CLIFTON GARDEN SOCIETY - Chris auditioning for Blue Planet

CLIFTON GARDEN SOCIETY

                        Chris auditioning for Blue Planet

                NEWSLETTER VOLUME 22 No.2 Autumn 2020

For further information visit our website at: www.cliftongardensociety.co.uk

2020 – THE YEAR OF COVID-19

Greetings to all our members – the printers are operational again and we can
communicate with you. We hope you are all well and coping with the strange world in
which we are living.

2020 is likely to be known as the year that never happened! In February when we had
a very enjoyable afternoon in the lovely garden at Rodmarton Manor who would have
believed it would be our only event in 2020. The next visit in March was cancelled at
a few hours notice as the lockdown was introduced. Another casualty was the AGM
so the current committee will serve until we can hold an AGM next year. The accounts
for the year to 31 December 2019 are enclosed with this newsletter. They have not
yet been examined but will be as soon as circumstances allow.

What about future plans? Answer: ‘Who knows’. The committee have decided not to
make any plans for the rest of this year. Social distancing requirements mean visits by
coach are not viable and we feel the same applies to the Christmas Party. We hope
to make plans for 2021 but the predictions from politicians and scientists are confusing.
As soon as we are satisfied that our activities can be safe we shall organise some
events starting hopefully with our popular snowdrop visit. We all want to get together
again as soon as possible – we are missing seeing all our friends!

We have already stated that there will be no membership fee for next year. That means
that all those on the membership list when lockdown started will receive 2021 cards in
January. New members will pay the usual fee.

                              THANK YOU SALLIE!

For many years Sallie Fox has produced a drawing or a watercolour picture for the
front cover of the Newsletter. This was always accompanied by a descriptive passage
about the plant she had chosen to feature, often one that grows in her own lovely
garden. They have always been a delight and made our Newsletter special. Sadly,
Sallie who is a well-known artist in Bristol and a fine potter, has decided to hand over
to someone else. We will miss opening the envelope and looking to see the artwork
that greets us. We would like to thank Sallie very much indeed for all the time and
effort she has put into producing it for such a long time.

The Committee – Christine Baldwin, Sue Stops, Pauline Barnes, Gundula Dorey,
Gillian Joseph, Chris Purvis, Di Stewart, Brenda Thomas.

NOTE FROM THE EDITORS

Are there any other members of the club with artistic talent who would like to take up
the reins? Perhaps several of you could share the load – maybe contributing one front
cover of the four in a year. It doesn't necessarily have to be painted but could be a
special photograph together with a piece of text describing its location and why you
are inspired.

                                           2

A BOUQUET OF LADIES

I was looking at an old family photograph from the 1900s and there they all were – a
bouquet of ladies with flowery names. There were the aunts, Rose and Violet, and
cousins, Daisy and Poppy. Olive was one of the bridesmaids and Ivy was obviously
trying to creep behind Lavender, too shy to want to be in the picture.

Names are fashion. Nowadays in our exciting multi-cultural society the naming of a
new baby offers a multitude of possibilities leaving history to record the trend of a
particular generation. Back in the early 20th century although flower names for the
girls were all the rage I can’t think of a single male called after a flower. I suppose it’s
pretty obvious that a macho guy would never want to be called Primrose or Violet.
They sometimes got a bird's name like Robin or Martin, but maybe that came a
generation or two after the flower girls.

Quite a few of the girls' names came from sweet-smelling flowers. For years nosegays
were given to judges before trials apparently to sniff should the defendant, straight
from prison, be pretty smelly. As there were no chemical spray or roll-on deodorants
around then I suppose even the judge probably smelt. Flowers were used to make
scent and association between a smell such as a lily of the valley and a pretty girl
made Lily a very popular name. The scent in many exotic perfumes is often associated
with great fashion houses and bears names like ‘Blue Grass’. Is there a scented blue
grass anywhere?

