DEAR MEMBER

Welcome to the October Newsletter.

Membership

We welcomed six new members to our September meeting at which we had a very enjoyable and informative talk from John West on starting a garden from scratch. Society membership now stands at 150.

Winter Talks

David Knott, Curator of the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh will give a talk on “350 years of Collecting, Cultivating and Curating”. We took the decision at the Sept. meeting to cancel our Pot Plant Show, so please disregard the information in the Community Magazine and don’t bring along your prize pot plants. Again, this was due to Covid compliance to avoid the audience moving about the hall unnecessarily handling counters. To facilitate the Raffle, please bring the correct change. £1.00 per strip for tickets which will be pre-prepared. Fivers acceptable. Unfortunately, there is still no tea/coffee available as we have no access to the kitchen. We will have a comfort break and shortly thereafter re-introduce our Garden Doctor where you can bring along your gardening questions.

Happy New Year

As Monty Don mentioned last Friday, the 1st October is our “new year’s day” in gardening terms when thoughts turn towards 2022. Now is a good time to take cuttings of your favourite perennials and indeed to plant new shrubs/perennials into the border whilst the soil is still warm. Also collect seed, dry off and store in frost free place for next sowing next year. Leave some seed-heads on to feed wildlife over the winter months.

Plant your bulbs now for a spring display, but as well as the usual daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, crocuses etc try something new. For shady situations, Trillium and Erythronium (dog toothed violet) are excellent and some of the more unusual varieties such as Eranthus, Chionodoxa, Anemones, Nectaroscordum & Leucojum bring a mix of colour and form to the spring display. Remember Snowdrops fare better when bought “in the green” in late spring than from bulbs. Dwarf Iris make an excellent pot display in miniature form.

Dahlias

The first frosts may come this month which blackens the top of your dahlias. This is the time to lift the tubers & dry them off to store for next year. You may be lucky and continue to enjoy the display into November.

Happy gardening and make sure you pick the right pumpkin!

Many thanks,
Fergus Cumming
President (0141 620 1435)

View newsletter as PDF – BACHS Newsletter October 2021