Autumn Newsletter 2025
​​“They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot” Joni Mitchel 1970
​Hello fellow gardeners, I hope you won’t mind me starting this newsletter with some ominous news. Many of you will be aware that the government has approved the sale of eight allotment sites by a number of councils in England so that they can build on them. Not to put too finer point on it, organisations who are concerned about clean air, health and well- being, gardening and other related issues such as encouraging wild life (birds, insects, small mammals) and developing community spirit and co-operation are not happy about this and campaigns by many of them have been waged to send a clear message that this must not be allowed to continue. In recent years the demand for allotments has surged. Those living in flats or in urban environments without little outdoor space in which to grow anything want to save money and have the opportunity to grow their own food. 174,183 people are waiting for an allotment in England. Surely, one would think that the powers that be know how important green spaces are, and are fully aware of the spiritual, physical, mental and social benefits it brings to people -they value being able to garden their own piece of land. The benefits of having a space in which to garden are well known and documented and you can believe me when I tell you, as a gardener I am grateful for all of them. Many studies have shown that gardeners are more physically active than non –gardeners and it is now confirmed through research and review that gardening causes falls in blood pressure, heart rate and body mass index. All these protect us from strokes, cardio vascular illnesses, obesity, cancers and other diseases. Gardeners have healthier levels of Vitamin D which affect our mood. Those of us who have arthritis or other joint pain definitely benefit from gardening. The activity itself burns 350 calories each hour. I have never quite understood why anyone would want to PAY to exercise when I get all mine in the garden. I live near a fairly busy road. The trees in the garden filter the air pollution and remove large quantities of toxins through their leaves making the environment cleaner. When they fall, the soil microorganisms break them down. Many people who have visited the garden comment on the fact that they cannot hear any traffic or other harsh ambient noises when they are in it, only the sounds of water and birds. Trees filter noise pollution too. Ozichi Brewster, who spoke at our August meeting eloquently reminded us all how much the community gardeners at RHS Bridgewater have benefitted through working together to create a space that belongs to them. Let us hope that more space will be available for prospective allotment holders, not less. In the meantime, whilst all those allotment seekers are waiting for their plot of land, I am so glad that I have a garden and my piece of heaven! No matter whether we work with others or on our own, gardening feeds our soul. I feel like I could have fed the five thousand as well this autumn with the crops of apples and pears I’ve had. It has been a bumper year for fruit even though it has been a very dry summer. I did feed and mulch the garden in spring and this has helped considerably in retaining moisture in the soil. Apart from blueberries (that needed much more rain) all other fruit in the garden has done well. Autumn is the time to gather the fruits (pardon the pun) of our labours, tidy up the garden, take stock and think about next year. Why not enter some of your produce at our Flower Show on September 6th. It will be held at our new venue: Euxton Parish Church Community Centre, School Lane, Chorley PR7 6JL. The committee are hoping for another good response from our members as last year. When we have finished processing all our produce we will certainly need to start tidying our plots. With the lack of rain, I am reluctant to cut everything down this autumn because I don’t want the garden looking like a desert. I certainly appreciate all the drought tolerant plants that are still ‘holding their own’ at this time of year. The hylotelephiums, alstromerias, heucheras, echinops, helianthus, erygiums, thalictrums and artemisias, to name a few, still look good in autumn. All tall grasses will take on their lovely biscuit coloured foliage and enliven the border with their soft airy ‘flower’ heads. Conversely, because of the high temperatures we have had this summer, plants that one would expect to flower in autumn have given their best much earlier in the year. Kirengeshoma palmata is one of them
Kirengeshoma palmata
Crocosmia ‘Paul’s Best’
​This statuesque beauty that can live in the deepest shade, was in flower in my garden in August. Its’ usual flowering period is late September, when its clusters of waxy pale lemon trumpet shaped blooms will be followed by seed pods that are the shape and size of maltezers! It is well suited to the shaded woodland garden in which it lives. Another jewel of a plant that bloomed very early was Crocosmia ‘Paul’s Best’. The butter yellow flowers were large and numerous but sadly, over quickly. Climate change seems to have had a big impact on our gardening world this year. The succulents have revelled in the heat in my garden and have looked splendid and so have the Pelargoniums. Not so the Hydrangeas. There have been winners and losers and thinking about it - this scenario isn’t very different from any other year! What we want as gardeners though, is consistency! Will