At the meeting on 23rd February Roger Turner gave an interesting illustrated account of his gardening life as author, designer for individual clients and also for Chelsea and other flower shows. Beginning with slides of his own Edwardian House in Cheltenham, where the fairly small garden was bounded by walls and faced several aspects, one of which was south, he demonstrated the conversion of a blank canvas into an interesting, well stocked garden. In time all the walls were fully clothed with vines, ivy, roses, fatsia, ilea (A “tassel” bush), etc. He started with a collection of euphorbias to introduce a variety of greens and grew pine trees, sorbus Joseph rock and other trees, some of which eventually created too much shade and had to be removed – always a problem where space is at a premium. He filled bare borders with phlomis for winter foliage, bamboo, pittosporum, arum italicum, primula viallii, perennial geraniums, paeonies, acanthus miscanthus which still looks good in November, ferns, day lilies, nerines at the foot of a warm wall and many other plants. In spring he grew primroses, anemone blanda, tulips in grass and, of course, daffodils.
Having completed his own garden to his satisfaction, he moved on to design and in 1983 won the Sunday Times competition to design a garden for Chelsea – subsequently achieving a silver-gilt medal. He was then asked to be the landscaping architect for a project in London, the development of Norway Dock. A lake was made where the old dock had been and houses were built in the water. The subsequent planting of the area was Roger’s design and he produced a delightful garden in an unusual setting. He then showed a selection of the gardens he has designed over the years, culminating in a beautiful sloping three acre garden in the Cotswolds near Winchcombe. This had lots of walls of differing heights with steps and a wild flower garden – really stunning. Many of the larger gardens featured extensive use of trellis, and the ferns were obviously among Roger’s favoured plants for good sized gardens and, in some cases, in quite small ones too.
On 27th April Janet Cropley will make a return visit, this time talking about cottage gardens. Everyone is welcome at 8pm in the Parish rooms.