What’s On! gardening events, compiled by The SUN gardening team.

What’s On!

A list of gardening related events for the coming week, compiled by The SUN gardening team.

To submit a gardening event, please see below the last event for this week.

 Week 38

Sunday 13th September

Maesfron Hall and Gardens, Trewern, Powys, Mid Wales. 

Open 2-5pm

Hall and Gardens Opening

Cost: £3.00 adults £1.00 children

For more details call 01 938 570 600

 Sunday 13th September

The Harris Garden, Whiteknights, The University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire

Open 2-6pm

The Harris Garden Open Day + plant sale and afternoon tea and cakes

Cost: £3.00

For more details call 0118 987 2119

 

Sunday 13th September

Chatsworth House, Bakewell, Derbyshire

Open 11am-5pm

Open gardens + Specialist Plant Sales

Cost: £7.50 adults £4.50 children; under-3s free

For more details call 0115 9830 278

 

Sunday 13th September

Goltho House Gardens, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire

Open 10am-4pm

Cost: £4 adults; children free

For more details call 01673 857768

 

Sunday 13th September

Denbies Vineyard, London Road, Dorking, Surrey.

Open 11am-4pm

NCCPG (Surrey) Plant Fair

Cost: Free

For more details call 01737 812666

 

Sunday 13th September – Sunday 27th September

Marle Place, Brenchley, Kent

Open 11am-4pm

Sculpture Show – 100 + contemporary pieces displayed around the grounds

Cost: £5 adults £1 children

For more details call 01892 722304

 

Tuesday 15th September

Stone House Garden, Wyck Rissington, Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire

Open 10am-3pm

Specialist Plant Sale

Cost: Free

For more details call 01451 810 337

 

Tuesday 15th September

The Place For Plants, East Bergholt Place, Suffolk Open 10am-5pm

Bulb Day + bulbs sale, entry to gardens included + talk by Matthew Tanton Brown at 10.30am, on choosing and planting bulbs.

Cost: £5

For more details call 01206 299224

 

Wednesday 16th September

Merriments Gardens, Hurst Green, East Sussex

Open 10am-5.30pm

Gardens Opening in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support

Cost: £4.50 adults £2 children

For more details call 01580880899

 

Thursday 17th September

The Walled Garden Cowdray, Midhurst, West Sussex

Open 8pm

‘Mistake by Mistake’: Lord Heseltine talks about his gardens at Thenford House, Northamptonshire

Cost: £10

For more details & booking call 01730 826900

 

Saturday 19th September

United Reformed Church, South Grove, Highgate Village, North London

Open 2-5pm

Highgate Horticultural Society Autumn Show

Cost: Free entry

For more details call 020 7263 6831

 

Saturday 19th September

Old Stoke Road, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire

Open 2.30pm onwards

Aylesbury Gardening Society Annual Show

Cost: Free entry

For more details call 01296 435482

 

Saturday 19th September

Allendale Centre, Wimborne, Dorset

Open 2.30pm

East Dorset group of Plant Heritage (NCCPG). Talk on hydrangeas by Sally Gregson

Cost: £2

For more details call 01929 552817

 

Saturday 19th – Sunday 20^th September

Waterperry Gardens, Waterperry, Oxfordshire

Open 10am-5.30pm

Michaelmas Daisy Weekend + plant sales

Cost: £5.45 adults £3.65 children; under-10s free (includes entrance to gardens)

For more details call 01844 339254

 Sunday 20^th September

Hill Close Gardens, Friars Street, Warwick, Warwickshire

Open 10am-3pm

Aster Day Course – talks + guided tour

Cost: £10 for members and £15 for non-members

For more details call 01926 493339

 

Sunday 20^th September

Helmingham Hall, Helmingham, Stowmarket, Suffolk.

Open 10.30am-4pm

Autumn Plant Sale + Panel of experts to solve any plant problems

Cost: £5 including admission to Helmingham Hall Gardens and free parking For more details call 01787 312046

 

To submit a gardening event, send details of time, place, duration and cost (if any). Also a contact number, to www.thesun.co.uk/gardening

 

Or contact us by logging on to www.thegardeningchannel.net

where you can also see our gardening video clips.

