Another wonderful Show Table at our November meeting, with beautiful Autumnal overtones. Winner of “Best on the Table” this month was Maggie, with her “Not quite Christmas” cactus in full flow. There were some lovely late Salvias and Carolyn’s Persicaria gave a real “pop” of pink to the table. Lynda’s asparagus (which won the Wildcard at the Spring Show) keeps on giving, with leaves a zingy yellow this month.
Maggie with her prize – chocolate coins and plant
Members also brought in colourful leaves and flowers to display as a mandala, and Annie added hers to make a pretty Show Table exhibit.
According to my (many) English Heritage emails, Down House and garden is one of the best of their sites to visit in the autumn. We went expecting a show of bright autumn colours but I have to say we were rather disappointed.
However, there were compensations. There were autumn colours aplenty on the drive down with the low autumn sun sparkling through the yellow trees.
The house itself is very interesting. The staff were friendly and welcoming and keen to impart their knowledge of Charles Darwin and to ensure that we were enjoying our visit. The original kitchen with its flag-stoned floor is a good place to start with coffee and cakes.
Charles Darwin lived in the house for 40 years with his wife, Emma Wedgewood (also his first cousin). They had ten children, seven of whom survived beyond the age of eleven. Darwin was an unconventional Victorian father, allowing the children into his study and providing them with the means to play noisily in the house, building a wooden slide that fitted on one of the staircases.
Once again we ran a successful plant stall at this lovely family event, huge thank you to everyone who donated plants or came along to help. And it was sunny, hooray, even if it was perishing in the shade!
Producers marketOur Plant stall
We had a great time dressing up the Gardens with ghosts, bats, spiders etc to make them ‘haunted’, and devising the children’s Pumpkin Trail. In the end we had over 130 children charging about the gardens, doing the Pumpkin Puzzle to find the name of the Charlton House ghost, or just spotting all the silly things we had put in the beds!
Spidery websSkeleton in the Alianthus
The gardens were looking peaceful first thing…
Setting up the puzzleWebs in the bedsBats in the Bushes
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.
CABAHS Autumn Show 2023
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)An entry for Class 2: Bowl of mixed flowersWinner of Class 6: Ornamental pot plant – detailHighly commended in Class 8: Display of vegetable (mixed)Class 12: Apple Cake entriesPotato competition entries waiting to be weighedAn entry for Class 14: the wildcard (should have been for Class 15: potato competition, but it was never planted!)
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!)
Best in Class 1: 3 stems of one cultivarBest in Class 2: Bowl of mixed flowersBest in Class 3: Vase of shrubs or foliageBest in Class 5: Fuchsia bloomsBest in Class 6: Ornamental pot plantBest in Class 7: Display of mixed fruitBest in Class 8: Display of mixed vegetablesBest in Class 9: TomatoesBest in Class 10: Display of herbsBest in Class 12: Baking – apple cakersBest in Class 13: Floral display in a teacupixed flowersBest in Class 14: The Wilcard
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 – winning vegetable displayJoe F – winning wildcard entryPat T – winner of the potato competitionPat K – Best in Show!
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
Winners awarded and prizes given, it was time for everyone to sample the cakes!
We hope you enjoy walking around the walled gardens at Charlton House! This month, look out for:
Night moth Salvia (Salvia nachtvlinder)
With velvety plum-purple flowers, this Salvia is attractive to moths and other pollinating insects and flowers over a long period – well into late Autumn. It has deliciously blackcurrant-scented leaves and is said to protect roses against black spot when it is planted under them.
Michaelmas daisy (Aster x frikartii ‘Monch’)
A bushy perennial with clusters of yellow-centred, lavender-blue daisies that flower right through the Autumn, it is very attractive to pollinators. One of the most reliable and popular Michaelmas daisies (so called because they flower at the time of the feast of Michaelmas on 29 September), it was bred by a Swiss nurseryman called Frikart and named ‘Monch’ after a Swiss mountain.
I made my first visit to the charming Lullingstone World Garden today, and am very sure I will be back! This is the most eccentric and fun walled garden, as you might expect if you are trying to fit a worldwide range of plants into it. I especially liked the plant labels everywhere, so you know what you are looking at.
Entrance through the Moon gateAustralia houseRed Hot Pokers standing out
There is a nursery selling high quality plants and a cafe serving great sandwiches and drinks, also lots of seating for picnics. The private House wasn’t open when I visited, but opens sometimes for events. Add it to your list for visiting!
Simon White is the President of Norwich Horticultural Society and Sales Manager for the RHS award winning Peter Beales Garden Centre in Attleborough, Norfolk, where he has worked for 41 years.
He gave an entertaining and informative talk on growing roses. He said, if provided with the right conditions, it was not true that roses were difficult to grow. Simon said Beales had the largest collection of roses in the world. They primarily sell bare root roses and many old traditional classic roses. They grow from seed some 250,000 a year in fields rented from a local farmer and he described how they grew them.
He then went on to show how we at home could grow bare root roses:
1.THEY NEED GOOD SOIL PREPARATION: Ideally bare root roses should be planted from November to March. Good quality fertiliser, including horse manure which is at least six month old, should be used. Do not use mushroom manure.
September started off with the tail end of The Drought and as it became wetter the Volunteers were very grateful to get back to some proper gardening. The great news is that we hardly lost any plants at all.
Volunteers on Tea Break
The Peace Garden has benefited from our attention, with the last of the annoying stones on the path edges being removed, and work on the shrubs and climbers along the walls making them look much more defined and trim.
Removing the last loose stones, saving the lawn mower!
In the Old Pond Garden, many perennials went to seed earlier than usual, due to the drought, but the seedheads are quite spectacular.
TeaselSea Holly
The Volunteers were thrilled to receive a donation of jars of honey from the Charlton House Beekeepers. The bees had a bumper year, partly due to our lovely gardens. To stop any squabbling, we held a raffle to decide who got a jar and the happy winners are shown here:
Our October members meeting was held on 17th October in the magnificent Old Library at Charlton House. A well attended meeting, we were treated to a great talk from Peter of Thorncroft Clematis, a wonderful Show Table, bulbs for sale and an amazing Autumn mandala from members gardens, which covered the entire grand piano!
It was clear that we were in for a treat of a talk. As well as a box of Thorncroft Clematis Catalogues, Peter Skeggs-Gooch laid out the nursery’s impressive collection of Flower Show medals: several Chelsea golds as well as a smattering of Silver-Gilts. Peter’s slide show took us from evergreen winter varieties such as the familiar ‘Freckles’ and the lovely, if large, armandii ‘Apple Blossom’; through Spring, with much-loved montanas now smaller and more manageable; into Summer with several scented varieties including the coconut-perfumed ‘Lambton Park’; and finally finishing with the viticellas of Autumn such as ‘Prince William’ and super easy ‘Alba Luxurians’. His nursery produces over three hundred varieties, so we were being given only a glimpse of what is on offer. For more information or to order head to their website.
Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society 