28 Marsden Road SE15 4EE, Open Sunday to Thursday inclusive, 10.30 to 16.30. No charge
We are members of the London Wildlife Trust, which runs the Centre for Wildlife Gardening (CWG), but it was word-of-mouth from a volunteer at Christchurch Community Garden that made us aware. We visited on London Marathon Day, passing through a crowded Blackheath Station on our way to Peckham Rye Station.
Marsden Road itself is remarkable: its houses all along have designer ironwork gates & railings on wildlife themes, and each lamppost has a ‘squirrel’ high above. These, and the wildlife-themed iron gates to CWG, were designed by Heather Burrell: bollards at the entrance and within were designed by Antony Gormley: a gable-end has a large mural of a Goshawk.
One morning in mid-April – the warmest of the month so far, I had the pleasure of visiting our ex-chairman, Jillian S, to see the display of her stunningly beautiful tree peony flowers. These are well established shrubs with one or two still in bud and the rest nearly finished flowering, apart from the 2-metre species Paeonia delavayi, which is covered in red flowers and buds.
Every gardener should possess at least one tree peony – just to experience their few weeks of fleeting beauty – and, of course, their very handsome and large foliage, which is an added bonus to every garden for many months of the year.
I noticed that Jillian’s tree peonies have or had far more buds than mine, which is about 20 years old. Why is that? Jillian tells me that she has always had a strict policy upon purchasing any plant, including the tree peonies, and that is to immediately repot the plant with one-third multi-purpose and two-thirds of soil from her own garden. Only when the roots have established themselves in the new soil mix does Jillian then plant them in her borders. This method ensures there are fewer plant losses as the roots get the chance to adjust slowly to the change of soil, with the outcome being much stronger and robust root systems and, ultimately, stronger and healthier plants. And, that is the best gardening tip I have ever received!
Jillian tells me that all her peony varieties (Paeonia x suffruticosa) arrived as ‘freebies’ during 2009 and 2011, as special offers advertised in one of our major newspapers. They would arrive in good condition: an 18” stem with two or three branches and a sturdy root system of approximately 9” in length. These would, after potting on, be left for around 9 months to 1-year before being planted into a bed. In springtime, from then on, when the soil is still moist, a mulch of homegrown compost is added around the base of the plants to retain the health of these specimens.
Over the years, Jillian has diligently and systematically recorded in notebooks all of her purchases. And in one of her notebooks she has found her notes on the exact dates the tree peonies arrived: 4th June 2009: Hai Huang Yao (yellow) and Huang Hu Huang Dao Jin (cerise with white splashes). 11th November 2009: Wu Long Peng Sheng (pink/red) and Honxia Hu Hong (pink). 23rd April 2011: Wedding Day.
Peonies prefer morning sun and dappled shade if possible and Jillian’s peonies are perfectly positioned, growing on the north side in the spring garden, some protected by the apple trees. Very little pruning is necessary but I notice that Jillian’s tree peonies are more elegant than my shrub, so a little judicious pruning on my part would not go amiss!
Enjoy a symphony of colour with this extraordinary Tiarella! A charming, shade loving relative of the Heuchera. In spring, slender stems rise above the leaves and hold a mass of pink and white starry flowers, giving a frothy effect – hence the common name the Foam Flower.
This variety has an Award of Garden Merit from the RHS and it copes in the difficult dry shade conditions under the Lime trees in the Old Pond Garden.
If RHS gold medals could be given to individual gardens, then The Woodlands Farm Cottage Garden deserves that honour. I am, at the moment of writing, sat on one of the many benches enjoying this charming garden.
Volunteers started working to create a cottage garden back in 1998 and now, 25 years on I am gazing at their ‘gold-medal’ creation. The garden has everything one would want: wide gravel paths edged with brick or logs meandering around several large informal flowering beds; a rose and clematis-framed timber pergola walkway; glasshouse; summerhouse; raised vegetable and fruit beds; propagation area; pond; a bug hotel; and, very importantly, tables and chairs for family snack times.
A wren has announced its arrival on the beautifully pruned Exochorda and children and mothers are coming in to excitedly explore and admire the garden’s loveliness. From my bench are carefully pruned shrubs arising tall from the spring beds. This allows visitors to clearly view the purple honesty, inky-blue aquilegias, mauve vinca, forget-me-nots, narcissi, tulips, camassias, allium buds, geraniums, hellebores, wallflowers, bergenia, primulas, lamiums and more – all looking their very, early-spring best. Masses of tall cow-parsley are breaking into flower in front of the flowering choisya and viburnums, creating an harmonious effect. And I’ve spotted purple-stemmed cow parsley looking extremely healthy, as well (most envious!)
This cottage garden is sheltered and faces south. It is surrounded by mature trees and many evergreen shrubs so it has its own little micro-climate.
Before I leave, I glance once again at the charming, delicately-pink blossom on the spreading branches of the old apple tree. With a table and chairs set beneath its canopy and spring flowers in the foreground, it is a really lovely vision. And it’s a gold-medal from me! The garden is open to the general public. More information about Woodlands Farm Trust here. Do visit before the spring flowers fade.
Congratulations to all our entrants, spectators and winners at our 46th annual Spring Show! Despite lots of comments like ” I have nothing left, the snails have had everything” it’s clear CABAHS members rise to a challenge as we had 80 entries in total. Monday evening was a great opportunity to show off our collective gardening skills, as well as have another little trip down memory lane about Shows of the past.
The Pipit competition – a definite challenge this year!
Kathy covered the origin of the Spring Shows at last year’s meeting, with the first one held in 1978, and as a result of that research we resurrected two new classes – a Primulas & Auriculas class and a Baking class. They were well received, with 5 and 8 entries respectively.
