roses – Page 2 – Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society

June 2025: Gardeners Question Time

This is now a regular and popular event in which our panel answer questions sent through in advance from members, some with illustrations or examples sent in plastic bags. The panel this year consisted of our very own CABAHS committee member and all-round plant guru Pat K, our President Sir Nicolas Bevan and horticulturalist and teacher Joe Woodcock. Sir Nicolas invited advice and contributions from the audience too, saying that in a room full of gardeners, the panel did not “have the monopoly on wisdom”. We did our best!

Our 'Amateur Gardeners' Question Time' panel, June 2025 — Our esteemed panel: Pat, Nicolas and Joe

Last year we were all overwhelmed by slugs and snails, this year’s scourge is aphids! The first question related to a particularly damaging infestation on Buddleja, which seemed to have caused a virus. Several people, including Joe, have experienced the same this year. He was able to tell us that it is likely to be a specific species, the Melon-cotton aphid, which the RHS are monitoring (you can report cases to the RHS here).

Pat’s 10 jobs for June 2025

1. Plant out Dahlias in a sunny spot in fertile soil adding some compost to the planting hole. I have to surround mine with Strulch on my allotment to protect them from the hundreds of slugs and snails lurking all around.

2. Take softwood cuttings now of Anthemis, Salvia, Verbena, Penstemon and Fuchsia. Cut below a leaf node and dibble around the edge of a pot. Salvias will also grow fine roots in water to give them a head start.

3. Look out for hellebore seedlings around the base of your favourite plant. The resulting plants may not resemble the parent but they could be even better.

New Dahlia shoots (not yet eaten by molluscs)

Pat’s 10 jobs for May 2025

1. Border irises are really doing their thing now and the show can be brief but make sure to keep the soil around their roots free of weeds so their rhizomes can bake a bit in the sun.

2. Time to Chelsea chop your tall perennials to stop them flopping later or to extend flowering. Good candidates are Phlox, Penstemon, Helianthus, Sedum/Hylotelephium – and I include vigorous Clematis too. You can either do the whole plant at once or just some stems to extend flowering, although it may result in smaller flowers.

3. Deadhead displays of pot plants like Violas to keep them flowering and stop them going to seed. Remember to give them a feed to keep the display going.

Hylotelephium telephium 'Touchdown Teak'

Pat’s Jobs for January 2025

1. Prune Wisteria this month and next by taking all side shoots back to 2 or 3 buds. Very old plants may need severe pruning to show off the flowers.

Very tangled wisteria waiting to be pruned — Very tangled Wisteria in need of pruning!

2. Start pruning roses in earnest although some are still unbelievably flowering. Remove any foliage with blackspot and don’t compost. Old roses respond well to hard pruning so don’t be afraid, removing all dead and dying wood and cutting stems back to above a bud.

3. I had to remove dead Clematis shoots from a Daphne Jacqueline Postill and in doing so pulled off some of the flowers so take care and do it soon if you can. But leave the main prune until next month.

The Exchange, Walnut Tree Road, Erith

One autumn Saturday morning in 2024 my companion and I visited the Sarah Price-designed garden at The Exchange in Erith, South-East London and we were in for a treat.

As Erith Library for over 100 years, and Grade II-listed, this Carnegie-financed building of 1906 finally closed its doors in 2009, thus becoming an unused space with unkept grounds. Two visionary locals, respectively with conservation and community arts experience, approached Bexley Council in 2016. Their initiative resulted in a community arts hub which opened in 2022 – a refurbished building with a new garden to match.

The garden surrounds the building on all sides, with various plantings complementing each of the four different areas. The forefront of the building has become a Mediterranean garden with a tapestry of lime-greens, blue-greens and greys. In amongst the herbaceous and shrubs I noticed Myrtle, Euphorbias, Irises, California poppies and particular favourites, sub-shrub Dorycnium hirsutum and several Hesperaloe parviflora (red yucca), a very choice succulent that I have at home (and managed to keep alive!). On our visit we noticed that flowering was just finishing, with its tall stem of red-orange pendulum flowers just going over.

Pat’s Jobs for November 2024

1. Check for blackspot on roses and make sure to remove the leaves by checking the bush itself and below it. But don’t add to the compost heap.

2. If you have to, this is the best time to move trees and shrubs, but have your planting hole ready, and dig up with all the root ball and replant quickly, watering well until settled.

3. Plant your tulips and hyacinths now. either in the ground or in pots – but protect from squirrels.

4. If you sowed sweet peas last month. harden them off now and it’s still not too late to get some going for an early crop.

Pat’s Jobs for August 2024

1. It is especially important to keep Camellias and Rhododendrons damp at the roots this month as this is the time that the buds form for next Spring. Water well and mulch if you can.

2. Take Aeonium cuttings now by severing leggy leaf stems a couple of inches below a cluster. Leave the stem end to callous over, then push into gritty compost and keep in a shady spot until roots start to form.

June 2024 Meeting and Talk: Hever Castle and Gardens

A successful meeting was held in June with a packed audience and we were lucky to be given an engaging and informative talk by Neil Miller, Head Gardener at Hever Castle. In 2002 Neil started as a junior gardener at Hever following 10 years as an Insurance Broker and within 4 years was Head Gardener. Quite an achievement!

Famously Hever Castle was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, and Henry VIII frequently visited her there. At that time the surrounding land was marsh and bog land. Though there were many changes of ownership in the following centuries, it was not until 1903, when William Waldorf Astor bought the estate, that serious restoration and renovation took place and the design for the gardens was drawn up. Alongside the castle, a Tudor style Village was also built so that invited guests had rooms to stay.

Plant of the Month: Rose (June 2024)

June really is the month for roses and when I saw Margaret T’s roses growing on her allotment, I was enchanted by each and every one and I have listed below a few that are in flower now.

Rosa 'James Galway' — Rosa ‘James Galway’

A David Austin climbing rose, introduced in the year 2000 and named after the Irish flautist. Margaret grows this rose as a shrub, so the flowers are at head height and the pink blooms, paler at the edges, have an old rose appearance and fragrance.

Rosa 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' — Rosa ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’

What a name! And, what a rose! This gorgeous hybrid tea has blush-pink, very fragrant, repeat-flowering clusters, and glossy dark-green leaves. Considered disease resistant. Introduced in 2006 by rose-breeder, Colin Pearce.

Pat’s 10 Jobs for February…

1. Prune Group 3 clematis (late flowering viticella types) now by cutting all stems back just above a leaf node starting from the ground up. Don’t be timid as they respond well. Then feed around the plant base with an organic feed making sure to avoid emerging shoots and mulch with compost.

Clematis viticella Romantica (Group 3) in bloom

Clematis Comtesse de Bouchard (Group 3) in bloom — Clematis viticella Romantica (Group 3) in bloom

2. If you have some, mulch your beds with homemade compost or leafmould. If you don’t have enough just mulch around your favourite plants.