What’s On!

What’s On!

A list of gardening related events for the coming week, compiled by The SUN gardening team.

 

To submit a gardening event, please see below the last event for this week.

 

Week 19

 

Thursday 7 ^th – Sunday 10^th May

Malvern Spring Show, The Showground, Malvern, Worcs. WR13 6NW 

9am – 6pm

Show Gardens, Horticultural Exhibits & Stalls

Cost: £14.00 – 28.00

For more details call 01684 584900

 

Friday 8 ^th – Sunday 10^th May

Norfolk Garden Show, The Norfolk Showground, New Costessey, Norwich. NR5 0TT

9.30am – 5.00pm

Horticultural Exhibits & Stalls

Cost: £5.50, children: £ FREE

For more details call 01702 549622

 

Saturday 9 ^th May

North West Cottage Garden Society Show, Lydiate Parish Hall, 288 Southport Road, Lydiate Nr Liverpool

11.00 a.m. opening

Specialist nurseries selling a range of plants and garden bri-a-brac.

Cost: £1.00.

For more details call 01704 550154

 

Sunday 10^th May

National Collection of Clematis Montana, By The Way, Lodge Drove

Woodfalls, Salisbury, Wiltshire

Open Day

2.00 p.m. start

Cost: £5.00 (includes home made light refreshments)

For more details call 01725 511931.

What’s On!

What’s On!

A list of gardening related events for the coming week, compiled by The SUN gardening team.

 

To submit a gardening event, please see below the last event for this week.

 

Week 16

 

Saturday April 18 ^th

West Acre Gardens, West Acre, King’s Lynn, PE32 1UJ           10.30am – 4.00pm                                                                         Auricula Day                                                                                                 Cost Admission free

For more details call 01760 755562

 

Saturday April 18 ^th

Franklin Hall, Halton Road, Spilsby, Lincolnshire PE23 5LA     1.30pm – 5.00pm
Lincolnshire Daffodil Society Annual Spring Show                          Cost £1.50 children free

For more details

                                                                                                        Saturday April 18 ^th                                                                               Saltford Village Hall, Wedmore Rd, Saltford, Bristol, Avon BS31 3BY

2.00pm – 4.00pm
West of England Auricula & Primrose Society Show

Cost £1.00

For more details call 01530 222458

 

Saturday April 18 ^th – Sunday April 19^th

Sandhill Farm House, Rogate, Petersfield, Hampshire GU31 5HU

2.00pm – 5.00pm

Gardens Open (gardens of internationally renowned designer Rosemary Alexander)

Cost £3.50 children free No concessions

For more details call 01730 818373

 

Sunday April 19^th

Chatsworth House, Chatsworth, Bakewell, Derbyshire, DE45 1PP

11.00am – 5.00pm

Plant Sale

Cost = Entry to sale is free

For more details call 01159 830278

 

Sunday April 19^th

Old Rectory, Quenington, Gloucestershire, GL7 5BN

11.00am – 4.00pm

Rare Plant Fair

Cost £4.00 (includes access to garden)

For more details call 08454 681368

 

Monday April 20^th – Thursday April 30^th

Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Jermyns Lane, Ampfield, Hampshire SO51 0QA

Exhibition – Wildflowers of Britain

Cost = Entry is free

For more details call 01794 369318

 

To submit a gardening event, send details of time, place, duration and cost (if any). Also a contact number, to www.thesun.co.uk/gardening

 

Or contact us by logging on to www.thegardeningchannel.net

where you can also see our gardening video clips.

Week 15

Friday April 10th – Saturday April 11th

Harvey’s Garden Plants, Thurston, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP31 3SJ

9.30am – 4.30pm
Woodland and Shade loving plant days

Cost Admission free

For more details call 01359 233363

 

Friday April 10th – Sunday April 12th

Edinburgh Botanic Garden, 20a Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR
11.00am – 3.00pm

The evolutionary Secrets of Birds

Cost ?

