December '23 in the Garden

Dig It hosts Peter Brown and Chris Day look at the latest news, views, and gardening tasks to keep you busy, plus the Dig it top 5, and some ideas for getting out and about this month. What’s on 7 – 11 December Winter Flower Week at the Garden Museum, London. Five floral designers transform the Garden Museum into an environmentally friendly floral winter wonderland. Friday 8th December, 12 noon – 4pm at the Garden Centre we have a wine tasting event with our good friend Tim Chafor from Chafor Vineyard Estate, Gawcott. The RHS are running Glow Events at their gardens at Wisley, 4pm - 9pm, Hyde Hall (5-9pm) in Essex and at RHS Rosemoor (4.40- 8.30pm). Visit the RHS website for details. Dig It top 5 - spring flowering bulbs No 1 Narcissi 'Tête-à-tête, No 2 Amaryllis ‘Dancing Queen’, No 3 Narcissi Mixed 1.5kg bag, No 4 Hyacinth ‘Early Forcing’ and at No 5 Tulip ‘Purple Rain’. A ‘lunar halo’ was spotted in the night skies in late November and Peter managed to capture the phenomenon which is caused by the refraction of moonlight from ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. // LINK TO PETERS PHOTO // News Adam Frost will be at the Gardeners World Live Show in June 2024 with his Chef’s Table Garden. Greenpeace freedom of information request highlights the huge waiting lists for allotments. Nearly half of species are threatened according to new Kew research findings. Peat not mentioned in the King’s Speech. The RHS publish a list of peat-free nurseries. A new chilli Pepper X is now a new Guinness world record breaker. A new chapter at Hillier Nurseries. Treadstone wins the GIMA Award in the Category Sustainability Champion for their Treadstone Rope Trellis Candide, a dedicated social networking app for plant and garden-lovers, closes on the 7th December. A taster of the 2024 Chelsea Flower Show Gardens. The RHS open their first standalone shop, The Plant Space at Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent. Gardeners’ World presenter Sue Kent highlights specific Garden Heritage Seed varieties from Garden Organic. Sue visited Garden Organics earlier this year. Horticulture sector needs urgent safeguards, reports House of Lords committee Sir David Attenborough donates Easter Island seeds to Kew ‘Darwin’s oak’ to be felled to make way for Shrewsbury bypass East Anglian Fens were covered in yew trees 4,000 years ago, study finds The entire population of Kenya has been given the day off to plant trees Mentions: Sir Harold Hillier Garden, famed winter garden, in Romsey in Hampshire is well worth visiting. The Garden Centre will be donating 50p per Christmas tree sold this year to the charity Ripple Africa who actively promote sustainable tree planting in Malawi. Product mentions: Winter wash fruit trees and bushes with Growing Success Winter Wash, tree ties, tree shelters, check your stakes, insulate outdoor taps against frost, Secateurs Eversharp, Wolf Secateurs or Felco. WD40, Blade sharpening tool/stone. Christmas tree stand with a water reservoir. Plant mentions: Abies nordmanniana, English Oak, Bluebell, Dandelion, fruit trees and soft fruit. Our thanks for Chiltern Music Therapy for supplying the music.