A Belated Word About Christmas Trees ...

This article was really supposed to be published in December, but as usual life seems to have got in the way!

As you all (hopefully) know, we publish a monthly Events Guide  to vaguely garden-or-plant-related-type happenings in the area (click here to see the online version).  We thought therefore that we ought to take our own advice in the Events Guide and visit some of the wonders that we advertise.

First up was the annual Festival of Trees at Westerham church.  This event has been running for a number of years; nearly one hundred Christmas trees were decorated by local clubs, families and business, and the effect was stunning.  It is held in aid of St Mary's Church, with donations rather than an entry fee, and was very well attended.  We recommend a visit in 2016, even if planning for Christmas seems a long way off.

The annual Tree Festival in Westerham

A section of the tree decorated by Weterham Horticultural Society

Out third visit was to Standen, the National Trust property just beyond East Grinstead, in order to see the Christmas tree decorated by Dame Zandra Rhodes and Andrew Logan.  It was certainly eye catching, though the jury is definitely still out on the result - we suspect that this is rather a "marmite" tree, and that you either "love it or hate it".

The tree at Standen decorated by Zandra Rhodes and Andrew Logan (top)
and in close up (below)

Trees illuminated at night at the
Château de Marqueyssac

Those eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that we haven't mentioned the second visit, jumping straight from one to three ... not a mathematical mistake, but rather a victim of circumstance.  We had tickets for Glow Wild at Wakehurst - the park is lit up after dark and you have to follow a candle lit trail.  We have done a number of these illuminated walks over the years (including at the Château de Marqueyssac in the Dordogne, France - click to follow the link) and they can be great fun and spectacular too - there was one a few years back at Sheffield Park which was highly enjoyable, and we do recommend going to one if you are able, particularly as younger (and even older) children and grandchildren seem to love them too.  Anyway, just as we were leaving the house and climbing into the car, dressed up warmly (looking like we were venturing to Lapland), we received a text message cancelling the event for that evening, owing to the arrival of Storm Desmond.  As the event was pre-booked tickets only, and all days were full, we could not go another night and there are consequently no photos for you to admire, and no descriptions or recommendations to give out.  Just as bad, and more upsetting for certain members of the party, this meant that there was no mulled wine and no hot soup or other foody items that we were looking forward to as our dinner that evening.  As we had not been to the supermarket, we had to make do with a cheese sandwich in front of Dad's Army at home (Diddums- Ed)

We then popped into the Tree Festival at Oxted URC, which is very similar to the Westerham event, although slightly smaller.  Again it was well attended and well put together, but we forgot our cameras and there are no photos!

With the disappointment of Glow Wild behind us, we made an impromptu trip to RHS Wisley, for their illuminated event.  Rather than being a walk through illuminated trees, this was more of a display of illuminated flower and plant-based installations, such as huge tulips and daisies.  A number of the displays were interactive (which all the children at the event seemed to love).  We arrived in late afternoon, but the displays really became much more effective once dusk had fallen.

Illuminated flower "sculptures" at RHS Wisley

Hopefully, this will have given you all food for thought for visits at Christmas later this year.  Also, please do remember to take an Events Guide and to look through it as it takes a great deal of work - but it is encouraging how many of you have said that they love reading it and going to the events in it.  Now we are going to focus on Easter Bunny events (for the chocolate, I assume - Ed), which at our current rate of progress should be posted some time in September!

January Meeting 2016 - Alpines

The Alpine Bank as you enter Faversham.
Photo courtesy of the alpine garden society.

Our first talk this year was by Tim and Gillian Ingram, from the Alpine Garden Society.  We were all very impressed by their encyclopaedic knowledge of alpines, and judging by the conversation at tea, many members were very taken with the alpine bank at Faversham (a photo of which accompanies this article).  The bank is planted and maintained by volunteers and is ideal for alpines as it is well drained on account of the slope.

Unfortunately for all of us gardeners in Hurst Green, alpines are not too keen on clay soil - there are unlikely to be many planted in the new Hurst Green Community Garden, which will hopefully be emerging in 2016 - more on this in a later post.  Although clay is good for maintaining nutrients in the soil (at least it's good for something - Ed), those of us who have it (which is most of us, after all), are in practice restricted to growing alpines either in raised beds - which is how the Ingrams do it - or in pots.   Unfortunately, this does restrict the range that can be grown as some don't take well to having their roots contained - it is particularly frustrating to visit an alpine show or the alpine stands at RHS shows, to then find a specimen that you really, really fancy, only to discover that it thrives best in open, sandy soil.  Over the years, we have come to the conclusion that it does not matter how attractive or well planned a garden is, the true gardener will always be yearning for the plants that they cannot grow rather than being satisfied with the ones that they have.

