Japanese Maples - Thursday, 12th April 2018

Steve Valentine's talk on acers, specifically Japanese Maples, was authoritative, entertaining and affective. Steve grows his acers mainly in pots and with his care they have survived a quarter century in Shap's often harsh climate.

Sycamore

Relatives of these glorious trees are our native Field Maple (Acer campestre) and our now naturalised, taller and perhaps invasive Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus). Sycamores were introduced in the 1500s.

 Japanese Maples vary in size

Medium Tree – Container Specimens – Bonsai

Container Advice for Acers – the basics:

1. Ericaceous Compost 2. Good drainage crocks 3. Bubble wrap line pots if kept in cold/harsh climate 4. Spring – vine weevil preventative treatment 5. Annual spring feed & autumn tonic 6. Keep soil moist 7. No pruning except for 3 D's – Diseased / Dying / Dead plant matter

Japanese Maple Care
Do's		Don't s
Provide frost protection		Don't change pot size too often. Acers like their roots to be constricted, so only increase pot size by one. Also they are very slow growing – so expensive for a specimen
Spray foliage in dry weather		Never change pot size for bonsai. This an ancient Japanese Art
Dappled light	Very thin leaves & bark but also this gives ethereal beauty	Avoid bright sunlight
Shelter from drying winds
Feed regularly - biannual		Prune – except for 3 D's
Every 2-3 yrs, remove top soil by 2 inches & replace		Don't buy grafted acers, as the graft may be weak
Top dress pots with decorative stones. This also gives the pot weight & reduces evaporation on hot days.		NEVER add Lime

Steve's Top Six Favourite Japanese Maples are:

A. palmatum 'beni schichiheng'

green/white/cream foliage in spring

upright red form of bark / goblet shaped

changing colours

A. palmatum dissectum -'viridus'

Weeping asymmetrical habit

Tiny / dusky green

Spectacular in Autumn

Grey winter bark

A. palmatum 'beni kagami'

Gets tall if not pot grown / but slow growth

champagne glass shape

best upright

Deep red almost black in sun

A. shirasawanum aureum

“Full moon acer”

yellow/green

peripheral leaf – blood red

excellent companion in acer garden ~5'6”

 A. palmatum sango kaku

Coral red bark - winter

wine glass shape

AGM

A. palmatum osakazuki

Tiny – wee pot <15” high

Pendula – leaf like a saki cup

Gorgeous at dusk

'Quality beyond anything else'

Bark almost black

Steve Valentine is a Ceramic Artist. At Newtonrigg College, Penrith he trained as a Garden Designer and Landscaper. He is currently working at Askham Hall. He is passionate about Japanese Maples and has an extensive 25 year collection of them.

www.edgeceramics.co.uk

Steve recommends the following reference book:

Written by PMR

Various reference sources used

Heritage Plants - Thursday, 8th March 2018

This fabulously instructive talk was given by Susie White. In her Gardener's World featured garden (2014), Susie has planted her new Northumbrian garden using drifts of contemporary and heritage / antique plants. Here extremes of temperature have been recorded, -18c to 30c!

Before 2010, Susie and her husband gardened at the walled garden near Chesters and ran the Old Potting Shed Shop. The Chesters site contained national herb collections of which one was thyme.

Below is a record of thoughts about some of Susie's favourite heritage plants.

Roman herbs were used in a variety of ways:

dyes / culinary / spiritual / household

(fig leaves being used as loo paper)

Marshmallow – Althaea officinalis

Mallow was an edible vegetable among the Romans; a dish of marsh mallow was one of their delicacies! It also has soothing properties and has been used for lozenges. It was also used in the development of the sweet by the same name.

Chives - Allium schoenoprasum

Susie reminds us that the flowers themselves have a wonderful strong flavour and are decorative. Her favourite varieties are Pink Perfection & Black Isle Blush.

Marjoram - Origanum majorana

The Romans used marjoram in cooking when it's strong aroma could disguise inferior meats. It was also used for dying.

Ground Elder / Bishop's Weed - Aegopodium podagraria

Another Roman introduction! It is edible and was used to treat gout using an external wrap. Susie sees merit in this plant as a foil for roses, if you can contain it!!!

Woodruff / Baby's Breath – Galium odoratum

Woodruff indicates the presence of ancient woodlands. It contains coumarins which are present in hay. This gives the sweet smell which persists with drying. The ruff has been linked to the shape for rose windows in churches. 

Lungworts / Mary's Tears – Pulmonaria officinalis

The plant has been cultivated for centuries as a medicinal herb, the ovate spotted leaves held to be representative of diseased lungs, following the Doctrine of Signatures. In the Middle Ages, Christian doctors believed that plants similar to any body part could be used to treat illnesses in this part since God put his signature in the plant to guide mankind.

Sweet Cicely - Myrrhis odorata

This is a tall (6') herbaceous plant that is softly hairy and smells strongly of aniseed when crushed. It was used as a natural sweetner. Beware not to confuse it with hemlock which is poisonous. (Hemlock has a mousy smell).

Lady's Mantle - Alchemilla mollis et al

This is an invasive species but has wonderful foliage & flowers. To control it, cut to ground level before flowers go over. In ten days new leaves appear.

Water beads on the leaves collect in the rain. These beads of water were considered by alchemists to be the purest form of water. They used this water in their quest to turn base metal into gold, hence the name Alchemilla. 

 St. John's Wort - Hypericum perforatum

Referred to as “nature's prozac”; some studies have supported the efficacy of St John's wort as a treatment for depression in humans, but have not concluded it as a replacement for more studied treatments and proper medical consultation.

