Dave Moon gave the Kilmersdon Gardeners a wonderful audio-visual tour of the amazing gardens maintained by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). His brilliant photography was choreographed to music and provided a delightful experience.

We followed RHS history from its foundation in 1804. Sir Thomas Hanbury, a wealthy Quaker provided the Wisley estate in Surrey as the headquarters in 1903. The society began trials of new plants, training professional gardeners and showcasing plants for the public in the gardens. Shows like Chelsea Flower Show and competitions like Britain in Bloom have become part of a traditional British summer. Wisley is an ornamental garden with a diverse plant collection.

Lady Anne Palmer travelled widely and developed a diverse plantsman’s paradise at Rosemoor in North Devon. She donated the eight-acre garden with its lake and farmland to the RHS in 1988. The RHS created a visitor’s center and a series of gardens with different themes such as the ‘hot garden’ linked to the old gardens. Hyde Hall, a hilltop working farm in Essex with herbaceous borders and a vegetable garden, was donated by the Robinsons. A Mediterranean style dry garden was created on a hilltop, 50,000 trees planted, the Queen Mother’s Garden is heavily planted with roses. Mature Eucalyptus trees provide the focus in the Australian and New Zealand Garden. Near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, Harlow Carr was set up for trials of plants suited to northern climates. The RHS acquired it in 2001 and established stunning borders with a tapestry of colour and wildflower meadows.

Construction started on the fifth and latest garden, RHS Bridgewater, near Manchester in 2017. The home of the Earl of Ellesmere, Worsley Hall is long gone but features such as a walled kitchen garden, a tree lined garden approach and lost terraces are all being reworked. There will be a Chinese Water Garden to promote the art, heritage and culture of Chinese gardening. Work began in 2018 on the Woodlands, Walled Gardens, Vegetable, Persian and Paradise Gardens. The opening delayed by the pandemic was in 2021 when Dave visited to photograph it. We were also treated to pictures of Knoll Gardens in Hampshire, one of the gardens members of the RHS can access. The tour finished close to home in the impressive gardens of the Bishop’s Palace in Wells.

December 8th is the Gardeners’ Christmas Party. The next talk is January 12th 2022

Helena Crouch – Flora of the Cam and Wellow Valleys, 7.30pm at Kilmersdon Village Hall with refreshments and raffle.

Trisha Jordan