Gillian and Tim's garden, Copton Ash, (click to visit their website) is open for the National Garden Scheme (known as the NGS or The Yellow Book scheme) regularly throughout the spring.  The garden is about an hour away, as it is in Faversham, but if you are in the area it is worth checking to see if it is open, using the link to the online NGS garden finder (click the words).

January Meeting 2016

First of all, a big (and belated) "Happy New Year" to everyone!

Our first meeting of the year is this Wednesday, 13th January 2016.  Our topic is "Alpines" and will be given by Gillian and Tim Ingram, from the Alpine Gardening Society.  They also open their garden for the NGS, and have a website which may be seen by clicking here.

Just a reminder that our annual subscriptions are also due at the meeting, so if you haven't already sent back your early renewal form (and why not?), then do remember to blow the dust off your wallets and purses and bring them along with you!  Our programmes are all ready for you in their bright new carefully-chosen coloured covers (actually, the only colour that Lorimers had enough of in stock - Ed), giving you your show schedules and agenda for the year.

As usual, we will be at St Agatha's Hall with the talk starting at 8.00 pm.  We look forward to seeing you there.

2015 Competition - The Longest Chilli!

Measurement was along the full length of the chilli as
many were heavily curved. 
This particular chilli type is typically upright and bushy.

Back in the early part of the year, we announced that the theme of the 2015 competition would be the "Longest Chilli", and sold a number of small chilli seedlings to members for them to bring on through the year.  Participants were asked to bring in their chillis (whether individual fruits or the whole plant) to the AGM for judging.  When sold to the members (at a token price to cover a rather paltry prize), and in the spirit of true competition, no hints on growing or cultivation were given.

We do have to admit that the subject of "Longest Chilli" was a late decision, as the original intention was to be "Most Fruits On A Chilli Plant".  We duly planted about 50 seeds of Dorset Naga which is supposed to be the hottest variety bred in Britain, and began to raise them to a decent seedling height for distribution to the members.   Sadly, one of the cats wandered into the conservatory and saw a tray of fresh earth on the floor, prompting her to do what comes naturally to a cat, and bringing the annoyment of kitty dirt from the outdoors to the indoors as well.  The Dorset Nagas ended up strewn across the floor and we could not rescue enough for a competition.  Those that were left had a distinctive odour, although they were at least well fed and fertilised.

Therefore, frantic replanting of another variety that we had to hand meant that the theme had to be changed.  The Chilli chosen (or more accurately, still available) was Joe's Long Cheyenne.  This has the distinction of being one of the longest chillis available, and in commercial propagation will often grow over a foot long (30 cm, for our more modern readers).  This chilli is listed as being of "medium" heat, and is significantly less hot than Dorset Naga.

After highly scientific collation of results involving a piece of string and a child's ruler, we are pleased to confirm that the winner was Vicky Regan, who managed a chilli of 10.5 inches!  She won a rather small box of chocolates, which are estimated to have survived less than 10 minutes.

Most growers recommend that chillis are grown under glass for larger fruit, and to ensure that they ripen sufficiently in our climate, as they are used to longer, hotter summers than are typical here.  Joe's Long Cheyenne is also a tall bush variety on account of the length of the fruit, and does need staking and some room to develop.  We did however discover when talking to the participants in this "trial" that there was little to be determined from the results on whether the plants were best grown under glass or in the open (so long as they did get some decent sun and heat).  Some of the smaller plants were grown under glass, and some of the longer in the open.  The moral is therefore that, if you want to grow chillis (and they are quite easy), but don't have a greenhouse, don't get too hung up on their final position as you can get good results wherever they are placed, at least in our part of Surrey.

Thanks to all the competitors: although many of the initial entrants fell by the wayside - typically going on holiday and losing the original plant (!), which should teach them a salutory lesson for next year - the full results are below:

Name	Length (inches)
Vicky Regan	10.5”
Jilly Ball	10.25”
Ken Jobling	10.0”
Sandy Berry	9.5”
Jeremy Ball	9.25”
Richard Dove Mary Hutchinson	9.0” (tied)
Jane Firmin	8.5”
Julie Mitchell	7.5”

November Meeting 2015 - Our AGM

Madam Chair Jane addresses the 2015 AGM

The 11th of November saw us hold the Annual General Meeting for 2015.  Thank you to all those who attended; the business of the Club does need to be discussed and the AGM is the right place to do it.

Sadly, we were informed that Shirley Istead, our President for many years (and before that, our Chair), had decided to resign from her post owing to ill health.  Jane, our Chair, thanked her for her hard work over the years, and proposed that Shirley be given Life Membership.  The members resoundingly passed this resolution.  In addition, and in particular as Shirley will be a hard act to follow, the members agreed that we would operate without a President for the time being while we examine the way forward.

