tulips – Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society

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 flowers shared by Members

We are always keen to hear about how member’s gardens are growing or about what you can see from your window but occasionally we receive shorter messages. So here are a few we’ve had recently.

Angela thought members might like to see a photo of her Amaryllis lily. She says “Their sale in supermarkets at Christmas has rapidly become a tradition. Their very decorative, over the top flowers people either hate or love. I love them. They are easy to grow and spectacular. I planted mine after Christmas and it has now produced amazing flowers.”

Viv sent us a photo of the first tulips of the year in her garden with some other pots. Unsurprisingly, she is getting excited about spring…

Viv's pot of Tulip Stresa with other pots

A visit to Perch Hill

A few weeks back Vija and I went to one of the open days at Sarah Raven’s farm Perch Hill in East Sussex. The preceding evening had seen torrential rain and an email arrived on the morning of the visit warning people of the muddy conditions and that a four wheel drive was essential. And they weren’t exaggerating… the field we were to park in was a mud slide with a tractor towing cars out of the mud!

But the rain hadn’t affected the garden. The tulips, many of which were in pots,were stunning with the same colours used repeatedly throughout the garden. They were well labelled so we could make a note of them and there seemed to be loads of new varieties and quite a lot in oranges and shades of reds. There were lots of pots with pastel shades too and it wasn’t just tulips. There was a whole bed planted with a tall variety of fritillary which you don’t see very often and is certainly different.

Additionally there were displays in pots of some lovely frilly violas and the glasshouse was planted with ranunculus and other early varieties of annuals. There were displays of early vegetables but they were small and obviously affected by the cold spring. And the tea and cakes were good too!

All in all a stunning display and worth a visit despite the mud and flooded roads.

Pat K

Labour of love – Keukenhof (2)

A visit to Keukenhof for the second year running found a different garden, although the visits were only a week apart. Spring has evidently come later and most of the narcissus and hyacinths were still in full flower. Last year there were very few remaining in flower. The scent from both filled the air.

Even where some of the tulips had gone over they were still exquisitely beautiful – like a Dutch still life painting.

At home my hyacinths have been swept around by the rain and wind, but at Keukenhof they stand firm.

But then I looked closer. Each individual hyacinth has been individually staked, so discretely that it is hardly noticeable! What a labour!

Vija

Spring Show 2023

Well, as we now know from a trawl through the CABAHS archive, our first Spring Show took place in April 1978, when the entries were recorded as “good considering the wintry conditions”. 45 years later, in 2023, our display has once again risen above the challenging weather and looked frankly fabulous!

Thank you to everyone who carried their exhibits into St Thomas’ Church hall, we had more entries than in the past few years, 73 in total, and everyone seemed to have a great evening. Our judge Mrs Norma Leslie said she had a hard time choosing the winners, listed below. Best in Show was awarded to Sharon’s “Perfect Pot of Pipits”, well deserved, and it was good to see so many entries in this class. The Wild Card class generated a lot of conversations around the range of entries, so that will be a fixture from now on. The short talk about past shows sparked some good ideas for future classes, such as one for Primroses and Auriculas and perhaps we can revive a “Domestic” class to add a baking angle to the evening (followed by some munching probably).

Keukenhof

The gardens at Keukenhof in April are quite remarkable. Great rivers of tulips are everywhere. Small exhibitions in the Juliana house give background information to the history and also to the planting practices of this huge venture: 7 million tulips (and other flowering bulbs) are planted each year and each year, at the end of flowering, these are all taken up and crushed to be used as compost around the trees in the garden and made into pulp for the paper which covers the guides to the estate.

As a not-for-profit organisation, in addition to the garden architects, the gardens rely on an army of volunteers. From May onwards the gardens are closed to allow time for the essential work of taking up the tulips and replanting, until reopening for the spring display. The bulbs in each garden area are given to Keukenhof by growers in the Netherlands and the name of the company appears as signage on the beds. For those wishing to make a note of their favourites, tulips are also discretely labelled, although it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the enormous range on display!

Vija

Gardening for health

Monty Don has always been a keen exponent of the health benefits of gardening, in particular its effect on the not so quiet mind. I have recently read that some hospitals have introduced ‘secret gardens’ where patients recovering from the Coronovirus are taken for periods every day, even in drizzling rain, for the beneficial effects. And, of course, this week it is Gardens and Health Week, sponsored by the NGS with Rachel de Thame as its Ambassador. The NGS website has various links to the personal stories of people for whom gardens have played a vital role in their recovery.