 For more details call 0131 552 7171

Saturday April 11th

Bridge Nurseries, Dunwich, Suffolk IP17 3DZ

Designing & Planting a Herb Garden

Cost £15.00 (£12.00 for RHS members)

 For more details call 01405 860708

 

Saturday April 11th

Church of the Good Shepherd Hall, Station Approach, Tadworth, Surrey KT20 5AH

2.30 pm

Kingswood, Walton & Tadworth Horticultural Society Spring Show

Cost ?

 For more details call 01737 812984

Sunday April 12th

Syon House, Syon Park, Brentford, Middlesex, TW 8J

10.30am – 4.00pm
Rare Plant Fair

Cost £2.50 for adults + concessions.

For more details call 020 8560 0882

 

Sunday April 12^th – Monday April 13th

Barton Cottage & Goulters Mill Farm, Littleton Drew, Castle Combe, Wiltshire

2.30pm – 5.00pm
Gardens Open + Plant sales

Cost

For more details call 01249 782555

 

Monday April 13th

Frank Parkinson Centre, Pershore College, Pershore, Worcestershire WR10 3JP

11.30am – 4.00pm

Cotswold & Malvern Alpine Garden Society – Plant Sale

Cost £1.50 = AGS members free

For more details call 01905 453245

Monday April 13th

The Dorothy Clive Garden, Willoughbridge, Market Drayton, Shropshire, TF9 4EU

10.00 a.m. 

Plant Hunters’ Fair

Cost £2.50 (children free) to Garden and Fair, Free Parking.

For more details call 01270 811443

 

To submit a gardening event, send details of time, place, duration and cost (if any). Also a contact number, to www.thesun.co.uk/gardening

 

Or contact us by logging on to www.thegardeningchannel.net

where you can also see our gardening video clips.

 

What’s On!

What’s On!

A list of gardening related events for the coming week, compiled by The SUN gardening team.

 

To submit a gardening event, please see below the last event for this week.

 

Week 13

Thursday March 26^th

Barnsdale Gardens, Exton Oakham, Rutland LE15 8AH

10.30am-12.30pm

Guided Spring Walk with Nick Hamilton

Cost £15.00

For more details call 01572 813200

 

Saturday March 28 ^th

Be creative with Clematis

West Dean College, Chichester, West Sussex

10.30am-3.30pm

Lecture with Marcus Dancer

Cost £52.00 includes refreshments + Lunch

For more details call 08444 994408

 

Saturday March 28 ^th

Alpine Garden Society – Northumberland Show,

The Wentworth Leisure Centre, Hexham, NE46 3PN.

12.00 noon to 4.00 pm

Alpine Plants display & Plant sale

Cost £2.00 = AGS members free

For more details call 01386 554 790

 

Saturday March 28 ^th

Alpine Garden Society – South West Show,

St Luke’s Science & Sports College, Harts Lane, Exeter, EX1 3RD

12.00 noon to 4.00 pm

Alpine Plants display & Plant sale

Cost £2.00 = AGS members free

For more details call 01386 554 790

 

Saturday March 28 ^th-Sunday March 29^th

Daffodil Weekend

Thriplow, Royston, Cambridgeshire

11.00am – 5.00pm

Gardens Open Plant sale & Fun weekend

Cost £5.50 children £2.50 (under 5’s free)

For more details call 01763 208538

 

Sunday March 29^th

Rare Plant Fair

The Bishop’s Palace, Wells, Somerset

11.00am – 4.00pm

Rare Plants display & Plant sale

Cost £4.00

For more details call 0845 468 1368

 

 

To submit a gardening event, send details of time, place, duration and cost (if any). Also a contact number, to www.thesun.co.uk/gardening

 

To see our gardening video clips log on to www.thegardeningchannel.net

What’s On!

A list of gardening related events for the coming week, compiled by The SUN gardening team.

 

To submit a gardening event, please see below the last event for this week.

