John Foley, owner of Holden Clough Nurseries in Lancashire and former RHS Master Grower, has advocated for a shift away from digital-dependent horticulture, focusing instead on hands-on, traditional gardening techniques. He emphasises the mental and physical benefits of gardening, connecting with nature, and understanding plants directly.
Join us and hear stories about the intrepid plant hunters who brought plants to the UK from around the world.
This month we will be looking at trees and what makes them special in spring.
Welcome Elaine Perkins giving a talk on “Herbs and plants, protection in the Medieval Period”
In the Medieval Period, if the church couldn't help, you turned to the local cunning woman for the answers. From Ancient spells, such as the Nine Herb charm to Flying Ointment and mandrake root. Find out more in this talk.
Although scorned by some because of its ubiquity and its explosion of colour, the popularity of Forsythias resulted in extensive hybridisation since Carl Thunberg, surgeon with the Dutch East India Company, introduced F. suspensa to Holland in 1833, and plant hunter Robert Fortune introduced F. viridissima from China for the Veitch nurseries in Exeter. F. x intermedia Maree d’Or is one of those hybrids but differs from most having been specifically designed by Alain Cadic in 1990 at the French National Institute of Agricultural Research in Angers, to be a compact, ground-covering form, suitable for use in smaller gardens, and it has received the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit. It is growing in SBG’s AGM garden in the bed towards the top, backing on to the nursery and as March begins the buds are ready to burst into the clear yellow 4-lobed flowers, smothering the arching branches before the leaves.
For March we’ll be exploring the history of the Gardens. This tour is also part of the Festival of the Outdoors