Bexrose Bulletin
AUGUST 2007
Published by the Bexleyheath & District Rose Society.
Patron:- Dr. David G. Hessayon MBE.
President:-
Vice President:- Mr. J. Elliott
Chairman:- Mr. A. Nunn
Vice Chairman:- Mr. M. Andrews
Hon. Secretary:- Mrs. J.Newton
Hon Treasurer:- Mrs. Z.Neale
Show Secretary:- Mr. A. Neale
Membership Secretary:- Mrs. M. Cornell
Miss V. Rochester
Other Committee members:- Mr. R. Jones, Mr. R. Pulling, Mrs. D. Carr, Mrs. D. Lemon, Mrs. J. Dyer, Mrs. E. Cleall.
Web Site:- www.bexrose.org.uk
Webmaster Email:- postmaster@bexrose.org.uk
Next Meeting Tuesday 28th August 2007
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. We will be holding our usual Rose Table Show for members who are experienced exhibitors and also our novice section specially for members who would like to show their roses but feel they do not yet have the confidence to put a bloom on the show bench at the Summer Show. This section is for you to practice and have a go. You will be surprised what you can achieve. Our Floral Art this month should depict a children's nursery rhyme. Don't forget the size is 12" x 12". Our speaker this month is Mr. David Cheston from Sutton, Surrey, who will be speaking to us on Waddesdon Manor. He will be concentrating on the time when Waddesdon was still in private hands.
Welcome to new members
Mrs. M. Callegari, Bexleyheath
Mrs. B. Ames, Sidcup
Mr. & Mrs. McQuillan, Dartford
Mrs. A. Lucia, Bexleyheath
Dates for your Diary
August 21st to 23rd Wisley Flower Show.
September 11th & 12th London Flower Show. RHS Halls Westminster.
September 29th & 30th Malvern Autumn Show.
October 9th & 10th Great Autumn Show Harrogate.
November 9th & 10th RHS London Flower Show.
RNRS Show Dates for 2007
September 14th to 16th RNRS Autumn Show Harrogate
WmH Leisure Garden Shows for 2007
The South East Garden Show Saturday, Sunday & Monday 25th 26th & 27th August. The Hop Farm Country Park Paddock Wood Kent. Ticket ring as above or pay on the gate. Children & Parking Free.
Price also includes all Hop Farm attractions.
The Autumn Kent Garden Show, Saturday & Sunday 8th & 9th September. Detling show ground Maidstone Kent. Tickets ring as above or pay on the gate. Children & Parking free.
All shows open at 9-30am and close at 5pm. Refreshments available.
Ellenor Hospice Open Garden Scheme 2007
September 2nd Sunday The Old Vicarage, Swanley Village, Kent BR8 7PJ
An invitation to visit the garden and have afternoon tea with Sir Vivian and Lady Ramsey in this most beautiful setting Admission £5 including refreshments. 2pm to 5pm.
September 9th Sunday Clevis, New Barn Road, New Barn, DA3 7JE A beautiful late garden containing a rose garden, ornamental trees and hedges. Admission £2. 2pm to 5pm.
Greenwich & Bexley Hospice Open Garden Scheme
August 26th Sunday 2pm to 5pm. Foresters Homes, Tower Street, Bexleyheath. Admission £2 This warden assisted home is tucked away behind Bexleyheath Police Station. It was awarded first prize in 2006 for communal gardens and has been a frequent winner and runner up in Bexley in Bloom.
The Rose Growers Calendar by kind permission of Don Charlton
August
1. This month can be hot and dry and may appear quiet as we wait for the second flush of blooms to materialise. But do not neglect the general care of the roses keeping the beds tidy, disease and insect free and well watered.
2. Disbud stems for the second oncoming flush of flowers as suggested for the first flush.
3. Now is a good time to start planning for next year, think about new rose beds and or improving existing beds. Start to place your orders for roses now to be assured of getting the varieties you
want.
4. Budding rootstocks can be difficult this month unless you can keep the understocks growing well. If the stocks appear a little dormant now the budding could be left until early next month.
Floral Art Table show for August
1st Joyce Riley 65 coins 2nd Dora Lemon 42 coins 3rd Rosemary Youell 28 coins.
