Bexrose Bulletin
SEPTEMBER 2005
Published by the Bexleyheath & District Rose Society.
Patron:- Dr. David G. Hessayon
President:- Mr. F.H. Boardman
Vice President:- Mr. W. Skinner
Chairman:- Mr. S. Burch
Vice Chairman:- Mr. B. Rainsbury
Hon. Secretary:- Mrs. J.Newton
Hon Treasurer:- Mrs. Z.Neale
Show Secretary:- Mr. A. Neale
Membership Secretary:- Mrs. M. Cornell
Next Meeting Tuesday 27th September
We meet once again at St. John Fisher Hall, Thanet Rd, Bexley where the hall will be open from 7-15pm for setting up. The meeting will start at 8pm until 10pm with a break at 9pm for refreshments and the raffle and of course a chance to chat to other members. Our speaker this month is Jim Pierce and the subject is "Roses". Jim very kindly stepped in last year to judge our summer show when Bill Bossom was taken ill so it will be nice to see him back again.
Please try and enter the Rose Table Show, there was a larger number of entries last month and we should have the second flush coming through now. Experienced and Novice sections have 1 HT rose in a vase, 1 stem of a cluster rose in a vase, 3 miniature roses in a vase. You many put in 1 entry in 1 or more classes in your section. Please try and enter The Floral Art Section this month, remember all money collected goes to Prickles Hedgehog Haven. Subject, a medium sized vase of mixed flowers and foliage from your garden.
Garden Open Day
Mick and Brenda Andrews would like to thank everyone who came to their open garden day on Sunday 14th August. £94 was raised for Prickles Hedgehog Haven. A big thank you also to Dora Lemon and Brenda's Mum who kept everyone supplied with refreshments. Unfortunately the late afternoon was spoilt by showers but it didn't dampen spirits. Congratulations to June Taylor and Pat Swords who both guessed the correct weight of the potato. It weighed in at 2lb 3ozs. Both ladies received a beautiful Abutilon Nabob plant as their prizes.
The Rose Growers Calendar by kind permission of Don Charlton.
September
1. Continue with the good housekeeping of the rose beds and if necessary spray for insects and disease early in the month. Usually it is advisable to spray 10 - 14 days before the flush of flowers is expected, this avoids the need to spray and spoil blooms when they are opening. Unless the growing season is prolonged for some reason this is probably going to be the last spray treatment needed for this year, so do this one well.
2. Complete any outstanding budding this month.
3. Complete orders for new rose bushes as early as possible.
4. Start the preparation of new rose beds when the weather is kind and other jobs allow.
Gardening Jobs For September
Keep on with the general tidy up and deadheading. Now is the time for the job I really hate in the garden, planting new bulbs. I always seem to choose a spot that already has residents and never fail to did up half the bulbs I planted last year even though I hit on the idea of placing a small stick in an area that had no bulbs in the spring. Now is the time to prepare and seed a new lawn or re seed the old one. It is a good time to plant conifers but remember what the garden centre call slow growing will still reach about 10 ft in 10 years time so choose your site wisely. There is nothing wrong with conifers in the right place and their different types of foliage and the way the branches grow and swirl around each other can be very pleasing to the eye especially if you have an acid soil and can't grow many cut garden flowers.
Pick apples and pears and wrap in paper, store in a cardboard box in a cool dry place and you will have some home grown fruit for Christmas. Of course you can also bottle the fruit but do we have time for that these days and who has a recipe anyway? It would be interesting to find out and have a go! The house plants that spent their summer vacation in the garden can come in now. Bulbs can be potted up ready for Christmas and all the vegetables you have sown will now be coming to maturity especially the onions and marrows.
Dates For Your Diary
13th & 14th September RHS Great Autumn Show, Lawrence and Lindley Halls Westminster.
16th -18th September Great Autumn Show, Yorkshire Show Ground Harrogate.
16th -18th September RNRS Great Autumn Rose Show, Yorkshire Show Ground Harrogate.
17th 7 18th September National Orchid Show Lawrence Hall Vincent Square Westminster.
24th & 25th September Malvern Autumn Show, 3 Counties Show Ground Malvern.
4th $ 5th October Autumn Fruit & Veg Show, Lawrence Hall Vincent Square Westminster.
15th & 16th November Late Apple and Pear and Ornamental Plant Show. Lawrence Hall.
Teddy Bears Picnic Sunday 18th September In The Hospice Grounds
The Teddy Bears will be holding their annual picnic in the grounds of the hospice and invite all the children to come and join them accompanied by their own teddy bears of course. Please bring parents and grandparents too to help keep us all in order. There will be fun and games and a children’s entertainer to keep us amused and every child will have a picnic box to share with their teddy. Entry by ticket only. Enquiries at the Hospice or Hospice shops.
