Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Bulbs => Galanthus => Topic started by: RichardW on February 12, 2013, 09:43:58 AM
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With everything being so late here have decided to squeeze in a forumists meet before I go away, not sure if there is another event that day? but it's the only sunday I can do. Don't know if the gardens will be still be open but so much is still yet to flower I'm sure everything willl be looking nice.
Usual format, no charge to get in & I will provide tea and coffee, please bring a cake if you can :) and any drops you are interested in swapping, will be using the tea room but numbers are limited to keep it free!
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Hi Richard
Thank you most kindly for offering your place again for an SRGC snowdrop get together.
I hope to be there (lift from someone permitting).
Sadly I have given away most of the spare stuff I had to dispose of this year as I didn't think there was to be a Bennignton day - but I am sure I will find a pot or two to bring along for splitting up and passing around. :)
I don't often have a sweet tooth - but who brought those fantastic savoury cheese scones before (salivating now just thinking about them). ;D
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The cheese scones were made by Jennie I believe,would love to be there ,but am afraid I am working that night :(
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John, I really wanted to do another meet here in Feb but workload was piling up and I decided over Xmas I was going to spend less time running around at weekends and more time putting my feet up 8)
Only problem is now cancelled groups are re booking and my other plans are going wrong :-\ As it is there's still very little to see here so early March is probably going to be the peak week, can bribe Maddie to make some cheese scones.....
Sorry you can't make it Chas, still hope to visit in a few weeks :)
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Would love to come and happy to bring cake.
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Thanks Richard, I thoroughly enjoyed your get togethers both last year and the year before and would love to come along again. Having said that - if you have too many people I will stand aside and let somebody else have a turn. I will bring along some drops and a cake.
I can easily stop off at Stevenage station and pick up anybody who wants to come by public transport.
Chris
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Hi Richard
Would love to come (also lift permitting :) ) If I can get there I will willingly make some cheese scones - glad to hear you liked them so much John! Under snow here again and the snowdrops in the conservatory are not lasting long.
Jennie
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For some reason the garden is closing after this weekend :-\ so it'll be easier to base this at my house (just over the road) does mean I won't be able to squeeze so many in but no problem with numbers so far if anyone else wants to come, cold weather looks set to continue so should still be looking nice next weekend.
Could also now do Sat 2nd if that's better/more convenient.
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Richard
Sat 2nd is the AGS Early Spring Show at Harlow - conflict will give some people a dilemma.
As you know I hope to be with you - this will also mean John & Jennie - will have to see how things are.
Arthur
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OK thanks for letting me know, Sunday it is then.
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I would also like to attend, space permitting (but I could not have made 2nd March). I don't think I have anything in the way of snowdrops to bring this year but it's a great social event.
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Happy with Sunday! :)
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room for 1 more.
should warn everyone I have a hyperactive but very friendly Cocker Spaniel just in case anyone doesn't like/has fear of dogs.
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No more room, will pm everyone later in week.
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Sent message to everyone, if you didn't get one let me know.
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Thanks to everyone for bringing lots of tasty things and drops, very lucky with the weather again :)
Just got back from watching the Eagle Owl & about to tuck into Chris's cake, will message everyone in May to arrange a date in June for chipping.
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Thank you for a lovely afternoon Richard. I am glad you got to see the Eagle Owl at last.
I'm just back from Jennie's and about to start on the blog from yesterday afternoon.
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Thank you so much for hosting Richard - it was a lovely day and I really enjoyed it. Great soup too! I'll sort through my photos later but just going to round up my ducks....
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"Eagle Owl" - What ? a real eagle owl? :o
That would put snowdrops, cake AND soup in the shade........
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Thanks Richard - what a lovely day. Great food, lovely people, and the gardens looking superb in the sunshine. I will sort my photos and post some of the better ones later in the week. And a big thank you to everyone whose drops I went home with, just got to find somewhere in the garden for them now.
Yes it is apparently an escaped eagle owl, but a real one! About the only thing Richard didnt manage to organise was for it to appear and have its photo taken :D :D :D
Chris
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Yes it is apparently an escaped eagle owl, but a real one! About the only thing Richard didnt manage to organise was for it to appear and have its photo taken :D :D :D
Bless my soul - what next?
We had a lovely sunny day here so I was hoping it would be a god day for Snowdrops and Cake- great you all had a good time.
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Eagle Owl Might be an escape but it's still an amazing sight, and sound! and very approachable, don't know how anyone is going to capture it.
Very lucky with the weather, everything was frozen first thing and really didn't think anything was going to open at all. Forgot to say thank you for sorting the plates/saucers out, only been in the box for a year :-[
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Thanks Richard for a lovely day - it was lovely to see the gardens again - they look so neat and perfectly clipped and reminded me how much work I have to do in the garden here! Thanks to Chris and Gail for the snowdrops, they will planted in the garden tomorrow and will always be a nice reminder of snowdrop friends - I love my swap and gift plants more than any of the others. I will sort a list of snowdrops I can spare in about a month.
