Meetings – Page 2 – Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society

Annual General Meeting February 2025

Sixty-three members attended our Annual General Meeting on Monday 17^th February in the Old Library at Charlton House. There were opportunities to renew membership, check the data CABAHS holds on members for GDPR purposes and book the next CABAHS outing to RHS Wisley on 6^th May, as well as the Raffle.

The AGM included a review of achievements over the past year and the election of the Committee and Officers of the Society for 2025.

Reports from the AGM
CABAHS AGM 2025 – Chair’s Report
CABAHS AGM 2025 – Treasurer’s Report
CABAHS AGM Minutes 2025
CABAHS AGM Revised Constitution

Stella giving the Chairs Review of the Year 2024

Treasurer's Report for 2024 — Stella giving the Chairs Review of the Year 2024

Three Committee Members have stepped down
Stella B stepped down as Chair of CABAHS and Anna L and Lynda F stepped down as Committee Members. Each was presented with a bouquet and a book in thanks for their contribution to the work of the CABAHS Committee.

New Committee for 2025
With departures from the Committee, new Committee members are required and Vija V was elected as Chair. She responded that “It was good to see so many of our members at the AGM. I am delighted to be returning as Chair of CABAHS and look forward to working with you all again.”

January 2025 Talk: Succession Planting for a Long Season

Our first meeting of 2025 was very well attended. The speaker and the topic obviously attracted a good audience. The Show Table received a good selection of displays, with Jean’s a worthy winner of Best on the Table.

Our speaker, Fergus Garrett, the highly influential plantsman and horticulturalist, has been Head Gardener at the internationally acclaimed Great Dixter Garden in Northiam, East Sussex since 1993 and is the CEO of the Great Dixter Charitable Trust. He gave an excellent, wide-ranging talk on how to keep our gardens looking vibrant and spectacular all the year round. He explained how to plant for a long flowering season with plants co-existing in one place, but performing at different times. He used photographs of the spectacular gardens at Great Dixter to illustrate his points. He said Great Dixter had the advantage of scale and greenhouses but it is possible to scale down what they do at Great Dixter and use their scheme in our own gardens with minimal labour.

He particularly used the magnificent long border at Great Dixter as an example of how to plan a long flowering season. How to use structural under-planting, interlaying and interplanting with bulbs, self-sowers, perennials, clumps of bedding plants and climbers.

November 2024 Talk: Andrew Babicz on Great Gardens of Great Britain

On Monday 18 November, we had our last meeting of 2024. Despite poor weather, it was well attended. Perhaps it was the mince pies, stollen and similar delights or maybe it was the “special” raffle prizes, including a hamper as the star prize. The Show Table was up to the usual standard and for sale there were the last of the tulip bulbs, a small plant sale and our lovely Christmassy cards.

Andrew Babicz gave a fascinating talk based on his extensive experience of great gardens in Britain, having worked in a variety of outstanding gardens himself – Inverewe Garden, Hampton Court, RHS Wisley and several London boroughs. He was Chief Recreation Officer for the London Borough of Redbridge and has also been involved in judging for the South and South East in Bloom Competition. His talk reflected on his knowledge and personal experience of a range of types of gardens in England and Scotland.

Originally from Hawick in the Scottish Borders, his interest in gardening was stimulated by his father who was a post-war immigrant from Poland who became head gardener at a care home. Andrew began his horticultural career as an apprentice at the Inverewe Garden in the North West Scottish Highlands, later being awarded a degree in Horticulture from Edinburgh University.

October 2024 Talk: Tim Ingram on Copton Ash Garden

We welcomed back Tim Ingram who has a passion for alpines, and is a member of the Alpine Garden Society. He gave us a talk on the evolution of Copton Ash, his garden in Faversham, Kent where he also has a specialist nursery. He also brought with him a selection of alpine and perennial plants for sale. He illustrated his talk with a series of photographs showing the development of his garden over the years and seasons.

Copton Ash Getting Wild, May 2024 — Copton Ash fruit plantings Spring 1979

Tim’s garden is a large and mature family-run garden, about one and a half acres in size, which has been in existence for nearly fifty years. He comes from a family of avid gardeners and so was brought up with a keen interest in plants and gardening. His father worked at Brogdale (home of the National Fruit Collection): his mother too a keen gardener: his grandfather was into market gardening. Tim first worked in academic science in London, specialising in plant hormones. He and his wife returned full time to Copton Ash in the late 1980s when they soon started a nursery.

Autumn Flower, Fruit and Vegetable Show 2024

The 2024 Autumn Show was held on Monday 16th September in the Old Library of Charlton House. It was well attended and the standard of entry was very high – particularly given the strange growing year we’ve had.

