vegetables – Charlton and Blackheath Amateur Horticultural Society

Pat’s 10 jobs for September 2025

1. Well at last the rain has arrived and is ready to drown all our plants! You may need to empty those saucers you put under pots for some of your more tender plants before they drown or rot…

2. This month and next is a good time to cut down and split many perennials ready for our sale at the Horn Fair on 19 October which soon comes round. I split sedum and Hesperantha the other day. I needed two forks back to back but made about fifteen plants! Check which plants are suitable for splitting in Autumn as some are better done in Spring.

3. Increase your supply of Pelargoniums by taking cuttings now below a leaf node. It also provides insurance for next year. We always love unusual varieties for the sales table if you can spare them.

This Aeonium will not like sitting in a saucer of water! — Don’t let your pots drown! Geranium clump ripe for division, and Pelargonium cuttings

A clump of Geranium macrorrhizum ready for division — Don’t let your pots drown! Geranium clump ripe for division, and Pelargonium cuttings

What we bring to the table

Class 17 (‘photograph of a display of plants on a table’) in our recent Flower, Fruit and Vegetable Show was partly inspired by Vija’s ‘Fantasy Garden Tables‘ post in May, which in turn was inspired by Monty Don’s ever-changing and covetable table displays on Gardeners’ World. Members’ photographs were displayed and judged on a digital screen, and were so varied, lovely and interesting, we thought we’d show them here (click on images to see in more detail):

Class 17 2025: a display of plants on a table

August/Autumn Show 2025

The 2025 Autumn ‘Flower, Fruit and Vegetable Show’ was held on Monday 18 August in the Old Library at Charlton House.

As it is usually held in September, there were some adjustments to the range of classes. It was a well attended and lively show, and our fears that perhaps there would be fewer entries – due to the date change or the fact that we have had such a long period of drought – were unfounded. In fact, across the 18 classes there were 150 entries and we had to extend the show tables!

As this year is a special one, in which we celebrate the 75th anniversary of CABAHS, there were a couple of ’75th anniversary’ themed classes, and we were delighted to welcome as judge Jillian Smith, long-time CABAHS member and Chair of the Society, and now joint Vice President with Ron Roffey. Jillian has a long experience in judging shows over many years and has a beautiful garden in Winn Road, which was opened to the public on a number of occasions to raise money for charity.

Pat’s 10 jobs for August 2025

1. Time to trim back lavender hard if it has finished flowering, but try not to cut into the old wood. If you’re lucky you may get a few late flowers.

2. And time to give that Wisteria and Campsis a hack back by removing all the whippy growth and tidying up for the autumn.

This lavender will need a cut back soon. — Promote flowers by cutting back and watering in good time.

Camellia flowering in Spring. — Promote flowers by cutting back and watering in good time.

3. Azaleas. Camellias and Rhododendrons are making their flowers for next year and need regular water at their roots or they’ll drop their buds and have no spring blooms.

Pat’s 10 jobs for July 2025

1. 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.

Eryngium giganteum 'Miss Wilmott's Ghost' at Great Comp, covered in pollinators — Drought resistant plants that pollinators love: *Eryngium* and *Pseudodictamnus*

Bee on Pseudodictamnus mediterraneus (formerly Ballota) — Drought resistant plants that pollinators love: *Eryngium* and *Pseudodictamnus*

August Flower, Fruit & Vegetable Display 2025 – classes to enter

This year’s Autumn Show will be held a month earlier than usual, on Monday 18 August, at 7.30pm in the Old Library at Charlton House.
Please note that due to the earlier date, the Potato competition will be judged as part of the Show Table at September’s meeting.

Here’s a reminder of last year’s efforts!

Whole table of entries, Autumn Show 2024

The classes you can enter this year are shown below, please have a go at as many as you like!

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 10 jobs for April 2025

1. Pinch out sweet pea plants above the third leaf to make bushier plants and then, as the shoots grow, pinch out side shoots in the same way.

2. Sow hardy annuals now like Nigella, opium poppies and poached egg plants in any bit of empty ground you may have and mark them so you don’t forget where they are. Many of these are excellent for pollinators.

3. Prune hardy Fuchsias now to stimulate growth by cutting back to just above a healthy bud which will prevent them from getting too woody.

Nigella damascena seedlings — Young sweet pea plants

4. Check Dahlia tubers for any growth and make sure they’re getting enough light by turning them round regularly towards the light.

Pat’s Jobs for March 2025

Time to pot up those Dahlia tubers in 3 litre pots, making sure the tubers have an ‘eye’ which will shoot. Cover in compost, allowing the stem to rest at the surface, then label and water and keep somewhere reasonably light and frost free (greenhouse or windowsill) until they start growing.

2. Now is the time I start sowing sweetpeas: five seeds to a 3 inch pot and keep on a light windowsill or greenhouse until they germinate. You can try sowing directly into the soil which I think works well for some.