Islington-Gardeners

							                 Islington Gardeners
                                 www.islingtongardeners.org.uk

                NEWSLETTER: JANUARY – MARCH 2005
Christmas Eve.
Sometimes the most effective sights in the garden are quite unexpected. I have an old white lacecap
hydrangea that has lurked in a grotty white plastic tub behind a tree, gradually flowering less and less.
This spring I lugged it into a more open position to provide a low dividing screen where a shrub had died
and the replacement is still very small. The offending container was artfully concealed by summer
vegetation and pots. It still didn’t flower – but for the last two months its pink and yellow and lime green
autumn leaves have been the brightest thing in the garden on the dull days – far outshining the odd
primrose and winter flowering shrub intended to cheer them up. The leaves are now almost gone but it
has been a remarkable display.
And now the shortest day has passed, we can begin thinking about the joys to come… TH

Hampton Court Palace Flower Show – Window Box and Hanging Basket Display
This competition is designed to display Window Boxes and Hanging Baskets to their best advantage as
well as to demonstrate the horticultural expertise of Royal Horticultural Society affiliated societies. It
takes place from 5 - 10 July 2005 as part of the RHS Hampton Court show.

Are there any members of Islington Gardeners who would like to participate? Entry is open to amateurs
only and applications are drawn by ballot in February. Closing date for the initial application is 14th.
January. So, if this stirs your interest, please call Joy on 7272 4589 as soon as possible. If we miss this
date we will have to withdraw until next year.

Autumn in Essex – visit to the Gibberd Garden
How lucky we were to enjoy a fresh October day without umbrellas at the Gibberd Garden. Our coach
party was welcomed with kind hospitality even though the garden had officially closed for the winter.

Sited on the side of a small valley which slopes gently down to the Pincey Brook, it is the jewel in
Harlow's otherwise somewhat unremarkable crown.

Sir Frederick Gibberd was a leading architect and town planner of the late 20th century. He acquired the
property in 1956 and felt that his imagination was at it's best when he was able to combine his 3
specialisms - architecture, landscape architecture and planning - into one environment. He planned the
garden as a series of rooms, each with its own character which would one day be open to the public for
study and recreation. The glades, groves and alleys provide settings for some 50 sculptures, large ceramic
pots and architectural salvage. There is even a moated castle, originally for the younger Gibberds, which
I found irresistible and was rewarded by a wonderful 360 degree view of the adjacent garden rooms and
the surrounding countryside.

After 20 years of growth, much of the original plan has been obscured. The resulting loss of some vistas
and borders which have long since burst their boundaries, lend the garden a casual charm with lots of
delightfully hidden places to sit and enjoy its natural beauty infused with Sir Fred's playful spirit.

The tiny shop was well worth visiting before our departure, with Christmas cards of wintry, watercolour
views of the garden and tiny flower presses at bargain prices. I look forward to a Spring and/or summer
return here.      MA

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Fungal Foray in Gillespie Park
A damp overcast November day did nothing to lessen the enthusiasm of the fifteen plus participants that
turned up for this event. Ted Tunningham, our mycologist for the day was in good form, but sadly had
left his terrier, Truffle, at home. Truffle is a small, high-spirited and as yet inappropriately named, Jack
Russell - but Ted lives in hope.

Although we failed to unearth any of the above mentioned, we did have a field day (!) in terms of the
park's less grand fungi. All told we found 33 separate kinds, all within a two hour session. The
extraordinary looking Elfin Saddle (Helvella lacunosa) was an exciting find and a first for Gillespie Park.
The passionate interest in the matter of fungi coupled with the expertise of many of the participants made
for an enjoyable session. People were darting in all directions with loud excited whoops, eager to share
their discoveries. Another amazing looking fungus that turned up in large numbers was the beautiful but
ominous looking Verdigris Agaric (Stropharia aeruginosa).

As far as mushrooms and other fungi are concerned the autumn of 2004 turned up a bumper crop. If this
piques your interest, keep an eye on the Islington Greenspace diary or IG events as this foray will be
repeated next autumn. Richard Myers.

