Swaffham Newsletter

Ashill Holme Hale Gardening Club
On an afternoon buffeted by Storm Doris, over 40 members
braved fallen trees and flying wheelie bins to hear Peter
Skeggs-Gooch talk on ‘Different Ways with Clematis’.
Thorncroft Clematis started as his mother’s hobby 25 years
ago in Reymerston, between Dereham and Wymondham,
and five years ago Peter took over the business. They have
regularly won medals at the Chelsea Flower Show, including
several coveted gold awards. They produce about 400
varieties and, having outgrown their original premises, are
now a mail-order and on-line business.
Peter was keen to emphasise the different ways
clematis can be grown in the garden and presented
slides to illustrate his suggestions. Clematis work well
in combination with roses as they enjoy similar soil
conditions. The variety Ernest Markham even seems to
grow better as a companion plant than alone.
Clematis are often grown against man-made supports,
such as pergolas and fences but many will happily
scramble over bushes and conifer hedges. As they are
not generally invasive they can be safely grown against
sheds and walls with the exception of the Montana
varieties which can grow to twenty feet and damage
guttering. Peter showed his audience a fabulous slide
of the varieties Minuet, Romantica and Tentel growing
up an obelisk to illustrate this use of the plant.
Alternatively, clematis can be used as container plants,
although pots should be at least 18 inches wide and
18 inches deep for success. The varieties Pistachio
Fukuzono and Ai Nor work well in this role. Slides
of Kaiser and Dennys Double produced admiring
comments from the audience.
It may surprise some to find that clematis can be grown
as a cut flower. Varieties with small flowers such as Pillu
and Golden Tiara are best as they can be kept in water
for at least 10 days whereas larger flowers require
longer stems to sustain them.
Ground cover varieties, such as Arabella, New Love (freestanding
and tolerant of dry conditions) and Pamela (which
is fragrant) provide yet another use for this versatile plant.
There are even late flowering varieties such as Princess
Kate which grows 12 feet in a year and flowers from
July to early November and Rehderiana which has
wonderful primrose yellow flowers in September.
Members were pleased to have braved the hostile
weather to hear such an interesting and well illustrated
talk and many left clutching Thorncroft Clematis
catalogues full of examples of these superb plants.
What’s on in the next 3 months
27th April Gardeners’ Question Time
10th May Coach outing to Doddington Hall and
Gardens, Lincolnshire
25th May Graham Watts ‘Developments at Dale Farm’
22nd June Dr Ian Bedford ‘Butterfly Gardening’
25th June Annual Flower Show
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