V May blog 1

Also recently published is Sue Stuart-Smith’s (wife of the garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith) book, ‘The Well Gardened Mind: Rediscovering Nature in the Modern World’, in which she points out the pleasures of growing and nurturing things and argues for a ‘greening’ of all of our lives.

Despite exhortations to sit and enjoy our gardens, I think keen gardeners often don’t do that! But this spring there has been one thing that has brought me joy every time I look at it! In the autumn I bought a collection of ‘ tulips for a window box’. When it came to planting them, I decided the window box was too small, so I jammed them all into a pot. The three varieties are absolute beauties and even now they are fading are still immensely lovely.

V May blog 2

I rarely sit outside, but I am greeted by them every morning when I have breakfast.

At the end of my garden I have a Clematis ‘Freckles’ which flowered constantly through the winter. However, I only saw this when I ventured further down the garden. I have resolved to plant something which gives me such pleasure closer to the house where I can see it even in inclement weather. In these unusual and difficult times, let us take pleasure where we can.

The tulips are Double Early and Double Lates: Anthracite, Copper Image and Dream Touch.

Vija

Allotment life, and surprising bulbs

Do you ever plant things in your garden and forget that you have done so? I have clearly planted these tulips in a pot (last year? The year before?) and they have surprised me by coming up a treat.

Vijas suprising tulips

That is probably part of the interest in planting bulbs. It is deferred gratification if ever there was an example. The anticipation of beauty to come. To some extent it is similar to sowing seeds, although here there is less of an excitement of immediate colour. Gardening is a thing of hope!

March and April are hugely busy in terms of seed sowing. At home I have a small patch given over to vegetables. It used to be bordered by trimmed box, but with the depredations of the box moth, all this has had to be removed. This year, I have decided to sow the annual Sal Vijas Clary via Viridis to create the borders. It used to be grown so much, but seems to have become less popular and I haven’t seen it for years. I am hoping this will create an attractive foil for the tomatoes, salad greens, shallots and climbing beans that I plan to have here.

For my allotment I have my usual courgettes ( three varieties) tomatoes ( four varieties) runner and French beans, potatoes (earlies and maincrop) cucumber, beetroot, celeriac, cavalo nero and purple sprouting broccoli. I am going to add carrots, turnips and swedes. If the seed stocks in the garden centres on the weekend of 22 March are anything to go by, a large proportion of the population is anticipating a problem with food supply! I hope I have enough to feed the extended family.

My allotment soil is incredibly heavy and successive years of cultivation have done little to break it down. For those new to gardening, this could be very off-putting. Watching Monty Don or Joe Swift or Adam Frost plant vegetables in soil that is honed to a fine tilth you could blow on it and create a hole and then be confronted by the average plot, is something that might make you quail. In the week before lockdown ( are we all thinking in terms of ‘before lockdown’ and ‘after lockdown’ now?) I had two guys dig over the plot, but this still leaves large clods of soil which need to be broken up. I am now in the backbreaking process of doing this. Only then can I direct- sow into the soil, or plant things like French beans.

Vija

Tulip time in Elizabeth C’s garden

Elizabeth says “Last Autumn I had a beautiful collection of Sara Raven tulip bulbs for my birthday, which were carefully arranged in colour co-ordinated flow with wallflowers interspersed. Feeling generous to myself, similar colour groupings were arranged around my garden and I eagerly awaited this Spring.

Bulbs started to appear prolifically and my excitement rose; each day my first task was to check their progress with all the promise that entailed. Until – one morning, disastrous views unfolded – all the fully developed buds had been bitten off by The Squirrel! Only immature ones remain.

Apart from purchasing a shotgun on eBay, does anyone have any helpful advice to avoid repetition?”

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Such a sad story! Please email your suggestions to cabahsh ortisoc@gmail.com and let us know if you have had a similar problem? I have personally had plenty of problems with squirrels and bulbs, but once the bulbs start growing, my local squirrels (thankfully) lose interest. Christine has had success with putting curry powder in the soil, and Jenny puts prickly holly twigs around her pots, but this is really for the bulb stage. Other ideas needed!