 

Wednesday March 18^th- Tuesday April 7^th

Fine Art Society, 148 New Bond Street, London, W1S 2JT

10.00 am – 6 pm Monday – Friday & 10.00 am – 1.00 pm Saturday

Art Exhibition ‘Beauty Spot‘, by Tony Heywood

For more details and booking call 0207 629 5116

 

Thursday March 19^th

Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, Chelsea, London, SW10 0XE

Lecture – Plants for your home by Stephen Davies & Guy Pullen

Cost £15.00

For more details and booking call 0207 352 1900

 

Saturday March 21^st  

Alpine Garden Society – East Lancashire Show

The Riverside, Whitworth Civic Hall, Market St, Whitworth, Lancs OL12 8DP

12.00 noon to 4.00 pm

Alpine Plants display & Plant sale

Cost £2.00 = AGS members free

For more details call 01386 554 790

 

Saturday March 21^st  

Alpine Garden Society – Kent Show,

Rainham School for Girls, Highfield Road, Rainham, Gillingham, ME8 0BX

12.00 noon to 4.00 pm

Alpine Plants display & Plant sale

Cost £2.00 = AGS members free

For more details call 01386 554 790

 

Saturday March 21^st  

Hampstead Garden Suburb Horticultural Society, Free Church Hall, Northway, London NW11

2.00 pm to 4.00 pm

Spring Flower Show

Cost £1.00 (Members free)

For more details call 0208 455 6507

 

Saturday March 21^st  

Arden School, Knowle, West Midlands, B93 0PT

2.00 pm to 4.00 pm

Primula Show

Cost £1.00

For more details call 01530 222458

 

Saturday March 21^st  – Sunday March 22^nd

RHS Lawrence Hall, Greycoat Street and Vincent Square London SW1

10am – 5pm

RHS Orchid Show 2009

Cost £5.00 (£3.00 for RHS members)

For more details and booking call 08456 121253

 

Sunday March 22^nd

Four Oaks Direct, Lower Withington, Nr Macclesfield, Cheshire SK11 9DX

10.00am – 4pm

Flower Power Fair

Cost £2.00

For more details call 07730 859441

 

Sunday March 22^nd

Marks Hall Gardens & Arboretum, Nr Coggeshall, Essex CO6 1TG

10.30am – 4pm

Gardens Open & Plant Sales

Cost £10.00 per car (£8.00 for RHS members, £5.00 (£3.00 for Marks Hall)

For more details and booking call 01376 563796

 

 To submit a gardening event, send details of time, place, duration and cost (if any). Also a contact number, to www.thesun.co.uk/gardening

 

To see our gardening video clips log on to www.thegardeningchannel.net

What’s On

What’s On

A list of gardening related events for the coming week, compiled by The SUN gardening team.

 

To submit a gardening event, send details of time, place, duration and cost (if any). Also a contact number, to www.thesun.co.uk/gardening

 

Week 11

 

Monday March 9^th – Sunday 15 ^th

RHS Garden Wisley, Woking, Surrey

10am open,

Talks/Lectures/Demonstrations – by RHS Scientists

Normal garden entry terms apply

For more details call 0845 260 9000

 

Wednesday March 11^th

Janine Pattison Garden Scholl @ Compton Acres, Poole, Dorset

10am – 3.30pm

One Day course – The Cutting Garden with Sarah Raven

Cost £145.00 (lunch included)

For more details and booking call 01202 426143

 

Thursday March 12^th

The RHS Centre, Pershore College, Pershore, Worcestershire. WR10 3JP

7.30pm

Lecture – Croome – The Rebirth of a Landscape Park with Michael Smith

Cost £8.50 (£7.00 for RHS members)

For more details and booking call 01386 554609

 

Thursday March 12^th

RHS Gardens Harlow Carr, Crag Lane, Harrogate, North Yorks HG3 1QB

2.00pm,

Walk – Spring Flowers

Cost £11.50 (£5.00 for RHS members)

For more details and booking call 01423 565418

 

Thursday March 12^th

Garden Organic, Ryton, Nr Coventry, Warwickshire.

