Bexrose Bulletin

July 2004

Published by the Bexleyheath & District Rose Society.

Web Site:- http://home.btconnect.com/cadoss/bexrose
Email:- cadoss@btconnect.com 

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Next Meeting Tuesday 27th July 2004  at St John Fisher Hall, Thanet Rd Bexley.

This month our speaker will be Mr. D. March who will be speaking on "The Secrets of the Walled Garden". Mr. March is very amusing  and has spoken to us on the subjects of Milk  and English Cheese in the past. We continue with our Rose Table Show with a section for Novices and another for Experienced exhibitors. 1 HT Bloom, 1 Cluster Stem, 3 Miniature Blooms. The Floral Art subject this month , in aid of Prickles Hedgehog Haven will be " A Quiet Corner of the Garden". Don't forget the back numbers for sale on the Secretary's table also new members can buy their Society badges or pins for £1 each and we also have millennium book marks £1 each. There will still be some trading items on sale at reduced prices. We will have time for refreshments and a chat at the interval and Ron will draw the raffle.

Results of the Floral Art for May

1st   No. 4  Les Pride             2nd  No.3  Janet Newton                  3rd No 1 Dora Lemon

Money raised for Prickles   £5-50  We also raised £1 for back numbers.

Garden Openings Greenwich & Bexley Hospice.

Sunday 18th July 12,       14, & 17 Lydd Rd (off Chiddingstone Ave.) Bexleyheath

Sunday 25th July            25, Summerhouse Drive, Joydens Wood.

Sunday 1st August         31 & 29 Wansunt Rd, Bexley.

Sunday 8th August         Wychwood, 29 Parsonage Lane, North Cray, Sidcup.

Sunday 15th August        Trinity Hospital Alms Houses, Highbridge, Greenwich.

All gardens open from 2- 5pm

Garden Openings Ellenor Hospice.

Sunday 18th July         37 & 39 Devonshire Avenue, Dartford.

Sunday 1st August      188 & 190 Birchwood Ave. Wilmington.

Sunday 15th August     Highlands Farm, Highlands Hill, Swanley Village.

Sunday 15th August     Clarendon, Swanley Village Rd, Swanley Village.

All gardens open from 2 - 5pm.

Best wishes to Tilly and Billy Eastop, members for many years who have moved to Cleckheaton Yorkshire. Despite being in their nineties they are taking their bulletin from the web site, well done.

Dates for your Diary

21st - 25th July                 Tatton Park Country Show

6th - 7th September          City of London Flower Show, Guildhall, Gresham St.

17th - 19th September       RNRS Great Autumn Show, Harrogate.

25th- 26th September        Malvern Autumn Show.

Rose Growers Calendar for July by kind permission of Don Charlton.

1.  Keep the rose beds tidy by weeding, disbudding. Watch out for insect and fungal diseases.

2.  Deadheading will be one of the main activities this month. Cut the spent blooms to an appropriate       

     leaf node. Cut the stem at about the second set of leaves down from the bloom, this will do for quick

     repeat flowering, or cut a bit lower down the stem if later better quality blooms are required.

3.  The third and last feed of the season ought to be applied this month. This should be well watered in if   

     the weather is dry.

4.  Continue to bud root stocks, but ensure that the sap is flowing well beforehand. Bud wood of

     different and interesting varieties can usually be obtained from rose shows, but always ask for the

     exhibitors permission before taking any stems at the end of the show.

Secretary's Report on the May meeting.

96 members attended our meeting and welcomed Tony Bracegirdle and his wife Alice. Tony started off his lecture by showing us how he prepared his allotment for the 900 new roses he was replacing  his stock with. He swapped the roses to the vegetable area and vice versa and he said they had never had such good vegetables.

He decided to grow his bushes in rows of three with paths in-between. When he started to double dig he found that 2 spits down he hit clay that he didn't know was there. Clay has every trace element needed to grow good roses but must be broken down which can be done by sprinkling with Lime, Gypsum, or exposing to frost. He filled the base of his trench with well rotted horse manure from a huge mound that he said was his Christmas present from Alice. He then filled in the top soil and placed the clay on top, dressed it with Lime and let it stand for 6 months, he then rotavated the site and dressed with Fish, Blood and Bone.  The Manure feeds the deep roots and the top dressing feeds the fibrous feeding roots of  a rose bush. Tony said he gives 3 major feeds per year, Vitax Q 4 after pruning, a second feed of B.F.& B. and then a final feed of Vitax Q 4 in July. If the bushes look a bit soft and floppy at the end of the season he gives a feed of Sulphate of Potash. He sprays his bushes with Maxicrop Tomato feed. He showed us the right and wrong way to prune stressing the importance of a sharp pair of secateurs.

