Winter 2010 / Spring 2011
CORNWALL GARDENS TRUST
NEWSLETTER
Winter 2010 / Spring 2011
Editor DFJ Pearce
Message from the Chairman
Dear CGT Member,
Another cold winter! But it gives members a good excuse to stay inside, read the Newsletter and peruse the list of Garden Visits for 2011 with its selection of inspirational large and small gardens throughout the county.
Despite the frosty conditions which in fact enhanced the landscape, the Christmas Lunch at Lanhydrock proved popular. Jonathan Lovie of the Garden History Society gave an informative and stimulating lecture which made us aware of the layers of history which have gone into the making of the gardens at Lanhydrock. Jean Marcus is to be thanked for organizing such a pleasant day, and the staff made us particularly welcome (see further down for a full report).
Members may be aware of the recent publicity regarding the sale of Springvale, a cottage and garden near Carnon Gate at Devoran. It has recently been proved that this was the home for many years of Thomas Lobb, one of the two Cornish Lobb brothers. In fact the elder brother, William, was the world’s first commercial plant hunter sailing from Falmouth to Rio in 1840. The brothers travelled widely in the Americas and Asia collecting specimens for Veitch Nursery in Exeter, and are credited with the introduction of the Monkey Puzzle, the Giant Sequoia and many notable rhododendrons and azaleas.
Very few artefacts belonging to the brothers have survived and as a result the Lobbs are not as well known as they deserve to be. Consequently a group of enthusiasts, supported by key figures in the gardening world, is trying to save the house and establish a modest Lobb museum and garden at Springvale. The property, however, is on the market at a commercial rate and will be of interest to developers, but it should be possible to establish some recognition of the Lobbs’ importance on the site. Leo Hickman* who is leading the campaign would welcome any suggestions as to saving Springvale or creating a fitting memorial; after all without the intrepid Lobb brothers, Cornish – and indeed national - gardens would not be as renowned or as exotic as they are today.
With best wishes,
Angela Stubbs. *Leo Hickman. Tel. 01208 73426/07876 217220
Email: [email protected]
CGT Website
Have you visited the newly laid out and easily accessible website? If you have, you will see the website now has a page for News Items, so if anyone has any bits they wish to advertise before, or in addition to, the regular Newsletter, (seen in colour on the website), please send you contribution to:
The CGT Secretary -
CGT 2011 Programme of garden visits………
Wednesday March 23rd Chyverton House, Zelah TR4 9HD 10.30am
A renowned 18th century landscape garden, 30 acres of which have been planted with 200 species of magnolia, forming one of the largest collections in Cornwall. The visit will be conducted by Mr Nigel Holman. Coffee on arrival.
Tuesday April 12th Botallick, Lanreath, Looe PL13 2PF 10.30am
A 3- to 4- acre garden beautifully landscaped round an old farm house, picturesque farm buildings and ponds. Since 1994, the owners have built up an impressive and varied collection of camellias, rhododendrons and magnolia. Coffee on arrival.
Friday May 13th Ethy House, Lerryn, Lostwithiel PL22 0NE 10.00am
An 18-acre garden surrounding a classic Georgian house with formal terracing and lawns overlooking the valley of the River Lerryn. 15 acres of the grounds have recently been cleared and replanted, and in spring these woodlands form a colourful display of bluebells and primroses. Coffee on arrival.
Thursday May 26th AGM Tremayne Hall, Lemon Hill, Mylor Bridge TR 11 5NA 1.30 for 2.00pm
Annual General Meeting. Please make every effort to attend this important meeting. No charge.
Note this is also an opportunity to buy/sell gardening books – see note below
ALSO Tea will be available from 3.30 onwards at Lanwithick, Penarrow Road, Mylor Churchtown TR11 5UD, and members are invited to enjoy this attractive garden which has recently been restructured and formally planted with herbaceous perennials and shrubs. Entrance fee includes tea and cake.
Tuesday June 7th The Mill House, Pendoggett, St Kew PL30 3HN 2.30pm
An artistically conceived and varied plantsman’s garden on the site of an old mill and belonging to CGT Journal Editor, Trish Gibson and her husband Jeremy. The planting in each area – such as the courtyard or the woodland garden - complements its environment and the recently developed summer garden adds a colourful extra dimension to the whole. Entrance fee includes tea and cake.
Friday June 24th Poppy Cottage, Ruan High Lanes, Truro TR2 5JR 2.00pm
This is an inspirational cottage garden, artfully landscaped into a series of colour-themed ‘rooms’ and with a great variety of shrubs and herbaceous plants. The garden is open to the public but the owner, Tina Primmer, is dedicating the afternoon to our members and will conduct the tour. Entrance fee includes refreshments.
