June 2020 newsletter

From the Chairman: 

New Treasurer wanted

Virtual Summer Show to be held on 11 July

This year our virtual summer show will consist of galleries of photographs to be displayed on the Summer Show 2020 page of our website www.ulrhs.wordpress.com. There will be one gallery for each of the classes below and you can start compiling your entries now ready for submission in July. 



Entries will be for fun and there will be no judging. A maximum of two entries allowed per class.

1. Mixed flowers, 7 stems at least two kinds
2. Any size plate of mixed soft fruit
3. A display of three different types of vegetables, any number of each
4. Five tomatoes of any one variety
5. Longest and shortest runner bean – photograph your entry with a ruler/tape measure alongside
6. Potato in a Bucket – photograph your potatoes together with an A4 sheet displaying the weight in kg/g, and ideally include yourself in the photo
7. Jam jar of flowers
8. Floral art – ‘From the Garden’, an arrangement of flowers and foliage in a vase
9. Chocolate cake – any size from cup cake upwards, decorated/filled as you choose 
10. An animal made from packaging e.g. egg boxes, loo roll inners, cardboard (for 16 years of age and under)
11. Hand-made card or drawing on theme of ‘Thank you NHS/Key workers’
12. Photography of ‘Life under Lockdown’ – funny or serious

How to enter

• Photograph your entry in landscape (‘horizontal’) format. 
• Email it to tricia@thegardenersblacksmith.co.uk together with your name, a note of which class you are entering and, if you wish, a title for your entry.
• Submissions should be made between Monday 6 July and Wednesday 8 July.
• The galleries will be live on the Society website at 1pm on Saturday 11 July.
• You can also post your entries on Facebook or Twitter but please tag the ULRHS so we can see them (@UpLRHS and @ULRHS respectively).

Roy Keeley – a tribute

Roy Keeley, one of our long standing Uplyme members and Horticultural Show exhibitors, passed away at the age of 80 in May.

Roy came to Uplyme from Charmouth aged 9 and started gardening with his dad, Walt, aged 10. From 1968 Roy, his wife Ann and Walt ran Blossom Hill Nursery in Pound Lane growing plants, flowers, fruit and veg. Over the years they supplied Hartleys with fruit and veg for their shop in Lyme Regis, Potters Funeral Directors in Axminster with flowers and Otter Nurseries with plants, as well as selling direct to the public from their nursery and home.

Roy exhibited his produce at the Uplyme and Lyme Regis Horticultural Shows for over 40 years, both summer and autumn, initially in the Professional classes when we had Amateur and Professional classes, a distinction abandoned in 2003. He regularly won prizes and cups including the 1977 Woodroffe Challenge Cup for the most points in flowers and foliage. 

He won the Banksian medal for the most points in the horticultural classes at least six times, most recently in 2014. Roy had many successes with tomatoes and onions, and begonias and carnations, winning the Williams Challenge Cup for the most points in fruit and veg in 2014 and the Worshipful Company of Gardeners Award for the best flowering plant in 2016.

Fittingly in 2019, the 90th anniversary of the Horticultural Show, Roy won his final cup – the Seamark cup for the best exhibit in flowers and foliage. He's 5th from the right in this photo:


Gardening to the end, Roy took pride and joy in consistently producing high quality plants, flowers and vegetables which we were lucky enough to share when he exhibited at the Horticultural Shows.

Plant and seed swap

Save the date

Bob’s veg raise £120 for Food Bank

Bob Mercer recently held an ‘alternative’ plant sale at his home in Yawl as the main Society Plant Sale was cancelled. Tomatoes, chillies, cucumbers, aubergines, squash and salad leaves were all for sale. Bob said: “It really started when a friend moved into a house locally and the previous owner had left a small tomato crop in the greenhouse. We never managed to identify the name but it produced an extremely sweet small plum in copious numbers. We renamed it JB after our friend and saved the seeds. Six of the plants grown in isolation then produced seeds for subsequent years and they seem to come good each year.”



The plants sold out in just a few hours and a total of £120 was donated from the plant sale to the Lyme Regis Food Bank. 

Are you missing garden visits?

The National Garden Scheme is now reopening some of its gardens for visits on a strictly pre-booked basis. All gardens that are re-opening are listed on a weekly basis so you need to check regularly for updates or sign up to their newsletter. Gardens are listed by region, see https://ngs.org.uk/product-category/garden-tickets/

And if you’d like the opportunity to visit some gardens that are further afield, why not try their virtual garden visits. The NGS has been working with their garden owners to bring virtual visits to all types of garden – from stately acres to town and village gardens. You are invited to enjoy the short films at https://ngs.org.uk/virtual-garden-visits/ and consider making a donation so that the NGS can continue supporting nursing and health charities.

Reach for the sky!

‘Currant’ Buns – recipe from Pam Corbin

 
With the soft fruit season upon us - the goosegogs and early strawberries are already here - this simple recipe is a rewarding way to celebrate just a handful of juicy berries and makes quite a different type of ‘currant bun’ to the one you are used to.  The recipe will adapt easily to whatever currants or berries you have. Or have a bit of fun and try a jumbly mix of fruit. 

You will need:
125g lightly softened butter
125g caster sugar 
125g sifted self-raising flour 
Pinch sea-salt
2 medium-large eggs, lightly beaten 
100g raw black, red or white currants 

Pre-heat oven to 180°C/Fan 160°C/Gas 4. 
Have ready 12 holed greased bun tin, or 12 paper cake cases 

Place the butter, sugar, flour, salt and the eggs in a roomy bowl. Using either a wooden spoon or hand-held electric whisk, beat for about 2 minutes, until you have a smooth, thick batter. Then fold in the currants. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin or paper cake cases.  Bake for approximately 20 minutes until risen and softly golden.

BERRY BUNS - replace currants with gooseberries, raspberries, blueberries, small strawberries or blackberries. 

NOTE - if you can’t get any self-raising flour then use plain flour with 1 tsp of baking powder. 



Pam’s ‘currant’ buns – here made with gooseberries

Flower power

In New York during the coronavirus pandemic, florist Lewis Miller has been creating ‘Flower Flash’ – flower arrangements in Manhattan trash cans and on street corners. They are to pay tribute to the medical staff and first responders of New York. All arrangements were completed by sunrise and no one knew where they would be. Enjoy the images of these stunning arrangements: a taster below, and the full article is here (PDF file to download) .


 

This issue’s contributors