Metasequoia glyptostroboides by Howard Rice
Friends’ News Friends of CUBG celebrate 30 years
Juliet Day
Your chief memory of summer 2012 may be of summer events cancelled due to torrential rain, but here at the Garden on the 24th May, we knew nothing of the deluges to come, and Friends attending our 30th anniversary party relaxed outside in warm evening sunshine. As one of our Friends and valued volunteers said, ‘The weather was perfect for an evening spent outdoors in a stunning setting, made even more special by the ensuing disappointing summer where these opportunities were few and far between’. many areas of activity from running the first shop to guiding, volunteering and of course supporting the Garden financially. The 1840 Wind Quartet provided a gently jazzy musical background to the hum of conversation, ensuring that new and long-standing Friends alike enjoyed a mellow and memorable evening’s celebration. May there be many more such celebrations to come.
Juliet Day
Heidi Bradshaw, Outreach Assistant
Guests gathered in front of the Glasshouse Range Chairs and tables set out in front of the Glasshouse Range were quickly occupied by some 120 guests enjoying canapés and wine provided by Swift Catering, who also run our Garden Café. The Garden seemed to glow in the golden light, and guests revelled in the chance to walk around the site in the peace of the out-of-hours Garden, wandering the Main Lawn with glasses in hand, and admiring the flourishing Bee Borders. One friend and volunteer commented, ‘It was a delight to be in the Garden, which was looking its best, on such a wonderful early summer’s evening.’ One of our guests of honour, Meg Brian, recalled how she was persuaded by the then Director, Dr Max Walters with his wife Lorna, to start from scratch the Friends of Cambridge University Botanic Garden during a relaxed tea in deck chairs on the lawn at Cory Lodge, then the Director’s residence: ‘The first step was to hand deliver letters to all those holding
‘Sunday keys’ to invite them to be involved. As it happened, over 250 people joined the Friends even before the ‘inaugural meeting’ when the committee was formed. As the main purpose of the Friends was both to raise money (in the first instance for the Gilmour Building) and to give help to staff, willing volunteers were also enlisted for training as Garden Guides.’ Meg noted that some of the most memorable money-raisers were ‘three concerts held in the central Tropical House just after it was rebuilt in 1987 but before the plants went in. And when the Gilmour Building opened in 1989, the Friends were responsible for equipping and organising the Shop and the kitchen, and began the serving of refreshments. Thus the Friends were helpful right from the start’. Dr Tim Upson, Curator and Acting Director, made a short speech thanking the Friends for all their support over the last thirty years in
Dr Tim Upson thanks the Friends for the support over the last 30 years
Apply for your tickets now to the Friends’ Annual Lecture:
Thinking like a vegetable – how plants decide what to do. Given by Professor Ottoline Leyser, Associate Director at the Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University in the Sainsbury Laboratory Lecture Theatre on Thursday 8 November, doors open from 7pm. Please see the enclosed booking form for details. Friends’ News – Issue 90 – September 2012
Welcome In the May Friends’ News I commented on how the weather had been dominating the gardening season. At the time this was in light of low winter rainfall and a dry early spring, making us fearful of another prolonged drought. How wrong this proved with a record-breaking period of wet weather following, which has affected both flowering and crop yields, as any vegetable grower will know. Rarely, though, have we seen the lawns look so green and verdant in mid-summer and certainly the trees have put on good growth after the stress of several dry years and prolonged droughts. There never seems to be a ‘normal’ gardening year these days. The weather however has not diminished the verve of several different annual flower meadows sown to provide a bright splash of colour and celebrate some of the key 2012 events, including a patriotic mix of red, white and blue to mark the Queen’s
