Chairman: Mike Nash

e-mail: nash756@btinternet.com

Telephone No.: 01264 736530

Meetings are held at the Millennium Hall, Vernham Dean on a Thursday at 7.30pm. All are welcome

The March lecture “Sweet Peas for Pleasure and Exhibition” was given by Mr Jim Macdonald, a renowned sweet pea expert. He’s grown them for forty years and through his skill and eminence as a national exhibitor is now the Royal Horticultural Society’s chairman of their sweet pea trial committee; what he doesn’t know about these plants isn’t worth knowing.

To supply his exhibits, he grows every year some 600-700 plants using very simple techniques. (Others may grow five or six times as many.) He sows them first in mid-November then mid-December and mid-January to give continuous flowers through the summer season. Firstly three layers of kitchen roll are placed in plastic boxes such margarine containers and are well wetted. On to these, seeds are scattered at about 20 per box and the boxes placed somewhere warm, such as airing cupboard. They are inspected every day and if by the third day some haven’t sprouted then these are scratched on one side and that side placed on the damp sheeting. Those that have sprouted are planted in a basic potting compost such as that from B&Q or Homebase which has been mixed with John Innes No.1 and Perlite in the ratio of 4;1;1. When the plants have their second pair of leaves the tops are picked out to encourage side shoots on which will be borne the flowers. They placed out in cold frames to hard off and to protect them from heavy rain. Normally they’d go into the open garden by about the end of March but this year everything’s about three weeks late. Trenches are dug out of one spade depth about 18 inches wide and filled with well rotted garden compost or sterilised soil. Mr Macdonald takes great care with watering, for if sweet peas dry out they will cease flowering and go to seed. Beneath the compost he places a pipe of the dribbling variety to be sure the roots remain damp, and over the top he has fine sprayers at about 2ft high to help the plants when they are small. He removes the tendrils and ties them to canes placed 7 inches part with the rows just within the edges of the trench. For more ordinary gardeners he recommends a wigwam of canes about 2ft 6inches diameter and allowing them to scramble up on their own. Keeping them fed on half strength Tomorite or Miracle grow is important and to never let them dry out! The major pests are slugs, for which he uses slug pellets and green fly which he fights with any commercial systemic spray used in the evening to avoid hurting other insects. Following these simple rules, he says, will give us plenty of good, reliable blooms.

Our next lecture will be “Easy to grow Plants for the Greenhouse and Conservatory” by Mr Peter Chivers on the 8th April.

On May 13th the lecture will be "Pond Designs and Features for your Garden"  given by Mrs Sandy Worth.All are welcome. 

                                                                                      Mike Nash

2009 Itinerary