Christmas Social Evening

Nicky and Cliff – “Eternity Duo” 

We held our Christmas social evening on a very wet & windy Tuesday 10th December, and despite the weather it was a well-attended event with only a few unfortunate absences due to illness. There was a welcoming atmosphere as all the tables were decorated with beautiful wine bottle lights & evergreen sprays made by committee members Ann & Brenda with help from Judith (the photo doesn’t do them justice – they looked particularly effective when the lights were dimmed), plus colourful reindeer napkins and salads.

First our members & guests were reinvigorated with piping hot jacket potatoes & fillings. Then after our desserts we were entertained by the popular duo Eternity, with a good selection of songs from several different decades plus Christmas tunes. Nicky & Cliff encouraged everybody to join in with the singing – how did we know the all the words to such old songs?!?

In the break we drew the raffle, which included a number of generously donated prizes, then enjoyed a second set from Eternity and tapped our glasses & bottles for the grand finale of Jingle Bells. Thank you to everybody who helped us tidy up at the end of the evening, and we also wish members who couldn’t attend and all visitors to this site a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

Visions and Music

Colin & Phil 

Our November meeting saw the welcome return of Phil Colclough & Colin Henshall who were last with us in May 2018. These cheerful & talented chaps take beautiful photographs on their travels around the country then add a musical soundtrack to suit. They started with a fireworks display set to Vivaldi Four Seasons followed by gardens such as Consall, Hopton, Kiftsgate, Ness & Lea, then equally stunning landscape views from all around the UK, with a bonus of Picton’s national collection of Michaelmas Daisies. Next was a glorious display of autumn colours and finally a winter wonderland, all showing the best that our country has to offer.

Pam’s competition winner

Everybody had their personal favourites with some of the autumn shots being particularly breathtaking. The music was very varied and included pieces by Birmingham-born Stephen Rhodes and Mexican composer Pablo Arellano, plus a touching vignette of American poet George Cooper’s “Come little leaves”.

After the presentation they drew both the usual monthly raffle plus the special one for a timber garden storage box, which was won by Wendy Skelding. Pam Collins took first place in the monthly competition for a table decoration with a fireworks theme, the only entry but a well-deserved winner nevertheless. Tickets for our Christmas social evening were all sold and our paper 2020 speaker programmes were available, so we’re raring to go for next month & year!  

The Women’s Land Army

Our October speaker Cherish Watton took us on a fascinating exploration of the history of Women’s Land Army through both World Wars, with screenshots of original photographs, cartoons & news cuttings, plus audio clips of interviews & even songs. She showed us how Land Girls & Lumber Jills challenged stereotypes & proved through their hard work & determination that they could succeed, despite (for many) their initial lack of knowledge, plus discrimination in some local communities. Some members & visitors also shared their experiences of knowing, or being related to, Land Girls (& possibly Lumber Jills) and we were all impressed with Cherish’s research & enthusiasm for this topic, which focussed on individuals whom she had met & talked to.

Cherish chatting after her presentation
A Land Girl model made for Cherish by an ex-WLA member

Even more remarkable was that she had started all this work for a project qualification whilst at Sixth Form College in 2010, before building the website herself! Here is a link to it where you can find much more information: https://www.womenslandarmy.co.uk/ including the WLA memorial at Alrewas & applications for veterans badges.

We also handed out invitations to members for our Christmas Social evening in December and we continued to sell raffle tickets for our special garden storage box prize (please see links page) which will be drawn at the end of our November meeting. 

Autumn Coach Trip

Cosmos at Wildegoose

We were lucky to have wonderful weather for our last outing of this year. First we were taken through the attractive Shropshire countryside to the delightful Wildegoose Nursery which talented young couple Laura & Jack Willgoss have transformed from its derelict overgrown state into a nursery & walled garden showcasing many unusual plants, working in tune with nature. In front of the recently restored unusual curvilinear Georgian greenhouse, Jack explained the background to their venture then took us on a tour of the garden, with time to for us to browse round, make plant purchases & visit the tearoom before the coach took us on to the nearby Morville Hall. 

Those of us who are National Trust members took up the opportunity to tour the hall which is tenanted & only open 3 days a year. Others explored the adjacent Dower House Garden owned by historian & writer Katherine Swift, telling the history of English gardening, with hidden gems in the nooks & crannies. Some even managed to visit both before enjoying refreshments at St. Gregory’s church, completing a lovely day out. Please do have a look at many more photographs on http://www.cwggc.co.uk/gallery/ with links to all three gardens on http://www.cwggc.co.uk/events/ 

Topiary at the Dower House
More autumn colour at Wildegoose

The Colours of Autumn

Justin with a grin!

Justin Harrison our September speaker arrived early & set up a beautiful plant display for his presentation and to welcome us into the village hall, laid out a different way to keep us all on our toes! With his usual energy, he kept us all captivated as he showed how contrasting leaf colours & plant structures are as important as flowers in achieving a vibrant picture. He had brought a wide variety of plants, from autumn stalwarts such as Rudbeckia through striking evergreens to salvias, grasses, unusual irises & rosemary ginger. His display was all for sale after his talk concluded, with many snapped up quickly.  

There weren’t any entries for this month’s competition of a pot of autumn bulbs, which is a shame, but it meant that Justin only had to draw the raffle after answering questions before his well-earned cup of tea. Now we’re looking forward to our Autumn coach trip to Shropshire on Friday 13th (we’re not superstitious!), with Wildegoose nursery/garden/tea room in the morning then on to Morville Hall for a choice of gardens in the afternoon. 

Dianthus
Members browsing the plants

Leucothoe Curly Red

Everything you need to know about bulbs..

