Live talks on are Saturdays at 2.00pm, tickets £9.00 – email or write to the Chairman to book a place. These will all be at Earl Stonham House, Church Lane, Earl Stonham, IP14 5ED, by kind permission of Andrew Deacon.
Zoom talks are on Thursdays at 6.00 pm. These are free to members, but we are currently limited to 100 participants for each talk. Zoom links will be sent to members before each lecture; no booking is required – first come, first served!
In the Music Room at Earl Stonham House
A GARDEN WELL PLACED. A DESIGNER’S HARMONY BETWEEN HOUSE AND GARDEN
By Xa Tollemache
An exploration of Xa’s garden design work, which started at Helmingham Hall here in Suffolk, her home from 1975 to 2017, but developed after 1996 to include many wonderful gardens in this county, Europe, and the United States.
Xa, Lady Tollemache, is one of Suffolk’s best-known garden and landscape designers, winning a Gold Medal at Chelsea in 1997 and two subsequent Silver-Gilt medals. Her book, A Garden Well Placed, was published in 2022.
In the Music Room at Earl Stonham House
THE BOTANIC GARDEN IN BURY ST EDMUNDS
By Paul Marsh
Paul will talk on the history and changing nature of the Bury Botanic Gardens, from its founding in 1820 by Nathaniel Shirley Harness Hodson until Hodson’s death in 1861. He will give insights into the life and times of Hodson, the sole proprietor and superintendent of the garden, and his connections with the world of botany, horticulture and gardening, using some examples of his (and his employees) contributions to journals, newspapers and local life.
Paul is a volunteer gardener and member of the Abbey Gardens Friends committee who work alongside the professional gardening team at West Suffolk to ensure the Abbey Gardens are, and will, remain a joy to visit. He has delved into the history of the Bury Botanic Garden and confesses that he has become slightly obsessed with it all. He gives talks and helps raise funds to promote its successor, the Abbey Gardens.
In the Music Room at Earl Stonham House
FULLERS MILL – A PLANTSMAN’S GARDEN
By Jude Law
The Fullers Mill garden at West Stow, near Bury St Edmunds, was created by the late Bernard Tickner MBE from rough scrub and woodland. The seven-acre garden on the banks of the River Lark and the Culford Stream has a plantsman’s collection of unusual shrubs, perennials, lilies and marginal plants. The garden is now owned by Perennial, the charity that helps people in horticulture. Fullers Mill was the RHS’s Partner Garden of the Year for the Midlands and the East in 2022, and the SGT made a visit to the garden in 2023.
Jude is the Volunteer Plant Record Curator for the charity Perennial at Fullers Mill.
DESIGNED FOR DISPLAY: MEDIEVAL AND TUDOR MOATS IN SUFFOLK AND BEYOND
By Edward Martin
Providing a romantic backdrop to our recent Garden Party, Crow’s Hall is one of most recent additions to Suffolk’s growing list of nationally-important heritage gardens. Moated houses may have been conceived in imitation of castles and their defences, but from very early on they became vehicles for the display of status and wealth, with decorative embellishments and additions reaching a climax in Tudor times. Suffolk, with more than 900 examples, has one of the greatest concentrations of moats in England, and it will form the focus of this exploration of the origins of moats and their development as decorative settings for houses.
Edward is the chairman of the Suffolk Gardens Trust, and a retired archaeologist and landscape historian.
In the Music Room at Earl Stonham House
BRINGING THE KITCHEN GARDEN INTO THE KITCHEN: THE RESEARCH AND WRITING OF THREE INSPIRATIONAL WOMEN
By Barbara Segall
Women are not centre-stage in many disciplines, and it is similar in horticulture and food history where many have lacked the appropriate recognition. This talk focuses on three women, Susan Campbell, Joy Larkcom, and Joan Morgan, whose writing and research into kitchen gardens, salads and Japanese/Chinese vegetables, fruit, growing techniques, and cooking is important and inspirational to gardeners and cooks alike. Barbara presented this as a paper to the Oxford Food Symposium in July 2024 and the full paper is due to be published in the 2025 Proceedings of the OFS.
Barbara is the editor of the Suffolk Gardens Trust’s Newsletter, but is also a much-acclaimed garden writer and received the Garden Media Guild Outstanding Contribution Award for 2023. Her latest book, Secret Gardens of the South East, was published by Frances Lincoln in 2022. You can follow her on her website: thegardenpost.com.