The language of flowers has been celebrated in many books the most popular
probably being ‘The Flower Fairies’ and, of course, there are fabulous horticultural
books with all the details.

Names get shortened. Violet becomes Vi (my mother’s best friend) and Lily becomes
Lil. Heaven helped anyone called Lavender. Which reminds me! Does anyone
remember CGS ‘tripper’ Lavender Meade King? Sadly she passed away some years
ago so we’ll never be able to ask what her nickname was! She would have laughed!

Flower arranging eventually became the thing and many people got very involved. At
one local flower show a lady called Rose created a fabulous display of roses whilst
another lady called Delphine (her grandmother loved delphiniums) arranged a huge
show of them: all coincidental of course.

Flower names are coming back. They are lovely names – no longer old-fashioned and
the more the merrier I say but I wouldn’t care to have the name of a student colleague
I once had – Iris Flower!

Sue Stops

                                             3

DAVID SPELLER’S GARDEN MISCELLANY

It is obvious that our gardens have provided much solace during the Covid-19
pandemic and the lockdown. I hope that we thought often of those self-isolating or
quarantined, and without such access or even denied neighbouring open spaces. A
new RHS book, Your Wellbeing Garden, by Alistair Griffiths, develops this theme.1,2
and physical and psychological health.3,4 It has occurred to me that a good session of
gardening or watering (with a watering can) is probably more beneficial to my strength
and balance than the boring prescribed exercises.

In the earlier part of the year we suffered a prolonged drought and recurrence of such
extreme events is likely. I have to reconsider my extensive use of terra cotta
containers, which provide control and easy access, but demand copious watering. At
least I do not have a lawn, but paving instead – regrettably impermeable, I confess.
Lawns will be challenged in the future as global temperatures rise. I have always
considered lawns uninteresting monocultures, though I can see their beauty if large
and their social and family value. I have noticed that in mown public areas allowing
even a small increase in the length of the grass at once encourages the flowering of
small plants – such as daisies, dove’s foot cranesbill and white clover – without
impairing the recreational quality of the turf. Can the lawn aficionado accept
dandelions? Surely some small part of our lawn can be enriched by flowering plants
valuable to pollinators, or we can adopt ‘No mow May’ to allow natural development?5
After all, King’s College, Cambridge, will be replacing its celebrated lawn with a wild
flower meadow.6

On the other hand, there may be benefits. In a previous article I described acquiring a
tropical plant, a Mandevilla cultivar, ‘Sundaville White’, and worrying about having no
glass cover to protect it from winter cold. Well, It probably did not need its great shroud
of water-permeable fleece during last winter, when frost was barely seen in cosy
Hotwells. The plant emerged, slightly macerated, and has made a good showing, with
pink buds opening to white flowers of 5-6 cm bell diameter. This may be a positive
example of how our plantings will be able to increase in variety with climate alteration.

Another appealing shrub, in elegant white, is my favourite hydrangea, the oak-leaved
Hydrangea quercifolia. I admire the pure white of the bracts in its long-lasting,
gracefully declining flower sprays, backed by the large, vivid green leaves.

To complete a trio of bushy plants, and return us to thoughts of climate change and
winter warmth, I will refer again to Rosa x odorata ‘Bengal Crimson’. This single rose
with large petals I have planted to be a bright focus in a bed of mainly blue or purple
flowers. My specimen was not the only one to be planted in Clifton after the rose was
commended by a lecturer to the Society, Nick Bailey, for its very long flowering season.
He thought it potentially able to bear blooms during all the 365 days of the year in a
sheltered spot.7 At present, flowering on my still small bush is very frequent and
sometimes plentiful, but intermittent. It may become continuous after further growth.