Diamond Jubilee, and a field of gold to wish our Team GB athletes luck at London 2012. In a time of financial uncertainty we are pleased that we have been able to continue to recruit staff to fill both vacancies and new positions, although it has occupied much of our time and will continue to do so through this year. We were sad to say goodbye to Martine Gregory-Jones our deputy administrator and wish her well in an exciting new job. We welcome Alex Summers, a previous Cambridge horticultural trainee and winner of the Young Horticulturist of the Year, s the new Glasshouse Supervisor after a one-year internship at Longwood Gardens, USA. Congratulations to Simon Wallis who moved earlier this summer from assistant in the Systematics to the Alpine and Woodland section. We are currently recruiting a replacement in the Systematic section and also to the Experimental section, which will take the horticultural team back to full
strength. Felicity Plent has rejoined the education team whilst we recruit a new head of education. Sadly Judy Fox plans to retire from the education team towards the end of the year and so we will also be looking to refill this post. You will also notice new faces in the ticket offices: Clare Hall, Alicia Lloyd, Jacqui Riley and Hannah Winter join our visitor services team, but we said goodbye to Tom Arnold. September is also the time we say goodbye to our current horticultural trainees and welcome the new cohort for the coming year. More recently Jane Adams joined the staff as PA to me and ultimately to the incoming Director. Of course this has been the main vacancy waiting to be filled, and the Directorship was advertised over the summer, with the shortlisted candidates due to be interviewed in September. Dr Tim Upson, Curator and Acting Director
Credit
Gillian Toynbee-Clarke 1927-2012 Gillian Toynbee-Clarke, known as Jill, was one of the Garden’s great supporters and champions. After finishing at Grantham Secondary (now Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ School), where she described her contemporary, Margaret Thatcher, (neé Roberts), as ‘a very bossy headgirl’, Jill went on to study horticulture at Midland Agricultural College in Leicestershire, before coming to the Botanic Garden as a horticultural trainee in 1947-48. With horticulture firmly in the blood and deciding to stay in Cambridge, Jill joined the Plant Breeding Institute in Trumpington. Her long career saw her author individually and in collaboration with colleagues, many research papers, particularly on the pollination mechanisms of field beans, Vicia faba, and on disease resistance in red clover, Trifolium pratense, for the Journal of Agricultural Science. Her contributions, as a female horticultural scientist at this time, are notable. Upon retirement from the PBI, Jill became a committed member of the Friends of Cambridge University Botanic Garden, including serving as its Chairman. Together
with Frances Haywood, she established and ran the first Botanic Garden Shop in the Gilmour Building for 13 years, with the help of the many volunteer Friends. Jill also used her expert Jill (fourth from left) at the CUBGA 60th anniversary plant knowledge to produce monthly lists of plants of interest for our grateful to report that Jill has also chosen to visitors, the forerunner of the Friends e-news remember the Garden in her Will with a very today, and these were edited into the generous legacy. beautifully-produced Plants of Interest, published in 1999. Jill was also a Guide of the Outside the Botanic Garden, Jill enjoyed a Botanic Garden, and entertained and informed huge range of activities and interests. She was many visiting groups with her tours around an active member of two NADFAS groups, the the Garden. She was also a devoted member Cambridge Antiques Society, the Wine Society of the Cambridge University Botanic Garden and she is remembered as playing a ‘wicked’ Association for current and former members game of bridge. She was incredibly of staff. It is wonderful to note that Jill knowledgeable on and a great collector of attended both the Friends’ 30th Anniversary ceramics and 18th century glass, and often drinks and the 60th Anniversary of CUBGA gave talks on these subjects. At home on in May this year, and was in good heart at Almoners’ Avenue, Jill created a beautiful both celebrations. garden and the copious bounty from the vegetable plot was shared across the Jill made many significant donations to the neighbourhood. She also loved her holidays, Garden in her lifetime, including to the her favourite spot being Southwold. There Limestone Rock Garden 50th Anniversary were no rules when on holiday there with Jill Fund, and a major Gift in Memory to honour save one: guests must always present Frances Haywood, which helped us extend the themselves at the beach hut at 12 noon sharp Magnoliaceae plantings. We are deeply for a Martini.
