Embedded Files
October Meeting | Jonathan Newell - 'Autumnal Colours and Biochemistry' | Tuesday 13th October, 8pm
Please see the October Potting Shed for the Crossgram and Wordsearch puzzles, and the list of Events and Activities in the area
The Royal Hospital, Chelsea
Club Meetings - Last Month
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show gives us an opportunity to escape the reality of our own gardens and enter a world of idyllic perfection. The gardens on Main Avenue do not represent what is achievable in a home garden, but rather they exist to showcase the pinnacle of design, horticulture, and planting. Our September speaker, Mark Gregory, has been associated with RHS Chelsea since 1989, and has contributed to over 120 gardens with 40 Gold medals making him the most medalled garden builder within the RHS, and earning him the nickname of the 'King of RHS Chelsea'. He is also a senior RHS garden assessor and garden judge, the RHS ambassador for landscaping, and the ambassador for Perennial, the Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society.
In a talk entitled, ‘The RHS Chelsea Flower Show: A Life's Work', Mark gave us a fascinating glimpse into what it takes to bring three RHS Chelsea gardens to life, including the incredible 2018 Welcome to Yorkshire Garden, which won Gold, Best Construction Award, the People’s Choice Award, and then later, was voted the People's Choice Garden of the Decade. The gardens at the Royal Hospital are between 150 and 250 square metres and must all be constructed and planted in only 17 days but are the culmination of over 200 days of design and planning. It is this meticulous attention to detail across all aspects of the design that allows visitors to escape reality for that delightful moment.
September Club Meeting
Returning to reality, it is now October and with it comes the start of the seemingly miraculous transformation of the colour palette of trees from simple shades of green to a vibrant tapestry of crimson, burnt-orange, gold, and yellow. But how well do you know your carotenoids from your anthocyanins? At our October Club meeting on Tuesday 13th October, Jonathan Newell, the Public Engagement Officer from the Hilltop at RHS Wisley, will be sharing his passion for trees and science with a talk on ‘Autumnal Colours and Biochemistry’. A wonderful chance to get a deeper appreciation for this botanical spectacle and to see this change in the trees in the arboretum at Wisley.
A reminder of the beauty of early autumn can be found through the photographs of our members’ gardens and the places they visit. The September Photographs are all on the website.
Gardening Tips for October
You can also see a bulleted list in the October Potting Shed
We flipped, almost overnight, from ‘summer’ to ‘autumn’ and enjoyed a cooler, but still quite dry September. The little rain we did have has really helped lawns begin to recover, but we still need many months of above-average rainfall to allow both plants and water reserves to properly recover.
It's late, but it’s not impossible to take cuttings of tender perennials, but they will likely need a bit of additional warmth to get them to root. Most summer-flowering herbaceous perennials can be split now, but it would be better to leave this until the spring to give the plants more time to recover.
Frosty nights will be here soon and will blacken the stems of this year’s plant growth. Old stems provide overwintering havens for many beneficial insects and will usually provide some extra protection for the crown or lower stems, so don’t be in too much of a rush to clear everything out. However, you can also take this as the opportunity to make space for winter bedding and spring flowering bulbs.
Remove saucers and raise outdoor pots onto feet to prevent waterlogging over winter. Dahlia and Begonia tubers should be lifted once the top foliage has died. Lift carefully to avoid damaging the tubers, trim off the dead foliage, label, then store in dry sand, saw dust, or compost in a cool, frost-free place. Alternatively, apply a thick layer of mulch over the plants in situ to protect the tubers from frost.
For semi-woody shrubs like some salvias, Penstemon, and hardy Fuchsias, it is usually better to leave all this year’s growth intact until after the winter and then prune as needed in early spring once there are good signs of growth and once the chance of frosts has diminished.