Whole table of entries and audience awaiting decisions

Jason judged the flower classes and Melanie the vegetables but there was lots of discussion between the judges and Stella, the Chair. Anna judged the cakes and preserves, ably assisted by Annette, and Hugh weighed the potatoes. As ‘Best in Class’ winners and ‘Highly Commended’ entries were announced, the judges explained the reasons for their decisions. Finally, they agreed their choice for Best in Show.

August 2024: Gardeners Question Time

An entertaining and informative evening was had at this year’s Gardeners Question Time. As usual, it enabled members to get advice on their gardening problems, and to air their gardening frustrations. Chaired by Sir Nicolas Bevan, the CABAHS President, the panel also comprised Tom Brown, the Greenwich Park’s Head Gardener, and Pat Kane, a long standing CABAHS member.

Most of the questions were sent in by members beforehand. They covered a broad range of gardening areas and problems: growing hollyhocks; aphid control; tree size; cistus, salvia and sisyrinchium pruning; how to grow dahlias; what killed my rose; problems with apple trees and rambling roses; how to encourage children to get involved in gardening; recommending a fertiliser for yew hedges; the cause of curly cucumbers; dealing with self seeding; and problems with bamboo.

July 2024 Meeting and Talk: The Savill and Valley Gardens, Windsor Great Park

John Anderson has a very distinguished horticultural career. Trained at Kew, he has been head gardener at a range of famous gardens, and his contribution to horticulture was recognised in the award of the RHS Veitch Memorial Medal. In 2016, he became Keeper of Windsor Great Park Gardens, part of the Royal Estate, and managed by the Crown Estate.

It was a particularly interesting and informative talk. The gardens are unusual, situated as they are in a Royal Estate of 8000 acres, and Windsor Castle being a world tourist attraction. Yet the gardens and their management are less well known to the public. John Anderson showed a range of photographs of the gardens, described their history and development over the decades, and the challenges they now present.

The speaker and audience at the July 2024 meeting

The challenges include managing people whether they are tourists, cyclists or picnickers; dealing with vandalism and littering; and protecting its historic landscapes. Also the problems of climate change: evidenced in its Long Walk tree avenue, at over two miles the longest in Britain, where elm and horse chestnut were succumbing to disease, to be replaced by more resistant species such as ginkgo (Maidenhair) trees.

June 2024 Meeting and Talk: Hever Castle and Gardens

A successful meeting was held in June with a packed audience and we were lucky to be given an engaging and informative talk by Neil Miller, Head Gardener at Hever Castle. In 2002 Neil started as a junior gardener at Hever following 10 years as an Insurance Broker and within 4 years was Head Gardener. Quite an achievement!

Famously Hever Castle was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, and Henry VIII frequently visited her there. At that time the surrounding land was marsh and bog land. Though there were many changes of ownership in the following centuries, it was not until 1903, when William Waldorf Astor bought the estate, that serious restoration and renovation took place and the design for the gardens was drawn up. Alongside the castle, a Tudor style Village was also built so that invited guests had rooms to stay.

March 2024: Down at the CABAHS Shed

We attempted something a bit different at this meeting! Our Chair Stella introduced the evening by asking the audience to imagine we were all sitting relaxing in the CABAHS garden shed surrounded by our gardening friends. She then introduced the “panel” and to start the conversation rolling, asked how they first became interested in gardening.

The four panellists, Ruth, Kathy, Lynda & Pat each had different but similar personal stories, and it was usually a parent or grandparent who first sparked their interest.

The next question was about the tastiest vegetable or fruit we had ever grown.

For Pat this was Sungold tomatoes. Lynda is known among members for growing Goji berry but she chose sweetcorn as the tastiest ever. Ruth thought figs from her allotment were amazing, especially as she had inherited them from the previous holder. For Kathy it was “Mr Green’s” (the previous owner of her garden) summer raspberries, which have been in the same bed for over 35 years.

Now on to the best Show flowers (topical as we have the Spring Show coming up next month). Stella put in her vote for Penstemon ‘Garnet’, certainly a very good do-er in the Walled Gardens at Charlton House.

Annual General Meeting February 2024

Our February meeting on Monday 19th, comprised our AGM, with the usual election of officers and presentation of the Annual Report, followed by a talk by Tom Stanier, the Horticultural Team Lead at Greenwich Park, about his life as a gardener at the Park and a behind-the-scenes look at working there in these challenging times.

Chair, Treasurer, Secretary and President of CABAHS

Stella presenting her Annual Report to members

Reports from the AGM
CABAHS AGM 2024 – Chair’s Report
CABAHS AGM 2024 – Treasurer’s Report
CABAHS AGM Minutes 2024

Show Table Winners 2023
The Show Table cup is presented to the member with the most points on the monthly Show Table, over the past year. This year, the Winner was Annie H. Second place went to Terry. And Pat K and Anastasia were Third equal. Well done all.