NEW! The Guide to Cambridge University Botanic Garden As Friends’ News goes to press, so does the new, fully revised Guide to the Cambridge University Botanic Garden. Beautifully illustrated throughout, this gorgeous publication gives an overview of our work, a brief history and descriptions of all of the major plantings and gardens. We have also Friends’ News – Issue 90 – September 2012
included for the first time a profile of the tree collection and picked out some of our most notable and ‘champion’ trees for write-ups, plotted onto a new map. The Guide should be available from the ticket offices and Shop from the end of October, retailing at £3.95, but until 24 December 2012 we are pleased to offer The
Guide at the ticket offices for £3.50 to all Friends of CUBG on presentation of a valid card. One for the Christmas list?
Flowering firsts: Emmenopterys henryi Many will miss a small tree perched on the southern edge of the Humphrey Gilbert-Carter area, peeking up above the Forsythia collection with the leaning trunks of an old Judas tree, Cercis siliquastrum, below. The sharp-eyed might notice the distinctive bronze-coloured new growth when it flushes in spring. I look every year just to check on the off chance there may at last be some flower buds as this is a tree described as being ‘one of the most strikingly beautiful trees of the Chinese forests’. The tree is Emmenopterys henryi (I fear it has no common name!), which belongs to the coffee family, Rubiaceae. The Rubiaceae is a large family which is more diverse in warmer climates than in our own temperate conditions, and best known to us in the UK not as trees but the herbaceous bedstraws (Galium spp.) including the scourge of many gardens, Galium aparine commonly known as cleavers or goose grass. The tree was introduced to cultivation in the UK by the famous plant hunter Ernest Wilson in 1907 and
Emmenopterys henryi
named in honour of the Irish plant hunter, Augustine Henry who first found the tree in central China in 1887. This year patience has been rewarded and as I write in mid August the tree boasts a good number of flower buds, which will develop into relatively large white flowers and still larger bracts borne on the crown of the tree. Not only is this tree rare in cultivation, but it flowers even more rarely. The first recorded flowering was at Wakehurst Place in Sussex in 1987 but they had to wait for a further 23 years before it flowered again in 2010. It also flowered at Borde Hill, again in Sussex in the same year and spectacularly at Kalmhout Arboretum in Belgium in 2009. Why this year? Well there is no clear explanation. Many including myself had figured the tree needed a combination of cold freezing winters and hot dry summers to induce flowering so it appears even
extraordinary that it should flower now, following a cold and wet summer. So sometime this month, we shall be treated to a very rare and spectacular flowering and one unlikely to be repeated in the near future. I do hope this copy of Friends’ News arrives in time for you to come and enjoy this special event.
Dr Tim Upson, Curator & Acting Director
Sainsbury Laboratory nominated for highest architectural accolade The Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University, situated in the heart of the Garden has been nominated to the shortlist of six buildings in contention for this year’s Stirling Prize 2012. The Royal Institute of British Architects' Stirling Prize is now in its 17th year and celebrates the best of new British
architecture. The Stirling Prize judges praised the Sainsbury Laboratory for its “stimulating working environment” designed to attract world-class scientists. The winner will be announced in Manchester in October.
Shh… SNEAK PREVIEW: courses, workshops and events coming up at the Garden in 2013 Here in the education department we are so lucky to have the beautiful surroundings of this Garden to inspire us while planning the course and workshops programme for the year ahead - often the most tricky aspect is whittling down the choice! The 2013 What’s On brochure will offer over 50 courses including beginner botany, plant photography and garden writing, wood block printing, knitting flowers and Tudor garden history. All sitting alongside our well established botanical illustration, gardening and plant identification courses.
Horticulture, Sally Petitt – the perfect introduction to gardening. We’re also delighted to welcome some new tutors: garden designer and author, Dawn Isaac, offers Family Garden Design Clinic while journalist Jackie Bennett’s one day course will focus on Creating Wildlife Gardens. We will also be including an Ask the Gardeners session in May’s Celebration of Plants event – so pop in with those mystery plants and burning horticultural questions and tap into the font of knowledge that we are lucky enough to have at our fingertips everyday.