Mention has to be made of Mandy’s wonderful shortbread shapes – the wheelbarrow filled with chocolate earth was apparently Brownie’s contribution!
1. Prune hardy fuchsias now both in pots and in the ground to promote new growth and to prevent the plants from becoming too woody.
2. Plant out pot grown sweet peas now making sure to pinch out the shoots to promote bushy plants. You can also sow directly in the ground now if you didn’t sow earlier but watch out for slugs munching new seedlings.
3. Someone said the other day that they hadn’t cut back their clematis but I don’t think its too late as the growth on them is phenomenal. It just means they will flower a bit later but then that extends the season.
Pat’s unpruned clematis already at the top of the arch!Pat’s cosmos seedlings – germinated in under a weekPat’s Cosmos flowers
Our “Bunnies in the Beds” Easter Trail took place on Saturday (April 6th) for the fourth year running, it is becoming a fabulous fixture of the Garden Volunteers year. We start thinking up mad ideas in January during tea breaks, then gradually whittle them down to create an exciting but practical trail.
This year, the Bunnies went on an egg hunt with a difference! Having found all the eggs they then had to match them to their parent animal, in order to collect a prize. And by the end of the day, 175 children had achieved their goal. There were birds eggs to find of course, but also frogs, snakes, sand lizard, moths and even a dinosaurs egg!
Also on offer: Potting Up Table with free seeds, courtesy of RHS Britain in Bloom which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. We were not expecting this to be so popular and almost ran out of seeds! So many small gardeners-in-the-making came to this event, it was lovely. If you are growing your seeds on, you can keep track how others are doing on social media on @RHS GrassRoots and #RHSBloom60.
We hope you enjoy a spring walk around the walled gardens at Charlton House! Look out for:
Forsythia
Forsythia is in the olive family, renowned for its vibrant yellow flowers which appear in spring, long before the leaves unfurl. The one by the Charlton House stables is quite old and we are not sure of the exact variety. We pruned it back hard a year ago and it seems to have loved it!
Cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus)
A ‘background’ evergreen plant most of the year, but quite striking when the white candle flowers appear in Spring. Although we call it a laurel, it actually isn’t – it’s in the cherry family! We know that an early resident of Charlton House, Elizabeth Puckering, introduced cherry laurels to the gardens. She was friendly with the diarist John Evelyn, who lived in Deptford at the time, and exchanged cuttings with him in around 1654.
Daffodil (Narcissus ‘Thalia’)
A fragrant and vigorous trumpet daffodil which is now in it’s third year in the walled gardens, so has formed some nice big clumps. It starts off creamy yellow and fades to white, and is sometimes referred to as an orchid daffodil. For fans of BBC Gardener’s World on TV, you might recognise it from Monty Don’s writing garden!
Brunnera has lovely heart-shaped, silvery-veined leaves that look as if frost has touched them. The leaves light up shady areas of the garden. It has long lasting, bright blue flowers that look very much like forget-me-nots, and which provide lots of nectar and pollen for visiting bees.
Wood spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae)
Wood spurge is in the Euphorbia family, so take care! If the stems are broken, they gush with a thick milky latex substance that can cause blisters on skin. They are handsome perennial plants, shade loving, with zingy lime-green flowers in late Spring and rosettes of glossy dark green leaves. Another name for this plant is ‘Mrs Robb’s Bonnet’ – we would like to see the hat that inspired that name!
Still going strong, winter into spring!
Lenten rose (Helleborus orientalis)
The Lenten Rose is a perennial flowering plant and is part of the Buttercup family, so not a rose at all! Its common name comes from the fact it usually flowers between Ash Wednesday and Easter – the period known as Lent. Hellebores (Lenten roses) can be white,
Primrose (Primula vulgaris)
We grow the English or ‘common’ primrose in the walled gardens, which is the natural pale yellow one that gives its name to the colour Primrose. It is often one of the earliest plants to flower in Spring (the Latin word ‘prima’ means first). Early butterflies like the Brimstone benefit from its nectar. Plants will hybridise (cross) very easily with the garden bedding Primulas that come in lots of different bright colours, so seedlings can come up a surprising colour!
A few weeks back Vija and I went to one of the open days at Sarah Raven’s farm Perch Hill in East Sussex. The preceding evening had seen torrential rain and an email arrived on the morning of the visit warning people of the muddy conditions and that a four wheel drive was essential. And they weren’t exaggerating… the field we were to park in was a mud slide with a tractor towing cars out of the mud!
But the rain hadn’t affected the garden. The tulips, many of which were in pots,were stunning with the same colours used repeatedly throughout the garden. They were well labelled so we could make a note of them and there seemed to be loads of new varieties and quite a lot in oranges and shades of reds. There were lots of pots with pastel shades too and it wasn’t just tulips. There was a whole bed planted with a tall variety of fritillary which you don’t see very often and is certainly different.
Additionally there were displays in pots of some lovely frilly violas and the glasshouse was planted with ranunculus and other early varieties of annuals. There were displays of early vegetables but they were small and obviously affected by the cold spring. And the tea and cakes were good too!
All in all a stunning display and worth a visit despite the mud and flooded roads.
Petersham HouseVegetable gardenYew hedges and wall beds
A group of CABAHS members enjoyed a visit to Petersham House recently, open for one day under the National Garden Scheme. It was a bit of a challenge that the day chosen was that of the London Marathon, but everyone made it on time to meet at Cannon Street station. The crowds were mostly going the other way and very friendly!
The 17th century house near Richmond was bought by the Boglione family in 1997, and turned into a family home next to their renowned Petersham Nurseries. The gardens have a long walk, large borders set into yew hedging against the walls, topiary and a kitchen garden. The tulip displays were beautiful! Despite the drizzly weather, members had a great time wandering around before decamping to the tea rooms at the Nursery.
Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society 