Latest News

Next Meeting

"Trees: What Have They Ever Done for Us "
Speaker : Dr Peter Thomas
Tuesday 24th April 10.30am in the Education Centre

Peter is Reader in Plant Ecology at the School of Life Sciences, Keele University.
Focusing on tree growth and seed production, Peter has several long term studies including seed production of beech trees across England and the establishment of Scots pine in wetland situations.

Interested in the effects of fire on vegetation. A current project is 'Native Tree Assessment in Cyrenaica, North Africa.'

Repton and Horticulture conference

FOBS and the Department of Landscape at the University of Sheffield are organising a two-day conference in September to examine Reptonian and late Georgian horticulture. The event will include talks from a panel of national and international garden history experts, plus a private tour of the nearby Repton landscape at Wentworth Woodhouse.

There are discounted tickets available for FOBS members, but numbers are limited.

See conference website for more details and to book a place.

Juliet Sargeant - 12 March 2018

	A very well attended meeting with Juliet talking about her Chelsea gold medal garden
	It was also an opportunity for FOBS members to get tips from the expert

Tour Guide training day - 14 March 2018

The tour guides and assistants, the latter affectionately known as 'sheepdogs', met over tea and a quick packed-lunch in the Education Centre to discuss the programme for the year with organiser, Kay Keeton. 16 tours have been confirmed with a potential total of around 500 visitors expected to date, one had already taken place. Responsibility for the individual tours was duly allocated.
All photos ©A. Hunter, except where noted.

Acacia baileyana	Curator, Ian Turner, then led the team on a tour of the Gardens pointing out new developments and area of particular interest to our visitors. Acacia baileyana is a native of Australia, but seems to be doing very well here in Sheffield. The recent cold weather has resulted in the browning of a few leaves, but the tree has been flowering over the last couple of months. It has been awarded the Award of Garden Merit by the RHS and can be seen in the AGM bed, near the gate leading to the Education Centre.	Ian explained that in the past A. baileyana had been confused with A. dealbata, nurseries had mixed up the two species and even the RHS had occasionally got them wrong. However, A. baileyana grew into a broad spreading tree, whereas A. dealbata was much more upright in habit. He used this example to ask the tour guides to help with the Gardens' database. If any visitor queried a plant label, please notify him or the staff member in charge of the database, so that details could be checked.
Marnock Garden	Marnock Garden	The central bed in the Robert Marnock Garden has now been totally cleared of tree roots and thoroughly dug over. It will be left for new growth to come through before being cleared again. The wall will be repaired and a scree garden installed. It will be replanted with alpines and small perennials.
Cercis siliquastrum FOBS Archives Rock Garden	Cercis siliquastrum FOBS Archives Rock Garden	One obvious absence in the Rock Garden was the beautiful 'Judas Tree', Cercis siliquastrum, always a favourite with our visitors when in full bloom. One of this winter's casualties, it fell over and had to be cut down to leave the stump and perhaps it will regenerate by suckering.
Ground cleared except for spring flowers Rock Garden	Work is ongoing in the Rock Garden to try to eradicate the horsetails. The spring bulbs are now through and will be transplanted to other areas. After clearing, the ground will be treated with glyphosate, it will not be an easy task as Equisetum is a highly resilient plant. In the Victorian Garden, research has shown that the path from the café follows the plan laid out by Robert Marnock. In order to deter visitors from taking a short-cut, a small knee-high fence will be installed and the area around the holly will be planted up with low growing plants.	Ilex aquifolium 'Argentea Marginata' Victorian Garden
A new flagpole has been erected on Birch Hill to display the Green Flag, an award which recognises well-maintained parks and gardens throughout the country. Sheffield Botanical Gardens first received the award in 2007 and has maintained the standard ever since. This is also a reminder of the historic past, there was a flagpole on Birch Hill depicted in the frontispiece of our third curator's catalogue of plants in the Gardens published in 1849.	New Flagpole erected 2018 Birch Hill	Detail from John Law's 1849 Catalogue FOBS Archives
Psoralea pinnata (left) in a sorry state South African Bed Mediterranean Climate Garden	The cold, wet weather we have endured since January has taken its toll on some of the tender plants in this area, most notably the Psoralea pinnata or South African Fountain Bush. As the plant has had several years to develop a good root system, it will be cut to the ground to see if it might rejuvenate from the base. The echiums in the Mediterranean bed have also suffered damage - it is a case of wait and see if they will recover as they are biennials and were due to flower this summer. On the other hand, the plants in the Australian section have done well, the Banksia marginata, Correa 'Marian's Marvel' and Acacia dealbata survived intact, but the Acacia longifolia leaves were somewhat brown. It seems that the microclimate of this area did offer protection, the Canary Island Date Palm (Phoenix canariensis) and the Chilean Wine Palm (Jubaea chilensis), also survived unscathed.	Echiums, Mediterranean Garden
Wollemia nobilis 2010	Wollemia nobilis 2018	The Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis) is regarded as a living fossil, like the ginkgo, as it was known first from fossil records. The living plant was only discovered in 1994 in a deep canyon in New South Wales, Australia. The same plant may produce both male and female cones. The specimen in Sheffield was nurtured by FOBS volunteer, John Stirling and planted out in 2010. Its growth since then can be measured relative to the Giant Redwood, Sequoiadendron giganteum, in the Evolution Gardens
Puddle between the Prairie Garden and Woodland Looking west along the Long Border	Marnock's Pond In same place - detail from Ordnance Survey map 1889	Robert Marnock, the Gardens' first Curator, took advantage of this natural low drainage spot to create a large pond, complete with a 'rustic' wooden bridge. This area always floods in wet weather and the drain gets blocked with silt washed down from the rest of the gardens. It was also noted that the Prairie Garden had already been burnt off to deter weeds and allow the perennial plants to emerge once the weather warms up!