We were also presented with the accounts of the Club from the Honorary Treasurer, which show us to be in good financial order, and to an report of the shows from the Honorary Show Secretary.  Following the move of the show back to Hurst Green this year, the members agreed that we would continue to hold the shows in St. Agatha's Hall and that we would continue to invite "The Grow With Us Club" (LODHS) to take part and to show alongside us.

Attendance was good this year - nearly 50 of the members were in the hall.

Partly as a result of discussions at the AGM, the Committee understand that the Rules of the Society are rather outdated and inaccurate; it is therefore the intention of the Management to redraft the rules and to present them to the membership at the February meeting, so that they may be voted on at the March meeting which will be in part an Extraordinary General Meeting in order to do so.  Although we are a relatively small Club, it is essential that the Rules are accurate, and this is the first time for a number of years that they have been looked at properly.

Nibbles and a social!

There was a good attendance at the event, as you can see from the photographs.  This may have been in part because the Committee has learned, over the years, that bribery goes a long way, and that most of our members respond well to the prospect of free drink and food!  As usual, therefore, members brought along a plate of nibbles each, and mulled apple juice was also served; the second half of the AGM being a thoroughly enjoyed social!
 
We also held the "Longest Chilli" competition at the AGM; the results will form the subject of another post.

October Meeting 2015 - Tulip Mania

The subject of our October meeting was "Tulip Mania", and was kindly given by Lesley Chamberlain. Tulip Mania refers to the massive interest in Tulips in Holland, in the early 17th Century, resulting in the first recognised economic "bubble".  Some rare tulip bulbs could command up to 10 times a skilled craftsman's annual salary, and many fortunes were made and then quickly lost when the bubble suddenly burst.

Particularly expensive types included the striped varieties (actually created through tulip mosaic virus.)  The effect of the "bubble" was so great that even today we still associate Holland as the land of the tulip.

Incidentally, do remember that we have introduced a few tulip classes to the Spring Challenge against Godstone.  They are ideal planted in pots (which means they can be moved into the sun or back into the shade to speed them up or slow them down as the competition draws near), and would make a very good introduction to showing if any members would like to  give it a go!  They also look pretty, and huge numbers of types and colours are available.  If youu grow them in pots, they can also be moved into a prominent position when in flower and then moved back to a more hidden place once the main show is over.

Una Eaton - A Goodbye

Una in her garden several years ago.
Many thanks to Malcolm and LODHS for permission
to use this photograph.

We are sure that most members will be aware that Una Eaton, wife of Roy and one of our long-serving members, has passed away.  Una was also a valued member of Limpsfield and Oxted Horticultural Society, who have posted a lovely farewell message on their blog.  Una will be sorely missed by us, and there is nothing that we can say to fully express our thoughts on this loss to both of our clubs.  There is also nothing that we can say that LODHS has not already expressed better than us, and we therefore are posting a link to it here.  The post is "A Fond Farewell to Una Eaton" (click to read it).

Our thoughts and best wishes go to Roy and his family.

Our Annual Autumn Flower and Produce Show 2015 - A Report

The 2015 Show before opening- well filled with a good number of
entries both in the horticultural and the domestic classes.

We are pleased to report that the annual show was a resounding success!  It will not be news to most of the membership that the Committee was rather worried about the show this year, as a combination of the weather and the absence / illness of a number of the more prolific exhibitors meant that the numbers of entries might have been somewhat low. However, an appeal went out to everyone a few days in advance asking for entries (begging, pleading, imploring, even threatening, more like - Ed), and you all responded magnificently!  It would be invidious to name anyone, but we even had some members who were going on holiday raiding their gardens the day before traveling (as if they didn't have enough to do), and leaving entries for the Show Secretary to put in on their behalf.  On the subject of the Show Secretary, please extend a round of virtual applause to Jilly for her organisation of the show, and to her team of little elves (you know who you are) for cheerfully undertaking the work that is needed to put it on and run it on the day.

Our silverware for the occasion, all
beautifully polished and presented.

The show had not been held in Hurst Green for four years, partly because we have held joint shows in Oxted on the last few occasions, but we took the decision to return to Hurst Green this year, and we were ultimately able to put on a good show for the village, and to do ourselves proud.  It is down to the membership as a whole and your willingness to put in entries that the show was a success.  Even if you were unable to put in an entry or two, we had a good turnout for tea and cakes and had a number of visitors who were not members, but were interested and impressed by what they saw - so a good result all round!  Putting on a show such as this is hard work for the Committee, and it is very pleasing when everyone responds so positively and appears to be so interested - so a big "thank you" again to everybody.  We do hope you enjoyed yourself on the day - the photos certainly suggest that you did, and we feel that it vindicated our decision to hold the Show again in St Agatha's Hall

Some of the show winners with Chairman Jane (in the centre) and
Malcolm Young from LODHS (far right) who kindly
agreed to present the prizes.
Alan Essex (far left) won the Fruit classes, Margaret Edwards (next to Alan)
took the Domestic section cup, and Jeremy Ball (between Jane and Malcolm)
won the Vegetable section.  Congratulations to the other cup winners
who unfortunately could not attend the prize giving.

