flowers – Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society

New Year 2026 Flower Count at Charlton House Gardens

On a perishingly cold day – encouraged by a wintry sun – the intrepid Garden Volunteers ventured out on their mission to spot which brave flowers are showing off in the gardens this new year, 2026.

Viburnum tinus at Charlton House — *Viburnum tinus*

This is the third year we have undertaken a flower count, so we should know roughly what to expect. UK weather data shows that 2025 was the sunniest on record, and probably the warmest too. Here in the depths of winter, it’s easy to forget the unprecedented spring sunshine and incredibly hot summer that we’ve had. This is bound to have disrupted plant lifecycles and confused some into flowering at the wrong time.

Plant(s) of the Month: December flowers

What a mild 2025 December we are having! So mild, the weather is confusing some plants, such as lavender, Calendula and yellow-flowered Phlomis, out in flower at present.

One of the joys of winter is admiring all the window boxes, the wide variety of beautiful Christmas door-wreaths and observing what’s flowering in front gardens whilst out strolling.

Calendula officinalis flowering in December — A confused pot marigold, beautiful Camellia sasanqua and festive Abutilon

A confused pot marigold, beautiful Camellia sasanqua and festive Abutilon

August/Autumn Show 2025

The 2025 Autumn ‘Flower, Fruit and Vegetable Show’ was held on Monday 18 August in the Old Library at Charlton House.

As it is usually held in September, there were some adjustments to the range of classes. It was a well attended and lively show, and our fears that perhaps there would be fewer entries – due to the date change or the fact that we have had such a long period of drought – were unfounded. In fact, across the 18 classes there were 150 entries and we had to extend the show tables!

As this year is a special one, in which we celebrate the 75th anniversary of CABAHS, there were a couple of ’75th anniversary’ themed classes, and we were delighted to welcome as judge Jillian Smith, long-time CABAHS member and Chair of the Society, and now joint Vice President with Ron Roffey. Jillian has a long experience in judging shows over many years and has a beautiful garden in Winn Road, which was opened to the public on a number of occasions to raise money for charity.

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.

Autumn Flower, Fruit and Vegetable Show 2024

The 2024 Autumn Show was held on Monday 16th September in the Old Library of Charlton House. It was well attended and the standard of entry was very high – particularly given the strange growing year we’ve had.

Whole table of entries and audience awaiting decisions

Jason judged the flower classes and Melanie the vegetables but there was lots of discussion between the judges and Stella, the Chair. Anna judged the cakes and preserves, ably assisted by Annette, and Hugh weighed the potatoes. As ‘Best in Class’ winners and ‘Highly Commended’ entries were announced, the judges explained the reasons for their decisions. Finally, they agreed their choice for Best in Show.

Spring Show 2024

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.

Floral display — The Pipit competition – a definite challenge this year!

Birds-eye view of the show — 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!

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.

The View from my Window

Vija and Anna started these great posts about the view from their windows, and I thought I would add my bit. Really, in these cold, grey days of winter, it’s a bit odd that I should find the view from my window at all exciting. We have big patio windows which are unforgiving at this time of year and expose everything in the garden: the ragged border edges, uneven lawn, leaning obelisk (Storm Henk!) etc. But I can sit in my comfy chair looking out and now the leaves are all gone I can see all the way to the end fence..

…and I can Plan.

When I say I can see the end fence, this is because we took out a row of 20 ft high Leylandii trees last October. (Did we buy the house with them, I hear you ask? No, I actually planted them, one of those teeny gardening mistakes surely anyone can make..?) The idea behind getting rid of them is that it will let lots of light in, when next we have any. The stumps have been left, as I couldn’t face a stump grinder trolling through the house, so I need to Plan some sort of feature around them. (Maybe a birdbath on top of one..!)

A bonus is that for years and years I had been piling leaves and cuttings out of the way under the trees – so I am now left with some truly gorgeous compost! A little silver lining.

January 2024 Talk: Flowers in Art

Stella introducing Ruth — Audience at January 2024 Talk

Ruth Cornett is a senior director of Heritage and Taxation at Christies and has previously given a talk to CABAHS about her garden at Eltham Palace Gatehouse. This talk focused on flowers in art. She said all gardeners in the way they visually create their gardens are artists, but not all artists are gardeners. Rather than describe the history of flower painting, she focused on how artists used flowers and plants to express themes – how through their paintings they send messages and use symbols and allegories. For example, paintings may comment on a name, be used for propaganda, as a tool for study, to make literary references, be used for educational purposes or to symbolise Christian stories. She illustrated these themes using famous artists from the Renaissance to the present day such as Rubens, Durer, Van Dyke, Murillo and in modern times Ravilious and Hockney.

For example, Ruth pointed out that Botticelli’s Primavera (1478-1502) is an allegory celebrating spring. The Laurel tree in the background of Georgione’s portrait of a new wife, Laura (1506) is a pun on her name and emphasis on her being a strong, loyal determined woman. The portrait of Edward V1 by Scrots (c.1540) is a good example of how paintings were used for propaganda purposes by the powerful. In this picture, the sun shines and looks down on Edward and the plants are growing towards him, whilst the Tudor rose in his hand shows that the Tudor Dynasty is moving forward. Ruth points to Durer’s The Great Piece of Turf (1503) a seemingly unordered collection of wild plants used to represent nature as an example of using paintings for study. Literary references can be seen in Millais’ Ophelia (1851), a character in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where she is depicted in a naturalistic setting lying dead in a river covered in flowers – a painting which took him several months to create its content and structure. Before photography, paintings and prints were used for educational purposes and Ruth cites the Hortus Elthamensis Seu Plantarum Rariorum by Dillenius (1732) which obtained its plant specimens from the area around Eltham. A Christian story can be seen in Van Dyck’s (1613) table set with bread and wine which were used to represent symbols of Christ and wealth.

New Year Flower Count at Charlton House

Our first volunteer session of 2024 fell on a wet and windy day (a Severe Weather Warning day in fact), so we decided to abandon gardening tasks and go for a bracing walk around the estate to spot for plants in flower and work off a few mince pies.

Although a lot of our findings were to be expected (Primroses, Hellebores, Mahonia) others definitely felt wrong – Penstemon Garnet, you should NOT be out! It will be interesting to do the same exercise next year and compare. In the meantime, below are some cheering pictures of our walk:

Volunteers counting flowers — Mahonia japonica in the Glade

I think you could say that the Mahonia in the Glade was a “Star Plant” for this time of year.

Penstemon ‘Garnet’, top left, then Achillea ‘Cerise Queen’, Sarcococca confusa (you should smell this!) and Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’.