Garden news & views – Page 5 – Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society

Down at Down House

According to my (many) English Heritage emails, Down House and garden is one of the best of their sites to visit in the autumn. We went expecting a show of bright autumn colours but I have to say we were rather disappointed.

However, there were compensations. There were autumn colours aplenty on the drive down with the low autumn sun sparkling through the yellow trees.

The house itself is very interesting. The staff were friendly and welcoming and keen to impart their knowledge of Charles Darwin and to ensure that we were enjoying our visit. The original kitchen with its flag-stoned floor is a good place to start with coffee and cakes.

Charles Darwin lived in the house for 40 years with his wife, Emma Wedgewood (also his first cousin). They had ten children, seven of whom survived beyond the age of eleven. Darwin was an unconventional Victorian father, allowing the children into his study and providing them with the means to play noisily in the house, building a wooden slide that fitted on one of the staircases.

Sedum or Hylotelephium? Aster or Symphyotrichum?

Hylotelephium telephium 'Touchdown Teak'

But which is which?

I’m sure you know by now that herb garden favourite rosemary had its botanical name changed following DNA testing. It was reclassified to the Salvia family and its proper name is now Salvia rosmarinus (while the common name of course remains ‘rosemary’). Another common garden plant, Perovskia (aka Russian sage), has been renamed Salvia yangii. And then there are the sedums, some (but not all) of which must have needed a few more syllables to sound properly botanical!

Gardeners often wonder why this happens, and feel like botanical names are simply there to confuse us. Many gardeners choose to stick to the ‘old’ names, and occasionally (but not usually!) this is rewarded as science progresses, as is pointed out in this useful article from Gardens Illustrated.

Overbeck’s Garden Devon

On a recent visit to Devon we decided to visit Overbeck’s Garden owned by the National Trust. If you can brave the narrowest of South Devon lanes (and scarily so!) you’ll come to Overbecks built into a cliffside at Salcombe and overlooking the Kingsbridge estuary. The setting is stunning and because it’s so sheltered supports plants and trees from around the globe.

The day was very warm but luckily there’s plenty of shade provided by the collection of trees including magnolias, olives and palms of various sorts and the feel is very much sub-tropical. Amongst many areas there’s a Gazebo Garden, a Banana Garden, the Old Quarry, the Statue Garden and a lovely shady Woodland garden with a viewing point over to Salcombe with stunning views. Many lovely plants grow on the slopes and with only 3 full time gardeners I should think they rely heavily on volunteers although how they regularly navigate those lanes was a mystery to us. There’s a refreshment area (outdoors) and a picnic area. If you are in South Devon it is very well worth a visit and I hope the pictures convey the variety of lovely plants and trees you can see.

Charlton House Horn Fair 2023

Once again we ran a successful plant stall at this lovely family event, huge thank you to everyone who donated plants or came along to help. And it was sunny, hooray, even if it was perishing in the shade!

Charlton House and stalls — Producers market

We had a great time dressing up the Gardens with ghosts, bats, spiders etc to make them ‘haunted’, and devising the children’s Pumpkin Trail. In the end we had over 130 children charging about the gardens, doing the Pumpkin Puzzle to find the name of the Charlton House ghost, or just spotting all the silly things we had put in the beds!

The gardens were looking peaceful first thing…

Painting the pumpkins — Setting up the puzzle

Webs in the beds — Setting up the puzzle

Preparations underway. And then it got busy..!

Inspired by CABAHS

I was very pleased to receive the award for the heaviest potato yield this year at the Autumn Show, but this was only part of my potato story for 2023. We have a small garden and so the space for growing vegetables isn’t great, but I’ve grown potatoes in containers for a number of years. My older grandchild, George, has often been involved and now he and his father grow potatoes in their own garden.

When we went to buy our seed potatoes this year, George quickly filled his bag with the remaining Charlottes that were available so I was left with Casablanca, a variety I’d never heard of before. In fact, I bought more than my garden could accommodate, and it was around this time that CABAHS were distributing the potatoes for the annual competition. This was the inspiration for me to use my extras in a similar way…..

I shared the spares with 11 family members, including the two grandchildren, and gave them pretty much the same information as CABAHS issues. This was met by great enthusiasm all round and with a general competitive buzz and with regular progress reports throughout the year.

Three photos of harvesting potatoes for the competition

Fast forward to July 31, our results day. Instructions were similar to CABAHS except there were three categories – the heaviest total yield, the heaviest single potato, and the total number of potatoes, with junior sections for each.

Sunday morning in the jungle

Last Sunday Jean, Val and I spent a very pleasant couple of hours in the jungle! The jungle in question is only a few minutes from Peckham High Street.

Bamboo next to the summer house in the jungle garden

Flowers to add colour to the jungle garden

The owner, Clive, generously opened the garden to CABAHS members for a private view. Some of you may have visited before as the garden is regularly open on Open Garden weekends and has featured on TV with Carol Klein.