While we humans have battled with Covid-19, a plant epidemic has continued,
although it has not reached the UK. The bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, which I have
mentioned before now, seems to have spread to Europe from California. 8 It has a
broad host range and has caused widespread damage, including to vines and olive

                                            4

trees. To document and, above all, to prevent the spread of plant diseases, ‘plant
passports’ are now required to accompany any plants moved commercially in or from
the UK.8,9 The end users of the plants, we gardeners, do not have any responsibility
under these rules, though we may find that the burden imposed on suppliers reduces
choice and increases cost. More severe restrictions on plants particularly liable to
Xylella infection, such as lavender, rosemary and olives, were introduced, but have
been withdrawn; they may well be re-imposed next year.10

During the Society’s holiday in Yorkshire last year several of us were impressed by
the Carthusian Pink (Dianthus carthusianorum) – found wild in Europe but not in the
UK – with its tall stems of bright pink flowers. This year I have grown plants from seed.
Just one precocious flower stem has developed so far, but they should bloom well next
year. I have deliberately potted up some spares and I shall be pleased to give a plant
or two to a few of my companions, if they care to contact me (see below).

Finally … I return to a perpetual topic, slugs and snails (which pests, in fact, have been
ousted from their usual position at the top of the list of enquiries to the RHS, by foliage-
destroying caterpillars6). One of the few creatures to be relatively unscathed by the
terrible bush fires in Australia is a slug, Triboniophorus aff. graeffii – but this slug is
about eight inches long and entirely coloured a bright fluorescent pink… 11 Just
imagine… It is feared that it will find camouflage difficult on the bare and scorched
ground surfaces.

David Speller
(dave.speller@virginmedia.com; 0117 929 8425; 07813168494)
   1The Garden 145(4) April 2020; 2Your Wellbeing Garden, Alistair Griffiths, ISBN
                   9780241386729; 3Plant Review 2(2) June 2020;
  4https://DOI:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2020.103836; 5The Garden 145(5) May 2020;
  6Gardening Which? May 2020; 7Nick Bailey, 365 Days of Colour in Your Garden,

      Kyle Books,2015 ISBN 9780857832696; 8Plant Review 2(1) March 2020;
       9The Garden I45(2) February 2020; 10The Garden 145(8) August 2020;
                            11Gardening Which? April 2020

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           COPY DATE FOR NEXT ISSUE: 30 OCTOBER 2020

Please send contributions to: Gundula Dorey aghdorey@blueyonder.co.uk
14 Goldney Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 4RB Tel: 0117 927 6812

The editorial committee is particularly keen to welcome more contributions from
members as we do not have any garden visits to write about at present. Do you have
a favourite plant you would like to tell readers about? Do you have any top tips to
share? What else would other members be interested in?

                                               5

MICRO-MANAGING NATURE

Having a pond in your garden, however small, is one of the great gardening delights
but I would like to share with you one of my mistakes! A few years ago I eagerly
accepted three little newtlets from a friend, thinking how wonderful it would be to have
newts in my wildlife garden, not even knowing what species they were. Up until that
point, I had a thriving frog population which gave us especial joy in late February when
the males gathered in the pond to call for a female mate. We used to have copious
amounts of frogspawn and all was well. However, the newts bred quickly and we found
ourselves over-run with Smooth Newts to the detriment of the frogs. We hadn't realized
that the newts would eat ALL the tadpoles. The newts wait until the jelly of the spawn
is liquefying to release the tadpoles from their "safety capsules". The newts then pop
up in the middle of the writhing mass with their mouths wide open, hoovering up, until
all the tadpoles have disappeared.

I decided this year to keep some of the frogspawn in a mini pond in the front garden.
As youngsters tadpoles feed on algae on the plants, but for legs to grow it's necessary
to feed them protein, easily provided with goldfish food. They don't feed at all while
they are absorbing their tail. I've discovered that higher temperatures are needed for
quick development. For most of July, I have been on the hunt with my trusty tea-
strainer, peeking behind and under leaves to catch the froglets to transfer them back
to the large pond in the back garden. What else would I be doing with Covid lock-down
keeping me at home?! Although very time-consuming this policy has been a great
success. Now I've just got to keep the birds from eating them.

