Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society

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.

Plant of the Month: Daphne (January 2025)

In the bleak midwinter, in amongst the primroses and snowdrops, the New Year brings excitement as the Daphne shrubs come into flower. For one member, several are looking looking extremely handsome and are, at present, the highlights in her garden.

Daphne odora 'Perfume Princess' behind Astellia — Daphne odora ‘Perfume Princess’ behind Astellia

Daphne odora ‘Perfume Princess’: This evergreen to semi-evergreen variety was bred in New Zealand and is considered the most perfumed of all the Daphnes. Between January and March, this shrub, which is regarded as hardy (although it suffered from the recent heavy frosts) will send out pale-pink blooms amongst its upright, handsome foliage, reaching a height of 1-1.5m over the years. Our CABAHS member says it has “wonderful scent and made a showy plant in just a few years.” I note that there is also a variety Daphne ‘Perfume Princess’ White on the market that would be a bonus to any garden.

Pat’s Jobs for January 2025

1. Prune Wisteria this month and next by taking all side shoots back to 2 or 3 buds. Very old plants may need severe pruning to show off the flowers.

Very tangled wisteria waiting to be pruned — Very tangled Wisteria in need of pruning!

2. Start pruning roses in earnest although some are still unbelievably flowering. Remove any foliage with blackspot and don’t compost. Old roses respond well to hard pruning so don’t be afraid, removing all dead and dying wood and cutting stems back to above a bud.

3. I had to remove dead Clematis shoots from a Daphne Jacqueline Postill and in doing so pulled off some of the flowers so take care and do it soon if you can. But leave the main prune until next month.

New Year Flower Count 2025 at Charlton House

Another cold start to a new year allowed the volunteers to take a step back from gardening and undertake a second survey of plants in flower at Charlton House. This had been done at the beginning of January 2024 and it was interesting to compare during a gentle walk round on 9th January 2025. At first glance there seemed to be little flowering. Making a thorough search with fifteen of us, along with Jason, we found many that were on last year’s list as well as some unexpected interlopers.

Plant of the Month: Clematis cirrhosa ‘Freckles’ (December 2024)

One of the joys of walking around the neighbourhood is noticing what’s growing in front gardens and I like to stop and admire the imaginatively designed Xmas wreaths on doors at this time of year, planted window boxes and containers, and see what else is flowering in residents’ borders. And, when at bus stops, I have more time to absorb what’s around me.

So, at a bus stop a few days ago I noticed Clematis ‘Freckles’ cascading over the wall of CABAHS member Linda W’s garden.

Linda tells me that she bought the clematis six years ago at around this time of the year – with its grey, dank days – “when one needs cheering up and it has not disappointed.” Linda also says that although the vine was slow to establish when planted on the cooler side of the property, it has really taken off. It was planted with a honeysuckle and it flowers profusely in the south/south-west boundary wall. In the summer months it can soak up the sun and in the winter is sheltered by the brick boundary wall.

The Exchange, Walnut Tree Road, Erith

One autumn Saturday morning in 2024 my companion and I visited the Sarah Price-designed garden at The Exchange in Erith, South-East London and we were in for a treat.

As Erith Library for over 100 years, and Grade II-listed, this Carnegie-financed building of 1906 finally closed its doors in 2009, thus becoming an unused space with unkept grounds. Two visionary locals, respectively with conservation and community arts experience, approached Bexley Council in 2016. Their initiative resulted in a community arts hub which opened in 2022 – a refurbished building with a new garden to match.

The garden surrounds the building on all sides, with various plantings complementing each of the four different areas. The forefront of the building has become a Mediterranean garden with a tapestry of lime-greens, blue-greens and greys. In amongst the herbaceous and shrubs I noticed Myrtle, Euphorbias, Irises, California poppies and particular favourites, sub-shrub Dorycnium hirsutum and several Hesperaloe parviflora (red yucca), a very choice succulent that I have at home (and managed to keep alive!). On our visit we noticed that flowering was just finishing, with its tall stem of red-orange pendulum flowers just going over.

Sparkle in the Park at Charlton House

The park is sparkling! Our visit to the first night of Sparkle was very impressive, the light installations have been fitted really thoughtfully around the layout of Charlton House grounds.

The trail starts by the Mulberry, and the avenue of trees have been lit up beautifully as you walk through a snow storm and then past installations based on Christmases in Ukraine, St Lucia and Lagos. We loved the Ukrainian stars decorated by local schoolchildren.

At the end of the avenue you turn back towards the House – and can’t miss the glowing giant spheres (sorry, I didn’t note down the artistic reasoning for those, but they are certainly eye-catching!) and beautiful blue and white snowflakes played onto the back of the House.

Charlton House lit up, and giant light spheres

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.

An Audience with Monty Don

The Barbican isn’t a place one would normally expect to be among crowds of garden enthusiasts. But no-one was concerned about the venue, its brutalist architecture and its slightly bizarre layout. We were all eager to find our seats and hear the stories national treasure Monty Don had in store for us. And what seats! Our seats (thanks to a donation from a generous CABAHS member) were front and central, in touching distance of the stage (and indeed of Monty Don himself).

Plants of the Month: Westringia fruticosa and Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’ (November 2024)

Although I have written about both these plants in the past, I have chosen them again as ‘Plants of the Month’ because the flower colouring of each is in harmony with one another and both brighten up a garden during the long winter months.

Salvia 'Black and Blue' with Westringia in the background (plus orange flower of Pineapple Sage) — Salvia ‘Black and Blue’ with Westringia in the background (plus orange flower of Pineapple Sage)

Westringia fruticosa (Coastal/Australian Rosemary): This is second plant I have grown of this variety over the years: the first, given to me as a rooted cutting, had a good branch structure and lasted several years in a pot, positioned on a south-facing table; the second was purchased this June from a specialist nursery at the Horniman Plant Fair and, once again, it has an attractive rounded shape, which means they are suitable for growing in pots whilst they are small.