growth and disfiguring it’s leaves and there is no chemical treatment yet. At the earliest sign, you must cut off the infected leaves.
Souren Ala gave an interesting and instructive talk to the Grayshott Gardeners on 9th July on growing wildflower meadows. Souren grew up on the UK and in Iran and has lived in the USA, returning to the UK in 1998. He has an advance degree in Geology and spent ten years involved in hydrocarbon exploration and contaminated land investigation prior to taking up his current career. Being largely taught, he obtained a Level II RHS certificate at the turn of the Millennium and for the last twenty-three years has been engaged in garden design. He began writing for the journal of the Hardy Plant Society (The Hardy Plant) in 2014 and became its editor in 2019. He trades as Dynamic Gardens, designing and creating outdoor spaces for mainly private clients and some commercial and says that gardening is an art and a science. He has a particular interest in bulbs and wildflower meadows.
Souren talked on the history of meadows, maintenance and construction. Traditional meadows evolved from domestic animals, but it is a sad fact that we have lost 97% by area of wildflower meadows since the early 20th century. He said the key to a meadow is preparation and maintenance, what sort of plants do well, to use a nurse crop of annuals and to add bulbs. He advocates the Chelsea Chop and to always remove the clippings. The evening concluded with questions from the floor.
For our June club night we were expecting to hear from this year’s Sissinghurst Scholar, but sadly he had car troubles that prevented him from making the journey from Kent. Instead, we were treated to a wonderful talk from Troy Scott Smith, Sissinghurst’s Head Gardener. He has had a connection with this iconic garden for over 30 years, and his stories about the garden and its history gave us a real insight into this magical place.
Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson bought Sissinghurst in 1930, as an assortment of crumbling buildings surrounded by agricultural land. Their vision was to create a garden, in a ruin, in a farm. Over the next 30 years they created the world famous garden that we know today. They used a formal design, softened by informal planting, and made garden rooms which all had a distinct character and yet all fit together beautifully.
Both Vita and Harold were writers as well as gardeners. Sissinghurst was their home, and though they lived unconventional lives they made the house and the garden work for them; sleeping in some buildings, writing in other buildings and dining in others. This meant that the garden was constantly in use in their daily lives as they walked from room to room. They were both very much hands on gardeners. Vita said that her days consisted of writing in the morning, gardening in the afternoon and getting drunk in the evening!
Troy outlined some of the challenges faced by a garden that attracts over 200,000 visitors every year. As well as keeping things looking good when being trampled by more than 400,000 feet, there is the challenge of managing expectations. Vita and Harold designed the garden so that different parts peaked at different times – today vistors expect everything to look good always.
Sissinghurst also focuses on growing gardeners – their Scholarship scheme gives young gardeners the chance to work for 18 months with the best in horticulture, setting them up for a great future as gardeners themselves.
The gardens today are managed with a relaxed feel, allowing Vita’s roses, irises and Delphiniums to create the romantic, magical haven that one extraordinary couple envisaged nearly 100 years ago.
