Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society

Teddy Bears 2024: If you go down to the Old Pond Garden, you’re sure of a big surprise..

If you go down to the Old Pond Garden this Saturday, you’re sure of a big surprise. For every teddy that ever there was, will gather there together because, today’s the biggest floral count ever!

If you have ever wondered which month is the most floriferous in the Old Pond Garden, I’m guessing it’s July. We are expecting lots of visitors this Saturday July 20th, 11-3, for the Teddy Bears Picnic, and they are in for a treat (as well as a picnic) as we have counted over 30 plants out in full flower. Can you spot them all? We will have an info board out so you can match names and flowers, while the kids are charging about finding the hidden Teddies. Works for all ages.

The Teddy Bear trail will be in the Old Pond Garden and there will be lots of photo-ops for you and your teddy with the lovely garden backdrop. See you there, better come in disguise!

White Garden, Sissinghurst Castle

In all the years I have been visiting Sissinghurst Castle, I have never seen the White Garden look so lush; it was a ‘sea of white fluffiness’ and its loveliness took one’s breath away.

The White Garden is an enclosed garden, laid out in a formal pattern, with clipped borders of box framing brick herringbone pathways, punctuated by box cubes. These features provide structure and act as a framework and a contrast to the white flowers and grey foliage within their boundaries.

White Garden with clipped borders of box framing brick herringbone pathways

The focal point is the central gazebo, which is covered by the highly fragrant white rambler rose (Rosa mulliganii) – now finished flowering but later in the year produces rose hips. Beneath sits a maroon-coloured waist-high urn (1930s), planted with Thumbergia alata (a cream-coloured Black-eyed Susan).

Pat’s Jobs for July

1. Top of the list for July is pruning wisteria, taking back that whippy growth to 2 to 3 buds from the main stems.

2. Sweetpeas should be flowering by now so make sure to keep cutting the blooms and give them a feed and plenty of water. They cease flowering quickly if not picked twice a week.

3. Deadhead all your perennials and annuals regularly unless you want them to set seed for next years sowing.

Plant of the Month: Dierama pulcherrimum (July 2024)

We might complain about all the rain we have had over the last few months but the plants have just loved, loved, loved it!

So, for the first time ever, I can celebrate, as my Angel’s Fishing Rod (beautiful name) is due to send up at least four flowering stems after many years and I put this down to the extensive rain we have endured this past winter and spring.

At Sissinghurst Gardens recently, I spotted two Dieramas in flower – the maturer pink-flowering specimen in the sheltered Rose garden, in a front-of-border, corner position where two paths meet, and a smaller, delicate-blush-mauve-flowering specimen growing in a south-facing border, situated in front of a tall brick wall – both looking absolutely gorgeous.

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.

A visit to East Lambrook Manor Garden

East Lambrook Manor, April 2024 — East Lambrook Manor from the road.

After years of repeatedly reading about East Lambrook Manor in Margery Fish’s classic book ‘We Made a Garden’ [book review], I discovered late in 2023 that the house and garden were to be sold. While the garden is Grade 1 listed and therefore protected to some extent, it may not have to be open to the public, so I determined to visit as soon as I possibly could. The garden is not open over the winter – its season begins with the snowdrop festival in February – so I waited nervously to see if it would re-open in 2024. It did, so plans were hatched as there was now a caveat on the East Lambrook Manor website that opening arrangements could change if it is sold.

East Lambrook Manor Gardens, April 2024 — First view: House and lawn to the left, Barton ahead and Malthouse behind.

On a sunny morning in early April we set off to walk from South Petherton, where we were staying, to East Lambrook. It was a lovely walk of just under two miles, leading us into a small village with some very nice front gardens… and we turned into a driveway with the manor house on our left, the Malthouse ahead and a beautiful tree with a host of snakeshead fritillaries (Fritillaria meleagris) below. This was The Barton – the former farmyard.

Plant of the Month: Rose (June 2024)

June really is the month for roses and when I saw Margaret T’s roses growing on her allotment, I was enchanted by each and every one and I have listed below a few that are in flower now.