Jeff Bates is most definitely your man for this topic – he can even make basic bulb botany sound interesting! A freelance lecturer, consultant and RHS examiner, his amusing delivery captures everybody’s attention & we all listened closely whilst he explained how to choose a range of bulbous plants to provide flower all year round. His talk was beautifully illustrated too, & he helped us to understand how “bulbs” (including of course corms, rhizomes & tubers) will thrive best when grown in similar conditions to their natural habitat. The fact we haven’t a photo of him is due to pesky gremlins & not related to his comment that he has a good face for radio! So instead we have a poor substitute of stored hyacinth bulbs instead.   

Our meeting on 13th August came shortly after our wonderful annual show (see blog entry below) but despite that we only had 2 entries in our monthly competition for a tray of 5 vegetables, which Jeff judged after his talk & drawing the raffle (winner Robin Wainwright, 2nd Rosalie Allden). We also announced our  autumn coach trip on 13th September, please see our events page for further details. What a busy year this is turning out to be! 

2019 Garden & Home Produce Show 10th August

Home Grown Flowers Classes

When we were inundated with rain the day before our show, having had to change the date, and the morning itself started under threatening black clouds with strong winds forecast, we admit to being apprehensive! However as one of our members said, you can’t keep a good gardening club down, and the show was well supported by both exhibitors & visitors. We had similar entry numbers to last year & an excellent standard of exhibits. We feel as if we’ve come of age now that we’ve had several successful years in a row!  

June receiving the Tom Ethelstone Memorial Trophy

The exhibits in the Home Grown Flowers classes looked particularly stunning against the light of the windows – please also have a good browse through the gallery page. Competition was close and Martin Plater won the Lewis Cup for the highest number of points in the vegetable classes, with June Morris retaining the Tom Ethelstone Memorial Trophy for the most overall points. The members-only class 37 Fuchsia “Dollar Princess” was won by Derek Roberts who is currently deciding which of the two donated prizes to accept…the other one will be retained by the club for a future competition. Our Honorary President Mrs. Maureen Hemingsley was able to attend for the presentations & had some luck in the raffle, which also included generously donated prizes.  

Winning fuchsia in the white bucket container at the rear

Members & visitors enjoyed hot drinks & homemade cakes before battening down the hatches & braving the gale force winds to make their way home. A very big thank you to everybody who helped & supported this event.  

The Garth Summer Evening Visit

Calycanthus

On 18th July sandwiched in between two wet days we were lucky to have lovely weather for 40 of us to visit Anita Wright’s beautiful garden on Cannock Chase. We really enjoyed her talk in February & our expectations were met with this visit! It is difficult to describe or photograph to do full justice to this half acre garden which surrounds the house built on a sandstone ridge, containing a wealth of interesting and unusual shrubs &  herbaceous plants. Many hidden seating areas, rock-hewn caves & quirky touches add to its delights. After exploring the garden we were made most welcome in the house with hot drinks and cakes, which rounded off a lovely evening. Please do have a look at the rest of the pictures on our gallery page!    

Walking down to the lower gravel garden

  

Salvias & ornamental grasses

Gordon Malt from Shropshire gave an illustrated presentation to our July meeting on these two types of plant which go so well together. Salvias flower over a long period and there are many to choose from with a wide range of colours from the unusual peachy-orange Salvia x jamensis  ‘California Sunset’, through the deep blues such as S. patens ‘Guanajuato’, to the intensely red S. ‘blepharophylla.’ Gordon explained how the coloured calyces that protect the buds are retained after the flower petals have fallen, giving an extended display, and all aspects of the plant contrasting with the fluffy flower heads of the grasses. He had brought varieties of both for us to browse & buy, & several were sold before the meeting started – Anna was the lucky purchaser of the one in the photo, a really electric blue!     

Gordon with Salvia cacaliaefolia

After drawing the raffle, Gordon judged  the competition which was won by Ivy Evans with Pam Collins second, both beautiful arrangements in wine glasses as you can see. Members & visitors collected schedules for our annual show which has been brought forward to Saturday 10th August & we announced a special prize for the members-only class, definitely worth mollycoddling those fuchsias! There will be new entries for discounts & growing advice on our links page shortly, and we’re all looking forward to our summer evening trip to The Garth next week too.  

Open Gardens Weekend

So much for “flaming June”!! The heavy showers on Saturday afternoon & gloomy skies on Sunday morning impacted on the number of casual visitors but despite this we raised £1600 from programme sales, refreshments donations & the plant stall, which will be divided between the village hall and gardening club.

Eileen & Stan’s cheerful pot of violas 

 We are delighted with this figure and also that everybody seemed to have such a good time as summed up by this feedback received via our contact page: “We thoroughly enjoyed touring the open gardens. Whether large or small, formal or with an element of randomness, all were a credit to the gardeners and their ‘helpers’. Whatever your tastes in gardens there was something for everyone and we particularly liked the ingenuity demonstrated dealing with the differing shapes and contours. And the abundance of wild flower areas for bees and butterflies was noteworthy. Well done!”

Ros’s striking elephant by her famous pond!

Visitors commented too on the warm welcome that they received as they walked round, and many thanks go to all our garden owners & everybody who helped or supported the event in any way. Cannock Chase MP Amanda Milling enjoyed a couple of hours between showers visiting several of the gardens and made some purchases at the plant stall to take home.  

Admiring the surroundings of Bill’s wildlife pond in between the showers

There are additional pictures on the gallery page but as we didn’t have an official photographer and  everybody was rather busy (!!) doing other things please do let us know if you have any snaps that you would be willing to share. We hope that other garden owners living in Cannock Wood & Gentleshaw will be inspired to join in what we aim to make a biennial event, with the next in summer 2021.