High on our agenda for 2013 is to get you all gardening and looking closely at plants in the company of our great team of horticulturalists. This year we want to share their knowledge and expertise with you a bit more. So if you admired our annual flower meadows, join us for the day and learn how to create your own at home, or perhaps how to grow cut flowers? A new highlight will be a Learn to Garden weekend course, run by our Head of
We’re delighted to welcome back Pete Murray, RHS gold winning photographer, to run a series of one-day courses for SLR and compact cameras with a focus on creative plant photography. There are introductory and intermediate courses so you can progress from one course to the next or jump in at your own level. As ever if you are not sure which course is right for you please give us a ring to talk it over with us.
Dryas by course tutor, Pete Murray Firm favourites remain, this year including a series of one-day courses on painting trees in water colour, four basketry courses with the recently honoured Mary Butcher OBE and a series of plant identification workshops, including our renowned week-long Flowering Plant Systematics course. If you’ve never attended a course here at the Garden, I hope that 2013 will be the year you try one (and, while I really don’t want to mention Christmas this early, a course makes a thoughtful gift!) And if you have a burning desire to see a course here that isn’t on our programme, please let me know so I can start our ideas file for 2014! The full 2013 What’s On brochure will be available from the ticket offices in November.
Felicity Plent, Education Officer Friends’ News – Issue 90 – September 2012
Flying the flag with flowers This year we have been experimenting with several different annual meadow mixes, with spectacular results.
The red of Shirley poppy, blue of cornflower and purple tansy with a smattering of white baby's breath create a patriotic palette for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Inset: Purple tansy is a favourite nectar source for bees. We wanted to make the most of some temporary opportunities afforded by the completion of the de-commissioning of temporary structures associated with the Sainsbury Laboratory build. As the haul road was removed, the temporary café facility deconstructed, and the research plots returned after housing a temporary machinery barn and other horticultural facilities, areas of bare earth were revealed. Before permanently planting these areas, what better than to use these blank canvases to fly the flag in flowers to mark some of the exceptional celebrations of 2012. Along the elegant new curving path that leads through the research plots from the Autumn Garden and Station Road ticket office, we elected for a 2.5 metre wide strip each side sown with a patriotic mix of red, white and blue to mark the Queen’s
Friends’ News – Issue 90 – September 2012
Diamond Jubilee year. The seed was mixed with sharp sand and broadcast sown to ensure an even distribution and nearly made it into full Union flag colours in time for the Jubilee bank holiday. The visual effect of red, white and blue sweeping round the bend has been superb, and visitors have really enjoyed walking right through this Jubilee meadow. It has also been absolutely buzzing with bees and a myriad other insects. To celebrate the London 2012 Olympics, we also sowed a field of gold up at Station road to wish the Team GB athletes luck. And, as if responding to the tremendous haul of gold medals on ‘super Saturday, the meadow was at its peak for the final week and closing ceremony. The mix selected was the same as that developed especially for the landscaping of the Olympic Park by Professors James Hitchmough and Nigel
Pot marigold in the Field of Gold mix
Dunnett of the University of Sheffield and retailed through Pictorial Meadows Ltd. And, like the athletes’ village, the meadow mix had a cosmopolitan make-up: marigolds from South America; golden tickseed and Californian poppy, both from North America; corn marigold from the Mediterranean; Cape marigold from South Africa, and contrasting blue cornflower, a rare annual native to the Mediterranean and also found in the UK. Our only unintended but very effective addition to the mix were hundreds of sunflowers, self sown from the last year’s displays, which came up through the golden meadow – much like Team GB! On the eastern side of Cory Lodge, a parabola of bare earth backed by green yew hedges provided another opportunity to splash some wildflower exuberance and colour. Here, a classic wildflower mix has
been chosen for a balance of colour and long season of interest, beginning with red, white and blue and turning red and gold in the autumn. Major components include Shirley poppy, cornflower, baby’s breath, fairy toadflax and purple tansy. We think that the varying heights and composition of the mix are due to differing soil conditions across the site – as the temporary café was removed, the voids were filled with rich topsoil accounting for the patchwork of different soil fertilities. With the old café tables creating a new picnic area here, it has been a wonderful spot to sit at through the summer, and we were very pleased to host the Bateman Street Residents Association here for their Jubilee celebrations. We are currently planning future meadows and will certainly retain the one on front of Cory Lodge, whether this be another
annual mix or sown with a longer term perennial meadow next year. Permanent plantings are on the autumn and winter work plan for Station Road gate and across the research plots. Juliet Day, Development Officer and Dr Tim Upson, Curator & Acting Director.
