plant sale – Page 2 – Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society

Bunnies in the Beds 2025

Thank you to everyone who came to the annual Easter Trail “Bunnies in the Beds” at Charlton House walled gardens on Sunday April 6th. What a fabulous day we all had! We are so grateful to all the helpers, garden volunteers, CABAHS members and RGHT staff who made the event happen.

The Bunnies were hiding in their favourite plants this year, so the children learned a bit of Botany whilst spotting them! We admit to importing a few pots of flowers specially for the event ( I can’t see Jason wanting Marigolds or Periwinkle in the Old Pond Garden on a permanent basis..). After finding and naming the flowers, children had to find the Bees in the Bushes in order to pollinate the flowers – thanks to Carolyn for all those cute knitted bees!

Little girl and bee under cherry blossom

March 2025 Meeting and Show Table

A packed library for the March meeting, and the first Show Table of the year – congratulations to Kathy for winning this month’s Best on the Table prize with her Narcissus ‘St Patrick’s Day’.

There was also a Plant Sales table and the usual raffle with lots of lovely plant prizes. The main event was a talk by Fiona Davison, author of ‘An Almost Impossible Thing: The radical lives of Britain’s pioneering women gardeners‘.

Ali H

Horn Fair 2024

It wasn’t all that “fair” this year, in fact it was fairly wet, but we had such a great day! So many volunteers and visitors turned out to support this traditional event, thank you so much everyone. As well as a huge number of plants for sale, we also had fun with the Gargoyle Trail in the Gardens, which were specially dressed up and Haunted for the day!

Inside Charlton House there were lots of craft and artisan stalls, Frilly’s was open and there were food stalls on the back lawn. The Heritage Hub featured the Ottoman stone and some interesting watercolours of Charlton House over the years. Local community groups had stalls in the Grand Salon and St Luke’s was open for tower tours. Spotlight Dance group and the Morris Dancers were on show as well.

The Morning volunteers setting up the stalls — The Morning Volunteers

Selling frenzy in the Peace GArden — The Morning Volunteers

The gardens looked beautifully Autumnal and we had over 85 children and their families charging about looking for bats, gargoyles, pumpkins and spiders!

Highlight of the day was the Splat the Slug game, all ages had a go!

May Plant Sales 2024

May is the month for plant sales! We held two this year, our big annual one was held at Charlton House on Saturday May 18th, along with the Blackheath & Greenwich WI and a select group of other market stalls. The plants were all set out in the Peace Garden which is not only a lovely setting but also meant we didn’t have to carry them too far! Visitors started queueing outside the gates before we opened at 10, aiming for a bargain and a bit of horticultural conversation.

People buying plants — Peace Garden 10.05 am

Queue to buy plants — Peace Garden 10.05 am

Our plants had mostly sold out by 12.30, which was a bit sad for latecomers. But volunteers were on hand to chat about the gardens and Stella presented her findings about the history of the garden in the Old Library.

We also had a “Bugs in the Beds” trail for the little ones and Frilly’s was open all day.

Plant of the Month: Iris (May 2024)

The show gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show each May just zing with the stunning colours of the irises in bloom and they really are one of the main attractions (apart from roses) that are on display. Being ‘show-stoppers’, their impact allows the designers to then infill and arrange around them the more delicate flowers and foliage to an harmonious effect. Visitors admire, with ‘oooh’s and aaah’s’ at the soft, subtle shades and again, of the deeply-rich and vibrant colours of each and every iris grouping.

The name Iris means rainbow and in Greek mythology ‘Goddess of the Rainbow’. The petals and roots of several species, including Iris germanica (bearded) and Iris pallida (Dalmatian/Orris root) are used in the beauty industry, in the manufacture of perfumes, lotions, in food such as spices and even added to gin. Seemingly, the dried root, after 3 years, has the aroma of violets. This industry goes back to the ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians and probably long before their time.

I have an Iris pallida flowering in my front garden, low-growing, which is highly fragrant. This was kindly given to me by Penny S some years ago. The flower is fading so unfortunately not worthy of a photograph but it certainly should be grown, as the variegated grey-foliage blends nicely with neighbouring plants. I wouldn’t be without it.

My number-one favourite, though, is Iris ‘Langport Wren’, a Kelways‘ introduction from 1973 and deservedly worthy of the RHS Award of Garden Merit. It was flowering in my front garden until a few days ago when the slugs/snails chomped its head off! The fragrance is reputedly of orange and chocolate – but I wouldn’t know as I haven’t had the chance to find out!!! The first photo below is of this delectable flower, a painterly amalgamation of browns, purples and russets, growing in Margaret T’s garden.

Plant Sale, Cakes, Trails, Tours, Talks!

Date for your Diary: Saturday May 18th from 10am

Preparations for our annual Plant Sale are well under way and it’s shaping up to be a GOOD DAY! The Garden volunteers have been potting up for weeks and CABAHS members have been sowing, taking cuttings and splitting their prized perennials. We will have a lovely selection for sale. They are not garden-centre plants – they are better, because we know how well suited they are to our local conditions!

The WI bakers have also been busy, and promise their usual delectable display of cakes. There will be other market stalls too and Frilly’s will be open for drinks and snacks.

For the kids, we have a “Bugs in the Bed” discovery trail around the Old Pond Garden, with a prize if (when) they solve the puzzle.

Bunnies in the Beds 2024

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.

Plant Sale and Community Day 2023

THANK YOU to everyone who supported our Plant Sale and Community Day on May 21st at Charlton House. Whether you donated plants or bought them, you are all heroes! Your generosity will help the Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice, the Walled Gardens and our speaker programme, with many thanks!

OPG in morning light — The garden first thing, looking beautiful and calm..

Set up started early, we had sooo many plants to get out to the Back Lawn, and all the tables to position according to Mandy’s Grand Plan.

11 am rolled around quickly and the selling started..

Selling plants — I’ll have that one, and that one, and

We shared the day with lots of community groups as well as stalls from the Producers Market and everyone had a great time networking and selling their wares.

Spring at Exbury Gardens, Hampshire

A visit to Exbury Gardens in the week between two May Bank Holidays was a treat for the senses. I last visited after the summer drought and before the winter storms and asked myself, ‘how would everything look?’ In short, everything looked thrillingly fresh.

There have been some losses, which, while regrettable, have provided opportunities to the gardeners to open up views, plant new (drought-resistant) species and create entirely new gardens.

Preparing for our Plant Sale and Community Day 2023

Sunday May 21st from 11 am – date for your diary!

Our annual plant sale takes place on the back lawn at Charlton House on Sunday May 21st and this year it promises to be our biggest (and best?) yet. We are being joined by Blackheath & Greenwich WI as usual, with their scrumptious cakes and savouries. The following groups will be there, and perhaps a few more!

The Charlton Society, Charlton Community Gardens, Charlton Toy Library, Blackheath Flower Arranging Club, Friends of Charlton Park, Friends of Greenwich Park, St George’s Garrison Church Woolwich, Charlton Central Residents Association and Neighbourhood Watch, Charlton Neighbourhood Forum, Repurpose Silvertown Tunnel and Charlton House Beekeepers

On top of this, stalls from the Producers Market will be there, with face painting and hot food, Frilly’s cafe will be open and you can view the brand new “Ottoman Journeys” exhibition in Charlton House. https://www.greenwichheritage.org/events/ottoman-journeys-life-and-afterlife-in-greenwich/

St Luke’s Church will be open, you can climb the tower to see the panoramic views and the wonderful Millenium tapestry will be on display too. You can download the poster here, please share it widely.