Roehampton Garden Society

Category Archives: Update2021

this post was linked to a 2021 update


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A tale of giant gooseberries

The north of England is host to a number of Gooseberry Societies where the annual contest for the ‘heaviest’ gooseberry is hotly contested. Bryan Nellist of the Egton Bridge Gooseberry Society won their competition this year by a fraction of a gram at 26 drams 18 grains. The variety grown was ‘Belmarsh’, a white gooseberry.

The current world record was set in 2019 by Graeme Watson of the same society at 36drams 12.5 grains for a yellow gooseberry – variety ‘Millennium’ .

Egton Bridge (near Whitby) was delighted that the show could go ahead this year after last year’s Covid cancellation was the first in a 220 year history. The Gooseberry Society competition still strictly abides by the hand written rules from 1823.

Sadly, on the other side of the Pennines, Terry Price of the Goostrey Gooseberry Society in Cheshire, found that his prize bushes had been poisoned ahead of the competitions. He suspects by a rival grower!

Sources: The Guardian ; Guiness Book of Records.


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Watch out for: Garden Tiger Moths

August 2021

There are lots of Tiger Moths on the wing at the moment – creamy white and black fore wing patterns, the under wing is a pinkish red. Easily identified from a butterfly, when at rest the wings are at 180 degrees, butterflies wings are at 90 degrees. They are beautiful creatures – enjoy.

Adult Tiger Moth
Tiger Moth caterpillar

Contributor: Bill Young

Key information

The garden tiger is a stout, hairy moth. Its forewings are chocolatey-brown with cream patterns, whereas its hindwings are orangey-red with black spots. Its bright colours warn predators that it tastes unpleasant.

The garden tiger is a widespread species and can be found throughout the UK, however numbers have decreased in recent years.

Its brown and black, exceedingly hairy caterpillar is often called a ‘woolly bear’. The hairs are irritant and protect it from predators, such as birds – be warned in case you pick one up! Garden tigers overwinter as caterpillars.

What they eat:

Adults drink nectar from flowers. Caterpillars eat low-growing, herbaceous plants.

Possibly in your flower border!

Information source: RSPB


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Plants and Plant Lore at the Weed Walk and Talk

Who would have thought there were so many weeds on our Allotments?!!

Some of us were lucky enough to accompany Roy Vickery, Associate Scientific Officer to the Natural History Museum, on a walk along a path on plot 2. Roy worked as a botanist at the Natural History Museum for over 40 years and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of plant folklore. His eagle eyes swooped down and plucked specimens from the path and borders and he held his audience with tales of yesteryear. Knowledge he has collected by word of mouth, spanning back to the beginning of the last century. Some tales of country superstition, others of medical uses of common plants, but all fascinating and delivered with an obvious love of subject and dry sense of humour.
We felt privileged to have learnt so much from an hour in the company of a very knowledgeable and interesting man. Thank you, Roy.

Contributed by Shan Karwatowska


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Urgent: action needed to counter tomato blight

Growing tomatoes this year? It’s that time of year, when rain and warmth together mean tomato blight can flourish. Many allotmenteers may be affected – particularly on outdoor grown plants.

There is no recommended remedy available at present, unfortunately, but in the early stages, removing affected leaves and fruit may slow things down. Once the stems are affected you must harvest any fruit you can and pull up and destroy the plant.

What to Do

  • Please check tomatoes now – early signs can be brown spots on leaves and fruit.
  • If blight is established, pull up the plant and bag it. Clean your hands and tools – not in the water tanks, please! You can keep any green tomatoes and eat any unaffected ripe ones.
  • Don’t put affected fruit and plants in your compost bin – the temperature is unlikely to be high enough to kill the spores and blight will come back next year. You can put them in green waste collection for the council as their facility runs at higher temperatures.
  • To avoid spreading blight, be careful when watering tomatoes. Don’t splash water up the stems or on to lower leaves as the soil may contain blight spores.

Watch Monty deal with his tomato blight problem here: https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/solve-problems/tomato-blight/

Here’s advice from the RHS also: https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=217 .

Let’s see if we can stop it spreading now ……….

If anyone has treatment recommendations to share, please do contact us by email.