Self-seeded sunflowers added to the Field of Gold at Station Road.
Meadow mixes seed lists Field of Gold Calendula officinalis
Pot marigold
Centaurea cyanus
Cornflower
Coreopsis tinctoria
Tickseed
Dimorphotheca sinuata
Cape marigold
Eschscholzia californica
Californian poppy
Glebionis coronaria
Corn daisy
Glebionis segetum
Corn marigold
Tagetes sp
Marigold
Jubilee Meadow Corn marigold in the Field of Gold
Ammi majus
Bishop’s flower
Atriplex hortensis
Red orach
Centaurea cyanus
Cornflower
Consolida ajacis
Larkspur
Cosmos bipinnatus
Cosmos
Gypsophila elegans
Baby’s breath
Papaver rhoeas cultivar group
Shirley poppy
Phacelia tanacetifolia
Purple tansy
Cory Lodge parabola Ammi majus
Bishop’s flower
Atriplex hortensis
Red orach
Centaurea cyanus
Cornflower
Consolida ajacis
Larkspur
Cosmos bipinnatus
Cosmos
Gypsophila elegans
Baby’s breath
Linum grandiflorum
Red flax
Linum maroccana
Fairy toadflax
Papaver rhoeas cultivar group
Shirley poppy
Phacelia tanacetifolia
Purple tansy
Rudbeckia hirta
Annual black-eyed Susan
The Cory Lodge parabola began rainbow-coloured before turning plum and gold in late summer. Friends’ News – Issue 90 – September 2012
Horticulture Clippings and cuttings G The spectacular flowering of the jade vine,
Strongylodon macrobotrys, in March was followed by an equally spectacular crop of fruits. We usually set one or two by hand pollination, but this year around 45 enormous fruits were produced, resembling an outsize mango. We thought that perhaps it was mice running up the jade vine to get at the nectar-filled flowers that had become unwitting pollinators (in the absence of the bats that do the job in the vine’s native Philippines). But, it turned out to be one of our trainees, who had developed the knack of pollinating the flowers early each morning! It was Jane Adams’ first job as PA to the posts of Director and Curator to send out the fruits in jiffy bags to colleagues at the Eden Project, Bristol Botanic Garden and Glasnevin in Ireland! The seeds have to be sown fresh in long pots, and germinate easily in a warm propagator.
G By the end of August, with the huge
thunderstorm of 25 August contributing 49.4mm, the rainfall total had reached 550.5mm, well surpassing the 2011 rainfall total of 380.4mm. Remembering the harsh -13.5ºC frost of 13 February, we have been noting some interesting phenomena in this year of extraordinary weather. The white mulberry, Morus alba, and the exotic Chinese tree, Toona sinensis, barely leafed up, but there are now late signs of life. The stands of bamboo that line the Stream Garden were scorched hard in the frost and
we have cut them right down to the ground to regenerate. The beautiful myrtle, Myrtus luma, in the Glasshouse Bays was totally defoliated, but is just now producing new shoots, whereas the autumn-flowering cherry, Prunus subhirtella, in the Winter Garden has not made it through. The Kentucky yellowwood, Cladrastris kentukea, which has flowered spectacularly with us for the last two years has not a bud on it, and yet, the Emmenopterys henryi is about to flower (see news pages) for the first time ever with us.
G In late July, the Pinus nigra subsp. salzmanii,
one of the pair of black pines on the Main Walk, lost a large lateral limb in a case of summer branch drop, a poorly understood phenomenon whereby major branches fall unexpectedly. It is associated with certain summer weather conditions, either heavy rainfall following a period of drought or on hot and calm summer days, as experienced in the last week of July. The damage was made good by the Trees & Shrubs team, and other branches removed to rebalance the tree and ensure its longevity. The didactic strength of the clear differences in form between the two pines has been somewhat diminished, but nevertheless, the Pinus nigra subsp. salzmanii from Spain does still have a more open and spreading canopy compared to the downward-sloping branches of the Pinus nigra subsp. nigra, opposite, from snowy Austria. This pairing by the Garden’s founder, Professor John Henslow, shows the extremes of variation across a distribution range within species.