In the vegetable garden and greenhouse, continue to harvest the last of the summer tomatoes and cucumbers as soon as fruits are ripe. If you are growing pumpkins or squash, trim away any leaves that are covering the fruit so that the sun can harden the skins before harvesting or cut and move the fruit to a dry sunny windowsill or the greenhouse for the skins to harden. Now is also the time to plant winter onions and garlic. Alternatively, both can be planted in the spring, but remember not to plant either vegetable in the same soil that grew them in the last two years to reduce the risk of pests and pathogens.
Astronomical Information for October
Protect Dahlia tubers after the first frosts
Dry pumpkins before storing
Harvest the last of the summer's veg
Club Calendar for 2027
We are so fortunate to receive photographs for the website every month of our members’ gardens and the places they visit, and we have had over a thousand photographs in the past year. This does however make the job of selecting pictures for the Club Calendar particularly challenging but thankfully that task is now complete and the calendar will be available for sale at the October meeting, and the pictures from each month can be viewed on-line.
We have changed supplier again this year to try and keep the costs reasonable, and I’m pleased to say we are again able to offer the calendar for only £10. The format is the same as recent years - printed as double-A4 size, meaning the calendar is A4 size when folded and then opens with the spiral binding in the middle of the page with the picture on top and a planner for the month on the lower half. If you don’t need a calendar with a planner but would still like to support the Club, the lower half can be folded back so you can just enjoy the photographs. The size also makes it easier to post to your friends and family, so makes a perfect way to get a head start on your Christmas shopping!
Greenhouse for Sale - £125
We have received an email from some gardeners in Fairlands who have a 4ft x 4ft aluminium lean-to greenhouse for sale. It is an Elite Windsor model and comes complete with glass, staging, shelves and assembly instruction book. It has already been dismantled into four sections and has a box with all the fittings but can be dismantled further for transportation if necessary.
This is being offered at £125. Please email info@worplesdongardenclub.co.uk if you are interested and I will send you more information.
Amazing Asters / Stunning Symphyotrichum
The word ‘Aster’ is derived from the Greek word astéri meaning ‘star’, and at this time of year, their bright, daisy-like flowers shine in the garden and make them one of the stars of the late autumn border. They belong to the daisy family, Asteraceae, one of the largest families of flowering plants. For a long time almost every star-flowered perennial of this type was called Aster. However, DNA studies from the mid- to late 1990s showed that the true asters (about 180 species) are mainly Eurasian in origin, while other distinct lineages represent the North American asters. The largest of these other lineages (about 90 species) was renamed Symphyotrichum and consists of several distinct types including the New England Aster (S. novae-angliae), the New York Aster (S. novi-belgii) and the Heath Aster (S. ericoides). Many are polyploid (have multiple complete sets of chromosomes) and hybridise readily, which explains both their variability in the wild and the confusion over identification.
Symphyotrichum novi-belgii 'Jenny'
The Victorians adored them as ‘Michaelmas daisies’, so named as the plants traditionally bloomed on the Feast of St. Michael on the 29th September, and the breeding tradition is strong. In England, Ernest Ballard of Colwall, Herefordshire, raised many cultivars in the early twentieth century and more recent breeding programmes have introduced more mildew resistance, more compact growth, and a wider selection of colours. Some of the most favoured cultivars include S. cordifolium 'Little Carlow', S. novae-angliae 'Andenken an Alma Pötschke' and 'Purple Dome', S. lateriflorum 'Lady in Black' with its dark foliage, and S. oblongifolium 'October Skies'. From the true asters, Aster × frikartii 'Mönch' flowers for months and is famously long-lived. Asters are a valuable late nectar source for bees, hoverflies and butterflies.
Most Asters and Symphyotrichum need full sun and moist, well-drained soil, with the sturdier New England types able to cope with heavier ground. Drought stress in late summer increases the chance of mildew damage so good air circulation and watering at the base of the plant rather than over the leaves is important to minimise this.
