The Summer Show is Back! Saturday 23, July 2022

Our flower show returned last month with a spectacular opening by Karen Bellamy, the Mayor of Waltham Forest. The Mayor was joined by Martyn her husband, as her Consort. The Mayor was the first to make paper flowers, a new attraction at the show run by Veronica, many thanks Veronica. It was wonderful for the club to have a show once again, more importantly it was a success with over 70 visitors, which was pretty good after a two year gap.

We had a great choice of plants for sale, top quality bric-a-brac, wonderful display plants along with Bonsai and a big selection of homemade cakes.  Our thanks go out to all the members who brought plants for display and for sale as well as the home bakers, Karen, Danny, Barbara Humm, Gillian and Nina, thank you for your plants and cakes. This all involves hard work so is much appreciated by the club.

A big thank you goes to Pauline for running the catch a duck game, quack-quack! Also, thanks go to Nina for managing the raffle, to Patrica on the  bric-a-brac stall, Gillian for running tombola,  Jill on two craft and jewellery stalls,  thanks to Sue and Barbara for selling so many plants and Barbara also of being on the door. Of course to Chris and Jo for keeping us all going with teas and cake. 

Thanks to our sponsors; Matthew’s Nursery (www.matthewsplants.co.uk) for all the low cost and donated plants, and to Lancaster’s Garden Centre for their plant donation.

Special thanks to the Waltham Forest Bonsai Club for supporting the show and providing an amazing selection of trees, some were just outstanding, and for offering advice and guidance to visitors. Additional thanks go to Jannet Thompson, from our local Police Community Support Team, for joining us.

 It was a great day with a wonderful atmosphere and gave us all chance to catch up with each other.  Thank you, to everyone who was able to support the show, it was your hard work that made the day such a success.

 

Sensational Succulents, Nina Lewis, July's meeting

 Nina Lewis returned with her brilliant talk on succulents from around the world. Nina showed us the amazing different varieties of succulents and provided top tips on how to care for these usual plants which can be found in so many different forms. 

Nina told us about the importance of providing plenty of light to get the best from our succulents. When indoors especially during the winter they need to be close to a window, in the summer they will benefit from being outside with about six hours of sunshine and they need to be introduced to this amount of sun over a few weeks. Succulents will not cope outdoors with all day sun or when temperatures are above 25C.  

Succulents need a compost that is free draining, so add horticultural grit, and they benefit from clay pots rather than plastic. Nina was asked how to get the best out of Christmas Cactus (which is a succulent). Nina told us that they need watering and feeding just as they start to come into flower and for about a month after.  Good Luck with your succulents.

 

 

Plants That Changed The World! Michael Holland, June's meeting

 

Did you guess a plant that changed the world ? I certainly did not but Michael Holland, our expert ecologist speaker last month did. Michael’s talk was an absolute eye opener to the importance of plants in our world and the role they play in our daily lives. We tend to take the natural world for granted but as we now know the world needs protecting from the technologies that we have developed.

Michael told us that there is an estimated 500,000 different plants in world, and as gardeners we know about different plant varieties, but that is a huge number of plants. Michael explained the importance of algae, which I have never thought much about other than I regarded it as a problem in a pond I once had, but algae changed the atmosphere of the world giving rise to land plants and providing half of the worlds annual oxygen supply so think about that next time you clear any algae from your pond.   

I found Michael’s talk most engaging, providing wonderful slides and he explained complex issues in a straight forward way. If you would like to know more about how plants have changed the world and the way they affect our lives then you many be interested in Michael’s book, I ate Sunshine for Breakfast, published by Flying Eye Books. Our thanks go out to Michael for a brilliant evening.