Day out to Hampton Court Castle and gardens

Jenny organised the last of this year's Kenilworth Horticultural Society outings to Hampton Court Castle.  We had a local coach company pick us on Sunday morning, and the trip through the countryside on one of the finest of Autumn mornings was a joy in itself.

The Castle of which little of the original remains is still picturesque, having been remodeled over the centuries, and is beautifully positioned in lush countryside.

There are some wonderful tree specimens surrounding the house, and the gardens, although now almost at the end of their display of plants, have been well laid out, with interesting walk ways, reflective pools, a wonderful maze, with tower in the middle, secret gardens, topiary etc.  As with many gardens, from the planting, it is definitely summer when the garden would be at its best.

scattered around are some interesting sculptures by the artist George Webb

This pergolas was displaying the hips of the rose Francis Lester which were bright and beautiful against the deep blue sky...and how about this for a novel plant label, which had been well hammered into the ground?  There is no fear here of the label disappearing or getting moved to another plant.

A few other plants were performing well late into the autumn:

and even where the vegetables had been grown, the green maure Phacelia of which I am found was a late source of nectar and pollen for the bees:

Mr S and I had lunch in the orangery, and then joined our group for a tour of the castle.  It is rented out for parties and weddings, and it has some lovely large rooms.

Inside none of the furnishing are original but a previous American Owner did his best to bring the dramatic element to the property:

Towards the end of the day, I went in search of the zip wire, and since there was no one else around, had a lovely exhilarating ride!

Autumn Show

This is the first time I have not entered anything into Kenilworth Horticultural Club's Autumn Show.  Its not that I have not got anything worth while from the garden...but I have a lot on my plate at the moment, as well as being the Show Secretary, and for the first time lead judge on the Home Produce Section.

This year I was joined in the judging by my friend Diane Pearce.  She had put a lot of work into her preparations and had found a very good guide.  It was great fun, and thank goodness we finished with the chutneys and pickles...our tongues were tingling!  A really great batch of bakes and preserves, and a great deal of effort on the part of the contestants.  After the great sugar rush, it was time for me to write out all the certificates and cards!  Andrew Caine was our judge on the Plants, flowers, and vegetables sections.  Our deputy Mayor Kate Dickson gave out all the cups, cards and certificates, and it was great that both long standing members and recent joiners were successful.

After an interlude with refreshments the owner of our local nursery Hintons: Sarah Ridgeway gave an interesting questions and answers talk, and had taken one of my favourite shurbs...so I was not allowed to answer when she called out if anyone knew its name!  It was Ugni Molinae Flambeau, which is currently growing in a lovely pot.  Sarah took the opportunity to describe a couple of other lovely shrubs......and give a plug for the Heritage Open Day taking place at the Walled Garden on her nursery.  Of the two other shrubs rather interesting and new to me, brought by Sarah, to show and tell...I now am the proud owner of 'Red Leopard'.

On Friday we popped into the nursery to collect the leaflet on the heritage open days, and also had a stroll round, of course I admired one the shrubs Sarah had brought, and also admired the Loroptealum Chinese Fire Dancer which I had added to my list following the visit to Peter and Margaret Green's garden in Hunningham.  Sarah and her workers propagate and grow many of their shrubs, and there are quite a few there now which are in superb condition.

Saturday saw a very rainy start to the day, but with Mr S going out today, it had to be raincoats and sheer will for our visit.  I had not even thought to take my camera.  Please visit the walled garden at Hintons.  We bought some lovely vegetables from the garden, and were impressed by the work done to recover the abandoned walled garden in just a few years.

My pocket money for the week went on this fabulous plant: Pseudowintera  colorata Red Leopard, which I picked up on Saturday.    Another lovely well grown young shrub which will be spending the next two years or so in a pot...until it finds its final resting place.  This is a such an interesting plant.  The Mountain Horopito originates from New Zealand, an ancient plant, and I am looking forward to the flowers which come directly off older stems.  The underside of the leaves has an attractive greyish bloom too.  

What a show for the Autumn, and this will continue all through the year...no bare bones here!

Tatton Park

I had been booked on our Kenilworth Gardening Club trip to Tatton Park earlier this year.  Mr S and I were watching footage from the Show on the BBC earlier in the week, and Mr S decided he would love to come with me this last Saturday.  He just managed it as we had a couple of cancellations!  Its was lovely to walk around together...and then sit and enjoy the music, and share our views....

One of the gardens which had caught his eye on the BBC footage was the one with glass panels, and in the flesh it was even better.  Called 'A View Within', it had many elements of interest, which the Designer Eileen Wood has incorporated without the garden feeling overstaged.

Stepping stones through Ajuga reptans 'Mahogany'.  I do have Ajuga reptans purpurea but the form of this one is rather interesting.

