Wednesday 1st April 2026

Report by Annie MacRae

Multi-Chelsea gold medal winner, Lynne Moore, hosted 25 members of The Aldersbrook Horticultural Society at her nursery on what she described as a windswept and muddy farm on high ground (!) outside Billericay on Wednesday 1 April. We were lucky: neither wind nor mud was in evidence. Lynne’s speciality is shade-loving plants, including those which attract pollinators.

Lynne is a natural raconteur. She entertained the group with stories from her early days as she qualified as a garden designer and, later in her career, as someone who set up her own nursery, quickly moving on to displaying – and winning – at major garden shows.

In a sneaky preview of her plans for Chelsea 2026, Lynne talked about some of the plants she’s hoping to take this year (although she won’t know whether the plants have made the grade until a week before the show – nothing less than perfect plants will do!). Her choices include plants such as Eurybia divaricata (white wood aster), Valeriana officinalis, Geranium oxonianum Katherine Adèle, Geum totally tangerine and Tellima grandiflora – plants which fulfil Lynne’s area of expertise: either moist or dry shade, or partial shade. They’re clearly “good doers” – to use the technical term. One member of the group described Lynne’s talk as “a forensic account of plants for shade and prep for Chelsea”. Anyone with a shady or partly shady patch in their garden might want to consider these plants by checking out the Moore and Moore website: Moore & Moore Plants – Specialists in Shade & Woodland Plants https://share.google/JSGt2NqN3YtHJbp6t – and yes, they do mail order.

The group was then shown round the growing areas with Lynne talking through the processes undertaken to ensure the best plants possible. Moving on to the Moore and Moore Nursery shop, the group relished being able to indulge its plant purchasing habit.

We are so grateful to Lynne for welcoming us to her nursery, sharing her expertise and making us laugh. A stop at local café, Bonnie’s, rounded off a perfect morning … perfectly.

No garden and live near Sunderland Way Community Garden?

Come to this meeting and learn how you could have your own or a shared growing plot.

At our March meeting, we were entertained by Ed Flint a Head Gardener, in a large private Sussex garden, who talked about growing roses and particularly about how to display them to their best. The talk was interactive and engaging and members asked questions during the talk and at the end.  He showed us, through some beautiful slides, how to use roses in mixed planting; giving examples of good plants to contrast with or compliment the colour of different roses.   Most importantly he gave examples of how the structure and shape of accompanying plants can be used to show off the roses. 

His first few slides showed the unattractiveness of rose gardens when they are grown as a monoculture with no other plants – although pretty when in bloom – they do not look good in winter and their ankles & legs (as Ed called them) are exposed.  In addition they are prone to more disease.  He recommended growing roses in groups of three and using bended hazels or bamboo to grow the stems across so that they flower more along the stems and they look impressive.   

In terms of colour Ed used as examples blue plants like Salvia, Nepeta and Lavender to compliment with roses as there are no true blue roses. He recommended using low growing plants to cover the lower stems of a rose such as Saxifrage, Erigeron (which has a schedule 9 notice), Forget-me-nots and Geum.  Ed made the point that, when deciding which plants to plant with roses, structure shape and texture are more important than colour.  He quoted Beth Chatto, who he knew well, who said think of the garden as a city roofscape with different shapes – tower, spire, dome, pitched & flat roofs and allow plants to echo that view.  He then showed us some beautiful slides of plants echoing some of those shapes, like Delphiniums, Euphorbia, Eremus, Nigella, Anthericum, Larkspur and Opium Poppies. 

To view the full list of Ed’s slides with the name of the roses and their accompanying plants click on the link below.

Roses and Friends