COLINTON GARDEN CLUB
NEWSLETTER NO 91 August 2010

Print the newsletter

The 2010/11 membership renewal form is available…

Please complete and return to Membership Secretary
Colin Whitehead

Still just £5 per household!

Autumn fertiliser order

A blank order form is here. Please pass your completed form to Dawn Ellis by Monday 27th September 2010

Garden Club Library

Gill Perry writes:

We will have some new additions to our well-stocked Garden Club Library at our first meeting of the Club year in September.

Come along and have a look, and if you have had any books over the summer, please remember to return them.

Many thanks

Newsletters

Thanks again to those members who hand-deliver the newsletters.
They help us to keep your subscription rates down by saving us postage costs.

You can now opt to receive your newsletter by e-mail. Details on the subscription renewal forms.

We try to keep our records up to date, but if you don’t receive a newsletter, please contact the Communications Officer, Bob Jones

0131 445 2745

The first meeting of the new session is on

Monday 27th September
at
8.00 pm

All welcome!

From the pen of our Chair…

Dear Friends

Gardening is a dialogue with Nature. It is an inspiring partnership in which the unexpected is the companion to the achievement.

In the summer season of the Garden Club, we visited a number of gardens, each bearing witness to those who created them. The Evening Open Garden on 10th May immersed us in Ian & Mary Stewart’s rich profusion of rhododendron, a splendid setting on a hillside in Balerno. On 12th June, for the Open Gardens, tea/coffee and plant sale we enjoyed the gardens of Pat & George Edwards and Penny & Ian McKee, well kept, planned with care and in harmony with their environment. Our sincere thanks to these members who so generously shared their gardens with us.

A few weeks later we saw other gardens, bringing to life the vision of their owners. On 25th June a group from the Club visited Jupiter Artland, near West Calder. Here, in a parkland setting you can admire works of art by such distinguished artists as Charles Jencks, Anish Kapoor, Anthony Gormley, Andy Goldsworthy and others.

On our summer outing, on July 10th we visited the Japanese Water Garden at Stobo, created in the early 1900’s by an enthusiastic test cricketer, still resonant with its evocative beauty today. Now it is lovingly tended by Hugh and Georgina Seymour. Biggar Park Garden bears witness to 35 years of devotion and care by David and Susan Barnes. Then finally on 14th July, a group of us was invited to Cleish, to the house of our founder member Margaret Kilpatrick to see how she and Neil, over a period of 16 years, have transformed a hillside in Kinross-shire into a garden full of splendour.

These are individual examples which we can follow, to some degree at least, in our own gardens. The result is manifested in the landscape of gardens as one walks through our beautiful suburb of Colinton, catching glimpses, as one passes, of loving care in the use of design, colour and texture.

It has been another busy and successful year for the Club The speakers at our monthly meetings have expertly covered a range of topics, informing and entertaining us. Our events have been very well attended, at which members have used the occasion to exchange news and to get to know each other better. The Christmas Party, with the play “High Moon” by Isobel Lodge and her co-authors was a highlight of the Festive Season. Thank you for your support. We are looking forward to the coming year.

The gold medal we won at the pallet garden competition at Gardening Scotland, 4th – 6th June, was a recognition of the creativity of Christine Ireland and her team. We will be hoping to defend this next year. It is an opportunity for a team of creative and practical people to work on a project and have fun together. We are looking for new members for the 2011 team, so don’t hold back. Let us know if you are interested.

Our programme for 2010 – 2011 is full of interest. The speakers are experts in their field, able to impart information in a digestible way so that we learn something without being overwhelmed by technicalities. You will see the topics of the talks and dates in the separate panel in this newsletter. Our first meeting this year will be on Monday 27th September when Billy Carruthers of Binny Plants will speak on “Ornamental Grasses”. Please put this date in your diary. The details of the outdoor summer events will be announced nearer the time, but please let us know if you are volunteering to open your garden. In addition we can be flexible in arranging small group visits to gardens or other places of interest – your suggestions are welcome.

We will be holding our annual coffee morning and Plant Sale on Saturday October 9th in the Episcopal Church Hall, Westgarth Avenue.

Please prepare any plants or cuttings, potted and ready for sale and deliver them to a Committee Member beforehand or to the Hall between 8.30 and 9.30 on the day. Thank you.

It is also time for us to renew our subscriptions. Once again these remain at £5 per household and cover our basic administration and meeting costs. Excellent value, I’m sure you will agree. Please do not delay: complete the attached form, including your current e-mail address and send it off to Colin Whitehead today.

In your new membership booklet you will find a list of events and the names and contact details of Committee Members. In addition to this you can refer to our website www.colintongardens.org.uk which lists our programme, and latest news, shows photographs of recent events, and contains our newsletter with back numbers

I also announced at the AGM that Alasdair Ferguson (Secretary) is leaving the Committee (replaced by Diana Ennos), and Pat Taylor (Programme Convenor) moved to Beauly in May (replaced by Penny McKee). Bob Jones is joining the Committee to look after the newsletter and publicity. Our sincere thanks to those stepping down for their invaluable contribution and welcome to those new in their posts.

Now, after a splendid summer – with the occasional deluge of much needed rain – all that remains is to look forward to seeing you again at our meetings, and in the meantime to wish you

Happy Gardening!

Christopher Davies

Event

Meeting: “Ornamental Grasses”
Billy Carruthers, Binny Plants, Ecclesmachan

Plant sale and coffee morning:
St Cuthbert’s Episcopal Church Hall, Westgarth Ave. (Please note that bulbs will be for sale at this event)

Meeting: “Gardens at Home and Abroad”
Lindsay Morrison, Inwood Garden

Meeting: “A World of Monkey Puzzles”
Richard Ennos, Reader in Biological Sciences, Edinburgh University

Members’ Christmas Party

Meeting: “A Horticultural Journey”
George Enderson, Beechgrove Garden

Meeting: “Creating a Water Feature in your Garden”
Ann Burns, Oatridge College

Meeting: “Members’ Evening”
Three talks from our members

Annual General Meeting

Evening Open Garden
Date and details to follow

Open Gardens Morning
Date and details to follow

Summer outing
Date and details to follow