2.00pm – 4.00pm

Workshop – Organic Plant propagation

Cost £25.00 (Garden Organic members £20.00)

For more details and booking contact the gardens on 02476 217717

 

Saturday March 14^th

RHS Garden Hyde Hall, Rettendon, Chelmsford, Essex

10.30am – 3.30pm

Workshop – Spring Floower Arranging for beginners with Diana Barnes

Cost £56.00 (£50.00 for RHS members) lunch included

For more details and booking call 01245 400256

 

Saturday March 14^th – Sunday 15th

Place for Plants, East Bergholt, Suffolk

10.00am – 5.00pm

Open Weekend (guided tours of Arboretum @ 2.00pm each day)

Cost £3.00 (children free)

For more details call 01206 299224

 

Saturday March 14^th – Sunday 22 ^nd

Meadow Croft Garden Centre, Woodham Road, Battlesbridge, Wickford

Essex. SS11 7QU

Normal opening times & entry is free

Viola & Pansy Festival up to 700 named varieties on display.

For more details call 01245 320314

 

Tuesday March 17^th

Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants, Whitchurch, Hampshire

10.30am – 12.30pm

Nursery tour/Demonstration – Early Spring-flowering perennials

Cost £10.00 (£8.00 for RHS members)

For more details call 08456 121253

A Tree for Life

1. 

   Its Christmas Already

   

   
   
   Well, here we are in December, with about three weeks to go before the festivities really get under way – which brings me onto the subject of Christmas trees.

   Last Saturday, we advertised an offer on the Sun Gardening page in conjunction with Homebase to give our readers a discount of 20% off any live Christmas tree (as long as you presented the coupon we printed in the newspaper). The emphasis was on buying ‘live’ trees, particularly those grown in pots, with the aim of encouraging our readers to keep the tree from one year to the next.

   I’ve seen this go full circle now, because for many years there has been a movement away from real trees towards artificial ones. These can be packed away in the loft for eleven months of the year and brought out for three weeks or so in December and January. The advantage to going artificial was that real Christmas trees always seem to be the wrong shape or size, and within days they began to suffer the dreaded ‘needle drop’, meaning that you were still picking them out of the carpet in July.

   Apparently, the very first artificial Christmas trees were made by the manufacturers of toilet brushes, and there are those who believe that most artificial trees are still no better than green-coloured loo brushes. From an environmental standpoint, the materials used to make artificial trees take as long as an estimated 1000 years to break down.

   A live Christmas tree, on the other hand, can be either grown in a pot for many years on a patio or plunged in a border in the garden. When it becomes too large for placing indoors, it can be shredded and re-cycled or planted in a corner of the garden. If you buy a tree that has been cut at ground level (no roots), these are best kept in a pot of damp sand or compost while they are indoors over Christmas, to help to keep the needles on for longer, (a photographer friend of ours used to spray his tree with spray glue to keep the needles on the tree for longer).

   The trees to avoid are those that have been dug up and placed in pots recently. These are often bought with the intention of keeping them and growing them on afterwards (like the pot-grown trees), but their after-Christmas survival rate is usually poor and there’s often a very good reason for this. Many years ago as a horticultural student, I had a holiday job working on a Christmas tree plantation, and one of my jobs during the period leading up to the holidays was to collect up all of the trees that had been dug up with roots that day and bundle them into 5’s. The roots of these trees were all dipped in boiling water for a couple of minutes before they were potted and sold as “lifted potted trees”. Fairly obviously, they had almost no chance of ever growing afterwards, which was exactly what the supplier wanted so that his customers had to come back next year.  

   If you want a nice-looking, healthy live Christmas tree that will last for more than one year (and the way the finances are going, it makes sense), then look for a British pot-grown tree from somewhere reputable, like Homebase.

   Support our British Growers!

   Until next week.