A closer view of the glass panels by Julie Langan Architectural Glass Art: wouldn't it be amazing to look out at these at night with a light shining behind and through the glass?

Another attractive back to back garden was 'Inner Sanctum' where a querky brightly coloured water feature was playing in the far corner:

One of the little plants which appeared earlier on a friends facebook page with an appeal to me to identify it was Phacelia or Scorpion Flower.  I found a good description of the plant by Higeldy who also supplies seed.  As well as looking good tucked in amongst other plants, Phacelia is beloved by bees and hooverflies, and also good for cutting, and with its unusual form certainly one I would think of growing next year.  It looked lovely in a mixed border in one of the back to backs:

I would have thought that at the Tatton Park plants would have been correctly labelled.  This plant was on one of the first displays by the entrance.  There were several  clumps of this sedum  all labelled with this name! The spelling I believe should read Sedum Telepinium so there is a u missing, and it is quite the wrong label if my searches showing a tall sedum are correct. In fact Sedum Telepinium it is a sport of Sedum Autumn Joy, and is similar in growth,  which grown here in my garden.

With a cream margin to this little sedum, together with the yellow and orange flowers, this plant really appealed to me.  Sadly on Saturday morning they had no plants for sale, so I took this picture.

 

 The name of this sedum is most likely Sedum Kamtschaticum variegatum and I have even traced a supplier! 

Here are some other plants which really appealed to me.  I can see that in the coming years my interests may focus on clematis...

Taylors Clematis

This Clematis Viennetta is similar to Sieboldii...do you remember Viennetta Ice Cream?  Often brought out as a desert for family Sunday Lunches during the 1980s!  It was a novelty, but soon replaced with the lovely homemade puddings.

Further one there was another clematis grower: Priorswood Clematis

Clematis Arabella

I liked the way the flowers were held on long stems...lovely for my In a Vase on Monday arrangements!

Clematis Justa

This year I am growing more fuchsias, and could not help but admire this mountain of flowering fuchsia plants.

There was a good specimen plant that caught my eye on account of the form of the branches and the colour of the bloom which had a white tube and sepal, with a lavender blue corolla, plus its name Star Wars!  Moreover there was a plant available!

Another little special bloom, which I shall may want to add to the garden:

Scabious Barocca

then there were the sheds and sculptures...but I think I need another blogging session to cover that!

Gillyflowers

I have a friend Dasiy Debs who not only enjoys gardening and blogging but excels at the wonderful art of embroidery.  I have another friend Debbie, who loves visiting historic places and often sends me links to interesting information on face book.

Recently Daisy has posted a picture of her exquisite embroidery, straight from life, of a gillyflower.  This is the old fashioned name for what we now call pinks and carnations.  This reminded me of the time I spent as a volunteer in the new Elizabethan garden at Kenilworth Castle.  I remember the day they hoisted in the marble statue and set it up in the middle of the fountain.

Yesterday there was jousting at the Castle, and Mr S and I decided to have a walk over there.  We do this most times there is something on at the Castle and love to have a chat with the 'enactors' who are spending the time in the tents, cooking, and living, and putting on shows.  I usually take pictures and have posted about this from time to time.

This time I took a few pictures of some of the wild flowers in bloom along the way,  I thought the first clump of wild knapweed reminded of a carnation.  This clump was so good, that I shall return to gather a little seed as I think it would make a rather nice garden plant and it was being visited by bees too!

The Gilly flowers were doing their best after very heavy downpours of rain the previous day and in Kenilworth Castle Gardens captured some of the gillyflowers:

In a corner of one of the beds, the Sweet Williams were putting on a good Show.

Garden Visits

June is the month where many gardens are at their best.  We had several gardens open in Kenilworth, and it was nice to see that three members of the Horticultural had open gardens.  I did a little stint in Bob and Liz Watson's garden, and hopefully we will have attracted some new visitors to our meetings.  I enjoyed all the gardens I visited, and was impressed by the Bomb Shelter in one of the open gardens which was built during the second World War for residents of Field Gate Lane.

In Liz's garden I was impressed by this little succulent like plant with yellow flowers, which seemed to seek out the shade.  How strange: one would expect plants with succulent type leaves to enjoy the sun.  It is called Chiastophyllum oppositifolium.

Liz and Bob's garden is full of interesting plants and every little space be it in full sun or shade has just the right plant growing.  The pale lemon flowers of this plant brought light to a shady corner.

