Everyone’s agreed that it’s a marvellous summer for roses. They are burgeoning in glorious reds, pinks, creams, yellows… well, they are in our lovely garden at the Crouch; the only trouble is that we don’t know what most of them are called! Tut, call ourselves gardeners… So what we are asking is for you to look at the pictures and try to identify them for us. And your reward for reliably doing so? A plant of your choice from our well-stocked sales table. And roses aren’t the only thing that’s doing well. All the veg is ramping up and in the poly tunnel tomatoes planted out four weeks back had grown tall and bushy early in July and were beginning to fruit, with some tomatoes already reddening ready for the sales table. As you read this we will have been open to raise money for the Macmillan Trail. The Macmillan charity, Katie told us over our tea break, receives more money from people visiting National Garden Scheme gardens than from any other source. She was reporting about her and Allison’s visit to the NGS tea party at Herstmonceux Castle at which 200 or so people who open their gardens for the organisation in East and Mid Sussex, including ourselves, were thanked for their efforts. They learnt that in 2018 your visits to NGS gardens resulted in a record £3.1m being donated to nursing and health charities, with £500,000 going to Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie and Hospice UK, £400,000 to Carers Trust, £250,000 to Queen’s Nursing Institute, £185,000 to Parkinson’s UK, £145,000 to MS Society, £130,000 to Perennial, a charity which helps those who work in horticulture when times get tough, and £490,000 to a variety of other causes. So an extra thank you to those of you who also visited us when we opened for NGS in May. So to return to our own garden, we are delighted that the business community is continuing to support us. For example, thanks are due to VR Flowers & Son, the furniture shop, for its donations of carpet for our shed roof gardens and compost heap, and to Badger Inks for its discount on printing materials. Back to the tea break and Val is apologising for reorganising the shed and risking no one being able to find anything. She is assured that because it had got so untidy we no longer knew where to look anyway! Right, coffee break over and it’s back to work, but when you visit do take a moment to enjoy the roses. The garden is open on Wednesday mornings all year round and during the rest of the summer on Saturday mornings too, from 10am until noon, so come in and Name That Rose. The Garden Team Photos (from top): Four weeks ago Phil (pictured) and James were planting these tomatoes in the poly tunnel and in early July their fruits were ripening; a free plant if you can correctly identify the cream, pink, red and yellow roses pictured on this page; Allison, centre, enjoys the NGS cream tea. Sept ISSUE DEADLINE: Tues 6th <strong>August</strong> 106 Please mention <strong>Seaford</strong> <strong>Scene</strong> when contacting advertisers
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