G Five new tree ferns, Dicksonia antarctica,
have been installed into the green grove recently developed at the eastern end of the Glasshouse Range to extend the Life Before Flowers display. Arriving as unpromising chunky lengths of trunk, they were upended and planted just deeply enough to stay stable. The Demonstration & Display team have been pouring a gallon of water a day straight into the crown to encourage the fronds to quickly stretch out and unfurl – you can practically watch them extending!
G The Grass Maze, grown from the New
Zealand bunch grass, Anemanthele lessoniana, was re-opened just in time for the school holidays, with the design changed from a labyrinth to a double spiral. This has gained us an entrance, plus we have chosen to mulch the paths with bark chip. Both amends, we hope, will improve the durability of this very inviting racetrack, perennially popular with children.
The geranium picture included in Clippings & Cuttings, May 2012, was incorrectly identified as Geranium phaeum. It should have been captioned Geranium reflexum, a closely related species.
Who’s Who in the Garden: Adrian Holmes Landscape & Machinery Supervisor The Landscape and Machinery section comprises me and an assistant, Alistair Cochrane, with the use of a trainee two days a week. Our first line of responsibility is for all the grass areas in the Garden, both formal and informal lawns, but we are also responsible for any landscaping requirements. Past projects have been the re- landscaping of the Bog Garden, Dry Garden and Schools’ Garden. We are also responsible for the repair and maintenance of over 40 machines, and the running of the Garden’s yard and compost Friends’ News – Issue 90 – September 2012
areas. This all makes a varied and enjoyable job – you never know what's coming next! From an early age I have been involved in horticulture, helping my grandparents who were keen growers of show chrysanthemums, for which they won many prizes at the local shows in the1970s-1980s, and pottering about on their three allotments. On leaving school I initially thought to follow my father into the building trade, but was wisely discouraged as a property slump was looming. Instead I headed for the landscape industry, before two years later joining the gardens team at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University. During this time I was involved in the
re- landscaping of Tree Court, Grove and Wilson court developments, before being posted to the Sports Ground to provide temporary cover for the Groundsman. This lasted nearly two years and gave me the chance to learn my skills on grass management and got to work with anything mechanical – lawnmowers, old cars, bikes, the lot – all of which I greatly enjoyed. Upon returning to the gardens team, I soon realised I wanted to pursue a career with grass management, so it was perfect when this job at the Botanic Garden was advertised, and to my surprise and delight, I got it! It is not that often that a job comes along that contains all the things that you love.
Education
Nonsense in the Garden
Following on from the success of last summer’s book The Magic Brick Tree, a group of young carers from Centre 33 returned this summer to participate in another workshop under the Community Arts Programme, funded through the Percent for Art levy on the Sainsbury Laboratory. The workshops took the theme of nonsense botany, in celebration of the bicentenary of the birth of Edward Lear, and were led by storyteller Marion Leeper and artist Alex Hirtzel. Edward Lear is perhaps most famous for The Owl and the Pussycat. However, he was also a talented landscape painter, cartoonist, travel writer and zoological illustrator. Amongst his many works is Nonsense Botany, written in 1870 to delight readers with illustrations of Professor Bosh’s botanical discoveries in the Valley of Verrikwier, near the Lake of Oddgrow. These beautifully bizarre pen and ink illustrations of fictitious plants became the starting point for the summer workshops.
and how he liked to draw, make up words and write poetry. After looking at his bizarre illustrations of plants such as Armchairia comfortabilis, Manypeeplia upsidownia and Piggiwiggia pyramidalis, the children set out to find plants that resembled everyday objects and everyday objects that resembled plants. They also discovered some real life curiosities amongst the carnivorous plants, and agreed that nature could definitely be stranger than fiction when they heard the story of the pitcher plant, Nepenthes species, from Borneo that have evolved to be ‘shrew loos’.