Membership Secretary
We extend a warm welcome to our new Membership Secretary, Coral Goble. Coral takes over from the
start of 2005 and her contact details can be found on the membership renewal form and in the committee
directory enclosed with this newsletter.

Our thanks to her predecessor, Maggi Adams, for her time and her excellent work over the last three
years. JC

Nurturing your African Violet
There is not much in flower in January, but there is a fair chance the supermarket or a market stall will
have a colourful display of African Violets. If you bought one, you want to keep it alive and in flower.
But all too often they keel over and die, or less drastically, stop flowering. What can you do to keep them
alive and in flower?

The simple answer is: provide them with the right amount of light, and water. In the nursery where they
were grown, this was almost certainly done with computer controlled systems giving them exactly what
they want. In your kitchen or sitting room, it is not so easy. Here are a few hints and tips.

Water: More African Violets die from over-watering than any other cause. If a violet get too wet, the
crown will start to rot. You need to keep it fairly dry and in a smallish pot so that the roots fill it. A good
rule of thumb is not to water until the pot is lightweight and the leaves are just beginning to feel slightly
limp when you touch them. At that point, give them a small amount of tepid water from below. How
much depends on the size of the plant. They should not stand and soak, so pour away anything not
absorbed in about ten minutes. A little dilute fertiliser is appreciated. Keeping the plants too dry does
less harm than over-watering but you are likely to lose some outside leaves which will eventually produce
a long “trunk” and probably some side shoots so that you have a less attractive plant.

Light: To flower well, African Violets need plenty of bright light. If you keep the plant constantly in a
shady spot away from a window, it will cease to flower. Give it light and it will flower again. Artificial
light helps in the short days of winter and, if it gets enough, the plant can be persuaded to flower all year.
Too much heat and light in summer may bleach or scorch the leaves, so move them away then from a
south window. They also do not benefit from being put outside for the summer.

Propagation: Leaf cuttings work but you need patience. They will get going faster in spring or summer
and a mid sized leaf which is still growing seems to take better than one from the outside edge. I get good
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results when I put them in ordinary barely damp soil free potting compost, set several leaves round the
edge of the pot, leave it uncovered and give occasional very small amounts of water from below. You
can also start leaf cuttings in a jar of water and support the leaves by putting them through a piece of
kitchen foil covering the top of the jar. The advantage is that you can see the roots and leaves as soon as
they begin to develop, but I have found those grown this way are more difficult to pot off.

Any leaf which does not die within the first few weeks should eventually produce small plants. Don’t be
too hasty about potting them off; wait until you have leaves at least half a centimetre/a quarter inch
across. You may find you have several little plants joined together. They can be separated carefully with
a sharp knife. Use the very small “thumb” pots and move them up to the next size only when they start
to get pot bound.

Good Luck!      AB

QUIZ: NAME THAT PLANT – Prize: £10 in garden vouchers
There was no winner to our October quiz as we had no fully correct entries. Honorable mention to Joan
Bennette of Highbury who had seven of the nine answers. The full list is as follows:
   1.     A yellow spring daisy to frighten big cats = Leopard’s Bane (doronicum)
   2.     Know your edible alliums = Onions
   3.     Remember Gertrude, or a domestic goddess = Nigella (var. Miss Jekyll) or Nigella Lawson
   4.     Somewhere over the rainbow = Iris, Greek goddess of the rainbow
   5.     Police sign lights up prince’s meadow = Camassia (the blue bulb planted in Prince Charles’
          meadow)
   6.     Deciduous or evergreen, it has a good name = Euonymus (means good name in Greek)
   7.     Scent another Gertrude = Rose (reference by Hamlet’s mother Gertrude)
   8.     Herb to treat bruises = Arnica
The whole: a species with widely different varieties – the best known of which played Romeo to
convolvulus’ Juliet in a song of misalliance. = LONICERA (honeysuckle is a variety of lonicera and
Flanders and Swan performed a song about a doomed romance between the bindweed and the
honeysuckle which they called their Song of Misalliance).

