Autumn2005news

Newsletter Autumn 2005

From the Post Bag

ND wrote very kindly that her Leisure Gardening course had been very appropriate for her requirements and that “the text material provided throughout the course has been packed with relevant facts and information. It has provided me with a wealth of putting theory into practice – I believe my garden is starting to show the benefit.”

The most helpful part of the course had been her tutor whose “speed at returning my marked assignments, her encouragement and comments, helpful tips regarding the overall assessment of my work.”

A beautiful view - taken during my recent visit to

Home Covert - the renowned garden of John & Sarah Phillips near Devizes, Wiltshire - OM

The HCC has provided a little very modest support for the local Child Safety Education Campaign 2005 whose aims are to promote and further the personal safety, social, health and citizenship education of children and young people, encouraging their study needs through the written word and also promotion of public interest in Personal Safety and Citizenship.

The leaflet for the Alnwick Garden has come my way – gardening on a grand scale in Northumberland.

Paula S from Staffordshire has just rang in to thank the office and especially the ladies who have “always been so good” She even commented personally on the hand written letters from yours truly. (Some folks find them difficult to read! For which I do apologise.)

RHS Bursaries

These are available for the improvement of horticultural knowledge and experience. As yet these have not supported any one with their HCC studies, but if you are within 25 to 35 years of age there are the OSAKA travel awards. A further abridges outline includes:-

The BLAALL Valentine Bursary supports plant study expeditions – open to individuals and groups. The Coke Trust Awards – to aid professional and student gardeners also to others and for clearly defined horticultural projects with a distinct educational, research or historical value.

The RHS Financial awards – these are available for a wide range of projects associated with horticulture. The Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mothers Bursary – eligibility 20 to 35 – reserved for proposals of particular excellence.

The E. A. Bowles Memorial Bursary – open to students and trainees whose project is associated with the work of E. A . Bowles and his garden at Myddelton House.

The Jimmy Smart Bursar – for study of plants and or trees growing in their natural habitat – open to experienced working gardeners in the UK.

A leaflet on the RHS Bursaries is available 020 7821 3000 or email membership@rhs.org.uk or from the Secretary, The RHS Bursaries Committee, RHS Wisley, Woking, Surrey GU23 6QB or by clicking here you can open the RHS Bursaries page.

Sue from Nemasys has sent her newsletter with stories of using nematodes to control garden pests. Now is the time for an autumn application of the predatory nematodes to control vine weevil. I might also invest in some nema slug to bother the overwintering population of slugs and snail’s www.beckerunderwood.com or 01903 736926 email suegibb@beckerunderwood.com

Our congratulations to Peter Brown and his team at the University of Bath Estates Department on their success in the 2005 Bath in Bloom Environmental Project section.

AW from Eire kindly sent a commemorative crystal clock to celebrate the passing of the RHS Diploma. She is to be the winner of the Institute of Horticulture (IOH) prize.

This reminds me of the IOH Aberconway Medal Competition – we do need entrants if anyone is to win this. The next closing date is c. 15th July 2006 and entries should take the form of a written thesis/dissertation/project on a horticultural or closely related subject which has been completed in the last 5 years. More details on request to ioh@horticulture.org.uk or visit the IoH Bursaries page

Mrs D wrote in having passed her RHS Diploma using our Material only. She had found the notes in Module F were tremendously helpful.

The water feature at 16 Notton is now complete

- gardens are for children!

I had a nice letter from a prisoner CS who said “last year I did a diploma for horticulture with another college. “I found the HCC and my tutor much more helpful and professional.

Martin D wrote that the whole of the Cert. Arbor. Study programme had been very helpful.

I read about the National Vine Collection in Herefordshire in the Allotment and Leisure Gardener. It has been a good growing season for the outdoor grapes. Where I used to work at Lackham College we planted Leon Millot (shown left) – among others and it did well in the walled garden. The Home Economics Department even produced a few bottles of a drinkable red wine we called Count De Eu – after an early owner of the then huge estate (around a thousand years ago) well – in my garden here ours used to grow very well but would not ripen before mid October which was too late for quality. (A Leylandii hedge nearby not mine) depressed the light from the west and south and I gave up but the idea of seeing 350 varieties does appeal to me and maybe I will review the situation they were such fun to grow. Our weather is said to be getting warmer. I have a sunnier site at least potentially and I am tempted to give it another go.

The National Vine Collection is with Brian & Annie Edwards http://vinenursery.netfirms.com

I still grow Vitis vinifera ‘purpurea’ (shown right) which is easy, the birds won’t touch it but the grapes are so sour it seems to be difficult to make into drinkable wine – but it is very decorative as a climber it is well worth a place with its purple foliage and deep purple bunches of grapes.

Leon Millot is available from 5 nurseries listed in the Plant Finder 2003.

Plant It – the eighth issue of the R & D Newsletter for Horticulture (& more) has arrived. There is an exciting article about strawberry breeding – yield apparently correlates with the number of flowering stems rather than the size of the crown. (Maybe someone to capture the flavour of the legendary strawberry Royal Sovereign in a new variant and improve its low yield by gaining the capacity to produce more flowers could regain my faith in the taste of strawberries.

There was a mention also of raspberries (which are mostly grown in tunnels) and have a series of cropping dates:- Malling Juno, Malping Minerva, Octavia, Glen Ample and Tulameen were varieties in order of cropping.

" Glen Ample"

HDC the Horticultural Development Council has sent several superb fact sheets including one on the biology and control of the two spotted spider mite on nursery stock. These are some publications available to non-members.

A colour handbook, Biological Control in Plant Protection by Neil Helyer, Kevin Brown, Nigel D Cattlin, is available. Published by Manson Publishing Ltd. Telephone No. 020 8905 5150

ISBN 1-874545-28-6.

Alford, D V (1991) A colour Atlas of Pests of Ornamental Trees, Shrubs and Flowers.

Published by Wolfe Press

ISBN 0 7234 16435.

‘Knowing and recognising’ by N Malais and W Ravensberg. Published by Reed Press, ISBN 90 5439 126 X.