Where has Godstone gone?

No, we don’t mean the village of Godstone, or even the Godstone Gardening Club! This tabloid headline refers to a plant – Aubretia Godstone.

You may recall from an earlier post that Margaret had asked how Daphne Bholua Limpsfield came to get its name. That set me thinking (never a good idea as I spend a lot of time thinking and very little time actually doing) and I turned to the good old RHS Plant Finder to look up other local names. Needless to say, there was no Hurst Green listed, or Oxted, Crockham, Titsey, Tandridge, etc, but there was an Aubretia Godstone. Result! I clicked on the information to discover that it has not been listed since 2002. 

Aubrieta (or Aubretia depending on how you feel) - this
photograph is not Godstone!

I therefore Googled it, confident that I must be able to find a supplier in the UK, but came up with nothing. It has completely disappeared. Yet back in 1950 none other than the gardening goddess Vita Sackville West describes Aubretia Godstone thus, “Aubretia has certainly been overdone, but I still maintain that this Rock-cress can be used with tact and advantage … a grey wall or a whitewashed wall, or grey paving stones, all make a good background, especially if you avoid the insipid old pale mauve and choose only the best strains, such as Cambria, red; Crimson Queen; Godstone, deep purple; Kelmscott Beauty, a double red; Vindictive, violet-red.” (Extract from In Your Garden.) I have checked plant finder for all these others as well; Kelmscott Beauty is not listed, the others are listed but again there are no suppliers.

So why has it disappeared? Plants do appear, flourish briefly, and then disappear out of garden centres, catalogues and stockists, but Aubrieta Godstone has been around a long time. I realise that Aubretia is considered old fashioned at the moment – when was the last time you saw it used at Chelsea? – and certainly when we visited the RHS inaugural Alpine plant fair earlier this year there was precious little aubretia for sale. I also don’t think it helps that it has slightly changed its name! It is now more commonly known as aubrieta, not aubretia, which I find incredibly confusing.

I have of course asked the ever-helpful Sylvia from Godstone Gardening Club for assistance (this reference also gives us a good opportunity to marvel at a lovely picture of Sylvia when Godstone produced a show garden at Chelsea in 2000 - good for them! - p.s. click on the link to read it) . She has suggested putting out a general note in the Godstone newsletter appealing for any information (this plant is beginning to sound like a lost cat!) and preferably a cutting. If any of our members knows anyone with Aubretia Godstone, please let us know. It would be lovely to be able to plant it next to Limpsfield, and ideally to propagate it and spread it back around the locality.

Jams, Chutneys, and the Villlage Fair in September

A gentle plea for produce suitable for sale at the Hurst Green Village Fair in September ... if you are making jams or anything else from your fruit and vegetable gluts, please would you consider making a couple of extra for the Club, or putting aside a few that have already been made for us to sell.

We will be bringing more jar labels with us to the next meeting in August, so please remember to collect some, and to get jamming!

Summer supper and social

 Our meeting for July 2014, held on the 9th, was the popular summer supper and social.  The weather was more than kind to us, and this was as ever a highly enjoyable event, held in St Agatha's Hall.  The evening is a very good way to meet fellow gardeners and friends and to exchange tips (and gossip).  We would heartily recommend it to anyone thinking of joining the Club or who want to expand their horizons in the village.

The format of the evening was unchanged from previous years - the evening is  a sit down buffet with the Committee producing the main courses, and members bringing along a dessert.  As the attendance was very good indeed, there were a good many varied desserts to be sampled, and a general theme running through the evening was favourable comment on the quality of the food!

Many thanks therefore to all those who came, and all those who prepared dishes for the occasion.

Snake in the grass .. or at least on the patio

Anyone of a nervous disposition should be warned before they scroll down!

My neighbours called me around today to inspect an interloper in their garden. It has been on their patio for the past few mornings, basking in the early morning sun. It turned out to be an adder. This is the first time we have seen one in our vicinity – we have seen them on the chart and along Tanhouse Road, and friends have told us over the years of unwelcome visitors in Orchard Way and Rockfield Close. But we have never heard of one in a garden on the village green. It was really only a few feet away from the footpath that leads up to Aggies and the station.

An adder - if you can even bear to look
Photo credit Mike Richardson and SarahWinch

But have we just been unobservant? Last year, when digging a border, we found what looked like snake eggs. We checked on the internet to confirm our suspicions, but the internet world was divided on this issue. Some declared them to be snake eggs, others that they were fungi, although all agreed that they could not be adder eggs as this snake apparently gives birth to live young.  Although probably some form of developing puff fungus, they were all damaged in digging the border, which now appears to be somewhat fortuitous...

Fungi or snakes eggs?
Photo courtesy of Calendula and Concrete

We are not sure why the snake has appeared now. It is possible that it lives in the copse at the top of Meldrum Close, relying on the pond there for water and feeding on the local mice. However, the pond is currently dry and so perhaps the adder ventured out in search of water. I don’t know a lot about snakes and so I don’t really know. While we are happy to welcome some wildlife into the garden, there are limits, and snakes are definitely well beyond the acceptable (particularly since they are one of life's few instinctive fears).  Unfortunately, it does appear that killing or interfering with an adder is illegal as they are now protected and so removal does pose a potential problem.

Hopefully, this adder was a one-off; however, it is worth being cautious if you live in this vicinity!