Clive lives with various members of his family in a huge house in a leafy street in Camberwell. When they bought the house, the back garden had been severely neglected and was a ‘jungle’ of brambles. A digger sculpted out the different areas of the garden, paths were laid and interesting artefacts (many associated with Buddhism) added, to create a sense of discovery around each bend and corner. A few years ago, part of the next door garden was acquired, thus extending the original garden.

Range of heights and leaf shapes in the jungle garden

Sense of discovery round each corner in the jungle garden

There are numerous chairs, benches and sofas dotted around in quiet, sheltered corners and even a cosy shed/garden house full of interesting pictures and objects – perfect for a peaceful read on a summers day with just the swishing of the wind in the leaves for company.

Have you checked your Fig Tree recently?

A couple of months ago, we noticed the damage that was being done to the fig tree in the Old Pond Garden and realised that most other fig trees in the area were in a similar state. What was happening?

We were discussing it at a volunteer session one day and Pat T indicated that she had spotted the same kind of damage on her fig tree and had contacted the RHS for advice. The RHS confirmed our suspicion that the cause is a micro-moth called Choreutis nemorana. It is being referred to as the fig-tree skeletonizer moth or fig leaf roller – for rather obvious reasons! This species is widespread in the Mediterranean and North Africa where there will be more fig trees but more natural predators too.

It was recorded in Belgium in 2009 and the first record for Britain was in 2014 in London. Since then it has spread to East Anglia, Kent and the Isle of Wight.

To understand what is happening to the fig tree, we must follow the life-cycle of the moth. The adult moth lays whitish eggs in batches on top of the leaf. The larvae or caterpillars then hatch, begin eating the leaf but just the tender bits, not the ribs (hence one of its names). They also spin silk to create a protective web or cocoon, under which they continue to eat the leaf until they pupate. There are two generations with adults flying in July and again in the autumn. The second generation over-winters in sheltered places. The caterpillar grows to about 15mm long and the moth has a wingspan of between 16 and 20mm. For more information and photos of the different stages check here.

Lullingstone World Garden

I made my first visit to the charming Lullingstone World Garden today, and am very sure I will be back! This is the most eccentric and fun walled garden, as you might expect if you are trying to fit a worldwide range of plants into it. I especially liked the plant labels everywhere, so you know what you are looking at.

World Garden gate — Entrance through the Moon gate

Australia house — Entrance through the Moon gate

There is a nursery selling high quality plants and a cafe serving great sandwiches and drinks, also lots of seating for picnics. The private House wasn’t open when I visited, but opens sometimes for events. Add it to your list for visiting!

Beth Chatto’s garden

Trying to select photos to use from a visit to Beth Chatto’s garden is not easy! All aspects of this Essex garden are stunning and there are numerous ‘take homes’ from a visit. The cluster of pots around a wooden bench is easy to replicate, with its mixture of plectranthus, fuschia, a small but perfect blechium, pelargonium ‘Vancouver centennial’ (keep a lookout for this at our plant sales – it was our ex-Chair Jillian Smith who originally provided a steady supply) and a charmingly named begonia, ‘Beth’s Houseplant’.

Of course, the dry garden is stunning with gaura, various grasses and verbenas (Bonariensis, hastata and ‘Bampton’) dominating the display in mid-August. Stipa gigantea and verbascums add height and Althaea cannabina has seeded itself generously. The blue of Catanche caerulea looked startlingly beautiful in one corner. This area of the garden is always a useful guide to what will manage with little water and good drainage.

Great Dixter

Throughout the year Great Dixter hold various events for their Friends membership. So, on yet another dismal July evening this year, Pat and I drove to Sussex. The evening began with drinks and canapes and a talk from Fergus which should have been held on the front lawn but, due to the inclement weather, was inside in the Great Hall. Three boxes of plants from the nursery, designed for dry, wet and shady aspects of the garden, were raffled at £5.00 a ticket. Surprisingly, as Fergus was talking, the sun came out and what could have been a wet evening turned into a very pleasant one. Although the colour of the sky in the photo demonstrates it was still fairly cloudy!

We had arrived slightly early, so were already able to explore the garden which is always full of surprises. The phlox were particularly beautiful and Pat and I were trying to note varieties for our own gardens! Following Fergus’ talk, which was generally about the work of Great Dixter and collaborative projects that were ongoing including one with Hastings council, we divided up into groups according to our chosen tour/talk. Each one of these was conducted by one of the students at Great Dixter. Pat and I had opted for the Long Border and Jungle Garden (although we popped out of the latter and into the Nursery!). The students are articulate and engaging and certainly know their material. Having watched Fergus’ lectures on the Long Border, it was interesting to see this in practice and explained to us by Andrew Wiley, one of the Chanticleer Scholars. A particularly interesting stand of Salvia Indigo Spires was a huge clump of individual cuttings rather than one big plant. Also in use was a lovely creamy apricot Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus Apricotta) – a colour which we have seen a lot in other gardens this year and can be picked out in the photo (one to be ordered for sowing next year!). We always leave these gardens full of ideas and plans!

Vija V