Gardener’s Cuttings
Rosemoor hosts William Morris season
The William Morris Season at RHS Garden Rosemoor in Devon runs from 20th May to 30th August. An exhibition ‘Inspired by Nature‘ will showcase some of Morris' original drawings and woodcuts together with beautiful fabric and wallpaper samples and furniture. During the season 'News from Nowhere', a film about William Morris' life will be shown and Caroline Bennett-Jane of Sanderson will give a talk entitled 'Morris & Co - The Business and its people'. Visitors to the garden will also be able to enjoy sculptures inspired by nature and William Morris' style within the garden. These have been created by local artist Tim Martin, with Secondary students from schools in the area.
If you don’t already know it RHS Garden Rosemoor, open every day from 10am to 6pm, is a 65-acre garden located in a steep wooded valley in rural North Devon. As well as enjoying all that the Morris season has to offer, visitors can wander through fruit and vegetable fields and gardens, woodland, formal gardens and wildflower meadows. RHS gardeners are always on hand to give advice and ideas to both novice and experienced gardeners alike and throughout the summer there will be a variety of events. These include 'Grow Your Own' weekends, live music evenings, local produce shows and competitions and family fun days throughout the school holidays. The RHS Garden Rosemoor is FREE for children throughout August.
Broadway Arts Festival remembers a legendary painting in a local garden
The Edwardian painter John Singer Sargent’s famous painting, ‘Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose’, which was painted in a garden in Broadway, near Cheltenham, will be one of the highlights of his life and work to be celebrated at the Broadway Arts Festival between 11th and 20th June. The festival will look at Sargent’s work and the colony of English and American artists who put the village of Broadway on the artistic map at the turn of the 20th century. Sargent was staying at Farnham House on the village green when he painted ‘Carnation, Lily, Lily,
Rose’, which is exhibited at Tate Britain in London. Two preliminary sketches done by Sargent, of local girls Dolly and Polly Barnard, who are depicted in the work, have been loaned to the festival by Tate Britain. The title of the painting comes from a popular song of the period. One of the talks to be given during the festival will be on the artist and garden designer Alfred Parsons. Garden historian Marion Mako will be talking about the gardens he designed in Broadway during the period, on Saturday 19th June at the Farncombe estate just outside Broadway, at 2.30pm.
Breakthrough in fighting horse chestnut disease
Scientists working to fight the diseases causing horse chestnut canker have made a breakthrough.
A bacterium called Pseudomonas syringae pv. aesculi (Pae) causes cankers which bleed like open sores and in severe cases can kill large, mature horse chestnut trees within one or two seasons. Forestry Commission research has found more than 70% of the trees surveyed in some regions of Britain showed symptoms that indicated or might indicate bleeding canker.
But a partnership of scientists from the three research establishments has decoded the bacterium's genome, unlocking information that can help to inform advice on managing the disease.
Dr Sarah Green, a tree pathologist with Forest Research said: "There has been an unprecedented rise in invasive plant diseases, possibly linked to the rise in international travel and in the global plant trade. ”We now have the first clues to the evolutionary origin of the disease and to its ability to spread so fast."
Before the European epidemic, the only reported case of Pae was in India. A similar strain infects the Indian horse chestnut, but causes only minor lesions in the leaves. The strains that emerged in Europe appear to be more aggressive and attack the woody trunk and branches. Scientists now hope that in the next 12 months the fight to keep the horse chestnut from being more seriously affected can begin.
‘Swap it’ gives garden clubs a new idea
More gardeners and local communities should be organising seed, seedling and plant swap schemes. That’s the view of one local community in Cornwall which instead of running a plant sale switched to a new idea. Anne Bowman from Bude explained: ”I had the idea of doing something different. I had read about a gardening club in Wales which had organised a seed swap and how successful it was – so we tried it. Anyone can enter. You pay £5 to join the scheme and then just swap seeds and plants. Everyone thought it was a great idea and I think more gardening clubs should try it
Two examples of RHS Lindley Library designs by Gertrude Jekyll the famous garden designer. Jekyll was a friend of William Morris and is famous for her partnership with the Arts and Crafts architect Sir Edwin Lutyens
‘Seedling Saturday’ is a complimentary event to annual ‘Seedy Sunday’ a community seed swap held each February. ‘Seedling Saturday’ is a chance to swap seedlings, diversify your garden or catch up in time for the growing season.
"By growing from our own saved seeds we are protecting the future of varieties of vegetables which are not sold by the seed companies. This gives us more choice in our gardens and protects varieties which have useful characteristics such as disease resistance or tolerance of local weather conditions," added Anne.
Country Gardener 7
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