The quiz prize this time is a rollover, so the winner will get £20 in garden vouchers. The format is the
same as last time, but only five answers are required this time. So let’s have lots of entries. Send them to
Alison Barlow at the address at the end of the newsletter.
      1.     A wise addition to the stuffing
      2.     Supper for St David
      3.     Aromatic topping for pizzas or Mediterranean hillsides
      4.     Foaming flowers for a country Champagne Charlie
The whole has white blossom in spring hedgerows, thorns all year round and an old partnership with the
juniper.

Pots to Spare
I have lots of small plastic plant pots, mostly about 8cm. If you are planning to raise some plants for the
Islington Gardeners Sale and would like some pots, you can find me at home giving them away on the
afternoon of Sunday 30 January. Address at the end of the newsletter. AB


Advice and Help Wanted
Alan Jones, a residential social worker with handicapped people, now based at a respite centre in Leigh
Road, Highbury Barn, is very keen to make a garden on the site, and would enormously appreciate
advice, plants, helpers. Tel. 7249 0247.



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A Favourite Garden Website
If you have not tried it yet, do take a look at the Royal Horticultural Society site (www.rhs.org.uk). It is
quite outstanding – a whole garden journal, reference library and advice centre all in one. Extra areas are
for members only but lots and lots of it is open access. You can also join or renew your membership on
line.


Events for Gardeners: January - March

Islington Gardeners
Sun 13 Feb - coach trip to Cliveden - winter garden & snowdrops
Tue. 22 March "So many plants so little space" spring lecture by Bob Brown at St. James' Hall. Doors
open 7.15 for a 7.30pm start.
See insert sheets with this mailing for more details.

London Parks and Gardens Trust
Monday lectures 7.00pm at the Georgian Group Rooms, 6 Fitzroy Square. W1 (Warren St. Tube).
Tickets £6.00 members/£7.00 guests inc. glass of wine available from LPGT, c/o The Store Yard, St.
James’ Park, SW1A 2JB, or at the door numbers permitting. Cheques to "LHPGT".
10th Jan Humphrey Repton's Red Book for Wanstead - by Sally Jeffery
14th Feb Of Queens' Gardens: Octavia Hill and the beautification of everyday life - by Elizabeth Lebas
14th Mar The Festival of Britain and Landscape Design - by Janet Waymark
11th Apr The growth of popular tourism at Hampton Court - by Todd Longstaffe-Gowan

Garden History Society
Wednesday lectures 6.30pm, doors open at 6pm, at The Gallery, 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ
(Farringdon Tube). Wine or soft drinks available. Tickets £8.00 (season ticket £35) may be booked in
advance or bought at the door. Ring 020 7490 2974 to check availability. Further details from the above
address or their website: www.gardenhistorysociety.org.
2nd Feb Walter Jekyll and his Jamaica Garden - by Peter Kiernan, Horticulturist
9th Feb Cows in Arcadia – the restoration of the avenues and grazed wet meadows around Ham House -
byKim Wilkie, Landscape Architect and Urban Designer
16th Feb Gardens in the Work of Virginia Woolf - by Nuala Hancock, Garden Designer, Lecturer and
Writer
2nd Mar Yards of Courts - the estate setting of the Scottish Renaissance country house - by Charles
McKean, Professor of Scottish Architectural History, University of Dundee.
9 Mar Gertrude Jekyll, Aesthete - by Tim Richardson, Gardens Writer
16 Mar Horticultural Anglicanism: The Country Cleric and His Garden - by Sir Roy Strong (to be held
at the Royal Horticultural Halls and Conference Centre, tickets £15.00).

Islington Archaeology and History Society
16th Feb – Lecture on Roman Gardens by garden historian Russell Bowes. Islington Town Hall 8.00pm,
normal charges of £1.00/50p concessions waived for Islington Gardeners members.



Next Newsletter: early April 2005, last date for copy 20th March 2005 to Alison Barlow, 1
Bingham Street N1 2QQ, or preferably by e-mail to alison.barlow@uk.pwc.com




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