Furry and soft, the zebra plant lurks In the shadows of the African bush, Smelling of hot sunset and dead grass. Black and white caterpillars and stripy poisonous snails Suck moisture from the funnels of its leaves, Blown by the wind it rustles, grumbles, jiggles Tiny zebras fall from the seedhead, Sweet as mint humbugs. Nothing else like it in the world.
First Saturday Family Fun Through the week, the children enjoyed drawing, creating stories, book making, painting, printing, paper marbling, poetry and simply being out in the Garden. By the end of the workshops, each child had created a great big concertina book containing collages of their own work, found images, shared poems and shared prints. Once all final touches had been made, the week was finished off with a celebratory picnic on the Main Lawn.
On the first day, the children found out a little bit about Edward Lear, his difficult childhood
Dr Sally Lee, Education Officer
Schools’ Garden developments We have been very busy in the Schools’ Garden this year. New gravel pathways between the growing beds make access much easier, and new raised beds, seating and a pergola are in place. This has been achieved with enormous help from some dedicated horticultural staff, keen School’s Garden volunteers and parent helpers. A new group of school children from St. Alban’s RC Primary School have worked here this year, as well as the Gardening Club. Half of the Year 4 class has visited the Garden with their teacher, Miss Montague, on alternate weeks so that everyone did every task – digging, sowing, planting, weeding. The plot has been bursting with colour and some healthy looking vegetables, presided over by some handsome scarecrows made by the children to help keep birds and squirrels off the crops. St. Paul’s Year 5 and 6 classes also built insect hotels for the Schools’ Garden – they will come back to inspect for residents in the autumn!
Poem
No need to book, just drop-in anytime between 11am – 3pm on the first Saturday of every month for plantinspired fun. £2 per child, plus normal Garden admission for accompanying adults. Locations change, so do check details at the ticket office on arrival. Autumn Colours Saturday 6 October Have fun collecting fallen treasures in the Garden and use these as inspiration to create colourful autumn artworks. Perfect Pumpkin Saturday 3 November Create your own squashy pumpkin using felt or fake fur fabric, a plastic shopping bag as 'stuffing and a twig for a stalk. Christmas Decorations Saturday 1 December Come and make some pine cone fairies and twiggy stars, to decorate your Christmas tree at home. Flat-packed Nests Saturday 5 January 2013 Build your very own flat-pack nest bundles, and then watch as the birds pick up materials to make their new homes.
For the half-term holiday …. Simon Wallis and Alistair Cochrane of the horticultural staff have taken on responsibility for maintenance of the Schools’ Garden, supplied expertise and advice, plus the eyecatching flowers for the hedge bed. A huge thank you to them both.
Dr Judy Fox, Education Officer
Dance a story Tuesday 30 and Wednesday 31 October, 11am-12pm or 2pm-3pm Using the Garden and plants as inspiration for your characters and movements, learn how to tell a story with dance. £5 per child per session, pre-booking essential on 01223 331875 Friends’ News – Issue 90 – September 2012
Dear Friend We enjoyed a rare, beautiful, hot summer evening back in May when we celebrated the Friends 30th anniversary with a party on the main lawn. Thank you to those who supported us at this event where we enjoyed drinks, canapés, music and good company. Once again the Friends summer outings were enjoyed by many Friends and their guests. This year we explored Hidcote & Kiftsgate, Cottesbrooke Hall Gardens and Plant Finders Fair, Kelmarsh Hall & Coton Manor and Marks Hall & Beth Chatto Gardens. Elizabeth Rushden and Jenny Leggatt organised all these trips for which we are very grateful. There has been wonderful feedback from those who participated and everyone is already looking forward to next summer’s programme. The Volunteer Committee continue to work hard putting together a programme of lectures, tours and events for Friends, as well as concentrating on the requirements of our volunteers in the education department and our garden guides. I would like to thank Elizabeth, Jenny, Richard Price and Pam Newman for their dedicated work on your behalf during 2012. We must also thank the team of nine volunteers who give their time
to stuff over 3,500 newsletters and accompanying forms into envelopes three times a year. Replacement cards, a quick reminder - whilst we do not currently charge for replacing lost or stolen membership cards there is a cost burden each time this occurs and we would be grateful if Friends would consider making a donation towards the replacement cost. As a charity, the Botanic Garden is reliant on your support. Thank you. I do hope to see lots of you at the Annual Lecture this November. It is a great privilege to be able to hold it in the Sainsbury Laboratory Lecture Theatre, and we are delighted that Associate Director of SLCU, Professor Ottoline Leyser, will be asking us to ‘think like a vegetable’ – see the details right, and return your booking form as soon as possible!