Rosa 'James Galway' — Rosa ‘James Galway’

A David Austin climbing rose, introduced in the year 2000 and named after the Irish flautist. Margaret grows this rose as a shrub, so the flowers are at head height and the pink blooms, paler at the edges, have an old rose appearance and fragrance.

Rosa 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' — Rosa ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’

What a name! And, what a rose! This gorgeous hybrid tea has blush-pink, very fragrant, repeat-flowering clusters, and glossy dark-green leaves. Considered disease resistant. Introduced in 2006 by rose-breeder, Colin Pearce.

Pat’s Jobs for June

What a strange spring this has been as everything has grown so tall ….but then some things especially vegetables have hardly grown at all and are struggling as there has been little warmth.

Giant Foxglove - 8 foot tall — Giant Foxglove – 8 foot tall

Cephalaria a foot taller than usual — Giant Foxglove – 8 foot tall

Anyway we soldier on….

1. Divide spring flowering bulbs as soon as foliage fades. My own stock has diminished and badly need splitting.

2. Prune ornamental cherries when flowering has finished making as few cuts as possible as they have difficulty healing.

3. Tie in shoots on sweetpeas which are finally growing and revelling in the cool conditions.

4. Cut early flowering hardy geraniums to the ground when they finish as they have a tendency to seed everywhere…unless you want them to of course.

What to look out for in the Old Pond Garden: June 2024

We hope you are enjoying a walk around the walled gardens at Charlton House! This month, look out for:

Turkish sage (Phlomis russeliana)

A herbaceous perennial in the Mint family, native to Syria and Turkey. The name ‘Phlomis’ comes from the Greek word meaning ‘flame’. Heart shaped leaves of some species were used as lamp wicks in ancient times. The stiff upright stems carry yellow flowers, which look good as seed heads in winter and provide shelter in winter.

Woodland sage or Balkan Clary (Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’)

A bee magnet because it offers both nectar and pollen, this a hardy herbaceous perennial with dazzling violet flowers. Susceptible to slugs and snails sadly, but luckily we don’t get too many of those in the Old Pond Garden.

Catchfly (Silene armeria ‘Electra’)

Silene armeria 'Electra' in the Old Pond Garden, Charlton House, June 2023

Blue-grey leaves and hot pink flowers for weeks on end. An annual which self-seeds prolifically. It is called catchfly because there is a sticky area on the stems just below the flowers, which greenfly and small insects get stuck to. Feel it gently with your fingers!

Book review: We Made a Garden

We Made a Garden, by Margery Fish - book cover

I can’t remember how many years ago I picked up Margery Fish’s first book, the tale of how she and her husband Walter bought a house in Somerset just before World War Two and created a garden on its two acres of land. It’s an easy and enjoyable read, and I loved it. Her barely-veiled criticism of Walter’s martinet tendencies made me laugh, and her joy and enthusiasm for plants and gardening informed and excited me. On every re-reading (there have been many!) I learn more, and get new ideas, though as time goes on I think I like Walter less and less.

Each area of the garden gets a name: the Lido, the Ditch, the Herb Garden, etc – and each short chapter has a pithy title such as ‘Rock gardening’, ‘Gardening with a Knife’ and ‘We Made Mistakes’. Although the Fishes were of a class that would have been used to staff, the times meant that they did most of the work themselves, with just an occasional ‘garden boy’, so the descriptions are very hands-on. They did, however, still dress for dinner, and the image of Margery clambering up a rockery to water precious new plantings in the top of a wall whilst still in her satin finery is vivid in my mind.

Mrs Fish was in her forties when they bought East Lambrook Manor, and hadn’t really gardened before. She only really got into her stride after Walter died in her fifties (he was 18 years older), and wrote this, her first book, in her sixties, at which point she became known as a gardener and wrote several more books. All are lightly written and informative, but the combination of memoir, wry humour and discovery in ‘We Made a Garden’ makes it the most successful, in my opinion – a gardening classic.

As you can imagine, it has been a long-held ambition to visit East Lambrook Manor, now a Grade 1 listed garden, and I finally managed to get there in April 2024 …

Ali H

If you read a book that would be of interest to our members, please think about writing a review and sending it to garden@cabahs.com and it could become a post like this.