A Taste of Autumn at RHS Wisley

On Friday we went to the Autumn festival at RHS Wisley. It wasn't as good as I expected it to be, but it was a lovely sunny day and the grounds at Wisley were showing all the beautiful  autumnal colours, and also  signs of the severe frosts we had recently, lots of plants were blackened by the frost just as mine were at home in the garden, especially my dahlias which have now all been lifted and drying off to store over winter.

It was heaven there for 'Foodies' as most of the stalls were food. There was cheeses, pickles, jams, wine, cordials, oils, and lot's more, all delicious (well I had to have a free taster !!) and not the usual supermarket buys. I'm not sure I would go again, but as we were passing to go to my son's anyway we thought we would go and see what the festival was like.

We visit Wisley often as I am a member of the RHS and I do love it there.  The shop and garden centre are both so good with lots of wonderful gift ideas at this time of year. The restaurants ( there are a couple of them) are also very good value and the portions are very generous.



There were lots of apples



Stripey English Apples, I have never seen these before !!

Beautiful Seeds

Fabulous Pumpkins, some I've never seen before and now want to grow next year



Chillies and Onions





Beautiful Chard

 

Lovely Pink berries



Globe artichokes, these are on my 'must grow next year' list.



Some advice from RHS on how to grow artichokes

Armed and dangerous and ready to give those beetles what for !!!

ASPARAGUS BEETLES

The bottle of Bio-Friend Plant Defence arrived today, sent to me from Stephen at

'Victoriana Nurseries' thank you Stephen ! I can't wait to spray the asparagus.

It will last a long time as 20mls make up a 1 litre mix which I will put in a spray bottle. You can read more about this product by clicking on the Victoriana link and going to the website and typing in the name of the product. I will keep you updated as to the effects, but if Stephen uses it on his crops then it's good enough for me.

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ROSES

I took this photo of some roses that I cut from my front garden, it's been there for years. It's is called 'Royal Romance' and was given the name when Prince Charles and Lady Diana were 'courting' they may even have just got engaged , so yes as you can see it's been there a long time. I just googled the name and it looks like it's not available anymore, shame !. Anyway this is the first year that I have had any decent roses that deserved cutting and bringing indoors, so I am delighted with it this year. I am ashamed as a plant-person to admit that I totally neglect it, never feed it, rarely treat it for black-spot, greenfly etc and now It's almost saying ' Look at Me' I am going to treat it to a good feed this week-end.

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SWISS CHARD BARGAIN

I popped over to Home-base today to have a look for any bargains going in the bank holiday events there. I spotted this pot of Swiss Chard called 'Bright Lights' they were looking so badly neglected, dried out compost, withered leaves, etc, so I got cheeky and asked at the desk if someone in charge could reduce the sorry plants and YEAH I got them for 90p instead of £1.99. I took them home cut off the wilted leaves and gave them a good long drink. I counted 16 plants and they now look great, so I will pot them on until they bulk up a bit before planting them out. I have always wanted to try this veg, so now I can.