A Weekend In The Cotswolds
Once again we were off on our travels and after such good weather for the previous few weeks the prospects were not good, rain being forecast. However rain does not dampen the spirits of the intrepid Bexrose traveller and we were in high spirits when we arrived at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire for our first stop. The house was built by Ferdinand de Rothschild between 1874 and 1889 to house the family art collection. Now run by the National Trust it is a magnificent building with grounds to match and the Parterre garden was something to behold. The centres of many of the beds were raised up which is most unusual for this type of garden but very effective. The rose garden was a joy and the newly renovated aviary, looking very Asian in style, was fascinating with brightly coloured tropical birds. The house was glorious with many old masters, fine porcelain and lovely furniture.
After lunch we headed for Stow in the Wold where many of us succumbed to a cream tea and raided Scotts shop for household items. Our Hotel, the Cheltenham Park was very large with extremely long corridors but the rooms were very comfortable but some said the food could have been better, lets say the chef lacked imagination, but the breakfasts were excellent.
Day 2 saw us off to Gloucester where many of us browsed around the Antiques Centre in the docks, some went on a boat trip up the river Severn and others went to church spending time looking round the Cathedral and close.
We made our way to Painswick in the afternoon where were had time to hear from their young chap running the gardens who was also a family member about the fashion of Rococo from 1720 -1760 and how they used their gardens as an extension of the house with gazebos, arches and pieces of architecture around the garden to add interest. This is a favourite spot for weddings and there was one going on while we were there. Unfortunately, Mary had an accident on her replacement scooter and was promptly dispatched off to hospital after being well looked after by the staff of the garden. She only seemed to suffer a cut knee and was thankfully able to join us for the rest of the holiday.
Sunday dawned with the forcasted rain so it was just as well that we were spending the morning driving through the villages taking in Broadway, Moreton on the Marsh, Chipping Campden, Burford, Chipping Norton and Bourton on the water where we stopped for lunch. There were plenty of shops here so we didn't get too wet. As we made our way to Sudeley Castle the clouds rolled back and we had a lovely sunny afternoon. Unfortunately, the Castle is not open to the public now as the family has expanded and they needed the rooms that had been on show but there was an exhibition in the stables of household and estate items and also an exhibition on the second floor of Elizabethan costumes, lace and artefacts from the family. There was also a film show on Shackleton's polar expeditions which one of the Dent Brocklehurst's ancestors took part in. The Gardens amongst the ruins of the old castle were lovely with a glorious herbaceous border, a lovely white garden and a parterre full of Lavender. The old church was worth a visit too.
After breakfast on Monday we had to say goodbye to the staff of our hotel and mother duck and her 3 babies who had kept us amused at meal times as they ran about the hotel grounds looking for tasty morsels. Next stop Cirencester the capital of the Cotswolds. The parish church of St. John the Baptist was well worth a visit and they were holding an organ recital at lunch time so many of us stayed to listen. Some of us visited the craft centre in the old converted brewery. There were lovely old shops and houses to see as well as the Crinium Museum which tells of the towns link with Roman Britain little of which survives above ground. We were due to visit Pound Hill in the afternoon but as Bob had to get back to Bristol that evening we had to make Bexleyheath by 6pm so had to forgo the pleasure, maybe we can fit it in another time. We made Bexleyheath in good time and everyone said they had thoroughly enjoyed the trip. Once again Bob proved a good driver and was very helpful with cases. Our thanks to him and all those who helped with the luggage, to Jackie for doing the booking for the coach and hotel and Janet and Vanessa for working out the itinerary and seeing that everything ran smoothly. Another successful trip under our belts. Next stop Hampshire.
Brogdale Apple Festival 22nd & 23rd October 10am to 5pm.
Brogdale holds the largest collection of different fruit trees in the world and there are a staggering 2,300 different varieties of apple. They also have 550 kinds of pears, 350 plums 220 cherries, and 320 varieties of bush fruit. The collection includes many varieties dating back to Roman times as well as medlars and quinces which were Victorian favourites.
Their design service will help you construct your very own orchard and if you don't know the name of the variety you have in your garden, maybe the previous owner planted the tree, then Brogdale will enlighten you for a small fee.
The Apple Festival weekend has masses going on for both adults and children and of course plenty of tasty fruit on sale. They have a restaurant selling a good variety of meals and snacks or you may take a picnic and best of all entry is free. So why not go along and crunch into a real apple for once.