The leaves are yellow-green in colour, with scattered translucent dots of glandular tissue. The dots are conspicuous when held up to the light, giving the leaves the 'perforated' appearance to which the plant's Latin name refers. When flower buds (not the flowers themselves) or seed pods are crushed, a reddish/purple liquid is produced.

Thyme

The spread of thyme throughout Europe was thought to be due to the Romans, as they used it to purify their rooms and to "give an aromatic flavour to cheese and liqueurs". In the Middle Ages, the herb was placed beneath pillows to aid sleep and ward off nightmares. In this period, women also often gave knights and warriors gifts that included thyme leaves, as it was believed to bring courage to the bearer. Thymes are best cultivated in a hot, sunny location with well-drained soil. Susie's own experience is that Thymus longicaulis can survive in -18c

Bergamot / Scarlet Beebalm - Monarda didyma

Not to be confused with Bergamot Oranges used in perfumes and Earl Grey Tea. Bergamot is a decorative plant. It is also the natural source of the antiseptic thymol, the primary active ingredient in modern commercial mouthwash formulas.

Remember new plant discoveries often come from the wild

e.g. Anthriscus sylvestris 'Ravenswing'

This cow parsley was discovered by Hexham botanist, John Richard. It bears clusters of tiny, cream-white flowers in contrast with lacy, dark purple foliage. It's perfect for growing in a large informal border or cottage garden scheme, and 
in meadows among ornamental grasses.

e.g. The Apothecary's Rose - Rosa gallica officinalis & Rosa mundi

As it sometimes happens, Henry II had a mistress named Jane Clifford, later renamed (according to legend) The Fair Rosamond. Henry's wife Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine got wind of this affair, concocted a poison to give her husband’s mistress, and disguised the deadly potion with the oil of the Apothecary’s Rose and R. alba. After Rosamond’s death, so the legend goes, a new rose sprouted outside the castle 
 one of both red and white stripes , called Rosa mundi. 

About Susie... 

Susie is a freelance garden writer, photographer and author. A lifelong and passionate gardener, she spent 23 years at Chesters Walled Garden on Hadrian’s Wall making it a place much loved by visitors. Here she developed her free flowing planting style, which owes much to herbs, wildflowers, childhood plants and unusual perennials.

With her husband David Oakley, she has made a new garden in a hidden valley in Northumberland. Each step was shared with readers of the English Garden magazine, in a two year long series on making a garden from scratch – featured on Gardener's World 2014.

Susie contributes to a variety of garden and travel magazines. She is the garden columnist for My Weekly magazine and has been the garden columnist for the Northumbrian magazine for eleven years.

 Written by PMR

Various reference sources used 

In case you want to smile & re read Jude's poem...

The English Rose By David Stirzaker

Roses are sh*t. And growing them’s worse,

A lifetime of failure has caused me to curse.

I plant them and feed them, and prune them and such,

But they never respond, or do very much.

The cuttings are vicious, all covered in snags,

Which hurt as you stuff ‘em, in black plastic bags.

The blooms are quite lovely, they last half a day

Till the first puff of wind blows the petals away.

I deadhead the blooms, and I take off the suckers,

But do they reward me, the ungrateful…. little shrubs?

The climbers won’t climb, and the ramblers won’t ramble,

The teas and the standards are always a gamble.

My compost’s well-rotted, my mulch is aerated,

As I try to grow Engerland’s most over-rated.

I’ve tried in full sun and I’ve tried in the shade,

They’re the biggest mistake that this gardener has made.

I’ve tried in the North, and way down in the South,

I wish Alan Titchmarsh had just shut his mouth.

Excuses, for failure with roses, are legion,

They vary a little from region to region,

Too sandy, wrong pH, salt winds or the cold,

Cat poo, kids’ footballs or mildew, or mould.

I buy lots of stuff for them, (that’s all a racket),

It looks bloomin’ marvellous, there on the packet.

But I want roses red, and I want violets blue,

So I get ripped off, weekly, down at B & Q.

You mustn’t think all of my plants end as failures.

You should see my peonies, fuschias and dahlias.

My shrubbery’s brill, (to use the vernacular),

My lawn is a picture, my borders spectacular.

My vegetables grow to prodigious sizes,

I take them to shows where they sometimes win prizes.

I’ve got trees of all colours, which grow on the lawn,

They sparkle with frost on a cold winter’s morn.

I’ve got a big pond, with beautiful fish,

I should be content but I’ve only one wish.

I lift new potatoes, fresh herbs are on tap,

My produce is great but my roses are crap.

Every Spring on the telly, I’m seduced by Chelsea,

And I buy some more roses, this year they’ll do well, see?

(No they won’t.)

They’ll sit there infested, with flies green and white,

They’ll scratch me and tear me, and still look like ….. not quite right

To get rid of greenflies, I’m told is dead easy,

So I’m out there again with my diluted Sqezy,

Then, dormant buds remain non-emergent,

And I’m told that I must’ve used too much detergent.

They cling on, with yellowing leaves and black spots,

And some blame the compost, and some blame the pots.

My roses are sick, I can’t find the cure,

And the RHS expert, says ‘fork in manure’

I’ve forked in manure, I complain to the bloke,

So much forkin manure it’s becoming a joke.

Wish my garden blossomed, all peaches and cream,

With soft - scented roses, and Rachel de Teme.

So I will keep on trying, ‘cos I am no quitter,

But roses are sh*t, and growing them’s sh*tter.