Prune all varieties in the same way but as old roses ,( those that only flower once, )bloom on second year wood, don't prune those so hard.  Cut your bushes back by 1/3 in October- November to prevent damage from wind rock over the winter.

Tony then went on to tell us how he prepares for a show.  He cuts his blooms on Wednesday and immerses them up to their necks in water. Early or light blooms go into a warm light area such as the greenhouse, more open blooms go into his cool dark air raid shelter on his allotment. He dresses all his blooms on Friday and decides which blooms will go in each class. Blooms must look natural 1/2 to 1/3 open. To open a bloom you can fill the area in-between the petals with cotton wool and leave for 3 hours, don't forget to take all the packing out when you put it on the show bench. He then showed us slides of some of his exhibits, a 3 vases of 6 stems was most impressive. He also showed us slides of when he won the Northern show with a bloom of Red Devil and he was presented to the Red Devils parachute team and given a baton that they use in their display and which is made of Rose wood.

The evening was finished off with a question and answer session . It was a very good evening which the members enjoyed very much. The Committee thank Tony and Alice for making the long journey south to speak to us and also thank Mick and Brenda Andrews for putting them up over night. We were also pleased to see Ray Martin and Sam Shuttleworth amongst the audience, two national exhibitors who exhibit at our show.

 Gardening jobs for July.

Lots of dead heading needs to be done this month and generally tidying up the beds. Watering is very important especially for baskets which dry out very quickly. If you are going away on holiday you will need an obliging neighbour but if you don't have this precious commodity, save some plastic bottles through the year, make a small hole in the lid, fill with water, lid on then turn upside down and place in your baskets or containers at a slight angle so that the hole is not smothered by the soil. Water the plants well so that the soil is moist to the bottom of the container. The water from the bottle should gradually seep out while you are away and keep your plants nice and fresh.

Now is the time to take hard wood cuttings from your shrubs. Find new shoots were the wood is just starting to get hard at the base. Pull the shoot off with a heel of old wood attached, trim this neatly dip in hormone rooting powder and place in a pot with compost mixed with sand, perlite or grit to aid drainage and place in a propagating frame or pop a poly bag over the top and secure with an elastic band. Shade from strong sunlight.    Keep lawns mowed and well watered if we have a dry spell.

Secretary's Report on the Summer Show

48 exhibitors put entries on the show benches this year which was a very good effort and the hall was a glorious sight, full of colour and interest. It was nice to see Bill Bowpitt once again all the way from Hampshire and also Martin Double from Ewell who put up some beautiful roses. Ray Martin came over from Felixstowe with a good selection and Sam Shuttleworth from Ongar Essex had a veritable mass of blooms especially miniatures.  Nigel Chapman came up from Canterbury with his entries and did well as did Mick Andrews and Alec Lowry who had stiff competition this year.

It was wonderful to see the championship classes with entries especially the bowls and there were 4 entries in the box of 6 class. Vases of Perennials and Foliage and grasses could have had a few more entries but they are fairly new classes. The Floating Rose class had a good number of entries but some members put in HTs when they should have been miniatures. There were lots of the pot grown rose Drummer Boy and the other pot grown classes were well represented. Floral Art was a little down this year but there were still some very good entries. Sam Shuttleworth won both the Banksian Medal and the RNRS Bronze Medal.   The members afternoon table show was a bit of a disaster with only 2 entries, we will have another think about this next year.

Everyone was glad of Vanessa's refreshment stall and the home made cakes were very inviting. There were plants and roses for sale together with gardening items on trading. Most people had a go on the Tombola which had some very nice prizes this year. Although the competition side of the show was a great success the number of visitors in the afternoon was down again which makes such a difference as to whether the show pays its way or not.

The Committee thank everyone who helped on Friday and Saturday and all those who put in entries to make such a good show. Thanks also to the members who came along to support the show in the afternoon, I am sure a good time was had by all.

Results of the advance entry tickets.

1st Prize George Forman Grill Ticket 4766 Miss C Avent.

