Can we do better?

The plant sale raised £800 so can we do even better in June? 

The Friends will be taking part in the 

WestFest Big Sunday, 9th June, 

selling plants 

from 1 - 4 pm.on Magdalen Green 

If you can support the Friends by offering plants for sale please bring them along to the Green after 11.30 am that morning.  

Thank you

to all those of you who supported the Friends' Plant Sale, Despite the showers we sold a record number of plants, enjoyed some fascinating conversations, and made a healthy contribution towards funding for the Garden. 

If you missed the sale this time don't despair. We'll be selling more plants on 

Magdalen Green during WestFest's Big Sunday on 9th June. 

Sale

Perfect weather for planting!

Choose a challenge or indulge in the exotic!

Sale of plants TODAY from 12.0 - 3.0 

Plant of the month

May

Trillium grandiflorum (American wake-robin)

find it in the American section 

Family: Melanthiaceae    Origin: Eastern North America

Trillium are herbaceous perennials with erect stems bearing a whorl of ovate or diamond-shaped leaves, with one or more erect or nodding flowers borne at the tip in spring. T. grandiflorum is a vigorous perennial forming a large clump of erect stems each carrying a whorl of three broadly ovate leaves and a solitary terminal flower to 10cm across, with three recurved white petals.

Plant Sale on 11th May

Calling all Friends....

Donations of plants labelled and potted if possible should be brought to the Botanic Garden anytime after 10.00 a.m. on Friday 10th May or

 on Saturday before the Plant Sale from 10.00 am. 

If you can help on Friday to receive the plants or on Saturday during the Sale 

please phone Frances on 665719

Plant Sale

For the unusual, the exotic, the excellent value, come to the 

 Friends' Annual Plant Sale 

 at the Garden 

on 

Saturday 11th May 

between 12.0 am and 3,0 pm

As a volunteer in the garden it's very pleasing to see the results - a tray of plants from cuttings taken last autumn. Well, apart from the yellow leaved one bottom right!

A busy morning volunteering in the Garden
Hopefully the sun will shine and we can all enjoy the flowers in a couple of months.

No Fun

The Family Fun Day due to take place on Saturday has been cancelled. 

April's plant of the month

Primula elatior (Oxlip)

Family: Primulaceae        Origin: Central & Southern Europe         Accession: 2011

flowering in the Native Woodland area now.

Family Fun Day

The 13 of April will see the Garden host its annual family fun day from 10am to 4pm.

Entry charges will apply and the day should be full of activity for all.

I hope to see you there.

Alasdair

Friends on line

As Friends will read in their Newsletter, we have set up a web site on Group Spaces to enable the committee to contact by email those Friends who join the group  If you would like to take part please follow the link on the panel to the right.
We hope that we can use the system to cut down on our very expensive postal charges Equally important is being able to notify the Friends of events in the Garden and to consult on the ways the Friends choose to contribute towards the development of the Garden. 

Also on the right is the link to MyDonate, which is the on-line method of renewing membership fees. It's very easy to use and you don't have to register if you don't wish to do so!   More information about  MyDonate is on a separate page. 

Talk

The Grampian & Tayside Group of Plant Heritage

Saturday 30^th March 2pm

The Education Centre, Dundee Botanic Garden

Riverside Drive, Dundee DD2 1QH 

A Tour of Scotland's Rich Heritage of 'Useful Plants'

 By Greg Kenicer

Head of Education, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Tickets on the door or by advance booking. £4

To make a booking or for more details, contact Sue Hewer on 01575 560259 or suehewer1@btopenworld.com

Come along and join RBGE’s Gregory Kenicer for a whirlwind tour through Scotland’s ‘useful plant heritage’ as seen through the eyes of everyone from the first hunter-gatherers to the gentlemen botanists of the Enlightenment. Scotland’s useful wild plants are superbly versatile, and we’re very lucky to have excellent accounts of their traditional uses. The spread from pragmatic everyday food and materials, to mainstays of local economies, to weird and wonderful magical cures adds a fascinating dimension to the plants beyond our gardens.

If you've heard Greg speak before, you'll know that this is going to be a really good one!

Plant of the month - March

Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Charles Lamont’

Family: Adoxaceae           Origin: Garden              Accession: 1974

find it at the end of the rose garden 

Viburnum x bodnantense is the result of a cross between V. farreri  and V. grandiflorum. The cross was originally made by Charles Lamont, Assistant Curator at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh in 1933, but was not widely propagated until 1935 when the same cross was made at Bodnant, hence the name of the hybrid. ‘Dawn’ was the first named form, and ‘Charles Lamont’ was subsequently named as one of the original seedlings raised at Edinburgh.

A medium to large deciduous shrub, it has a strong upright habit when young, later arching outwards gracefully. Ample clusters of exquisitely fragrant, rose-tinted flowers are produced in winter, before the leaves appear in spring. The foliage also turns an attractive bronze in autumn.

Originally thought to belong to the family Caprifoliaceae, recent studies using DNA sequencing have shown Viburnum to be a member of the family Adoxaceae.

Email address

Up to now we have not been able to make use of email to inform those Friends' happy to be contacted in this way about forthcoming events and matters of general concern to the Garden. Hopefully this is about to change - details will be published in the next Newsletter due out around Easter. 

Plant of the Month

February

Hamamelis mollis (Chinese Witch Hazel)

Family: Hamamelidaceae         Origin: China           Accession: 1978

Afternoon talk

 The Garden's Curator, Alasdair Hood, will give a talk about his adventures Down Under 

in the Visitors' Centre

on Wednesday, 6th February from 1 - 2 PM

This is the first time we have held a Friends; meeting at lunchtime so please come along and show your support. Visitors' welcome too!

Happy New Year!

Gardeners' Question Time

The audience may have been small but the enthusiasm was great. Our thanks go to our panel of Experts.

Gardeners' Question Time

TODAY

Saturday, 1st  December

GARDENERS' QUESTION TIME

2.30 PM

at

St Peter's Church Hall