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 Table1. If herbs like thyme have finished flowering, trim them back to keep them compact and use the trimmings to do some cuttings.
2. Stake Dahlias before they get too tall and straggly or the stems may snap. Keep well watered in this dry weather.
3. To conserve water and before we get a hosepipe ban, just water around the roots of plants and mulch them if you can. Some are really suffering at the moment. So why not start sowing seeds of Eryngium giganteum ‘Miss Wilmott’s Ghost’ for a drought proof plant for next year? Loved by pollinators too.
There 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
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.
Continue reading Pat’s Jobs for November 20241. Start ordering your bulbs now as all the bulb catalogues are arriving – though prices don’t stop going up!
2. Start planting bulbs when they arrive but save your tulips until later as they are prone to virus and rotting, and to theft by squirrels.
3. Divide large established clumps of perennials by cutting back first, then splitting either by hand or with two forks back to back. Delay if soil is heavy or too wet.
4. Replace tired summer bedding in pots and replant for winter and replenish with fresh compost.
Continue reading Pat’s Jobs for September 20241. Top of the list for July is pruning wisteria, taking back that whippy growth to 2 to 3 buds from the main stems.
2. Sweetpeas should be flowering by now so make sure to keep cutting the blooms and give them a feed and plenty of water. They cease flowering quickly if not picked twice a week.
3. Deadhead all your perennials and annuals regularly unless you want them to set seed for next years sowing.
Continue reading Pat’s Jobs for JulyWhat a strange spring this has been as everything has grown so tall ….but then some things especially vegetables have hardly grown at all and are struggling as there has been little warmth.
Anyway we soldier on….
1. Divide spring flowering bulbs as soon as foliage fades. My own stock has diminished and badly need splitting.
2. Prune ornamental cherries when flowering has finished making as few cuts as possible as they have difficulty healing.
3. Tie in shoots on sweetpeas which are finally growing and revelling in the cool conditions.
4. Cut early flowering hardy geraniums to the ground when they finish as they have a tendency to seed everywhere…unless you want them to of course.
Continue reading Pat’s Jobs for June1. Prune hardy fuchsias now both in pots and in the ground to promote new growth and to prevent the plants from becoming too woody.
2. Plant out pot grown sweet peas now making sure to pinch out the shoots to promote bushy plants. You can also sow directly in the ground now if you didn’t sow earlier but watch out for slugs munching new seedlings.
3. Someone said the other day that they hadn’t cut back their clematis but I don’t think its too late as the growth on them is phenomenal. It just means they will flower a bit later but then that extends the season.
1. I sowed my sweet peas early in the month five seeds to a 3 inch pot and then placed them on a light window sill or greenhouse if you have one. They don’t need bottom heat and I don’t soak or nick the seeds but of course you can if you wish. Keep turning the pots so they don’t all lean towards the light.
2. Remove browning blooms from camellias to keep the display going especially the white ones which never seem to drop their spent blooms. I just wish I had room for more as they’re such a cheerful sight.
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.
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.
Continue reading Pat’s 10 Jobs for February…
Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society 