Rose Table Show for August
Experienced HT 1st Dora Lemon 2nd Sid Burch 3rd Ben Rainsbury
Floribunda 1st Dora Lemon
Miniatures 1st Sid Burch 2nd Ben Rainsbury
Points awarded D. Lemon 8 S. Burch 6 B. Rainsbury 3
Points total B. Rainsbury 17 S. Burch 12 D. Lemon 8 M. Downs 4 E Purnell 3 L. Beadle 2
Novice HT 1st Val Pulling 2nd R. Dowdall 3rd Joan Miller
Floribunda 1st R. Madden 2nd Les Beadle
Points awarded V Pulling 4 R. Madden 4 R. Dowdall 2 L. Beadle 2 J Miller 1
Points total L. Beadle 10 V. Pulling 10 A. Nunn 4 R. Madden 4 R, Dowdall 2
J. Miller 1
Secretary's Report On The August Meeting
Our speaker this month was John Beckham who is a Ranger in Oxleas Woods. His subject and obviously his passion is birds and he had some lovely slides to show us of our common and rarer wild birds which frequent our part of the country. The Robin is everyone's favourite, an insect eater, thousands migrate here from Germany and Scandinavia for the winter. Those that stay seem to disappear from view in the summer months but they are still about but moulting so there red feathers are gone. The Goldcrest is the smallest British bird and the Wren the smallest British garden bird.
Although London has lost 70% of its House Sparrows an RSPB survey says they are only down 7% over the whole country and are more prevalent in towns where there are older houses with front and back gardens.
John advised us to always keep a shallow bowl of water in the garden, not only for the birds to drink but they wash in it as well and this keeps their nests clean. Although it is said we should not feed the birds in summer John recommends putting some nuts out because for the first 2 weeks after the eggs hatch chicks must be fed aphids and caterpillars which gives them moisture as they cannot drink. Its hard work for the parents to find food and take it back to the nest so if they are able to feed on nuts instead of the food that should go to the babies it gives them an easier time.
We have 3 resident Woodpeckers in this country, the Greater Spotted, the Lesser Spotted and the Green. Green Woodpeckers eat ants and have a long beak that can get into nests and a long sticky tongue that can scoop up lots of ants at a time. Apparently Swallows are doing well as are all the varieties of Tits which are insect and seed eaters. Green Finches do come into our gardens but only when they have exhausted all the insects in the woodland.
The Jay, Magpie and Carrion Crow have all multiplied over the past few years. They take eggs from other birds nests even if they are not hungry. We still have plenty of Sparrow Hawks and Kestrels in the countryside, they eat mice and voles. They follow their urine trail which is inferred and shows up blue to them as they fly over the fields. Woodpidgeons nearly always keep in a family group so there will always be about 4 or 5 in your garden at one time. Redwings come from Scandinavia in October for the winter and Fieldflares come in from Iceland. They like berries and apples so leave the last few of your apples on the ground for the birds to tuck into. Parakeets are beginning to be a problem. They have obviously bred from escaped birds and have managed to survive the mild winters of late. They like to nest in holes in trees and will steal the homes of woodpeckers and other tree dwellers. There is a particularly large flock of them at Footscray Meadows. John had an excellent slide of one peeping out of its hole.
Many of John's slides where taken by himself on his trips around our area, Oxleas Woods, Footscray Meadows, Howard Marion Park Charlton but his favourite place is Rye Harbour which has an abundance of migratory birds. We had a very enjoyable evening and John proved to be a very enthusiastic speaker.
Winter Break To France And Belgium
We have three twin rooms and one single room available for our trip to Calais/Lille/ Brugge on the Saturday and Sunday. On Monday we will pay a visit to a French Hypermarket for our Christmas drinks, edibles, perfumes etc before we board the boat for the return journey home. The cost is £195 per person sharing a twin room and £250 for a single room. The cost includes breakfast, evening meal, coffee and wine.
Plug Plants For Next Summer
If members are interested in ordering plug plants for next summer bedding would you please contact Vanessa as soon as possible so that she can assess if it is viable to order from Ball Colgrave once again or if it would be more beneficial to go through another supplier. Plants available last year were Impatiens, Bedding Begonia's, Non Stop Begonia's, Nicotia, Petunia's, Geranium's, Gazania's, Surphinia's and a small variety of hanging basket plants.
Next Year’s Pot Grown Rose
Information for new members.
Each year a patio rose is chosen for members to buy and look after during the year and then show in a special class for this rose one rose at the annual Summer Show. It is easy to do, just prune, water and feed your rose and then present it, in its pot, on the show bench. It doesn't have to be in full flower, the judges will also be judging it on condition and shape and they can see if it has had a good show of blooms recently. Ben Rainsbury has once again agreed to order and take delivery of the bare rooted plants and he and Vanessa will pot them up. Several members will look after a few each over the winter and in March these will be put on sale at the monthly meeting. The Rose selected this year, like last year will be a scented variety. We will have 40 bushes for sale (last years cost was £3-50, it may be slightly more this year, we do not have the final costings including discounts yet). Do have a go, especially if you have not put anything on the show bench before. You can then enter this rose again the following year in the pot grown rose class and also your new rose for that year. You have then doubled your number of entries in 1 year. Good Luck!