Wednesday Morning Volunteers - Curator's Briefing Day 10 January 2018

Ian Turner started the meeting in the Education Centre by expressing his appreciation for the work done by volunteers. The Wednesday morning session group amassed 3276 hours of work in 2017, only 6 hours short of the previous record set in 2016 – however, the number of volunteers who had attended throughout the year marked a new record of 99 individuals. The highest attendance on any one day had been 44 and the lowest 6 on an extremely wet day. The hours worked could be compared to that of two full-time gardeners and represented a huge contribution to the maintenance of the Gardens. In addition to the Wednesday morning group, there are many other volunteers who carry out research and work in other ways to support the Gardens

He was pleased to announce that Lindsay Berry, head gardener at Ordsall Hall in Salford had been offered the job as Head Gardener, and would let us know when a starting date had been agreed.

In his annual health and safety message, he stressed the importance of risk assessment – no harder than crossing the road. Take care of yourself, be aware of personal limitation and if in doubt - don’t do it. This was relevant for lifting, digging, choice of appropriate tools, working in a tidy manner and considering the other people around – a major cause of accidents was tripping over tools or debris left lying around. Just a reminder not to fill the dumpy bags too full so the garden staff were unable to lift them onto the truck.

The tour started in the Nursery area where a new path had just been tarmacked. There were plans to reconstruct the compost heaps so that they would have a concrete base to enable easier access and turn over, and that it was hoped a reduction in bin area would enable higher temperatures to be achieved. Not all weed seeds were being killed in the present circumstances and he asked that all pernicious weeds, such as bindweed, be put in the rubbish bins and not in the dumpy bags.	Compost heaps, ©A. Hunter
Next was the Marnock Garden where a large pine tree had been removed, thus allowing more light into the area. The next project here was to clear, renew and replant the gravel beds.	Marnock Garden, ©A. Hunter
Osborn Field, ©A. Hunter	Rock Garden, ©A. Hunter
Moving on to Osborn’s Field, a large area had been cleared in order to create a new bed for the Weigela species display. As the Gardens are the home of the National Collection of weigelas, it was desired to demonstrate the original 10 species individually, so as to compare the characteristics that have been used to create the wide range of hybrid cultivars displayed nearby along the edge of the East lawn.	The Rock Garden is infested with the highly resilient Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) or Mare’s Tail. The plan is to clear the area of desirable plants, which means waiting for the spring bulbs to come up before removal. It is then proposed to let the ground lie fallow and treat with glyphosate until the weed is defeated. It is not usual practice in the Gardens to use chemicals but in this case there is no other remedy.

The pathway from the café to around the base of the large beech tree, needs to be redesigned as people are taking short cuts across planted areas around the Victorian beds. Ian picked a small flower from the Prunus ‘Autumnale’ tree near the top of the east lawn and showed us that it had no stalk. This tree will flower from October to March – however, he had observed that in the later flush of blooms the flowers do have stalks.	Entrance Area, ©A. Hunter
At the Himalayan Garden, a huge ash tree that had become unstable had been removed, opening up the area to light. Eric Lee, volunteer manager in charge of that section, asked if an information board explaining that significance of the Himalayan Garden could be erected.	Himalayan Garden, ©A. Hunter

Mediterranean Garden, ©A. Hunter

In the Mediterranean Garden, the acacias and banksias are flowering beautifully. It is a source of amazement that such plants have done so well in Sheffield since planting in 2013. There is still the concern that a really cold and prolonged hard winter would kill many of these plants, but up to now they have survived to surprise and delight visitors.

Removal of a large yew opened up the view of the Handkerchief tree, Davidia involucrata, in the Asia Garden – that will be a spectacle later in the year.

The Evolution Garden, which has a guided walk with information boards explaining the evolution of plants, needs some maintenance. Some vandalism of the boards has occurred. The good news is that the squirrels, which infest the area, seem to have finally lost their taste for the Drimys winteri, which was planted in 2010 and had to be caged in heavy duty plastic fencing to protect it from their depredations. The shrub now looks healthy with strong shoots; the top of the cage has been removed and, so far, there has been no new damage.

Ian finished the morning by thanking everyone again for the hard work that all volunteers do to support the Gardens.

Alison Hunter 10 January 2018