Chris that cake was delicious and I have hidden the piece you gave me to have with a cuppa later in bed! Yet to try Ali & Gail's but they look delicious. Richard the soup was the best I have tasted in a long time.
It is so pretty where Richard lives in a lovely row of old cottages on a village green complete with a church - so picturesque.....and a doddle to get to work!
Not only did we have a great day looking at snowdrops but we had Victor in our company who is an expert on wild birds - I will be looking for a 'terraced house' for the sparrows this week ;) Great to see everyone and thanks for the lift Arthur, as always.
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Thanks Jennie, please send me your list when ready.
As always (in case i missed someone) if anyone saw anything they want let me know, am back to work on 25th and have at least a weeks lifting/splitting to do so can send them then.
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Thanks for a lovely day Richard, as always it's great to spend time with lovely people in beautiful surroundings. Thanks for the lovely soup and the snowdrop cups and saucers etc., I shall look after them. I agree with Jenny, the garden looked so neat and tidy unlike my tatty little patch back home.
Thanks to everyone else for the marvellous cake, scones and conversation. Also, thanks to Chris for the drops - already planted!
Wish I'd seen the Eagle Owl but really pleased you got to see it at last Richard, hope you get that lucky tiger spotting on your hols.
Ali
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Hoping to try and photograph the owl this week, glad the cups have found a good home :)
Just been sat in the garden with a lump of your cake, which makes a delicious and very healthy ;D breakfast snack, a fair swap.
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Richard
Last as usual some would say.
A really excellent day - thanks for laying on the sunshine - a bonus considering the forecast.
The snowdrops were at their best. How you manage to keep such a vast area looking so good puts me to shame with my small garden - and then there is the chipping of snowdrops etc etc.
You deserve your break in Nepal and I hope the weather is kind to you and you see some wondeful things. a travelogue when you have time would be appreciated by us all.
Could not finish without repeating what others have said - excellent company, excellent cakes AND cheese scones (we all learnt about Keens cheese) and best of all the most delicious soup.
Many many thanks Richard.
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Thanks Arthur,
Will be keeping a diary as I travel so will post something with pics when I get back.
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Oh, a trip to Nepal? When tigers were mentioned, after the eagle owl and there is a walrus in the Orkney Islands at the moment, I thought Richard was contemplating a break on the Isle of Wight.... ...................
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:) 8) :)
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Walrus pictures are amazing, what a thing to find sitting on the beach.
Am off to Nepal next Sun for 10 days travelling through 2 national parks, one has lots of Tigers so keeping everything crossed ;)
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Sounds an exciting trip, Richard, I hope you have a wonderful time and that all your photos are crackers!!
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Some photos from yesterday.
First a group shot; from the left Chris, Ali, Jennie, Alan at back (Simon is hiding behind Jennie, you can only see his feet), Arthur, Victor, Richard and John.
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Going through my photos there was significant number of happy laughing faces - first here I think was the result of a lively discussion on using chilli to repel squirrels...
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Man on a mission, then 'Cordelia', gracilis 'Highdown', nivalis 'Greenish' and G71 (a Greatorex double).
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Nice pics :)
I remember suggesting a meet here as an informal day out, so it's great to see lots of smiling/ laughing.
Those doubles, all the same.... ;D
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Lovely photos Gail - you caught the happy mood of the day. I have just been cropping and resizing a few from yesterday. The more I look at the photos of Bennington gardens - the more I cannot believe how Richard takes such good care of it all. It is one of the neatest and best maintained gardens I have seen.....especially this early in the year!
1 & 2. Bennington Village - a really scenic village
3. Broo - Richards lovely Cocker Spaniel waiting for a cheese scone
4. Beautiful view toward the lake
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A few more from Bennington.....
1. Arthur and Gail observing something. Richard I love those mounds of silver in front of the dogswoods and feel I should know what it is....but cannot remember. Are they Cardoons? They look lovely against the dogswoods.
2. A lovely bank with masses of snowdrops grown under Apple trees intercepted with neatly pruned Buddleja with thick swathes of Bergenia along the front - a fabulous looking bed.....and not a weed in sight.
3. An orchid type of plant on Richards window sill. Victor told me the name and it totally escapes me now.
4. Another plant on Richard's window sill - this is a very unusual carnivorous plant which Richard says is in flower for most of the year. A very curious and pretty plant.
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A few more.....
1. Gorgeous bright willow & dogwoods
2. Eranthis naturalised in grass
3. Doncaster's Double Charmer
4. John & Ali among the raised veggie beds
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and finally.....
