Each year the Rotary Club launches the Purple Crocus Corm planting to raise awareness of the Rotary fight for a polio free world. The springtime gorgeous displays of purple crocus corms remind us of the need to eradicate the life threatening and disabling polio virus.
Two million purple corms are available nationwide and you will see many volunteers planting them throughout Brighton and Hove green spaces in October. The first ones were planted by CityParks rangers and volunteers on Friday in St Ann’s Well and by Patcham roundabout. Friends of Preston Park are delighted to take part in this wonderful campaign by planting 8 000 bulbs on the south side of the park and by the Rotunda Cafe.
The crocus corm variety this year is Crocus tommasinianus – Ruby Giant (deep purple).
When a child receives their life-saving polio drops on mass polio immunisation days, their little finger is painted with a purple dye, so it is clear they have received their polio vaccine- hence the crocus connection.
Please donate today to protect a child. Every donation to the Rotary Club will be trebled by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, so every £1 will become £3.
You may have noticed that over the last eighteen months the Rotunda Pond looked neglected and overgrown. A lot of debris and rotting vegetation turned the water cloudy and unhealthy, with the surface covered by invasive duckweed. Leaks have made it necessary to top up the water constantly.
Fortunately work has commenced on the pond as this is the right time of year to do so as the amphibian life are now in the rose beds. The debris and dead and decaying vegetation have been removed and next step is to repair the pond liner, by identifying leaks and draining where necessary. The work should be completed in time for spring.
The Petanque Court
The Petanque Court, sandwiched between the Tennis Courts and the new Outdoor Gym, is growing in popularity with local residents and U3a players. It is a very social sport which encourages interaction with others, teamwork, strategy, competition and is a lot of fun. The Court at Preston Park needs resurfacing as it is quite uneven and shows wear, having lost some of its surface sand. Sadly most of the damage is caused by people using the court for cycling when we have our own velodrome.
A new group of volunteers, the Preston Park Petanque Group, has been set up to undertake the renovation of the court. This involves weeding, edging, filling the depressions with limestone and fine gravel, raking and compacting the new material to create a firm, playable surface. The general and ongoing maintenance will involve cleaning, levelling and re-gravelling when necessary to keep the court in good condition.
If you would like more information about the Petanque Court or would be interested in volunteering or just finding people with whom to play please email at info@friendsofprestonpark.org
Please be reminded that our AGM will be taking place on Friday 15 November at 5-7.30pm at St Peter Cricket Club. Steve Geliot, who initiated the “Save our Starlings” campaign, will be giving a presentation on Brighton starling population. Tea and cakes will be available.
Friends of Preston Park entered the Rose Garden into the South and South East in Bloom 2024 competition and we are delighted to announce that the Rose Garden was awarded Level 4 – “Thriving” in the “It’s Your Neighbourhood” category. With 4,500 entries participating nationwide and over 300 locally this was a very tough competition and as it was the first time we entered the Rose Garden we can honestly say we are absolutely bowled over with this wonderful achievement. We would like to thank all who contributed to this success; individuals and local businesses who gave us funds to buy tools and plants, David Austin the Rose Grower who donated roses, CityParks for mulch in the winter, our amazing team of volunteers who every Tuesday weed and lovingly tend the plants, and all the residents who enjoy the garden responsibly.
We are hoping to enter the Rose Garden into SSEIB again in 2025 and aim at achieving the highest level, Level 5 – Outstanding, following the advice we were given for improvement. We need to improve the soil of the Rose Garden with some new soil and fertiliser and also tend the herbaceous borders. The volunteers are very keen to replant the East and West borders alongside the Rose Garden, which have been neglected for years. It is a mammoth task, which we started in spring and you may have noticed the new salvias and fuchsias among other plants.
Brighton Painting Group met at the Rockery on a sunny Saturday morning. Twenty artists gathered to capture the light on the colourful shrubs and flower beds. The lilies on the pond inspired many painters, as well as the stone paths leading to the south side of the garden.
Brighton Painting Group meets every third Saturday of the month in a different location in Brighton and Hove for plein air painting. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
On a sunny afternoon this week, around 20 people were led by Alister Peters, expert arborist,on a very interesting and enjoyable walk around many of the different trees in Preston Park.
In much of Brighton, sycamores and elms are the only large trees that can withstand thechalky soils and salty air. However, Preston Park is some distance from the sea and in a valley with more fertile soils, so enabling a wide variety of trees to flourish. Alister showed us how to identify a selection of them.
The walk began at the Rotunda Café, where a clump of trees includes a purple-leafed plumthat is often mistaken for a copper beech. (Both copper and common beeches are also growing in the park.) We then walked across the grass behind the café to look at elms, a red horse chestnut, common and black walnut trees, and a sweetgum that is particularly beautiful in the autumn when its leaves turn red and purple. In the area around the Tile House, we looked at hornbeams, a dawn redwood (a deciduous conifer), a larch, a Turkish hazel, and two trees that are easy to confuse – a purple maple and a purple sycamore.
Among the other trees was a sycamore whose trunk was covered with ivy. But, as Alister explained, this is not a parasitic plant and it benefits insects and birds, so it needs to be managed rather than removed. By contrast, the mistletoe attached to a silver maple opposite the Chalet Café is parasitic.
