Club Meetings - Last Month

Inspiration for our gardens can come in many forms and from many different places.  At our July meeting, Mark Saunders was providing us the ‘Garden Inspiration’ we needed to be able to make some changes to our own gardens come the autumn or spring when conditions should be more favourable for splitting, transplanting, and making additions to the garden.  Mark had some beautiful photographs of different gardens that showed a full range of spectacular ways to add impact.  However, when we see something we like, the key is not to ask, “What plant is that?” and instead ask, “What is it about this scene that appeals to me?”  Is it the rhythm, the colour, the texture, the contrast, the repetition, or the feeling it creates?

Planning for Drier Summers

With another exceptional year of hot and dry weather, one thing we all need to do is to carefully reexamine what plants we have in our gardens and to see if we can adapt planting schemes to favour more drought tolerant plants in the future.  When we look around our own gardens, we can see the contrast between plants that are well adapted for dry weather and those that are not.  These more tolerant plants typically have one or more characteristics that make them more resilient. 

August Club Meeting - Summer Show and Social 

Our August meeting on Tuesday 11th August will be our Summer Show and Social.  It’s been a scorching July and a reprieve of some rain may not come in time for many plants in the garden, but please have a look at the schedule and what’s in your garden and see what you can enter.  Remember, everyone is in a similar position, and you may be pleasantly surprised to see how your entries compare to others.

If you are entering any classes, doors will be open from 7 pm for the setup and staging of exhibits.  This always takes longer than you think, so give yourself plenty of time.  Remember, all staging must be complete by 8 pm.  Otherwise, the meeting proper and the social-side of the evening will start from 8 pm.  Just like regular Club meetings, we will have a raffle with tickets available on the door as you enter (so bring some change), but there will not be a Plant Stall or a specific Exhibit of the Month.

The Summer Show – A Floral Foam-Free Show 

For many years, green floral foam, or Oasis, has been an essential part of flower arranging.  It made creating displays quick and easy by holding stems firmly in place while supplying them with water.  However, in recent years it has become increasingly unpopular as awareness has grown of its environmental impact.  These traditional floral foams are a single-use plastic made from petroleum-based resins that cannot be recycled or composted, and every time it is cut or used, sheds tiny plastic particles, microplastics, that can find their way into our soil and waterways.  Since 2021, the RHS has banned the use of floral foam at all its shows and events.  As an RHS Affiliated Society, we too have decided to stop the use of floral foam at our Summer Show.

Fortunately, giving up foam does not mean compromising on creativity.  A loosely rolled ball of galvanised chicken wire remains one of the most versatile methods available.  Pin holders, or kenzan, offer great control when creating more sculptural or minimalist compositions, while taped grids across wide-mouthed containers, woven twig frameworks, moss-covered wire and decorative pebbles all have their place depending on the style of arrangement.  

Using these alternatives may take a little more thought than simply pushing stems into a block of foam, but they often result in healthier flowers, more creative designs and mechanics that can be used again and again.

Summer Socials – Barbecue and Open Gardens 

We enjoyed a wonderful summer barbecue at Gill and Mel’s in early July, and our sincere thanks go to them and to Klara and Danny and Mick and Joy for helping to make everything to go so well, and for their amazing support for the barbecue over the past 25 year.   There are some photographs from the afternoon on the Summer Barbecue page of the Website.

At the end of the month, our rearranged Members’ Open-Garden day again proved to be a perfect afternoon of wonderful weather, beautiful gardens, delicious tea and cakes, and the delightful company of many other Club members.  Our thanks go to Margaret and Gary Parker, Jean and Kelvin Pickford, and to Tim and Keith for allowing the Club to spend a lovely afternoon in your gardens.  Thanks also go to Sue Clutterbuck for ad hoc visits in the morning.  Pictures from the afternoon are on the Open Gardens page of the Club website. 

Stunning Salvias

Few plant genera can claim quite the evolutionary and horticultural success of the Salvia.  The name derives from the Latin salvare, meaning “to heal”, reflecting the long history of common sage (Salvia officinalis) as both a medicinal herb and a culinary favourite.  With well over 900 species, it is the largest genus in the mint family, Lamiaceae, and its diversity is the product of several independent bursts of evolutionary diversification centred in three geographical area: Central and South America, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean basin. 

The floral feature that unites the genus is the "staminal lever."  In most salvias, the two stamens (male reproductive parts) have evolved into a hinged, see-saw mechanism, so that when a pollinator pushes into the flower for nectar, the lever swings down and dabs pollen precisely onto the pollinator’s back or head.  This elegant piece of floral engineering is thought to be a major reason the genus has diversified so explosively, particularly in the Americas, where many Salvia species co-evolved alongside hummingbirds, whose long bills and hovering flight suit the lever perfectly.

That deep diversity translates into a genus with something for every kind of garden – even ones with a hosepipe ban and no rain!  At one end sit the reliably hardy herbaceous perennials such as Salvia nemorosa, S. verticillata, and S. x sylvestris – stalwarts of the summer border with their upright spikes or whorls of violet-blue.   Then we have the generally hardy, woody shrubs such as S. greggii and S. microphylla and their many hybrids, such as Salvia “Hot Lips” that will flower almost continuously from June to the first hard frosts.  On the more tender end of the scale are the often-sterile hybrids of S. guaranitica and S. gesneriiflora such as the magnificant purple Salvia ‘Amistad’ or the blue Salvia ‘Animo’ and then the completely tender tubular flowered hybrids such as the ‘Wish’ series – ‘Ember’s Wish’, ‘Wendy’s Wish’, 'Love and Wishes', and other recent introductions.

Salvias developed an unjust reputation as a boring bedding plant in the 1990’s (think, carpet bedding of red Salvia splendens, blue Lobelia erinus, and white Alyssum - Lobularia maritima) but have thankfully had a wonderful resurgence over the past decade or so.  They flower for months on end, shrug off drought once established, and are irresistible to bees and, increasingly, in Surrey, Hummingbird Hawk-Moths.  

Success with salvias comes down to two things: drainage and sunshine.  Most salvias will survive more frost and cold weather than you would think, provided the roots stay dry.  Wet British winters are the real killers here.  Dig in plenty of grit or coarse compost when planting, especially on clay-soils, or grow them in raised beds and pots.  Take a few cuttings in late summer as insurance against a hard winter and mulch the crowns with grit or a dry covering of bracken or straw.  

Resist the urge to cut shrubby salvias back in autumn as the previous year’s growth will give additional protection.  Once growth restarts in April, the old stems can be cut back hard.  Herbaceous types such as S. nemorosa respond well to a hard cut-back immediately after their first flush of flowers, which reliably brings on a second wave of flowers to last into autumn.  Slugs can be a problem on soft spring growth, and powdery mildew where air circulation is poor.  Otherwise, they are very unfussy and easy to grow plants.