CATISFIELD GARDENING CLUB NEWSLETTER APRIL 2016
Issue3
2
Catisfield
Gardening
Club
Newsletter
April 2016
A WEED IS AN UNLOVED FLOWER
The Oriental Poppy
This month (Thursday 14 April at 7.30
pm) we look forward to welcoming
our speaker; Sandy Worth of Water
Meadow Nursery, in Cheriton,
Hampshire, who holds the National
Collection of Oriental poppy's
(Papaver orientale). Much of the
popularity of this plant can be
attributed to Sandy who after
international trials at Wisley finished
in 1998 got in touch with nurseries
where the best cultivars had come
from, with a view to acquiring
cuttings material.
This led her to Germany, to Countess
von Zeppelin's nursery at Sulzburg,
where many fine modern cultivars
have been raised. No less than six of
the eight that won Awards of Garden
Merit at the trials were hers, notably
'Khedive' (pale pink), 'Effendi' (big
salmon-pink flowers), and
'Leuchtfeuer' (glowing salmonorange, with a big black basal
blotch).
These, together with other modern
cultivars with strong stems and
upward, rather than outward, facing
flowers, such as Sandy's own
'Lauren's Lilac', 'Snowgoose',
'Raspberry Ruffles' and 'The Promise'
have been introduced into the Water
Meadow Nursery catalogue, along
with a race of hybrids bred in
California, called Super Poppies.
Super Poppies are complex hybrids
between orientale, and closely
related annual species.
Although tall, these tend to be stiffstemmed, so do not require staking.
And the Super Poppies have hybrid
vigour, which means they strike
quickly from root cuttings, and
produce flowers all summer into the
autumn.
We look forward to everything
Sandy can tell us about successfully
growing these wonderful flowers. .
Issue Date
Sale of Items at Each Meeting –
We will again have a variety of seasonal
garden items for sale at the April
meeting courtesy of St Margaret’s
Nursey at discounted prices. If there are
any items that you would like to see for
sale please let the Chairman know as
soon as possible.
BBC Gardeners’ World ‘Back to
Basics’ Magazine Booklet
Did you know that an excellent 3 part
booklet has been produced containing 25
essential skills to make us all better
gardeners. Part 1 is free with the April
edition and parts 2 and 3 are free with
the May and June editions of the
magazine.
CATISFIELD GARDENING CLUB NEWSLETTER APRIL 2016 | Issue 3
2
June – Astrantia ‘Roma’ – Happy in
any soil, produces bold clumps of
pink pincussion flowers. Non-stop
colour until late Autumn.
July - Campanula ‘Sarastro’ – A
bewitching campanula with hanging
deep violet-blue bells.
Growing Our Membership
Our regular reminder; that we need all of our
members that we are constantly need new
members to grow the Club. The more members
we have the more we will be able to do as a Club.
To help with this we have put together a good
quality pamphlet telling everyone about what the
club has to offer. We have deliberately made it
attractive on good quality card so that the
temptation is not to throw it away. If every
member recruited one person then our
membership would double! Please take a
pamphlet or two to give out.
A ‘show-stopping’ Colourful plant
for each month!
Have you ever wanted to have an
easy growing plant (bulb or tree)
that provides brilliant colour each
month? Then try these
suggestions:
January – Mahonia japonica – ice,
snow and chilly winds, nothing
deters this bold everygreen shrub
that produces vibrant yellow highly
scented flowers.
February – Helleborus x hybridus –
Colours range from pure white to
deep burgundy. Easy to grow,
prefers a soil rich in organic matter.
Some gardeners remove many of the
leaves to show the flowers to better
effect.
March – Primula vulgaris – Our
native primrose, a great self-seeder.
April – Trillium chloropetalum – An
American woodland plant that
produces a magnificent displays and
lasts for months in cool weather.
May – Euphorbia epithymoides –
The beacons of late spring turning a
zingy yellow.
August – Phlox x arendsii ‘Hesperis’
– An old Phlox variety it is extremely
beautiful and is mildew resistant.
September – Rudbeckia x fulgida
deamii – A stunning perennial that
prefers full sun. Produces so many
yellow flowers you do not see the
leaves!
October – Neine ‘Zeal Giant’ – As
the colour drains from your garden
this gorgeous Nerine comes to the
rescue with big bold fluorescent pink
flowers if provided with a sunny
spot.
November – Acer ‘Osakazuki’ – A
superb variety producing crimson
leaves that deepen. Acers prefer
acid soils and sheltered preferably by
taller trees.
December – Sorbus aucuparia – We
end the year with our native
mountain ash which produces large
red berries in large numbers – until
devoured by the birds such as
blackbirds, Fireldfares and
Redwings.
What on?
RHS Flower Show Cardiff
15 to 17 April.
RHS Chelsea Flower Show
24 to 28 May.
RHS London Rose Show
3 to 4 June.
RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower
Show.
5 to 10 July
Buy young hardy plants in 9cm
pots and plant out. Tender plants
should be planted out after the risk
of frost is over. These smaller
plants have good root growth and
often establish better than larger
plants.
Repot Amaryllis – After flowering
these plants benefit from growing on
until Autumn. Repot if bulb is close
to pot sides. New pot should be
only slightly larger than bulb. Keep
bulb proud of compost and feed and
water weekly until September when
it is time to rest the bulb to induce
flowering.
Lookout for Whitefly – common in
greenhouses, use sticky traps on
sale in our garden items sale.
Keep vents open during the day in
your greenhouse to prevent plants
being scorched. Close around
teatime.
Repot your pot plants that have
outgrown their containers.
Rest cyclamen by reducing the
watering and keep them dry when
dormant.
Start off your potato crop.
Protect fruit blossom from any
possibility of frost.
Pick any sawfly grubs off currants
and gooseberry bushes.
A COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF THINGS
TO DO CAN BE FOUND AT:
http://www.gardenersworld.com/what-todo-now/week15/