Enlightenment was delivered by Lyn Randall, a world expert on the subject, at the Gardeners' meeting in the village hall on Wednesday 14 May. After working for ten years in London, Lyn decided to take up a clerical post at the RHS Wisley, which she said demanded no experience of gardening. Determined to put this right, she passed the RHS examination and went on to become a gardener at Savill Gardens where, for twenty five years before her retirement she was the Head Gardener. On the recommendation of Prince Charles, she was on her retirement, made a Member of the Victorian Order in recognition of her services.
The sequence of slides showed plants which came into their own as the season progressed from spring to autumn. This revealed a surprising choice of plants of all colours shapes, and sizes, culled from the vast resources of the world's flora with many species originating from New Zealand, Africa and the Americas. In general the plants had characteristics associated with drought resistance, such as grey foliage, dissected leaves, and good rooting systems. Species plants rather than bred varieties were also the most likely to thrive under the conditions in question. A common attribute of the plants is their ability to tolerate sandy soils of low fertility and little water holding capacity. Indeed for their success it is essential that the soils are water and nutrient poor. The ideal top dressing would appear to be two inches of pea gravel.
Now this at first sight would appear to be just the sort of plants that would thrive in the heath soils which nature has provided for the gardeners in this area. But wait, the ideal soil should be neutral or only slightly acid and if the plants are to survive the winter, the soil should drain freely. The so called 'soils' which our gardeners have to battle with, are extremely acid, and while having little capacity to hold water, they are reluctant to allow excess water to drain away.
The stream of slides, each revealing a particular plant or plant association, impressed with the range of plants suitable for the hot dry garden. Each plant was given its appropriate botanical name, but leavened at times with a common name such as 'Angels Fishing Rod', which somehow had a more lasting impact on the memory, and brought to the mind of at least one gardener how some of the flowers were named and described nearly one hundred years before Linaeus was born: 'daffodils that come before the swallow dares', 'pale prime-roses that die unmarried ere they can behold bright Phoebus in his strength', and 'violets dim, but sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes', although these were not mentioned then as being particularly suited to the hot dry garden.
There was a selection of plants to purchase at the meeting, grown under the title of Daisy Chain Plants and will be on sale at the Savill Garden Plant fair on 30 August.
'The Grayshott Gardeners' Summer Show will be held on Saturday 12 July in the Village Hall, with public viewing from 2-4 p.m. Anne Waddell (01428 604714) can be contacted for information on membership of the Society