We would also like to thank those non-members who came along to visit the show, and who also made entries; we had a number of members of "The Grow With Us Club" (LODHS) from Oxted, both for tea and for competition.  We extended an invitation to them to enter the show, and it was very good to see a number of them responding.  We do hope that they enjoyed themselves and will continue to enter in the future; we already have close links to Godstone for our Spring Challenge show, and it is good to be on such friendly terms with Oxted as well for the Summer and the Autumn shows.

Teatime!  Very popular, with good cakes!
Many thanks to Lesley and Joan for
holding the fort in the kitchen, and
to everyone who donated a cake.

We also had some independent entries from local growers (including a past member who came out of retirement especially for the occasion.)  In fact, we had nearly 40 individual entrants, and this meant that all of the prizes were hotly contested, with much of the scoring being very close indeed.  I hope that many of the new exhibitors will take heart that their scores (if they are counting) matched or exceeded those of the "usual suspects", and that the distribution of awards was varied across the whole of the entrant base with cups going to people who have never won before.  It is also a good point to mention that, in a change to previous years, we decided to ask visitors to vote for the "audience participation" classes using a coin.  The money raised from this will be donated to Multiple Sclerosis, and we think that we will continue this system in future shows.

Our final results were as follows, but please remember that many of the awards were won by a whisker! We do look forward to welcoming you again next year, and now that so many of you have shown a willingness to exhibit, we hope that the 2016 show will be even bigger and better.  You have all responded well and shown that you can do it, and now the Committee is going to expect you all to keep going!

However, the real aim is to look at lovely flowers and produce, and so, on with the pictures...

Award	Description	Winner
Crewdson Cup	Best horticultural exhibit in show	Richard Dove
RHS Banksian Medal	Overall winner of the horticultural classes	Jeremy Ball
Leonard May Cup	Most points in the flower classes	Ted Riches
Crewdson Challenge Cup	Most points in the vegetable classes	Jeremy Ball
Brenda Cup	Most points in the fruit classes	Alan Essex
MacEwan Cup	Most points in the domestic classes	Margaret Edwards
Mrs L Wettern Cup	Most points in the Dahlia classes	Ted Riches
Sykes Coaster	Most points in the floral art classes	Sue Kempton

A very well deserved "Best In Show" for Richard Dove,
with his collection of 4 or more vegetables. 
The photo (as usual) does not do this trug sufficient justice.
This award is restricted to the Horticultural classes, by the way.

Dahlias - glorious at this time of year.  There were a number of entries
in hot contention for "Best in Show", and the entries
compared very favourably to the Edenbridge and Oxted show
held a few weeks before, which is a large regional show with
a number of national-standard exhibitors.

Arrangements of flowers and shrubs from an exhibitor's own
garden are always popular.

The Foliage and Cacti classes.  Note to self - succulents are meant
to be in the foliage class and not in the cacti!  A rather
embarrassing reminder to check the schedule, especially when you are
supposed to be stewarding the show to get the entries correct ...

Fuchsia heads (single) make a lovely display, and the
class for doubles is also glorious.  We must do something
about the water trays though - there was a lot of water spilt!

We even managed to get a few entries for the roses classes - although many
members mentioned that there would have been more if only
the show had been held a week later!

An overview of many of the vegetable and fruit classes.

As you can see, runner bean is a popular - and well populated - class! 

Tomatoes and "any other vegetables".  Although there were red entries
for the cherry tomato class, the weather meant that many exhibitors' larger
tomatoes had split (apparently due to the fluctuations of hot and cold).
Purple tomatoes were therefore an exhibit of choice as these are
apparently more resistant to splitting. 
And yes, they are purple all the way through!

Floral exhibits are always a delight and allow creativity to shine out.
This year's theme was "Afternoon Tea".

Miniature floral art - always an eye catching class!

This year we re-introduced "flowers in a tankard".  Originally
meant only for men, our well-known feminist principles
opened the class to women as well this year.

The Domestic section.  There was a very good turnout in this; jams, jellies
and preserves in the foreground, then cakes (ginger cake), handicrafts,
and photos at the far end.

One of the handicraft sections.  Despite splitting a single "general handicraft"
class  into a number of specific smaller classes such as "soft toy" or "knitted",
we still had many entries across the handicrafts making decisions difficult.
The winner of "any other handicraft"is the glass terrarium in the middle,
hotly contested by many others including the wooden walking stick.