A Report from member Izi Glover

Warden Abbey vineyard is a community enterprise entirely maintained by volunteers and managed by our workshop host, Jane Markham. The four acre ‘Lyttel Vineyard’ was originally planted in the twelfth century by Cistercian monks of Warden Abbey. The Whitbread family, local to the area, replanted the vineyard in 1986, and their award winning production was taken over by the current community project, who replanted some of the white grape vines. On average, four to six thousand bottles of award winning wine are produced annually. Their vintages include ‘The Reformer 2013,’ a blend of Bacchus and Reichensteiner grapes and ‘The Founder 2013,’ a blend of Muller Thurgau and Regner grapes.

In the morning, Jane shared her viticultural expertise and provided a detailed introduction to the annual cycle of vine cultivation and pruning. We gained fascinating insights into the complex world of wine production – from how the timing of pruning affects sugar levels in the grape (early pruning in January/February promotes higher sugar levels in the grape), to the crucial balance between leaf and grape (fourteen leaves above a bunch, one and a half leaves either side of the vine), and even why prunings are weighed in commercial vineyards (to monitor vine growth). We learned the scientific reasoning behind pruning methods, including nurturing a bud’s development and the best choice of healthy fruiting canes.

After lunch we drove out to the vineyard, which is off the beaten track. With the aid of an ingenious coloured clothes peg system, we put our winter vine pruning theory to practice, selecting canes with eight buds on the dormant vines that will fruit this year, and two renewal spur canes pruned to two buds that will produce canes for next year. The viticultural discussion continued in the field, with Jane providing excellent guidance and advice. ingenious coloured clothes peg system, we put our winter vine pruning theory to practice, selecting canes with eight buds on the dormant vines that will fruit this year, and two renewal spur canes pruned to two buds that will produce canes for next year. The viticultural discussion continued in the field, with Jane providing excellent guidance and advice.

I would highly recommend this workshop to fellow members next year – when I mentioned it to friends and garden owners, I had numerous requests for vine pruning. Moreover, beyond its practical merits, Jane’s shared knowledge of wine production was thought provoking in many ways. You come away with a terrific quiz question too!

A group of keen gardeners braved the icy weather to gather under the bright skies of Hampton Court Palace one January morning, including myself. Blessed with blue skies and sunshine we were guided to the world-famous Rose Garden created in the 1930’s with hundreds of roses and situated in one of the walled compartments of the old kitchen gardens, where Anthony Boulding is the Horticulture Manager. Under the gaze of the statues Adonis and Flora, Palace gardeners Gary and Dan expertly demonstrated the art of pruning old roses, species roses and hybrid teas, giving hands-on advice and answering many questions, keen to pass on their passion and knowledge. Dressed in our many layers we pruned a good number of roses under their expert guidance which gave us all confidence to go forth and practice this skill in our various gardens.

I was pleased to be able to prune a group of Rosa ‘Graham Thomas’ as this is a favourite yellow rose of mine, so I was pleased to check how it is cared for here. Only organic methods are employed and the benefits of mycorrhizal fungi and seaweed fertiliser were explained. Some of the roses are very old and we were shown how techniques and planting styles have changed over the years. Being a Palace Garden permission has to be given on many horticultural decisions involving the plants. Climbers had been tied to wires on the Elizabethan brick walls and we studied these and the newer methods with wooden batons forming a more solid support on the very old bricks and mortar.
We enjoyed pruning a variety of roses and I’m glad to say they looked pretty good by the end of the day. In the last remains of the winter sunlight we were rewarded with a tour of the extensive gardens including the new immaculate Kitchen Garden, through the Wilderness with pretty carpets of cyclamen, by the Maze and through the Great Fountain Garden with its magnificent huge shaped yew trees and onto the Privy Garden on the south side of the Palace between the King’s apartments and the River Thames, created for Henry VIII and restored in 1995 recreating the William III Privy Garden of 1701, a parterre a l’anglais created in grass with borders of flowering shrubs, annuals and bulbs. The gardens are draped in history and we were entertained by many stories for instance the use of hornbeam hedging in the original maze and the Pond Gardens which used to be a fish farm and which are now sunken gardens.

Pruning demonstration

There are plants for every season and the gardens are enjoyed all year round by the many visitors. I hope to return in springtime as I would particularly love to see the parterre filled with spring flowers and of course in the summertime to see the Rose Garden, so am planning my outing to the ever-fabulous RHS Flower Show at Hampton Court in July.

What a lot of roses to prune!

Ceinwen      from         www.bonnyborders.co.uk