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This month's lecture is on Roses and we welcome our old friend Tony Bracegirdle once again. Tony has won the National Amateur Champion Exhibitor award many times so he has a great deal of knowledge to pass on. He is also Vice President of RNRS and has just been appointed to the board of Trustees. His lectures are always very interesting and his slides are excellent. We must thank Mick and Brenda Andrews for putting Tony and Alice up for their trip south.

The Floral Art Table Show will be held this month, the subject "Prickles Hedgehog Haven". There were a good number of entries in the spring show for the basket of flowers so please try and enter for this competition in readiness for the summer show. Lets try and collect a substantial sum of money over this year for Mavis Raghini.

We were sorry to hear of the death of Mrs. R. Edwards of Burnell Avenue, Welling. Our condolences go to her family.

Miss T. Holmes
Miss J. Neale

Congratulations to members Ron & Floss Thomas who celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on 29th April.

Ron Pulling has now audited the accounts as printed for the AGM. All was found to be correct.

The show will soon be upon us and we need to know who will be available to help. As always we will need help getting the hall ready on the Friday evening, the more hands the quicker we can all go home.

Other help needed even if it is only for an hour in the afternoon so that others can have a break, Trading, Tombola, Plants, Refreshments. We will also need one or two people to help on the door throughout the day.

We would also like plants for the Plants stall, unwanted gifts for the Tombola and home made cakes for the Refreshments. Ring Janet to let her know if you are willing to help. Please don't leave it to the last minute, we do need to know in advance in order to be well organised on the day.

Sunday 30th May 10 & 12 Heathfield Gardens, Swanley, 26 Cedar Close, Swanley.
Sunday 20th June The Bungalow, Frog Island, South Darenth, 85, Devon Rd, South Darenth.

Sunday 16th May Clevis, New Barn Rd Longfield
Sunday 23rd May 26, Elmfield Close, Gravesend.
Sunday 13th June The Anchorage, High Rd, Wilmington, Woodlands, Church Walk, Wilmington.

Gillian Smith will once again be opening her garden for The National Garden Scheme on Sunday 20th June. 47, Winn Road, Lee, SE12 9EY 2pm -5pm Entry £1-50 Children free, plant sales and refreshments.

23rd May Hospice plant day, Bostall Heath 1pm free entry.
25th- 28th May Chelsea Flower Show.
29th- 31st May The Kent Garden Show, Detling, Maidstone.
12th- 27th June Groombridge Place Midsummer Garden Celebration
19th June Bexrose Summer Show.
20th June Gillian Smith, 47 Winn Road, Lee 2pm - 5pm, £1-50
24th June Cheese & Wine Evening at Puddefoots Nursery. 7pm.
26th- 27th June The Southern Rose Show Squires, Shepperton.
3rd- 4th July RNRS Northern Show, Daisy Nook Garden Centre, Oldham.
6th - 11th July Hampton Court Flower Show
10th- 11th July Lakeland Rose Show, Crooklands, Kendal, Cumbria.
13th- 15th July Great Yorkshire Rose Show, Harrogate.
17th- 18th July National Show for Miniature Roses, Capel Manor.
21st- 25th July Tatton Park Country Show
6th- 7th September City of London Flower Show, Guildhall, Gresham Street.
17th- 19th September RNRS Great Autumn Rose Show, Harrowgate.
25th- 26th September Malvern Autumn Show.

1. Look for excess shoots, die back and blind shoots, nip out or cut back as necessary.

2. The first buds should be appearing this month and if you wish to improve the quality rather than have quantity then now is the time to consider disbudding. Nip out the centre buds of the cluster flowered roses and the side buds of the HT roses.

3. Apply the second application of rose fertiliser and water in if the weather is dry.

4. Look out for insects, it is likely that your first application of insecticide needs to be applied this month. Follow the manufacturers instructions fully.

5. Mildew and blackspot are just around the corner and it makes life easier by applying a fungicide now as a preventative measure rather than trying to find a cure later.

6. The first decent blooms of the season should come around the last half of this month. If you want to cut some for the house then cut the stems when the blooms are only about 1/4 open and leave the stems in deep cold water, in the shade, for at least 3 hours before arranging them in their vase or bowl indoors.