Money collected for Woodlands Farm Trust £2-69
Rose Table Show for August
Experienced
HT 1st B. Rainsbury 2nd D. Lemon 3rd A. Nunn
Floribunda 1st M. Andrews 2nd D. Lemon 3rd No Entry
Miniatures 1st B. Rainsbury 2nd D. Lemon 3rd No Entry
Points B. Rainsbury 8 D. Lemon 6 M. Andrews 4
Total Points M. Andrews 21 B. Rainsbury 16 D. Lemon 13 E. Purnell 6 A. Nunn 2
Novice
HT 1st R. Harris 2nd R, Dowdall 3rd J. Miller
Floribunda 1st R. Dowdall 2nd R. Harris 3rd L. Beadle
Miniatures 1st V. Pulling 2nd R. Dowdall 3rd J. Riley
Points R. Dowdall 8 R. Harris 6 V. Pulling 4 J. Miller 1 L. Beadle 1 J. Riley 1
Total Points V. Pulling 16 R. Harris 8 R. Dowdall 8 L. Beadle 6 J. Miller 5
R. Madden 3 P. Portch 2 J. Riley 1
Secretary's Report on the monthly meeting
Mr. Howard Cox from Orpington came to speak to us on the subject of Butterflies which made a nice change from horticultural subjects although they are closely related. He told us that the Government are using butterflies as a guide to the health of the environment and they are showing that the planet is definitely warming up as it is not unusual to see Red Admirals at Christmas time these days. These butterflies should be breeding in Libya and Tunisia at that time of year. I was quite surprised to hear that butterflies migrate and many varieties travel from the Mediterranean coast of North Africa right across Europe, up into Scandinavia and on to Russia. Some are also going as far as Iceland now. Their migration is not like that of birds who will start their journey and barring accidents will reach their chosen destination a few weeks later. It is done in stages , by many generations as they lay eggs, turn into caterpillars then into butterflies, fly on a bit further lay eggs and die, and so on and on until they reach the limits of their food supply and climate zone. They then turn round and start going all the way back again. The Red Admiral is increasingly staying in England and hibernating. The Painted Lady will move as far as Iceland and the Cabbage White comes to us from Scandinavia. Mr. Cox told us that butterflies feed on the nectar from cruciform flowers, that is flowers with 4 petals whilst the eggs are laid on the particular plant favoured by that variety and the caterpillars, once they emerge have a ready food supply. The Blue varieties are taken care of by ants. The eggs are laid near ants nests and the ants will then take the eggs down beneath the earth into their nests and look after them until they become caterpillars and then they will feed them until they are ready to pupate.
Butterflies are made up of a thorax which has 3 pairs of legs. Some varieties have lost 2 front legs through evolution. They have 2 pairs of wings which are attached together by a thread which makes them beat together and in time. Below the thorax is the stomach. They have compound eyes and can see all the way round. The tongue is a flat tube that is curled at the end and it can probe into the flowers and suck up nectar. The feelers are very important as they pick up smells and judge the temperature.
Mr. Cox showed us some beautiful slides that he had taken in this country and abroad, catching the light just right and showing up the metallic colours on some of the varieties. It was altogether a delightful evening which members thoroughly enjoyed.
Gardening in the Antipodes from Jacqi Harradine
My daughter son-in-law and grandchildren emigrated to Perth in Western Australia last September. My husband and I were obviously devastated about this but of course hoped that they were going to a better life. Perth it seems is "the place " to emigrate, and we looked forward to visiting them. We subsequently did this in January and booked to stay for 6 weeks. Our flights were with Royal Brunei Airlines and we had the option of stopping off at Brunei which is supposed to be the richest country in the world. Anyone who has visited Australia will know that the journey is not for the faint hearted! The first leg to Dubai ( look at the map to see where that is) took over 7 hours. We had to change planes here with a layover of 2 hours. Getting back on board we were searched again and even shoes had to be taken off and sent through the X ray machine. The leg from Dubai to Brunei was 8 hours and although we were desperately tired, we just couldn't sleep. Incidentally, because Brunei is a very strict Muslim country, their national airline is also very strict Muslim. We had prayers in arabic before we took off on each leg, no alcohol was permitted on board and on our journey monitoring screen, it always told us in which direction Mecca lay. However we were very impressed with the professionalism of the airline, the stewards and the food, even though I wasn't very happy to think that all the meat was halal.
Our 3 days in Brunei were wonderful. When we arrived the first thing that hit the senses was the smell of a "warm Greenhouse", you know, the smell that on a hot summers day you get in an English greenhouse after you have watered the tomatoes! Our hotel was out of the world and very "Hollywood". It was in 400 acres of gardens, had 9 swimming pools, and in our bedroom suite there was not a square inch of the bathroom and dressing area which could not have been covered in more marble and gold. Our double bed was the size of a living room and the curtains and other paraphernalia in the room only operated by the flick of a switch. It took us some time to work this out and even the usual morning call set in motion a series of automatic motions, such as music being played, lights being switched on, curtains opened etc- quite funny and mind boggling the first time it happened. We had a huge private terrace which led directly to one of the swimming pools and the surrounding areas were just dripping with palm trees and other tropical plants. One of the swimming pools even had a drinks bar in the middle of it where you could sip your lemonade ( no alcohol remember) in the water. We did a couple of local tours, one covering the mosques and Sultan's palace and the other the water village, where a huge population of seemingly happy people lived in ramshackle wooden houses built on stilts in the river. The tiny population of Brunei love their Sultan and royal family; the women seem to be emancipated and health and social security is well taken care of. However, there didn't seem to be much cut and thrust to the place and it did make you wonder whether this would change at some point. We asked our tour guide if there was any crime in Brunei and he said there was hardly any! He said one of the most serious crimes was when an unmarried couple were caught together in a car or some other quiet place, unchaperoned, "indecorum". The penalty was 2 years in jail and the man would be given lashes too!
