Lunchtime Meeting - 12.45pm - Speaker Dave Swanton, Head Gardener at Powis Castle

Dave Griffiths met Dave Swanton whilst walking their dogs which gave Dave G the perfect opportunity to invite Dave S to have lunch with us one Monday lunchtime and share a little of his job in the world class gardens at Powis Castle.

Recognising that most of the members of the Club would be familiar with Powis Castle gardens, Dave S (hereafter Dave!) declared that his talk today would be about the parts of the gardens that the public did not normally see.

Starting with their history, originally created in the 17th Century, Dave showed several slides of engravings from 1780 showing the terraces laid out with the then young new planting of the now large and spectacular yew trees - the tumps.  Around this time, landscaper William Eames created a wooded area.  The garden, in its time, has seen a water garden, a kitchen garden and a formal flower garden.

In the early 20th Century, the 4th Earl of Powis and his wife, Lady Violet, brought the then neglected garden back to life, moving the kitchen garden out of sight planting a formal flower garden introducing new varieties from all over the world.

The garden does not stand still and much of Dave's work is on the restoration of areas that have fallen out of sight and use and of the old specimen trees and plants which he propagates in the Victorian greenhouses and more modern poly tunnels ready to replace a tree or plant when it dies.

The garden has many thousands of visitors each year wanting to view the world famous terraces but it must also cope with the visitors who come to other events, for example, wanting to stroll around the spectacular illuminated formal gardens, terraces and courtyard of the Cristmas Lights and Winter Illuminations.

A fascinating talk!