Membership payments or queries -- Doreen Taylor 020- 8859- 7260
Catering -- Vanessa Rochester 020- 8303- 1498
Holidays -- Vanessa Rochester or Janet Newton 01322 -445010
Day Trips -- Janet Newton
Plant Orders -- Vanessa Rochester
Spring & Summer Shows-- Alan Neale 020- 8304 -8183
Plug Plant Collection-- Ray Jones 020- 8306- 0268
Raffles-- Ron Pulling 01322-436087
Advance Entry Tickets, by post to Zena Neale, by post or at the monthly meeting.
Items for the Bulletin no later than the Monday after the Monthly meeting to Janet Newton.

Now is the time to be planting new water plants in your pond. Don't forget that when buying water lilies, they can grow enormous and cover your water area so go for a miniature variety. If you intend to keep fish buy some oxygenating plants.

Spray your fruit trees now with a combined insecticide and fungicide when the buds are showing pink and don't forget the grease band round the trunk. Thin out the young shoots of your Raspberries to about 9" apart. Put straw or black polythene around your strawberries and set up netting over all your soft fruit to protect it from the birds.

Thin the shoots of hardy border plants and stake the flower spikes as they develop paying particular attention the Lupins and Delphiniums. Polyanthus can now be lifted and divided and placed in a shady part of the garden to make good plants for going back into the borders in the autumn. If you have Daffodil bulbs that have not flowered dust the soil or grass around the base of the leaves with rootfly dust. Clear away all spring bedding plants and lift bulbs if you wish once the leaves have died down. Heel into another part of the garden or dry out and store in your garden shed until autumn. Now you can plant out your plug plants and make up those wonderful hanging baskets. Spray and feed your roses regularly.

Weed and feed your lawn if you have not already done so and rake out all the thatch and moss. Mow regularly.

We arrived at Bletchley Park after negotiating the roundabouts of Milton Keynes and were welcomed by one of the volunteers who told us our itinerary for the day. Most of us dived into hut 4 for a cup of coffee and then we were off to hut 12 where a very knowledgeable elderly gentleman gave us a brief history on how Station X came to be at Bletchley Park. He then took us on a tour of the grounds giving us information on what happened in each hut even if it wasn't there any longer as in the case of F Block where Tommy Flowers invented the first computer.

Our tour lasted 2 hours and then after a quick bite of lunch we were free to wander around the exhibitions.

We saw the Bombe machines invented by Alan Turing into which the enemy codes were fed. These greatly speeded up the process of finding a code when the keys had been changed daily. Many of the huts were run by special interest groups such as the Toy museum, the Post Office, Model Boats, German wartime memorabilia complete with a Gestapo officer and two squaddies, The Churchill Museum and the Cinema where you could watch old wartime information films.

Churchill had a soft spot for Bletchley Park and spent a lot of time there during the war. He was concerned that staff were not getting much exercise or entertainment so he had tennis courts built, still there but rather weedy now.

The Bletchley Park estate had been owned by Sir Herbert Leon since 1883 who added considerably to the mansion over the years. On the death of Sir Herbert and his wife the property was bought by a developer.

In 1938, with the threat of war looming it was decided to move the Code and Cipher school out of London to a place in the country. Bletchley was ideal as it was at a junction of major road and rail connections.

Captain Ridleys shooting party was set up at the mansion together with chefs from the Savoy, all to hide from the local population what the site was actually being used for. With dozens of dispatch riders and also carrier pigeons coming in every day it was amazing that no one suspected that this was a top secret establishment.

University graduates, Lexicographers and any one who was very good at solving cross words was recruited. Many were billeted on the local population, Alan Turing lived on a local farm and cycled in every day wearing his gas mask as he suffered from hay fever. Most of the staff were young girls straight from school, or Wrens and Wracs. They had their living quarters at the RAF camp nearby. At the height of operations about 10,000 people worked at Bletchley Park and no one knew that they helped to shorten the war by about 2 years. No one ever talked about what they did and even today it is sometimes hard to get information out of them when they return for a visit. The volunteers are gradually building up a picture of the work and living conditions from those who give snippets of information. Churchill called them "the geese that laid the golden eggs --- but never cackled."At 3-30pm we went back to hut 12 where we saw the Enigma machine and were told about how it was stolen and how eventually it was returned.

