This month’s meeting included an interesting talk from Clare Lanes about the three-year renovation project of the Rose Garden at Greenwich Park, the monthly Show Table display, the raffle, the potato competition, the sales table and of course plenty of chat and information about upcoming events (NB: Horn Fair on 19 October!).
Lots of variety on the Show Table this month, just as we like it! The Show Table is a chance for members to bring in and display plants and flowers that are performing well in their own gardens each month, be that a single flower / stem / fruit / vegetable or a display of all that is looking good – or indeed something in between. It’s lovely to see what people are growing.
Continue reading July 2025 Meeting and Show TableThere were some exquisite entries for the Show Table this month (click on the images to see in detail), but it was the simple, single species vase of sweet peas that won the prize.
Congratulations to Pat for ‘Best on the Table’ – they are perfect!
In addition to the Show Table, there was a raffle with some very desirable prizes, a heaving plant and seed sales table and of course, our annual ‘Amateur Gardeners’ Question Time’ with Pat, Nicolas and Joe.
Ali H
There was a great turnout for the CABAHS May meeting, even after the exertions of the previous day’s Plant Sale! A small but beautiful range of items on the Show Table, from a cornucopia of Spring flowers to a single rose and a cactus. Congratulations to Kathy for winning this month’s ‘Best on the Table’ prize with a vase of Salvia, Cerinthe, Teucrium, Hesperis, Centranthus, Luzula and chives.
Continue reading May 2025 Meeting and Show TableWhat a day was had at yesterday’s plant sale in the Peace Garden! We had more plants for sale than ever before, longer queues than ever before, and made more money than ever before. The CABAHS members and Charlton House garden volunteers worked harder than ever before too – but it was absolutely worth it. Between us we raised well over £4000 to be divided between the Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice and the gardens maintenance fund.
That’s this Sunday!
11-3pm in the Peace Garden at Charlton House
We are gathering plants, plants and more plants…
Continue reading Plant Sale! 18 May 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!
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
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 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!
Continue reading Horn Fair 2024May 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.
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.
Continue reading May Plant Sales 2024
