ODGC Newsletter March 2013

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Don't forget

This month's speaker is Nick Dunn from Frank P Matthews talking about “Ornamental Trees”

Thanks to ......

.... Lyn Jones, for yet again, preparing the recipes for the Annual Show. This is not an easy task and takes a lot of time. An unsung heroine! They look delicious (see below) and we hope you will be tempted to try them out and enter.

..... Wendy Powell and Linda Caldicott for providing the refreshments tonight. Would anyone be prepared to offer their services to wash/dry up afterwards to assist them?

And
..... Jennifer Kelley for organising a wonderful Club supper at the Riverside on Wednesday, 20^th March. A great evening and enjoyed by all who attended.

Membership

The Club welcomes new members Anna and Frank Reed from Orleton.

Village Festival

We WILL be running a stall for this on Saturday, 8^th June but it will be slightly different. All plants, vegetables and shrub offerings are very welcome. Also any unused or unwanted gardening tools and equipment (spring clean your sheds!). There are many people starting out gardening who would be grateful to buy equipment at a cheap price.

We are hoping, as well, to run various small competitions to encourage young people to take an interest in gardening. If any members have quirky ideas, we would be pleased to hear about them.

Please, as you sort out and divide plants, don't throw things on the compost heap. Pot them up, label them and drop them round to Kate Snape at Orleton House (a good central location - Thank you, Kate). The Village Hall DOES desperately need funds so we hope you will all contribute, in whatever way, to help raise a lot of money for it.

Trip to Hanbury Hall and the Jinney Ring Craft Centre, 11^th April 2013

To date, numbers for this trip are not good although perhaps a lot of you are handing in forms at this month's meeting. The long drawn out winter is perhaps not conducive to planning an outing but maybe the weather will improve and we will have a glorious, sunny day! If you have any friends who would like an interesting, informative and jolly day out, do encourage them to join us. We MUST know final numbers by Tuesday, 2^nd April. Contact Shelley Choat on 01585 831518 or shelleychoat@gmail.com.

Click here for application form

33^rd August Show – Saturday, 17^th August 2013

The recipes for the Cookery Section in the Annual Show have now been selected.

The recipes will be published on the Gardening Club website shortly and we will have copies of the schedule available at the next meeting.

Start planning your entries for the show. You can already plan your entries for the Craft classes and, next month, you will be able to try out the new recipes.

Don't forget to take your camera with you on our forthcoming outings so that you have some interesting photographs to enter in the photographic section.

The Bastard Blenheim

Paul Hand, well known to us for his talks to the Gardening Club,(voted Best Speaker twice) is on a search for the elusive and, sadly, rare “Bastard Blenheim” apple. He has asked the Gardening Club to put in the following notice:-

“Many years ago, in the first flush of my apple variety collecting, I visited Mr Jim Griffiths at Comberton House, Orleton. He had many apples and knew them all well. As I remember, the one that was his favourite was a Bastard Blenheim at the top of his orchard. For some unfathomable reason I did not graft that one.

I was later very fortunate to track down a Bastard Blenheim near to Putley in Herefordshire. This has history provenance and quality and I suppose I thought that I had done the job by collecting that one. It is, as Mr. Griffiths said of his Bastard Blenheim “a dessert apple of the highest quality. Everything you would want from an English apple”

The problem I have is that I have a sneaking inkling that there may well be more than one Bastard Blenheim so I should have taken a graft from Mr Griffiths' tree 20 years ago.  I called at  Comberton  House this week but, inevitably and sadly, Mr Griffiths had died and the current owner, your Chairman, Shelley Choat, had no knowledge of the Bastard Blenheim although invited me back later in the year to check the apple trees in her orchard. She fears that tree no longer exists.

My questions are:

1. Does anyone know anything about Mr. Griffiths's trees?
2. Does anyone know of another Bastard Blenheim in or near Orleton?
   
   

If anyone can help in any way I would be massively grateful. Who knows, we might find a “lost variety of Orleton” and, at least, we might replant a Bastard Blenheim tree (a Mr Stanier's Bastard Blenheim) in honour of Jim Griffiths, a man of Orleton who knew his land and his apples so well.

Please contact Paul Hand or Shelley Choat (01584 831518) if you have any information.

(Picture: found on the web of quince, medlars and the elusive Bastard Blenheim - Abergavenney food show)

Things to Do, Places to Visit

Monday, 1st April: Preen Manor, Church Preen: 6 acre garden on the site of a Cluniac monastery and Norman Shaw mansion. Developed over 30 years with changes always in progress.

Monday, 1^st April:The Walled Garden, Knill, Presteigne, LD8 2PR: 4 acres: walled garden, river, bog garden and small grotto. Primulas.

Tuesday, 2^nd April: Radnor Cottage, Clun, Shropshire, SY7 0JA: 2 acres on south facing slope overlooking the Clun Valley.  This is the garden of Pam and David Pittwood who have given talks to our Club several times.

Saturday, 6^{th /}Sunday 7^th April: Witlenge Gardens, Witlenge Lane, Hartlebury, Worcestershire DY10 4HD: 3 acre show garden of professional designers with over 800 varieties of trees, shrubs, etc.

Saturday, 27^th April: Shuttifield Cottage, Birthwood, Storridge, Worcestershire, WR13 5HA: 3 acre plantsman's garden. Many unusual trees, shrubs, perennials. Walks in 20 acre wood with pond, bluebells, anemones, azaleas.

Next Month's Speaker:

April 30th

Duncan Coombs

Hidcote Manor Gardens

The Club have arranged a trip to Hidcote on 11th June in conjunction with a visit to Kiftsgate Court..