summer be hot and dry again next year? Will spring be wet or warm? We never know in Great Britain what ‘next year’ will bring because we don’t have a climate we just have weather. This makes it so difficult to plan ahead…..but plan ahead we must……..There will be maintenance tasks to undertake whilst the weather is clement. I will be replacing path and raised bed edgings this autumn and sprucing up the compost bin lids with new felt covers. I will be removing a pyramid apple tree that suddenly decided to spread out its branches horizontally rather than vertically casting too much shade in the kitchen garden. I’m replacing it with step over plants. (No shade problems there). New planting in the Woodland and Pond gardens will give me much to do in preparation and more to think about when deciding what to plant. What I definitely will be planting this autumn is the viticella clematis that I bought earlier in the year from Richard Hodson. Mid - autumn is a good time to plant these whilst the weather is still warm but there is (hopefully) more rain. Clematis viticella types flower from late summer onwards. They hail from Europe, occurring naturally in the south from Italy eastwards and is the species that has been in cultivation the longest. They are easy to care for. All the previous year’s growth needs to be removed from the plant in late February because it flowers on current season’s wood. They have many uses in the garden. They can be trained up a trellis or other support but are very useful for adorning early flowering shrubs and small trees that have blossomed and ‘gone over’. Notable varieties include ‘Madame Julia Correvon’ (purple-red) ‘Polish Spirit’, ‘Royal Velours’ and ‘Etoile Violette’(deep purple) ‘Margot Koster’ (pink). I’m planting ‘Abundance’ which is bright pink and very free flowering. One other late flowering species, Clematis triternata is also waiting to be planted. Clematis triternata ‘Rubromarginata’ (it is a mouthful!) can take a few years to get established but when t does it is lovely to behold and to smell. The flowers, though not as big as some clematis, have the most beautiful vanilla fragrance​​
Clematis triternata ‘Rubromarginata’
Clematis viticella ‘Abundance’​​
The mail order catalogues will be dropping on our doormats any day now, tempting us to buy spring and summer flowering bulbs for next year. There is always room for more Narcissus and crocus but there are other bulbs worthy of enlivening the spring garden. I have many Fritillaria meleagris AGM in the Woodland garden and last year I included a few of the more unusual Fritillaria pontica AGM to the area to ascertain whether they would do well in the shaded spot I gave them. They did, so I will purchase more this year to bulk up the numbers. They have the same nodding bell-shaped flowers but they are brushed with soft green and bronze not the darkly chequered purple or white colours one sees on the Snakes head fritillaries. Fritillaria acmopetala AGM is more striking in appearance with purple markings on the same shaped flower but with a reflexed tip. This charming bulb needs more sun. Another bulb that did very well this year was Gladiolus comm. SSP. Byzantinus. This little jewel flowers in early summer and needs sun to thrive, making it perfect for the sunny Mediterranean garden where the soil is free draining. It is a sparkling cerise pink and, as the name suggests, looks like a small gladioli. Once it is settled it will naturalise but it doesn’t do any harm to help the spectacle along a little by adding a few more each year (they aren’t that expensive). Another bulb that I like is the spring flowering Allium unifolium.
Fritillaria pontica
Fritillaria acmopetala
At just 30cm its’ star- shaped pinkish-lilac flowers are useful for the front of a sunny border or in a pot. Tulips are an indulgence because they don’t last long. We all have our favourites and mine fall into the frilly or dark and sultry categories. T. ‘Queen of the Night’ ‘Black Parrot’ AGM, ‘Paul Scherer’AGM and ‘Nightwish’ would fit the bill. It is nice to have perfume so the orange Tulipa ‘Ballerina’ AGM or ‘Brown Sugar’ AGM should suffice. No dark and sultry effects here just strong growers and beautiful colour. If you want to grow them in the border, plant them at the front in really good soil and in the open. Let them dry off in the summer months in the sunshine. They hail from Turkey originally so they do need to bake in their dormant period. There are so many to choose from it is hard to know where to start so if you fancy growing some you might try different ones each year and put them in pots on your terrace.
Allium unifolium
Gladiolus comm. Byzantinus​​
It is useful to take stock and plan changes to the garden and autumn still gives us the opportunity to see how things could look with the additions we wish to include next year. We can reflect on how our gardening year has been and make changes to the way we have designed or planted our gardens. In research, gardeners have been shown to be more creative than non –gardeners. At our society meetings this autumn, Carl Brabin will be giving us his thoughts about his gardening year on September 16th. Bob Bryce will be adding his expertise on Begonias on October 21st and John Smiles will be talking about ‘A Year in Flowers’ on November 18th. All these speakers will give us some food for thought, be thoroughly entertaining and not to be missed. In the meantime, enjoy your gardening and the autumn
Moe
Tulip ‘Black Parrot’ AGM
Tulip ‘Spring Green’ AGM