Grayshott Gardeners Newsletter
August 2022
From the Chair
Dear Members
Congratulation again to the Shows Committee for a Summer show which attracted a record number of entries, which is also a thank you to club members for all your support, this gave us a record entry.
We must never forget to thank those members behind the scenes without whom the Show would not succeed, including another Successful Plant Sale. The sun which we were so happy with, to bring on our plants for the Show, appears to have outstayed it’s welcome, with the lack of rain now damaging our gardens.
I must apologise personally , as I thought it my duty to the club to create rain, I did my best with a rain dance, but alas it was a failure!
Look forward to meeting you at our next meeting on the 10th August.
JOHN.
Visits
Both the Woolbeding trip and the Special Wisley trip are now full.
Vanessa has opened a waiting list and has also asked that if you have booked but find that you cannot attend, please let her know to allow others to take your place.
Info from Vanessa Thompson at a club night or email events@grayshottgardeners.net to reserve your place(s)
Volunteers needed
The committee would really appreciate help with the following jobs. Contact any one of us for more information.
Publicity – Short articles for local publications
Posters – distribution around the village
Communications – Distribution of emails to members
General Secretarial duties – support for the chairman.
Plants sales – support for Jan Bebbington
July Meeting
In July we welcomed Peter Moore to Grayshott Gardeners, to talk to us about Buddlejas – something he is very well qualified to do, as keeper of the National Collection of this Genus at Longstock Nursery in Hampshire. He started developing the collection in 1993, and by sourcing cuttings and seed from around the world has built it up to an impressive display of international acclaim.
Peter took us through what he considers to be the best garden-worthy varieties. He warned us that some species don’t quite live up to their advertising hype. The Buzz Series, for example, is free flowering but not the dwarf variety that it was initially billed as. They can reach 2 meters in height – enough to block most windows if planted in a flower bed just outside!
He showed us what a wide range of flower colours are available, from the darkest purple through to magentas, reds and pinks, and they can be upright or have a weeping form. Leaves can be plain or variegated – and some flowers can be variegated too, like the new introduction “Berries and Cream”. Most of the garden varieties are hardy in the UK, but a few special ones need a glasshouse to overwinter them successfully
August Meeting
This month we are delighted to welcome Martyn Cox to speak to us.
His talk ‘The Secret History of Vegetables’, sounds fascintaing and I, for one, am looking forward to it.
Martyn is a prolific garden writer and author with a tiny, but plant packed garden in East London. Martyn writes a weekly column for The Mail on Sunday and monthly for Grow it! His work regularly features in BBC Gardeners’ World, The English Garden, Grand Designs and Sainsbury’s Magazine.
The meeting will be held in
Grayshott Village Hall
Wednesday August 10th 2022
Light refreshments will be served and there will be plants on sale as well as secondhand books
Doors open at 7.30pm ready for the lecture to begin at 8pm.
Summer Show
Building on the great success of our Spring Show this year, we made a few changes to the arrangements, allowing a bit more time for entries to be displayed and a bit more space for refreshments and the plant sale.
More time was much appreciated by those entrants with a lot of entries, and overall we had 282 wonderful exhibits. In the ten years before Covid, the number averaged around 250, so a huge thank you to all who entered. For those who contributed for the very first time – we
know it can a bit nerve wracking, and do hope you enjoyed it, ready for next time!
More space for the refreshments was welcomed by all, and using the Studio allowed for a great display of some lovely plants to take home for your gardens.
Given the combination of the hot weather, the attraction of a Ladies Wimbledon Tennis Final on TV and the Hampton Palace Garden Festival enjoying its final day, our footfall of members and visitors was naturally impacted – that said, feedback was very positive and clearly everyone enjoyed themselves, with most people having a flutter on the raffle too.
The award winners were:
Trophy | Winner |
Davies Rose Cup | Dennis Homer |
Smith Cup | Jill Meech |
Davies Tankard | Lynne Callender |
Mike Hallt Cup | Gordon Rae |
Littlejohn Rose Bowl | Lynne Callender |
Novice Cup | Lynne Callender |
Banksian Medal | Lynne Callender |
Floral Arrangement Trophy | Sue Erler |
Home Produce Cup | Jill Meech |
Best in Show Plate | Gilly Coleman |
Photography Prize | Diana Grant |
Juniors under 8 | Grace Strowger |
Plant of the Month – Hydrangea
However mundane the Hydrangea may be considered as a garden plant there is one for many different garden situations, be it is for sun, shade, shrub or climbers, deciduous, or
evergreen. You can even make them change colour from pink to blue and vice versa.
There are about 80 species of Hydrangeas around the world. Most are native to the Himalayas, China and Japan, but
H. arborescens is native to NE USA and the evergreen species, H. Integerrima comes from Chile.
We have four species growing happily in our Grayshott garden.
H. macrophylla is the common pink and blue Hydrangea recognised by most people. There are two separate groups within H. macrophylla the ‘Hortensia’ or ‘mopheads’ and the ‘lace caps’ with flat opens heads.
These can be persuaded to change colour. In acid soil the flowers are blue, in alkaline soils the flowers are pink.
H. petiolaris, the climbing hydrangea is best planted at the base of a rough barked tree on to which the aerial roots may cling.
They may take time to establish, as did ours against a Scotts pine, but is now 50 – 60 feet high.
Each year it rewards us with a show of white/cream flower heads and beautiful, butter yellow foliage in the Autumn
H. paniculata has, as the name suggests, impressive, terminal panicles of white flowers.
H. quercifolia with it’s more open habit and oak-like leaves has darker green, reddish leaves and grows well in shade with good autumn colour.
Hydrangeas are best suited to organic rich, moisture retentive soils, responding well to an annual spring mulch.
August is usually one of the hottest months of the year – making watering essential. Try to use grey water wherever possible, especially as water butts may be running low if it has been a dry summer. August is traditionally holiday-time, so you might need to enlist the help of friends and family to look after the garden while you are away. When you are at home, take the time to prune Wisteria and summer- flowering shrubs such as lavender once they’ve finished flowering.
Jobs for the Month
1. Prune Wisteria
Wisteria needs regular pruning to keep the growth and size under control, but it will also improve the flowering display. Although it seems complicated, wisteria pruning is quite simple if you follow our simple guide.
2. Don’t delay summer pruning fruits trained as restricted forms.
Summer pruning is mainly for apples and pears trained as restricted forms. It will allow sunlight to ripen the fruit.
3. Deadhead flowering plants regularly.
Remove spent flowers as soon as they look scruffy – thankfully, a few days delay won’t make a difference. The simplest method is to just pinch off the faded blooms with finger and thumb.
4. Water containers and new plants, preferably with grey recycled water or stored rainwater
5. Collect seed from garden plants
6. Harvest sweetcorn and other vegetables as they become ready
7. Continue cutting out old fruited canes on raspberries
8. Lift and pot up rooted strawberry runners
9. Keep ponds and water features topped up
10. Feed the soil with green manures
More details on all of these jobs can be found on the RHS website
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/in-month/ august