Saturday July 9th Joint visit to Treviades Barton, High Cross, Constantine TR11 5RG 2.30pm
A traditional garden enhanced by colourful planting with a picturesque summer house, a rose walk, a great display of agapanthus and a walled garden packed with interesting shrubs and herbaceous perennials. Joint fee includes tea and biscuits at Potager Garden.
And The Potager Garden, High Cross, Constantine, TR11 5RF from 3.45 onwards. Members will be able to visit this new organic garden evolved from an old nursery and now informally planted with herbaceous plants, fruit and vegetables. Tea and biscuits will be available in The Glasshouse
Thursday July 21st Woodland Cottage, Tregrehan Mills, St Austell PL25 3TL 2.30pm
This immaculate and charming ½-acre cottage garden is notable among much else for its superb collection of 200 hemerocallis. Members can also enjoy interesting walks through the 6 ½ acres of a former tin mining area which adjoins the garden. Tea and biscuits included.
Friday September 2nd The Sculpture Garden, Salena Stamps, Trenear, Helston TR13 0ER 2.30pm
A woodland garden developed along the banks of the River Cober from 2000 onwards by Peter Boex, a regular contributor to the Journal, and in which at least 40 of his sculptures are displayed with artistic effect amongst the trees and the vestiges of mining activities. The studio and gallery will be open as well as Yvonne Boex’s dress design studio. Charge includes tea.
Wednesday October 12th Kennall House Garden, Ponsanooth TR3 7HJ 2.30pm
This will be a second visit to this 6-acre valley garden to enjoy autumn colours and new planting. There is an arboretum, a walled garden, ponds and streams. Tea will not be available but members may picnic in the grounds.
Please use the enclosed booking form to reserve your place on these visits
Book Sale
We are organising a second-hand book sale at the AGM on 26th May. If anyone has any books on garden history or gardening generally that they would like to sell/donate, please bring them along on the day or contact Peter Fairbank (01326 372293) to arrange collection. Items for sale should be priced by the seller and a percentage (50%) of the selling price will be retained by CGT.
Christmas Lecture and Lunch
Thank you to Jonathan Lovie for a fascinating lecture delivered at our Christmas Lecture/Lunch event in early December. Jonathan braved freezing temperatures (-9ºC when he left home in mid Devon) and drove across the moors to meet up with 25 equally brave trust members at Lanhydrock House. The house, gardens and parkland looked wonderful sparkling under their icy frosting and were beautifully set off against a clear blue sky, however, we were very appreciative of the opportunity to have a hot coffee on arrival and a warm-up by the huge open fire in the Great Hall on our way to lunch.
Jonathan proved an authority on his subject and entertained us with a detailed account of the early history of the gardens and the succession of owners until the National Trust took over in 1953. I was particularly interested in a Cheshire connection (my home county). A lady called Mary Hunt inherited from a distant relation in the mid eighteenth century. Mary’s principal estate was in Cheshire but she must have fallen for Cornwall because during her 20-year ownership of Lanhydrock she spent time adding to the fruit collection and planting sycamores and 300 asparagus plants. Eventually the Cheshire estate was disposed of to another line of the family and the revival of Lanhydrock House and estate was continued by Mary and her successors.
Christmas lunch was enjoyed by all; crackers, a few bad jokes and glass of wine later we all headed home after a very good start to the social season.
(Jonathan Lovie’s article about Lanhydrock will appear in the CGT Journal to be published in the spring.)
Congratulations
to CGT member Tim Smit who has received an honorary knighthood from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Tim becomes a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) in recognition of services to public engagement with science.
Cornwall Gardens Trust Education
The trust has awarded bursaries to three more students at Duchy College, and another grant to a secondary school. We are still keen to get applications from primary schools. Claire Hewlett, Education Officer reports a quiet time at present with schools gearing up for a busy spring. In the meantime she sends the following amusing extract taken from ‘The Gardener’s Year’ by Karel Čapek, first published in 1929. She says ‘It is one of the funniest gardening books I’ve ever read’. It being that time of year she thought the following may be appropriate to share:-
Some people say that charcoal should be added, and others deny it; some recommend a dash of yellow sand, because it is supposed to contain iron, while other warn against it for the very fact that it does contain iron. Others recommend clean river sand, others peat alone and still others sawdust. In short the preparation of the soil for seeds is a great mystery and a magic ritual. To it should be added marble dust (but where to get it?), three year old cow dung (here it is not clear whether it should be the dung of a three year old cow or a three year old heap), a handful from a fresh molehill, clay pounded to dust from old pigskin boots, and from the Elbe (but not from the Vltava), three year old hotbed soil, and perhaps besides the humus from the golden fern and a handful from the grave of a hanged virgin – all should be well mixed (gardening books do not say whether at the new moon, or full, or on midsummer night); and when you put this mysterious soil into flower pots (soaked in water, which for three years have been standing in the sun and on whose bottoms you put pieces of boiled crockery, and a piece of charcoal against the use of which other authorities, of course, express their opinions) – when you have done all that, and so obeyed hundreds of prescriptions, principally contradicting each other, you may begin the real business of sowing the seeds …
Well, have you sown your seed yet? Have you put the pots into lukewarm water and covered them with glass? Have you shaded the windows against the sun, and shut them, so that a hotbed of a hundred degrees will be produced in your room? Very well then, now the great and feverish activity of every sower begins – that is, waiting. Drenched with sweat, without coat, in his shirtsleeves, the breathless watcher bends over the pots, and with his eyes he draws up the sprouts which ought to come out. The first day nothing comes up, and the watched tosses in his bed at night, unable to await the morning.
