A View from the Potting Shed

September already! Schools are back, the days are growing shorter, and before long there will be that autumn nip in the air. It’s time to scrutinise those seed

TOPI C OF THE MONT H CONTAINER GARDENING

I won a first prize at the annual show for a patio pot, one of several that I planted up earlier in the season to provide big splashes of summer colour. If you don’t want the bother of doing your own, then a visit to the garden centre in late spring or early summer will provide excellent choices of ready-made patio pots and hanging baskets. Container gardening is in fact big business, but it wasn’t always so. The gardens of my childhood didn’t have pots, plants went into the ground. WW2 had encouraged Dig for Victory, when flower beds made way for veg, but the 1950s saw a change as the economy improved and gardeners returned to flower growing. I remember my dad’s pompom dahlias. There were no garden centres in Britain in the early 50s, plants were grown from seed, swapped with friends and neighbours, or bought from nurseries, but often bare-root and only in their season. Revolution came in the 1960s with the arrival of garden centres and containerised plants. Edward Stewart is credited with these introductions to the country, following a trip to Toronto in 1953. His family had a nursery in Ferndown, Dorset, where converted sheds became their first garden centre in 1955. In 1961 they opened‘Garden-Lands in Christchurch. The rest is history, garden centres now provide a day out with shopping opportunities, lunches, teas and those containerised plants. With dwarf varieties of everything from buddleias to fig trees, you barely need a border. and bulb catalogues, to plan for next year’s season in your garden, and for the annual show. On 6th

August the Society held it’s first show in three years at

Cradle Hill Community Primary School. It was a busy, successful afternoon, with 200+ visitors viewing the numerous entries in multiple categories, and while the weather has been especially challenging for gardeners this season, there was plenty to see from artichokes to hydrangea heads.

WH AT TO DO JOBS FOR SEPTEMBER

3 Connect as many water butts as you can to your downpipes. Don’t forget garage, sheds etc. 3 Water camellias and rhodedendrons to ensure development of flower buds. 3 Take semi-ripe cuttings. An easy way to propogate a wide range of hardy plants, especially evergreens.

See rhs.org uk – cuttings. 3 Plant daffodil bulbs, also wallflowers, sweet William and polyanthus.

MEMBERS’ NOTICE BOARD

July’s speaker Tom Hart Dyke was very much enjoyed. More to come this month when we welcome Mercy Morris to St Luke’s, Walmer Road on Tuesday 27th September at 7pm to talk about house plants. Also this month a coach outing to National Trust-Polesdon Lacey on Thursday 8th, just £18 for NT members, £32 for non NT members. On Saturday 1st October the last outing of the year visits RHS Hyde Hall, £22 per person. To reserve your place contact Pippa Logan on 01323 49156.