The March meeting saw the return of our loyal Barry Gayton, who spoke on the subject of “Trees & Shrubs”. He explained that the garden is far from boring at this time of the year, with many shrubs in flower and even some butterflies appearing. With the deciduous trees and shrubs not yet in leaf, you can see the backbone of the garden, with every branch and trunk forming a structure, and you can see beyond as well.
Barry concentrated on a relatively small range of plants, to suit smaller gardens.
One of his favourite shrubs is the genus Daphne, not only for its exquisite fragrance, but also the longevity of flowering.
He is a great fan of growing in containers, especially camellias and hydrangeas. This way you can control the growing medium, also pick up any problems that you notice when going round on a regular basis watering.
Acuba Japonica – the spotted laurel, has all year-round interest. It is an evergreen and can be planted beneath trees. As it is drought resistant, it does not compete with the tree for water. It has maroon flowers in Spring and red fruit in late summer, early autumn.
A good all-rounder to have in your garden is the winter flowering honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima, with a common name of “kiss me at the gate”. It flowers nonstop from Nov – end of April. It can tolerate any aspect or soil conditions and withstand temperatures down to -15degrees C.
Other shrubs mentioned were Cotoneaster pendula, with its abundant red berries, very bird friendly.
Chimonanthusp praecox, wintersweet, very fragrant flowers from Jan – April; it is a striking shrub in its deciduous state.
Barry was running out of time, so only touched on the subject of trees, mentioning the silver birch with its beautiful bark.
Most of the plants he grows in his 1.5-acre garden are from seeds and cuttings. He has wildlife in mind when choosing varieties. His golden rule for shrubs is to prune hard after flowering, and do not feed, as this will encourage more soft growth and weaken the plant.
A fact: The flowers of plants such as hydrangeas and hellebores, don’t have petals but sepal. This is why the flowers stay on the stems, but just fade.
It was a very interesting and informative evening, ending with the sale of plants that he had brought. The hellebores were particularly popular and were snapped up quickly.
Hanna Roberts
Next meeting May 5th 7.45pm Fowlmere Village Hall
“The history of growing tropical plants in the UK” by Zsuzsa Serer