Recently, at the Horticultural club, we have been racking our brains on how to increase our revenue to help meet the increasing costs of speakers and their travelling expenses.  We have of course been inviting rather good speakers and this has been thanks to the generosity of some of our members.  Some of us have started to open our gardens to club members, with invites to our garden on a specific date, with tea and cake included!  One of our members even opened her garden recently where were celebrated the Queen's 90th Birthday with a special tea.  These events have been very popular and a good way of sharing gardening knowledge, and also getting to know other members whilst admiring the gardens and chatting.  I have picked up many ideas I would love to put into practice for all the visits

This week at Barbara and Mervyn's garden we had a wonderful tour and were enchanted by the wonderful selection of herbaceous plants, with roses and shrubs, and even a little chamomile lawn.  Geraniums are to the fore at this time of the year, and this one: Elke, in their front garden, was a clear winner for me on the day.  The foliage is attractive, and for a geranium that keeps on flowering for weeks when dead headed, this was well admired and also photographed by several of us.  With a white margin on the petals and strong pink veining, the  blooms really stand out.  Barbara and Mervyn have many excellent geraniums, and I think she may be asked to give a club a talk one of these days!

Here and there in the garden were lovely clumps of Erigeron karvinskianus...and guess what?  I came home with a little plant.  Mr S has always admired this one, so I just had to get it didn't I?  Barbara and Mike had propagated some of their plants, and had a little sale, and I believe all of them went home to other members' gardens, with quite a tidy sum going to the gardening club.  When I go out and see this one also flourishing in garden I shall remember this lovely afternoon, and Barbara and Mervyn's garden.

Bluebells and just a few white bells

A short walk from home brought us to some lovely bluebell woods.

Mr S and I frequently have a little walk there at different times of the year.  It was here that my sister Jenny was enthralled by them, so when we see the bluebells we are reminded of taking her there.

Just a few photographs, and some of the wild white wood anemones.

 And I just opened the window on this lovely sunny afternoon to listen to the newly arrived swifts and house martins, as they circle over the garden.  I'll get out the binoculars and see if I can spot some swallows too.  Hurrah, hopefully dreary winter is over, we have some nice warm weather set for the next few days.

Cotswold Pudding and Pie at Kenilworth Market

I love to visit the weekly market in Kenilworth on Thursdays.  For a small town we are very fortunate to have some excellent stalls...

I first wrote about Cotswold Pudding and Pie on this blog back in 2008, and have had over 1300 hits since.  Miles turns up come rain and shine, except for the odd week when he is on holiday, or sadly when he injured himself on the cricket field, with loads of goodies: excellent pies, ham, bacon, sausages, and cheeses.  He carries a really excellent selection of cheeses...but now we stick mainly to goats' and sheeps' milk cheeses.  I just love the white and blue waxed paper he uses to wrap the cheeses in...and what inside is what it states on the packaging:  Scrumptious, delicious, delightful, divine etc.

This week he had quite a selection of cheeses for me to choose from.  I came home with a chunk of Smoked Goat's Cheers, and some Blue Riddlesdale Cheese...So it was lovely soup, made with watercress, pea, parsnip, with chicken stock etc, then Home Made Rye Bread and Cheeses, and grapes.

In a Vase on Monday - WI flowers

Wednesday last week was a milestone in the WI.  Last Wednesday was our 100th Birthday, and the day of our monthly meeting.  I only just 'remembered' about half an hour before  leaving for our meeting, that we had agreed to 'dress up', and take a nice tea cup, saucer and plate!  What prompted me?  Hubby was watching the early evening news and I heard some local article in the distance.  I made the 'dressing up', gathered our everyday white Wedgewood China, and the little vase full of flowers for the Chairman's table.

Isn't that a lovely tradition?  Each month we have volunteers who make up a bouquet for the table, and also a posy for each person who has a birthday.  Sometimes one person volunteers to make both, or either the table flowers or the birthday posies.  I had agreed to step in to help out someone who was on the rota for the table flowers, but who could not make the meeting.  She was at Denman doing 'goldwork'.  I think Kay must have been on every Goldwork course since the year dot!  This was what I managed to pick quickly from the garden last Wednesday.

Of course there has to be two sides, so that the members have a nice view as well as the Chairman.

In this little Caithness Vase were leaves from Carex comans Bronze Form, which grows so well in the garden, and I usually have lots of little seedlings to give away, some lovely marjoram seed heads, some late flowering Lavender, the three asters as below, Coreopsis Sunfire, Rudbekia Goldstrum, Lysunachia clethroides also known as Gooseneck Loosestrife.  I had dead headed this a few weeks ago and it is paying me off with more blooms, and lastly a little spring of golden leaved Feverfew.

Our speaker cancelled at short notice and Victoria who has master minded and runs the Tree House Bookshop in Kenilworth, stepped in to give us an excellent talk on Vermeer, and the way he portrayed Women in the domestic sphere.  Dr Meir is a specialist in Art History of this period, but also a well loved and respected 'local'.  By the way a lovely yellow silk jacket/blouse the colour of the rudbekia turns up in several of Vermeer's paintings!

But this is In a Vase on Monday, so here is today's bouquet.