1. The snowdrop gang - Gail's back, Ali back left, Chris, Arthur middle front & Victor behind, John on the right
2. Everyone from the back - Arthur & Chris at the very back
3. Arthur zooming in
4. Another lovely view of the lake
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Going through my photos there was significant number of happy laughing faces - first here I think was the result of a lively discussion on using chilli to repel squirrels...
Oh yes - the chilli and dynamite story! ;D
Here is one picture from Sunday in which Victor looks like a giant! :o
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:D will send him that.
Jennie, grey leaves are globe artichokes.
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It is one of the neatest and best maintained gardens I have seen.....especially this early in the year!
You should see it in high summer with the fantastic double borders! Thank you for all the great pictures Gail and Jennie, it looks like you certainly had a lovely day.
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I'll try and arrange snowdrops & chips to coincide with the borders :)
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I'll try and arrange snowdrops & chips to coincide with the borders :)
;D ;D
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Hi everyone - it has been a busy week and I have only today managed to sort through my photos of last weeks gathering.
Bennington Lordship is an interesting garden as it seems to effortlessly combine so many different things. The formal garden in front of the house is surrounded by the moat which is a carpet of snowdrops. There is a very old looking tower (which is actually a folly) , the double borders leading down to the lake, and the walled kitchen garden which houses a good number of the nearly 200 different snowdrop varieties that Richard grows so well. There is also a lovely informal lawn where the hens scratch arround and seem to "naturally" distribute the snowdrops!
Despite all these different areas they all seem to flow into each other very naturally.
So some photos (I hope they were worth waiting for)
1 Snowdrops on one side, lawn on the other! (The moat is behind the wall on the left, The house is over to the right)
2 View of the house from the start of the moat
3 Main border with the kitchen garden wall on the right
4 The group at the end of the moat (John, Gail, Victor, Alan, Richard, Simon, Ali)
5 The stragglers (Arthur and Jennie); not sure what they had been up too ;D ;D ;D
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And some of the drops that caught my eye.....
6 Elmley lovett (looking a little floppy)
7 Benhall Beauty (supported by some sicks and wire)
8 Merlin
9 Twinkletoes, not sure what makes this one worth naming but it appealed to me.
10 Less than half of Richards new Mighty Atom hedge (Wow!!!!) Sorry about the poor quality of the photo, but you get the general idea. I think the fence is to keep the chickens off whilst this area gets fully established.
Thanks again everybody for making it such an enjoyable day, and for the snowdrops. In particular thank you Richard for being the perfect host.
Chris
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9 Twinkletoes, not sure what makes this one worth naming but it appealed to me.
I think you probably answered your own question there Chris :D
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just back from my Nepal trip, exhausted ;D but had a great time (will put up some pics in general forum soon) thanks for posting those Chris.
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Welcome home Richard - the weather has been pretty awful while you've been away so you shouldn't have missed too much in the garden !
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Still got varieties in flower, must have been nice here. Nepal wasn't all good, I saw a cloud one morning 8)
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Welcome back Richard. Glad you didn't get eaten by a tiger but did you see any?
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Yes Welcome back Richard. Not surprised you still have some in flower as there hasn't been much in the way of warmth to take them over. I guess it was a bit warmer where you were ;D ;D ;D
I will look out for the photos.
Chris
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Welcome back Richard. Glad you didn't get eaten by a tiger but did you see any?
Sadly not, On one of our walks a ranger found some huge prints which he said were very fresh, so they decided we should follow them.... A slightly odd but exhilarating experience, particularly when monkeys ahead started alarm calling and we all froze ;)
Chitwan national park was amazing, I really didn't want to leave so am going back for longer in a few years.
Was mid 80's whole time I was there.
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March 4th and 5th were warm sunny days and it has been chilly and miserable ever since. If you got acclimatized to temperatures in the mid 80's then I don't envy you coming back to this weather!
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Consider myself quite hardy ;) but walking the dog in the afternoon yesterday was a bit of a shock!
Still nice to be home :D
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Pleased to hear that you had a good time Richard
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Sadly not, On one of our walks a ranger found some huge prints which he said were very fresh, so they decided we should follow them.... A slightly odd but exhilarating experience, particularly when monkeys ahead started alarm calling and we all froze ;)
As far as I know, we've never had a Forumist eaten by a tiger..... but that's not to say that caution isn't good......
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Glad you enjoyed the trip and had good weather.
Hopefully it will be much warmer when we see you in June.
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As far as I know, we've never had a Forumist eaten by a tiger..... but that's not to say that caution isn't good.....
It's certainly something I won't forget, it felt a little like standing in a huge animal enclosure and really shouldn't be there, but the ranger had a bamboo stick so it was all fine ;D
I'll sort out dates for snowdrops & chips next week, will have to be a weekend, preferably Saturday.
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photos here
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=10265.0 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=10265.0)