The last leg of our journey to Perth was only 5 and a half hours and on arrival at the airport our son-in-law was waiting to greet us. My daughter and her husband's home is right on the edge of the Indian Ocean and although we had seen photographs, they did not do justice to the brilliant azure blue of the ocean and the vast expanse of the sea and sky. The sunsets there are really spectacular and much more enjoyable with a G & T than the TV. Because we were going to stay for 6 weeks, my husband and I easily slipped into a home from home mode. I somehow got volunteered to do the whole family's cooking and my husband concentrated on DIY, the garden and keeping the 2 grandsons (aged 3 and 5 ) amused. Their garden , although a lot smaller than the one they had in Chislehurst, was very nice. Most houses in Perth are built on a plot of land which is almost covered by house- at least the newer ones are. My daughter is quite fortunate in having a relatively large garden therefore. To have a swimming pool in Perth is the norm, and because Perth is on the Indian Ocean and the climate is comfortable warm/hot, boating is a very common pastime and in fact one in three families own a boat. Most second or triple garages are used to house the boat and trailer.
Anyway, re our first stint of Antipodean gardening. We first set to work tidying the garden and discovered landscape features that had been covered by leaf litter etc. which we cleared. Fallen palm fronds were everywhere and anyone who has tried to pull off a dead palm frond from its trunk will know how hard this is. In fact you have to saw them off and the wood is as dense as mahogany. I must say that whilst doing all this gardening we wore gloves as we were well aware of the red spot poisonous spiders that were very common and possible snakes hibernating in the leaf letter. We discovered lizard type creatures, but these were not poisonous and quite amusing to watch.- in fact we gave them names. The soil in Perth isn't soil at all but sand. Apparently the whole of Western Australia is mostly sand, consisting of 3 types. The sand which is absolutely useless, sand you can grow a certain amount of things in and the other type of sand which is very fertile. Anyway their garden belonged to the last category., supplemented by fertilisers and large quantities of compost. Because our 5 year old grandson loves eating tomatoes and always raided my greenhouse for tomatoes in England I decided to buy some plug plants (the cherry type) from Brunnings which is equivalent to B & Q. I asked the very knowledgeable assistant whether it was too late in the season to be starting tomato plug plants and he said that you can grow tomatoes all the year round in Perth. Anyway in the 6 weeks that these had to grow whilst we were there, they had about 3 trusses of fruit on- absolutely incredible- and I felt quite envious thinking of how I have to nurture along my Sungold each spring in England. Although my daughter's garden had been professionally landscaped originally, we felt that it needed something to soften and highlight the general planting. It seemed to be full of palms, large evergreen spikey things and dense jungle greens. Anyway we put in a couple of Bougainvillaea which the next door neighbour wasn't too happy with because of "the blossom going into her pool", frangipani, oleanders, plumbago, geraniums etc, all of which would be OK outside in winter. We also planted some of the beautiful brilliantly coloured house plants that we buy here, but which over there grow into shrubs. Front lawns in Perth are like Wilton green carpets, cut to about 1/2 inch long. Most people have what they call a reticulation system which is an automatic watering system, so nobody is out the front each night with a hose. The back lawns are planted with a very coarse grass with a wide leaf which grows sideways- rather like our wire grass- and this takes a lot more heat and wear. The weather whilst there ranged in temperature from about 25 degrees C to a whopping 42 but apart from a few days, it was really very pleasant with a sea breeze and low humidity.
We look forward to taking another trip this Autumn/Winter and I personally can't wait to see how the new plants are doing, not to mention the progress and the taste of the tomatoes which incidentally have now taken the form and height of honeysuckle- I don't think I told my daughter to pinch out the side shoots!
French Connections
I have had contact through Email with an English lady who lives in Normandy, France. She has met a delightful French couple who are potty about roses and have a collection of about 900 old fashioned roses in their garden which they open to the public. Mr. Barbier would like to exchange ideas, cuttings , visits and start up rosey friendships. If you use a computer and are on the web perhaps you would like to start a correspondence through the English lady, she has offered to translate. Please ring Janet for more details if you are interested.
Open Garden
Mick & Brenda Andrews would like to thank everyone who came to their open garden afternoon on Sunday 29th July. Thankfully the weather was warm & sunny and over 100 people came to view a beautifully designed garden stuffed full of unusual plants. Thanks go to Brenda's mum, Vanessa and Dora for keeping everyone supplied with refreshments. £160 was raised for the “Woodlands Farm Trust"