9th September 2017

16 members, including 3 new ones, met for Simon White’s talk, on a sunny September afternoon.

Simon showed us numerous roses, some with hips, eg.  R.pimpinellafolia, with black, marble-sized hips, near the beginning, and R.moyesii,  with orange, bottle-shaped hips, nearer the end.

In addition, many roses were in flower. Simon described the monthly feeding regime, took us up the spiral stairs to see the garden from above, then down ago, to see R. ‘Pippin’, named for Peter Beales, after his death. This was his nickname at school.

We were also shown the ‘ladder arch’ and walked through the ‘wild garden’ to the children’s play area, tantalisingly close to the back of the adjacent pub.

Simon took us back, a slightly longer-than-usual way, around Peter Beales’ bungalow, toward the garden centre, where he completed his talk, and we disbanded into small groups to examine nearbyitens of interest, either in the garden or garden centre.

At this point, no doubt carefully planned by Simon, the heavens opened, and everyone dashed fir cover, either to the main building or to the Clematis tunnel. By the time Simon had kindly sent a’lad’ with umbrellas, the whole area was awash, resulting in wet feet for the unsuspecting.

A dramatic end to an interesting and informative talk.

Chris Davies