The second day, on the mysterious soil, a tuft of mould appears. He rejoices that his is the first sign of life.
The third day something creeps up on a long white leg and grows like mad. He exalts almost aloud that it is here already, and he tends the first seedling like a mother nursing her child.
The fourth day, when the shoot had stretched to an impossible length, the watchr becomes anxious, for it might be a weed. Soon it is evident that the fear was not unreasonable. Always the first thing, long and thin, which grows in a pot is a weed. Obviously it must be some law of Nature.
Well then sometimes on the eighth day, or still later, without any warning, in a mysterious unregulated moment, for nobody ever say or caught it, the soil is silently forced apart and the first shoot appears…’
Have fun this spring, I’m just off to buy some multi purpose compost!! (Claire Hewlett)
Fundraising
The trustees are looking for a keen volunteer to take on the job of fundraising for the trust. If you are interested in doing this, or know of anyone who might be prepared to take on this task, would you please contact either Dr Angela Stubbs (01326 250092) or Peter del Tufo (01326 231339) to find out more about what this role entails.
You are invited to:
Devon Gardens Trust Spring Talk - A Good Game:
a light-hearted look at the history of gardening for children by Carolyn Keep
on Saturday 2nd April 2011 at 2 pm at Lakeside, Roadford Reservoir, Lewdown EX20 4QS (Just off A30 between Okehampton and Launceston)
Cost: £7 each to include tea and cake afterwards.
Please make cheques payable to Devon Gardens Trust.
Send with s.a.e. to Susan Hill, Claremont, 13 Mill Street, Chagford, TQ13 8AW by 21st March 2011
War Memorials Trust by Frances Moreton, Director
War Memorials Trust works to protect and conserve war memorials across the UK. The charity provides advisory and advocacy services and its website has a wealth of information on a range of war memorial issues. It is seeking to raise awareness, as we approach the centenary of World War I, so anyone with a concern about a war memorial knows where they can find help.
Many war memorials are found in gardens, or have associated landscaped surrounds. You may notice them when visiting gardens or travelling around the county. Please let the Trust know if you spot any that cause concern.
The Trust administers grants which can assist with the repair and conservation of war memorials. An ‘Expression of interest’ form should be completed by anyone seeking help. Grants are offered at 50% of eligible costs and, depending on the scheme through which works are eligible, can be up to £20,000.
Projects have been undertaken across Cornwall. The war memorial cross on the village green in Praze-an-Beeble, the memorial hall in Crantock (Newquay) and Gwinear’s lychgate are just some. Other examples can be found on our website www.warmemorials.org/search-grants.
War Memorials Trust is an independent registered charity which relies upon voluntary income and support to undertake its work. It has members across the country many of whom take on a more active role as Regional Volunteers, acting as the Trust’s ‘eyes and ears’ in their area.
For further information contact War Memorials Trust on 0300 123 0764, or
[email protected] or www.warmemorials.org.
Volunteers always welcomed
If you are interested in taking on any aspect of Cornwall Gardens Trust’s activities - don’t hide your light under a bushel - please contact our Chairman, Angela Stubbs on 01326 250092.
Remember – Many hands make light work!
The restoration project for Gyllyngdune Gardens, Falmouth has been awarded just under one million pounds from the Heritage Lottery under the Parks for People programme. Members who attended the 2007 AGT conference will remember being given a tour of the project by Jon James of Cornwall Council and seeing the current state of the gardens. The Heritage Lottery award will see the gardens restored to their former glory and fit for 21st century use. During the restoration, information boards will be on display and visitors will be able to study the progress of the work. Cornwall Gardens Trust is represented on the executive board which oversees the project.
The next AGT AGM and Conference Weekend will be in Oxford in early September and is called ‘Power Gardening’. More details in the summer newsletter.
And finally…….
David Pearce, Cornwall Gardens Trust Newsletter editor, is happy to receive short articles of information from members for publication in future Newsletters. These may be on any garden related topic, technical, personal experiences, humorous moments, cartoons etc. Please send articles to Sweet Thymes, Rose, Truro TR4 9PQ either by snail-mail or preferably by e-mail to: [email protected]