Pat on the back

As Christmas looms and people slip into a party mood (although the celebrations may be more subdued this year), most industries also move into awards mode. In that respect, horticulture is no different. There are actually more sectors than you might realise and, over the past couple of weeks, two of them started off the awards season. First up were the Garden Retail Awards for independent garden centres, DIY stores that sell gardening merchandise and garden centre chains. The awards are judged independently and not even the judges know who has won until the night, as they only see their own marking schemes, not the final totals. The accolades are awarded for categories such as;

Best environmental policy, won by Wyevale Garden Centres,

Best customer service, won by Sidmouth Garden Centre (who had a very good evening and picked up three awards),

Strongest commitment to training, won by Webbs Garden Centres,

Best retail outlet of the year (with a turnover of 3 million plus) won by Scotsdales Garden Centre, who also won the Community involvement award (for supporting a care centre for terminally ill people). The last award of the night was the Lifetime achievement award, given to a lady called Phyllis Self who at 101 years of age still manages Whitehall Garden Centre (with the help of her son who is in his 70’s). Unfortunately she could not receive the award in person, as she was busy at Windsor Castle accepting her MBE from the Queen. It’s a pretty poor excuse for not turning up don’t you think?

 

The second event was for the gardening media, journalists, photographers, authors, TV and radio presenters and, dragging us into the 21^st century, webmasters and editors. As with the previous awards, some contestants did particularly well, most noticeably the BBC, with top gardening programme for both the TV and radio categories, as well as top gardening magazine. In some respects this is hardly surprising, as they swamped some categories and had as many as 75% of the total entries. With this awards ceremony, the grand finale was also a lifetime achievement award, which went to Michael Warren, a garden photographer who retired and sold his business last year. Well done to him.

 

Now there is even talk of a knighthood being awarded to someone in the horticultural industry. The names being bandied about include;

Beth Chatto, Andrew Colquhoun, David Gwyther, Charles Notcutt,

Peter Seabrook and Alan Titchmarsh.

 

Some are household names – the public face of gardening – while others work behind the scenes and are major figures within the industry. It’s noticeable that the youngest is just under 60 years old, the eldest in their 80’s. One thing that is certain is that Val and I aren’t in the list, because as you have probably gathered by now, you don’t really get a great deal of recognition in the gardening world until you are almost too old to enjoy it.

See you next time.   

Let us spray

The European Union is in the process of debating whether or not to withdraw from circulation a number of popular and well-used pesticides. Even if you are organic or anti-chemical (no, they are not the same thing), you have to wonder what on earth is going on. These politicians deal in concepts before making decisions that affect us all, allegedly for our benefit. If they go ahead, an estimated 90% of the chemicals we see on our garden centre shelves will vanish, with no replacements on offer.

 

These chemicals include glyphosate, sold in various forms but probably best known as ‘Roundup’, a systemic herbicide that is absorbed by the weeds it is sprayed on and moves through the circulatory system to kill all parts of the plant. For many years, this material has been used as a very effective control for persistent perennial weeds where no amount of cultivation or hand weeding provides effective control. This product could be banned under the new legislation and withdrawn from garden centres, leaving us with a real problem controlling perennial weeds. Interestingly, this product has, in the past, been approved by the Soil Association (who set the parameters for the standards in organic farming and growing) to control weeds when their other methods have failed to work. If this legislation goes ahead, weed control on allotments will be a nightmare and gardening will be much harder.

 

Another chemical that could vanish from our shelves is mancozeb, which is marketed as Dithane. This is recognised as a vital fungicide, which gives high levels of protection against potato blight (a devastating disease across Europe). To make matters worse, this also a very effective chemical for the control of fungal diseases in cereals, oilseed rape and other edible crops. Many experts in the world of crop protection and food production agree that if this chemical is withdrawn from use, it could set back crop protection between 10 – 20 years, with the end result being huge rises in the costs of food production. Obviously, these costs will have to be passed on to the consumer, so not only will it become more difficult for us to grow our own food at home or on the allotment, but it may also cost much more to buy from shops and supermarkets. It’s sad that this is all coming at a time when the ‘Grow your own’ movement has gained real momentum, particularly coupled with the increasing awareness of environmental issues such as food miles and carbon emissions? 

Bear in mind that as we can still import food from non-EU countries (who will continue to use these products), we will not be protected from the effects of these chemicals.

 

The chairman of the Crop Protection Agency tells us that it takes at least 10 years and costs around £100 million to develop and test a new product, so it does make you question the wisdom of withdrawing products before a suitable replacement has been tried and tested.

Keep logging on and, as we find out more, we will pass the information on to SUN online readers as quickly as possible.

See you next week.