Emma Daintrey – Outreach Administrator 01223 336271 friends@botanic.cam.ac.uk
The Botanic Garden Shop will take on a Winter Woodland theme for Christmas this year and will be a treasure trove of beautiful gifts in all price ranges, from little wooden wildlife decorations to berry garlands. The Botanic Garden Shop will be offering Friends of the Botanic Garden a 10% discount from 1 November – 24 December, so don’t forget your card!
From 26 November – 22 December, the Garden Café will again be offering a special seasonal menu and tables can be pre-booked for Christmas lunches. Mouth-watering highlights include spiced hot fruit punch on arrival, prosciutto-wrapped crostini with Garden Cafe spinach pesto and fresh figs, roasted fennel and tangerine salad with almonds. Roasted leg of chicken with a fresh plum and chilli sauce and brussel sprout rosti, and salmon fillet served with a watercress and chestnut potato cake are among the main course selections. And the icing on the Christmas cake – the delectable, utterly delicious sharing boards of panettone, figs, mince pies and more will be making a welcome return. For more, visit www.thegardencafecambridge.co.uk and see the special insert enclosed in this Friends’ News.
Friends’ News – Issue 90 – September 2012
A booking form with full descriptions, details, times and prices is enclosed. All places are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. To book a place, please complete and return the enclosed booking form. Please take care to note the new cancellation and refund policy outlined on the booking form. Trees for small/medium gardens Thursday 25 and Sunday 28 October, 10.30am This new tour focuses on the trees amongst the Garden’s superb collections that could be of interest to your own garden, at just the right time of year to get out plant them! We will of course make the most of the autumn fruit and colour. Tours end at the Café for coffee and cake.
With very best wishes,
Christmas at the Shop and Café
The Garden Café now has a brand new website where you can peruse the menus and specials, and to keep up-to-date with the latest, you can now follow them on Twitter and Facebook. You can even pre-book the best spot in the house, the Gilmour Table, for a special celebration or meeting. Plus, the Garden Café now offers free Wi-Fi – just collect the password from the counter with your coffee!
Friends’ Events
Annual Lecture: Thinking like a vegetable – how plants decide what to do Thursday 8 November, doors open from 7pm. Sainsbury Laboratory Lecture Theatre. Professor Ottoline Leyser FRS, Associate Director of the Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University gives this year’s Annual Lecture looking at how plants continuously monitor their environment and adjust their growth and development accordingly, for example balancing growth between the root and shoot in response to nutrient availability. Gardens of Cornwall Residential trip, 19-24 May 2013 Think of Cornwall and you think of large and famous gardens; ambitious restoration projects and the hi-tech biomes of Eden. Yet tucked away down the green lanes, hidden behind the high hedges, are a multitude of less well-known gardens, worthy of a closer look. This exclusive tour uncovers some of the hidden gems of Cornwall including Burncoose Nursery and woodland garden and the gardens of Homefield, Bonython, Trewidden, Trengwainton, Trebah, Lamorran, Minack Theatre and Trelissick, as well as a ferry trip from Trelissick to St Mawes. There is great variety among these gardens, in style, content and size. Accommodation throughout is at the 4-star Royal Duchy Hotel, Falmouth. You will find full itinerary details on the enclosed registration form which must be returned to Emma Daintrey in the Outreach Office at the Botanic Garden by 1 November please.