Picked again, as last week, in the pouring rain, I am happy with this medium sized arrangement.  The Vase is a rectangular one, which I picked up from an artist at the Cotswold Show in Cirencester back in the 1990's.  The shape was quite unusual then, but now it is everywhere.  There is a nice design etched on it, so even when empty is usually stays out somewhere.  Yes I can say this is still a WI arrangement.  The reason is that I ought to have brought one of the birthday posies home to give the following day to Pat who lives just round the corner from me.  She was out for the day to visit Lincoln, so I slipped the mag through her door, with a promise of a posy from the garden this week, when we got back from our weekend away.  As she called me back to say thank you and was particularly complementary about my flowers, I thought maybe this bouquet would do.

The pink feathers from the flamingos at Coton manor have a similar colour to the dahlias, which came to me as a rooted cutting earlier this year from the gardening club.  With some raindrops still on the petals of the daisies: Aster frikartii Monch, King George, and the smaller flowered one from my friend Penny.

 The pink sedum, I believe is Autumn Joy, and some stems of Rhamnus alaternus argenteovariegata complete the arrangement. Once I have finished this post, I shall take the arrangement round to Pat's.

Cathy is making sure that we think about the warm and sunny days this month with her arrangement, so as an antidote to this pink and mauve arrangement do go and enjoy hers, and see what other Vase on a Monday contributors are posting.

Autumn Show

The September Show was a great success last night.  This is the first time that I have been Show Secretary at the Kenilworth Horticultural Club, and I could feel the tension mounting.  Therefore despite having bought some of the ingredients for baking, I decided to  let others have a chance, since I have been winning prizes in those categories for a few years now!  I did have have nice comments made to me though last evening on how I ought to have entered etc.

It was easy enough for me to grab a couple of jars of jam, and a couple of jars of Chutney, remake the labels without my name on them, and put them in.  I had not even tasted the spicy Mango Chutney, and I am very pleased with the Judges's comments on that one.  The Piccalilli won the second prize.  The Wild Plum Jam, fruit picked by Steve and left on my doorstep, won first prize, and The Kenilworth Cherry Jam, fruit from Roz's garden,  won second prize.  The judges' comments on this last one amuzed me:  a Little Chunky.  I though, am really pleased with this, as I wanted at least half of the cherries to be almost whole, as I intended it to be used with yogurt, or wedges of almond cake etc for desert, so for this it was spot on for me!

My 'wild' fern, which just grew by itself on the edge of one of my beds, and later transferred to the lovely container found for me by Penny, was not placed, but the judge really likes my Scilla.

I bought the Scilla at the Shrewsbury Show in 2014.  I thought then that the name was incorrect.  I tried to contact the seller but the company had closed due to retirement, but today through Google and searching pictures I have found out that it is Ledebouria socialis, or Scilla socialis, Silver Quill, Leopard Lily...By looking back just one year, I am amazed at how well it have filled out.  Now that it has its prize, I shall be splitting it up, with one piece already being reserved by the Judge!  Loving plants with nice details I feel for this one immediately.  The bulb grows on the surface and is covered with a purple flaking skin, and the flowers though not showy are well worth peering into.  I love the word socialis and I imagine it is because of the way all the small bulbs just crowd up on themselves.

Staying local

For several years we have travelled to Kelmarsh Hall for History Live.  I'm not a history buff, but I love reading novels set in the past, visiting museums, looking at  architecture, watching history type documentaries on TV, and understand that what happened in the past has a strong bearing on how we live our lives now.  Often I like to be able to put myself in the 'shoes' of other people.

For some reason it had not twigged with me that this very weekend here, just a moderate walk from our home, up at Kenilworth Castle there was a Medieval Festival....

After a morning in the garden, a quick early lunch, off we went.  The weather was fabulous, the grounds well set out, interesting stalls, knights and ladies, scallywags and ruffians too.  We loved looking round all the stalls, and particularly chatting with the 'campers'.  Over the years of reading etc I have gained quite an insight into the domestic angle...of course I love my kitchen, but how about this for a batterie de cuisine...

Mr S discussed pottage and we also talked stews with this 'pot stirrer'

I love the fact that you could buy indulgences and pardons: medieval equivalent of going to your 'therapist' to talk over problems and find 'resolution' perhaps?

We found a sheltered bench against an ancient walk and with a pint of good ale for him and a half of excellent Perry for me, we sat and chatted, and watch the world and his dog go past.  We really love all the 'enactor dogs', they get a nice pat and chat from both of us!

Going again today...I bought three masks, 'Green Men and Women' and want three more for the gazebo.  Just updated these: got 3 more masks and a plant from the English Heritage Stall...a golden sunny plant in go into what is evolving into my golden corner, as apposed to the pink, mauve theme elsewhere.