2nd Prize  Picnic Hamper Ticket 3256 Mick Andrews

3rd Prize   Mini TV  Ticket 4656  Peter & Kim

4th Prize Wilkinson Sword Fork & Spade      Ticket 2766 Mrs. R. Hunt

5th Prize Radio Alarm Ticket 4675 Lovey

Rons Raffle

1st Prize  Rose Cake Blue  306 Joan Dixon

2nd Prize Swift Cleaner  Blue  149 Tim Peirce

3rd Prize  Lady with Urn Pink  135 Mrs. Riley

4th Prize  Glass Set Pink    81 Val Pulling

5th Prize  Bergamot Toilet Set Pink  223 Nigel

6th Prize  Garden Tool Bag Pink 232 Jane Dyer

Prickles Hedgehog Haven

The Floral Art entries judged by the public depicting Mrs. Tiggeywinkle and Friends raised

£20 for our charity and the winner was Dora Lemon. At the end of the show Janet sold off the flowers on the refreshment tables at 50p per bunch and raised £8. Total collected for our charity at the show £28

Secretary's Report on the June Meeting.

Something very different this month with Sylvia and Jeff Wagner bringing their wonderful magic slide show to delight us. All the photographs had been taken by themselves and their special projector merged the slides into each other as they changed making it appear as if it was a film. Appropriate music accompanied each set of pictures and set the mood. We saw a steam driven fair with the newest ride being built in 1936, a section on Butterflies, one on roses, one on hot air balloons at Leeds castle,

pictures of  the Isle of Thanet where Jeff and Sylvia live, pictures to go with the Flanders and Swann song the Gas Man which was very amusing. The photographs were  all excellent especially some of the beautiful sunsets and the music captured the mood of each piece. Jeff gave a few words of introduction to each piece sometimes telling us where the photos were taken or how the piece came into being. A great deal of time and skill had gone into the making of these sets of pictures and we all marvelled at how wonderful the show was. 

Results of Rose Table Show

Experienced

HT                1^st    Ben Rainsbury

Floribunda    1^st   Ben Rainsbury

Miniatures    1^st   Ben Rainsbury

Points awarded   Ben Rainsbury  12

Novice

HT                 1st    Mrs. Dowall   2nd   Val Pulling  3rd    Mrs. Purnell

Floribunda     None

Miniature    1^st       Mrs. Purnell   2nd   Val Pulling

Points awarded      Mrs. Purnell   5       Val Pulling    4      Mrs. Dowall     4

Floral Art Table Show

Only one entry      Janet Newton    Money donated   £2-24p   

Money donated for back issues   85p   John Carr very kindly donated a box full of copper coins £2-45p

Total collected for Prickles Hedgehog Haven this meeting  £5-54p

Welcome to new members

Mr. C. Webber

Mrs. J. Riley

Mrs. Cotton

Cheese and Wine Evening with George

The weather had not been kind down at Riverside Nurseries and the marquee that had been erected for the summer cheese and wine parties had been blown down and lots of the plastic cups ended up in the river. But it takes more than that to put George off his stride and so we made do in his shed. After a tour round the greenhouses where George explained about the National Collection and pointed out plants of interest we tucked into the cheese and snacks that Nell had provided. Our group numbered about 60 and we were joined by Hextable Heritage group who were quite small in number. Several of our members knew some of their members so it made for a cheery evening only marred by the onset of rain later on. Well done George in the face of adversity.

Day trip to Les Jardins de Valoires

We set off from Bexleyheath at 7 am with Bob at the wheel and arrived in good time for the ferry at Dover. After a Farmhouse breakfast and a visit to the duty free shop we reached France and had a smooth journey down to Abbeyville. We visited the gardens first and what a wonderful sight greeted us as we turned the corner of the shrubbery. The lawns were pristine and the rose beds full of colour. The abbey and its adjoining buildings set off the scene beautifully and reminded us of our trip to the Loire Valley. There were many different gardens ranging from decorative fruit, herbs, Hydrangeas, shady garden, winter garden, yellow and white gardens and of course the rose garden with a very wide range of under planting. The marsh garden was interesting too with its artificial canal and ducks and fish. We found the plant centre very expensive and I don't think any one bought plants. The shop had some very nice but pricey gifts and several of us bought items here.

Our lunch was laid out in the Botanical Restaurant behind the gift shop and we started off with a rose aperitif drink, very unusual. The main course was trout but made in a type of individual quiche, very tasty. The meal seemed to go on for ever and we finally boarded the bus a 5-30pm French time. Although we had a good run up to Calais we missed our ferry and had to wait for the next one. We all relaxed on the voyage home and chatted about the day. All were in agreement that it was one of the nicest days out the Society had run which was greatly helped by a lovely sunny day and Bob's good driving.