Meetings – Page 3 – Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society

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.

November 2023 Talk: Sex, Lies and Putrefaction

Timothy Walker is a botanist with an extensive career in horticulture. He is a former Director of Oxford Botanical Gardens and still lectures at Somerville and Pembroke Colleges as well as being a Fellow of the Linnean Society and winner of four Chelsea gold medals. He came to our attention as the presenter of the BBC 4 television series Botany – a Blooming History. He gave an entertaining and informative talk which was very well received by the audience.

Like all living organisms, plants aim to ensure offspring for the next generation. Timothy described the sexual life of plants as the movement of pollen along the stem from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma to allow fertilisation. He put his discussion within the context of Darwinian theory of the Origin of the Species and Natural Selection and said pollination is less subservient than normally assumed.

He described a variety of stratagems for pollination and ways plants have developed to ensure it happens. Nature abhors inbreeding and, because of genetic problems associated with self pollination, tries to avoid it.

October 2023 Talk: The Middle-Sized Garden

Fifty three people attended our October meeting in the Old Library, enjoying refreshments, the raffle, the plant sale and the Show Table, as well as an interesting talk. The Best on the Show Table was Annie H’s display of Dahlia flowers and Helichrysum.

The talk on the Middle-Sized Garden was a first for CABAHS as it was given by a blogger, Alexandra Campbell who describes herself as a blogger, YouTuber, journalist and author.

For most of her career Alexandra worked as a journalist at journals such as Harpers, Queen and She. But when the introduction of IT led to the drying up of hard print journalism work she embarked on a second career teaching herself blogging and videoing. She now blogs at the Middle-Sized Garden blog which gives advice and tips on gardening. It is one of the top ten gardening blogs in the UK with over a million viewers and covers garden design, middle-sized gardens and expert interviews and tips. She also has five million viewers on her YouTube site.

Autumn Flower, Fruit and Vegetable Display 2023

The 2023 Autumn Show was held on Monday 18 September in the Old Library of Charlton House. We counted 74 attendees and there were nearly 100 wonderful entries across all the classes.

Judges Vija, Jason and Terry shared the task between them and explained the reasons for their choices of ‘Best in Class’ winners and ‘Highly Commended’ entries, as well as their final choice for Best in Show.

Some entries for Class 1: Vase of flowers (3 stems of 1 cultivar), including Mandy O's winning entry. Autumn Show 2023 — Some entries for Class 1: Vase of flowers (3 stems of 1 cultivar)

An entry for Class 2: Bowl of mixed flowers. Autumn Show 2023 — Some entries for Class 1: Vase of flowers (3 stems of 1 cultivar)

Classes and winners:

Vase of flowers, 3 stems of 1 cultivar: Mandy O
Bowl of mixed flowers (emphasis on quality of flowers, not arrangement): Jean R
Vase of shrubs or foliage, 3 or more stems, mixed varieties: Terry G
Display of ornamental seed heads: Terry G
Five Fuchsia blooms, single variety or mixed (flower heads only): Ruth Y
Ornamental pot plant (incl. cacti & succulents): Anna L
Display of fruit, any mixed: Kathy A
Display of vegetables, mixed: Annie H
Tomatoes (dish of 5): Ann F
Display of herbs: Ruth Y
Preserves – jam, jelly or marmalade, chutney or relish: Fran A
Baking – Apple cake: Carole F
Floral Arrangement – display in a tea cup, all flowers to be home grown (emphasis on floral arrangement): Viv P
Wildcard: Joe F
Competition – yield from one potato supplied in April: Pat T (1392g!)

Winner of Class 1: Vase of flowers (3 stems of 1 cultivar)(Mandy O). Autumn Show 2023 — Best in Class 1: 3 stems of one cultivar

Winner of Class 2: Bowl of mixed flowers (Jean R). Autumn Show 2023 — Best in Class 1: 3 stems of one cultivar

Trophies and awards:

Crystal Fuchsia bowl for Class 5 Five Fuchsia blooms: Ruth Y
Silver Spade for Class 8 Display of Vegetables: Annie H
CABAHS biro for Class 14 Wildcard: Joe F
and of course
Packet of crisps for Class 15 Potato competition: Pat T

Annie H and her trophy for winning Class 8: Display of vegetables, mixed. Autumn Show 2023 — Annie H – winning vegetable display

Joe receiving a coveted CABAHS pen for his 'Wildcard' entry, Autumn Show 2023 — Annie H – winning vegetable display

And finally:

The Best in Show award went to Pat K’s beautiful display of herbs.

Best in Show, Autumn 2023! Pat K's unusual display of (mainly) flowering herbs, in Class 10. — Best in Show, Autumn 2023! Pat K’s unusual display of (mainly) flowering herbs

Winners awarded and prizes given, it was time for everyone to sample the cakes!

Ali

August 2023: Gardeners Question Time

The panel this year consisted of the CABAHS President, Sir Nicolas Bevan in the chair along with the well known horticulturalist, retired Greenwich Park Manager and teacher, Joe Woodcock and our own knowledgeable CABAHS member, Pat Kane. It was a jolly affair much enjoyed by the members, held in the Old Library at Charlton House because of the possibility of rain.

Before the meeting, some members visited the Old Pond Garden to check on and discuss progress.

July 2023 Talk: The Jungle Garden

Our Speaker, Philip Oostenbrink, has been the head gardener at Walmer Castle since 2020 and taught horticulture in the Netherlands for 8 years prior to coming to England. He gave a fascinating and visually illustrated talk on the increasingly fashionable Jungle Gardening. He described how to create at home a garden or patio full of lush, green foliage plants and how to combine different leaf shapes and textures. He said he has been passionate about plants since early childhood, describing himself as a “plantaholic”. He currently holds 4 National Plant Collections. His stall at the Hampton Court Flower Show this year won a gold medal. He said he was inspired by the tropical Tresco Abbey Gardens (see our previous talk on this) and Will Giles’ Exotic Garden in Norwich.

Philip Oostenbrink giving his talk on Jungle Gardens