The taller varieties greatly benefit from additional support put in place early in the season, or the use of the ‘Chelsea Chop’ on New England or New York types in late May or early June to reduce stems by about a half to make shorter but bushier plants come the autumn. As they are clump-forming, dividing in spring every two- to three years and only replanting the more vigorous outer growth will also keep plants healthy. Stems can be cut back in late autumn or left as seedheads for winter structure and wildlife before a tidy-up in early spring.
Club Questionnaire
A huge thank you to everyone who completed the Club questionnaire. We had a total of 25 responses – 20 on paper and 5 online. Although this is less than a third of our members, I hope that it is still sufficiently representative of the membership as a whole. I am pleased to say that the vast majority of members are satisfied with how the Club is run, structured, and are happy with programme of speakers and social activities we have throughout the year.
There were a couple of comments about the timing of the meeting itself being quite late in an evening and that the duration of the tea break can be excessive. Whilst it may be challenging to change the timing of the meeting itself, we can certainly consider adjusting the timings during the meeting. The format was adjusted many years ago to try and introduce more opportunity for social interaction during the break and to allow time for the plant stall but we can certainly review and adjust as necessary. There were some comments on the appropriateness of having a monthly raffle as compared to a couple of ‘highlight’ raffles and a corresponding increase in the annual membership cost. The raffle contributes about £550 per year to the Club and current total membership fees are less than half that of speaker and hall hire costs, so the raffle is a significant contributor to our annual finances. That said, it is certainly something to review for 2027.
We don’t try or expect to please everyone all the time, but the range of activities we currently have seem well received and worth continuing. There were some good suggestions for the Summer Show including whether we should change the date or have an additional spring show. An earlier show would make a nice change, but it is only possible to hire Fairlands Community Centre in August due to regular bookings at other times. The Old Church at Emmanuel is quite restrictive on space to hold a full show, but a smaller spring show provides useful ‘food for thought’ for future planning.
The support for adding additional activities throughout the year was more mixed. There was good consensus that having practical events and GQT-style gardening advice on Club nights would be welcomed, and some lovely suggestions of the activities, including secateur sharpening, seed sowing and pricking out, flower arranging/wreath making, and the lovely, make your own gnome. We will have tête-à-tête narcissi for sale at the October meeting and will try to continue doing this as time and resources allow. Suggestions for social activities included visits to both local gardens and community gardens where we could help, advise or supply plants from our own gardens. Suggestions for sundries included gloves, plant labels, ties, and hand-tools. Some concerns over the increase in work necessary to run or provide these activities were raised. This is a very valid concern but is part of the rationale for having the questionnaire – to see what our members would like before time is spent trying to implement.
Finally, for the future activities of a coach trip and/or a high-profile speaker, the majority of members who would try to attend a coach trip would support the partial subsidy and most would prefer to have a different price for members than visitors. The timing of any trip is always a challenge, and we see a near-even split between the options for a weekday versus a Saturday or Sunday. Most respondents preferred a spring or summer outing. The cost of coach hire is quite prohibitive, but we will do our best to organise something for next year.
There were some additional general comments and suggestions, and lots of lovely appreciation for what we offer. All the information gathered will be kicked around by the committee over the coming months and whilst it may be too late to add to the statistics above, it is never too late for your thoughts and suggestions. We can’t do everything but having a better idea of what people like and don’t like goes a long way to helping make the Club a continued success.
And Finally …
Packs of the lovely miniature narcissus Tête-à-tête will be available on the Plant Stall in October priced at £2.50 for 15 bulbs.
We have received the new discount code for Thompson & Morgan offering a 50% discount on packet seed and 20% off live products when you order by post, phone, or online. The paper order forms and the new seed catalogues will be on the sign-in table at the October meeting.
If you have collected any seeds from your fading summer displays or heirloom vegetables, please bring them to the Plant Stall, suitably labelled, for a free Seed-Swap. Feel free to take what you want.
My lawn is full of moss, and I don't know what to do about it.
My friend suggested scarifying, but I feel that's just scratching the surface...
Tim Bonnert, October 2026
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