Talking of birds, I have also used netting round the edge of the big pond to stop the
sparrows and blackbirds from eating the emerging dragonfly nymphs. These have
spent maybe two years in the pond, periodically shedding their skins in order to grow.
On a warm night they will climb up a stalk and break out of the nymph skin. I save
these hollow, discarded cases to show the children that come on a tour to the Botanic
Gardens – they squeal with fright and delight in equal measure. The nymphs will need
several hours to pump blood round their body and into their wings. This is when the
dragonfly is most vulnerable. The birds have learnt to hop round the pond on the
lookout, peck off the wings and feed the bodies to their chicks. My dragonfly population
has plummeted because of this bird predation and also, I suspect, because I have
fewer tadpoles for them as food. I did see a blackbird one day actually eating an adult
newt but how to train them to cull the newt population and leave the frogs alone?
Apparently the early spring drought forced many birds to eat all sorts of unusual food
as the ground was too hard for them to reach the worms. My male blackbird was most
professional in his approach – bashing the newt on a rock then throwing it up into the
air and swallowing the whole thing head first.

Should I be going to such lengths to save my frogs? The answer has to be yes. I need
the help of the frogs to eat all the slugs and snails!! With my dense planting I give so
much cover for the slugs that they grow to the size of Shetland ponies.

Any top tips for managing the slugs and snails?

Chris Purvis

                                           6

POSTSCRIPT TO THE AUSTRALIAN FIRES

Although it is still fire season in Australia*, it seems that the devastating ones they
were experiencing in December and January have been beaten. It is estimated that
about 48 million acres suffered the severe fire damage with between 3 and 7 billion
trees being destroyed. As I said in the last newsletter some of the vegetation will
recover naturally and there has been some sign of that already. One plant in particular,
a shrub rather than a tree, Grevillea beadleana, depends on fire to stimulate its seeds,
lying in the soil, to grow. Mount Annan Botanic Garden in New South Wales holds a
seed bank of 61% of the threatened species so, when a survey has been completed,
it should be possible to regenerate plants from the seed bank.

One great piece of news to come out of the fires is that they managed to save the wild
Wollemi pines. These were discovered in a gorge in a secret location in the Blue
Mountains in 1994 but previously thought to be extinct. Water and fire retardant were
dropped from helicopters into the gorge and hoses were laid to keep the undergrowth
wet. Some trees were scorched but the gorge survived. Wollemi pines have been
propagated from the original trees and are grown all over the world now but it is
important that the wild ones are preserved.

Christine Baldwin

*Written in February – it is no longer the fire season.

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                        THE IMPORTANCE OF GARDENS

Like so many other people of my age and condition, I have been isolated since 22
March which, to put it bluntly, has been a pain in the primula! What has saved my
sanity has been our garden. As I have said on many occasions, I am horticulturally
challenged, despite having visited so many diverse gardens with the Society over the
years, but a number of our residents do know what they are doing and are not afraid
of a lot of hard work. Passers-by have actually stopped, keeping social distance of
course, and photographed the roses in the front garden. The daisies have been
particularly successful and my great-niece had a wonderful time one afternoon making
daisy chain rings for her mother and me – father declined. We have also had a pair of
jays nesting in one of the many trees and their offspring come down regularly to have
a drink and just check up on us. Following quite a bit of rain, a sparrow and a robin
had a wonderful time washing themselves. I shall not comment on the gulls! We have
two apple trees, one eater and one cooker, and when the cookers are ready for picking
there is going to be a long queue to harvest them. It has been a wonderful opportunity
for all gardeners to perhaps reassess their gardens and make improvements. My
brother took the opportunity, for the first time in 30 years, to drain his pond, with some
considerable success though they have had so much rain that he had to drain it again
and then re-fill it. You can never take either the weather or the garden for granted. Just
enjoy it.

Brenda Thomas

                                               7

DAVID’S TRIO OF SHRUBS

        Mandevilla
        ‘Sundaville White’

  Oak-leaved Hydrangea

                             Rose ‘Bengal Crimson’

            8