october 24th
camassia with Stella Exley
Obsessed with Camassia, Stella has the National Collection, 85 so far. Some were donated from the collection of the late Margaret Owen of Shrewsbury. Camassia are hardy perennial bulbs that love moisture retentive ground, plant them where they do best; perhaps around the edge of ponds, stream sides, or naturalised in long grass in dappled shade. They are also great in containers, although short lived, so get them in the ground after 2 years in a pot.
Camassia flower from late March / early April though till June in colours from shades of purple, blue, pink, cream and white, they grow to approximately 1 metre tall. Every bulb in its first season has two flower spikes.
Stella then showed us images of different varieties of Camassia in flower such as Blue Danube and Maybelle, both had very dark stems, Alba is creamy white and spreads itself around whereas white Semiplena is sterile with a lime green stem. Sacajawea has variegated leaf foliage with a white flower, Pink Star has a subtle colour, Sweet Candle has a silvery colour, flowering late in the season together with Violet Candle. All Camassia bulk up vegetatively in any moisture retentive ground, add plenty of compost if your soil is free draining. When growing in pots avoid compost that has coir as this makes it free draining.
Stella also grows and sells 58 different perennials which she obtains as plug plants from other specialist nurseries. All these plants sit and grow well alongside Camassia, her first love, here are some of her recommendations –
Hardy Geraniums such as Ann Folkard and Rozanne,
Geum: Pink Petticoats, Banana Daiquiri and Mai Tai,
Baptisia which has a similar flower to Lupin but performs better and has a good colour range. Astrantia: Star of Magic which has variegated leaf with a purple flower, Burgundy Manor,
Astilbe Black Pearl,
Aquilege,
Penstemon Plum Jerkum.
Further suggestions are – Linaria, Persicaria, Heliopsis, Fillipendula Red Umbrellas, Dicentra Red Fountain, Thalictrum, Mathiasella Green Dream and IrisSibirica
She also has the National Collections of Sidalcea which resembles a smaller version of Hollyhock and Uvulariawhich is a woodlander with pendent yellow bell like flowers.
Stella continued her talk by describing how the famous garden designer, Chris Beardshaw, who has won many RHS Gold Medal for his show gardens at Chelsea, got in touch with her. Knowing that she was a small specialist nursery, he asked her to grow 2,000 Camassia for Chelsea back in 2015. We were taken through the whole process of how Stella and Malcolm managed to grow more than the required amount through a snowy winter (which proved how hardy the plants were) then calling on friends and relations to help get the articulated lorry packed up in time for the allocated time slot at the Chelsea showground. The garden was awarded a Gold Medal, praise indeed for all the hard work and dedication to her glorious Camassia plants.
We will try and arrange a visit to the nursery next year and invite Stella and Malcolm back in the future.
October 2026
The Ripple Effect
The Ripple Effect charity supports impoverished people in Africa by teaching them how to improve soil fertility and harvest rainwater, supplies seeds for crops suited to their regions, gives advice on creating balanced diets, thus reducing illness caused by malnutrition and caring for animals like chickens and goats. Local Ripple Effect Ambassadors also empowers both men and women with this knowledge and teaches them how to pass their experience on to others in their communities, hence the name of Ripple Effect (formerly Send A Cow). One of the aims is to break the cycle of poverty.
Trainees can then build up their vegetables and animals to sell excess produce giving them an income to improve their homes and send children to school.
Ideas we can use in our own gardens; cone gardens, gardens in a bag and keyhole gardens - all ways of conserving water and increasing productivity.
July 2nd
gertrude Jekyll, her plants and designs by David Usher
David produced a comprehensive leaflet (attached) outlining historical facts about the life of Gertrude Jekyll including a list of gardens designed by her.
Additional notes below:
David Usher was originally employed at Hestercombe Gardens as Under Gardener, but became Head Gardener in 1980’s. As Hestercombe was designed by Gertrude Jekyll he became very interested in her life and through extensive research over the years uncovered many facts, some of which were previously unknown.
Gertrude Jekyll is mainly known for her garden design and artistic prowess, but David’s slides highlighted extensive influence by the Arts and Crafts movement, being skilled in silver work, mural painting, creative needlework and interior design; she also had an interest in architecture forming a life- long friendship with Edwin Lutyens. For her own publications she learnt photography and built a darkroom at Munstead Wood.
She contributed to many gardening publications as well as ‘The Times.’ Through her friendship with William Robinson for a short time, she was co-editor of ‘The Garden’ magazine. (A name now adopted by the RHS)
She was not afraid to stand against the snobbery prevalent amongst Victorian garden designers who sought one upmanship through exotic and rare plants. She used simple and wild planting such as Dianthus and Ashphodeline. She was the first person to grow Cardiocrynum outdoors through experimentation with a pit filled with soil and cuttings. She was wrongly labelled as being against the use of annuals, but David discovered a book which showed how she championed the use of annuals to fill gaps whilst perennials were establishing.
She also developed ‘Munstead’ cultivars, many of which have now been lost, however ‘Munstead Bunch Primrose’ re-emerged at Hestercombe after being lost for 60 years.
Gertrude Jekyll invented gardening techniques to enhance planting plans and planted in drifts and layer. e.g. garden rooms, colour themed borders and climbers scrambling through shrubs.
Her meticulous attention to detail and love of bright colours and scented plants were possibly the result of visual impairment – she suffered from Myopia and wore ‘bottle’ spectacles.
Many of her gardens disappeared during the two world wars, but Hestercombe can be seen on BBC I played ‘Hidden Gardens of the National Trust.’
Memorable quote of the evening was: ‘The love of gardening is like a seed which once planted grows into an unending source of happiness.’