There are numerous different types of elm in the park, some of which have been bred to be resistant to the elm disease that has destroyed millions of elms in the UK over the last 50 years. Very sadly, the disease is now destroying trees in Preston Park and elsewhere in Brighton & Hove, as is ash dieback. However, one of the ‘Preston Twins’, an English elm planted in the early 17th century, has so far survived. Another survivor is the Chinese elm in the Coronation Garden. Almost totally destroyed by the great storm of 1987, it is now a largetree with an impressive witch’s broom.
The walk ended at the gilded sculpture created from the Preston Twin that succumbed to elm disease in 2019. But all around us were trees, such as an Indian bean tree, a flowering magnolia, and a fruit-laden black mulberry tree in the Walled Garden, that are flourishing – and, happily for us, will continue to do so in the future.
The next FoPP event will be a walk in the park with former CityParks manager, Alan Griffiths on Thursday, 12 September. Please sign up on Eventbrite via the FoPP website if you would like to attend and hear what Alan has to say.
This morning a wildlife workshop event was run by Froglife, experts in natural habitats (www.froglife.org). It provided the children with an introduction to amphibians, reptiles & their habitats which included designing your own wildlife garden and followed by the practical activity of guided pond dipping in the Rotunda pond.
We all had a really wonderful time – We enjoyed trying to guess the amphibians and reptiles, we designed wildlife friendly gardens and had fun pond dipping. And yes, we found common newts, ramshorn snails, freshwater hoglouse to name but a few.
Many thanks to Will from Frogslife for the wonderful session. I think both adults and children learned a lot.
We also run the first of our extra sessions in the Rose Garden, tackling the weeds. Please join us on Tuesdays (10 to 1pm), Thursdays and Fridays (10 to 12). The Thursdays and Fridays sessions run until June 25th. The Rose Garden needs you!
Dear Volunteers and members of Friends of Preston Park
We are delighted to inform you that we have entered the Rose Garden into this year’s South & South East in Bloom competition for 2024. We are hopeful that our lovely Rose Garden will be appreciated by the judges as much as we do. That said, we need some help to get it shipshape before the judges arrive on 27 June. Therefore, other than the usual Tuesday volunteer gardening session, 10.00-13.00, we are putting on a few extra sessions that we are hoping anyone interested will turn up to. These will include Thursday and Friday, 10.00-12.00. (So, 28, 30,31 May, 4, 6,7,11,13,14,18,20,21, 25 June).
Please bring your own gloves and any tools that you have. We will try to provide those who don’t have any, with tools. Also bring snacks, water and sunscreen.
We will start each session in the Rose Garden with a discussion on what is the priority. Please don’t feel this is a set commitment. Just turn up and do an hour if that is all you can do! We appreciate it and so do the roses!
Friends of Preston Park (FoPP) held their first Cherry Blossom Tree picnic this week to celebrate the blossoming of our avenue of cherry trees in Preston Park, as well as the arrival of improved weather so that we can all get out into the park and enjoy it more. Those who came brought along a picnic and an urge to recite a haiku or two, in poetical homage to the amazing festivals held in Japan to celebrate the blossoming of such trees. Traditionally, haikus have a 5,7,5 pattern of three phases and 17 phonetic units. This also includes a ‘kireji’ or “cutting word” and a ‘kigo’, a seasonal reference. Some came prepared and others tried, mostly successfully, to wing it. It was great fun for all. Each attendee went home with a small gift of a specially prepared wildflower seed pack, to plant in the coming weeks. We hope everyone will successfully produce some wonderful blooms. Please get down to the park if you haven’t recently and note the number of bees on these trees. It’s a very satisfying experience.
Our next FoPP event will be next Sunday, 31 March. Simeon Elliott will be giving a walk around the park to find out what birds we have. Please sign up via our website on Eventbrite.
The Cherry Blossom Tree Picnic is our first event of the year, due to take place in the Park this Sunday 24th March. This event is closely followed by our Bird Walk with Simeon Elliot on Sunday 31st March, 8:30 to 10:30 am. Please register on Eventbrite for tickets and information.
Last month we lost a large elm tree north of the Coronation Garden. It succumbed to the ferocious wind and rain and fell onto three young elm trees, which sadly had to be felled.
The Coronation Garden daffodils planted two years ago are splendid and the magnolia is looking at its best. The beds at the entrance of the Walled Garden have been carefully cleared of bramble by our volunteers.
Our dedicated team of volunteers have been looking after the beds along the Preston Road and the Dalhia walk, which are planted with a variety of narcissi and daffodils.
The Rockery is looking impeccable as usual and these bright tulips add a vibrant touch of colour. Friends of Preston Park purchased a propagating bench with donations from Pride and we are growing our own plants for the Park.
The Rose Garden has benefitted from thirty tonnes of mulch, spread on the beds by volunteers and CityParks gardeners. Two lecterns have been erected to help you identify the roses in the different beds. You will notice new varieties supplied by the rose grower David Austin.
We have many events which may be of interest to you. Tickets are available on Eventbrite (free or £3).