The trip proved to be a very interesting and unusual day and although there were a couple of showers we mostly managed to dodge into a hut until it had passed. If you were unable to join us I thoroughly recommend you make a visit especially on Saturdays when the huts are manned by volunteers. You don't have to be in a party and you will be given a tour time which will take you round the whole area.

Several hundred of the Borough's allotment holders packed the AGM of the Bexley Federation of Allotment holders and they were in fighting mood. So fierce was the criticism about the Federation being hand in glove with the Council over the new proposals that the Committee resigned on mass and walked out. Fancy grown men throwing their toys out of the pram!! A new Committee was elected and there was a unanimous vote that the strategy be scrapped. What angered the plot holders was that sites were earmarked for closure despite having a waiting list. Sounds very much like a money making venture for the Council rather than concerns for poor old plot owners when they get caught short on a chilly afternoon. It was also felt that there was no need to totally bulldoze sites just to lay new water pipes and put in toilet facilities. Plot holders were also angry that there had been little or no consultation and when they did find out, the plans were already being pushed through. Plot holders also packed a meeting of the Cabinet and heard opposition councillors call for the resignation of Councillor Briant, who needless to say refused to go! The cabinet accepted that communications between the parties had been poor and any new strategy would take into consideration the feelings of plot holders and local residents and a timetable of events would be agreed. Well done lads and lassies, it looks as if this whole sorry mess could bear fruit after all!!

We are going to try an experiment to encourage members to put a rose into the show. A table will be set up where members who have not entered the main show can bring a rose and stage it, writing their own entry card. This table will be open for entries up to 3pm on show afternoon so you won't have to rush up to the hall in the morning when the other competitors are staging their entries for the judges. We will start with an HT rose and if it is a success we could make next years table a 2 class show. Do have a go, there is money to be won !!

If there are any vacant seats on the day trip to France by the time this Bulletin goes out we will accept friends of members. We have been asked by a couple of people if they can bring a friend but we have had to stipulate that members must come first. Ring Janet if you are interested.

Secretary's Report on the April Meeting. The Bert Powell Memorial Lecture.

I am sure Bert would have thoroughly enjoyed George Puddefoot's lecture , he was very amusing and informative and didn't shut up until 10-20pm. He told us that his father inherited the Fuchsia collection from the Cannell family of Woolwich who later moved their nursery to Swanley. He has 4 tea chests full of diaries of the day to day working of the business dating from the late 1800s. He was going through a chest with his son when they realised that the chest was bigger than the depth they had got to at the bottom and found a false bottom which hid all the medals the Cannell family had won over the years. These have been lent to the RHS to display in the Bicentenary year celebrations. The Puddefoots also inherited a Pelegonium and a Penstamen collection from family members and George had at least a dozen Penstamens that Kew Gardens thought were extinct.

Riverside Nursery houses about 5400 different varieties of Fuchsia and they have 3000 varieties in alphabetical order on the bench. Apart from every conceivable type of bloom which George has bred there are variegated and gold leaf varieties. The greenhouses are kept at a winter temperature of 34 degrees and they start to take cuttings 2 days after Christmas getting up to about 5000 a day. These are sealed with plain flour and popped into wet oasis and they quickly root and are then potted on. George advised us to pinch the tops out of our plants and then pinch back each branch to 4 leaves, these will bush out again and after pinching these all back to 4 leaves you end up with 64 branches on each stem, all bearing flowers. The same can be done with Penstamens.

George gave us a demonstration on how to make basket balls, fans, squares and peacocks, all by pinching out shoots and laying the pots first on one side for 4 days and then on the other, this encourages the shoots to sprout from the bottom of the plant. Many of the plants that were used for demonstration were kindly given as raffle prizes. It was a very enjoyable evening which was attended by about 130 members, many going home with plants they had either bought or won.