Danesbury Fernery

Researching and Restoring the Danesbury Victorian Fernery

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The BPS Expect – Saturday 20th July 2019

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Saturday 20th July 2019 – BRITISH PTERIDOLOGICAL SOCIETY- (BPS) Visit.

A group from the East Anglia Group of the British Fern Society have been invited to visit the Danesbury Fernery on Saturday 20th July. Detailed plans are being drawn up and we will announce detailed timings as soon as they have been agreed. Some BPS visitors will be travelling from as far afield as Norfolk.

This is a return for the October 2018 visit that Andrew Beattie organised when a small group of the Friends of Danesbury travelled to Norwich to attend an East Anglian meeting organised by EA Representative Peter Blake and group members.   We will need to be on our toes when they visit us!

Colin has been busy for months labelling many of our specimen ferns, or should that be ‘specimens of our ferns’?

We will see. We have a lot to learn from our BPS visitors.



We never closed – Anglia in Bloom – judging next week

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Following close on the heels of the success of the Welwyn Festival Open Garden Evening in June we are busy preparing the site once again for judging on Tuesday morning 9th July, this time not by 170+ members of Welwyn’s community, but by the (RHS) judges of the Anglia in Bloom Competition 2019.

The Friends of Danesbury Fernery were very proud to have been awarded the Conservation Prize in 2018, but we are not resting on our laurels, nor our ferns, and we seek further success. This time the Borough Council have grouped our Entry with ‘Welwyn Village’, in a ‘special’ category which will include among other sites, the Parish Allotments, a private garden and Welwyn High Street.

These are exciting times and, just this week, we have been working hard with the help of the Borough Council’s contractors, to further improve planting beds, to re-profile the North East slope, and to contain the North West slope with a heavy membrane to stop further slippage of the chalky bank and allow more planting. Of great significance, particularly with the current run of dry weather, is that we have managed to bury hosepipe extensions so that watering at the North end of the Fernery will now be very much more practical.

The volunteers are putting in an extra Thursday work party on Thursday 4th July to prepare the site for the Anglia in Bloom judges.

Planting more snowdrops – 4th April 2019

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Following the planting of 5000 x snowdrops ‘in the green’ on the 11th March 2019, (see earlier News item) we were offered another 5000 x plants by the WHBC.

A small team met on Thursday 4th April and added to the earlier plantings so that come the Spring of 2020 we will have a splendid full display of 10,000 snowdrops at the Entrance – on the left bank, and down the right-hand bank.

Planting Snowdrops – Monday 11th March 2019

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On a bright morning a small dedicated team of 8x gardeners led by Sarah reached speeds of 2500 s.p.h. and completed the task of planting 5000 snowdrops by mid-day. These plants (in green) had been offered at short notice by the Borough Council and we can now look forward to a splendid showing early in 2020.

The principal planting areas were on the grassy banks near the Entrance, with the bulk being planted on the grass bank on the South side of the path.

Elevensies were taken as soon as the snowdrops had been planted, and after stoking up their energies, the team turned to the task of weeding the planting beds, and in particular the slope in the gorge where the new bluebells are beginning to come through.

Sarah completed the planting in the Parsons bed, which will look spectacular as it matures.

Report of Scouts Tree Planting – 23rd February 2019

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A very successful work party was led by Andrew, with 4x other volunteers in support, with 8x scouts and 7x parents in attendance. Tony Cragg from the Welwyn Film Record Society was kept busy too.

Sarah supervised all the plantings, which were performed by small groups of scouts, each with a parent/helper. Sarah had marked out planting places in advance and each group got digging.

All roots were dusted with Sarah’s magic root powder. Specimen trees were staked and protected with rabbit wire.

Whips around the perimeter were protected with plastic tubes.

At the tea-break, John gave a brief introduction to the work in 1859/60 of the original Fernery Gardener, Anthony Parsons, and the rock-work construction by James Pulham & Sons of Broxbourne.

A few of the parents helped further by clearing out the water and debris lying in the dropping well.

All the scouts enjoyed themselves, and it was a first-time visit to the Fernery for many of the Parents.

The scouts are expected to pick up a hat-full of badges and awards for undertaking this valuable work with the Friends of Danesbury Fernery volunteers.

A Grotesque Welcome (1)

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We reported last month how a small team led by Harry erected the Fernery Welcome sign at the top of the Entrance Poles. See a Welcome Sign.

The next stage of the project to restore the Entrance Poles to their original state took a step forward on 1st December when Harry started trials to dress the poles in tree bark. This is how they would have been dressed originally, and termed ‘grotesque’.

This first experiment involved fixing battens with wire, and then nailing and gluing the bark to them . There will probably be several trials before we settle on the best method.

When that is done, we will select a final ‘live dressing’ of either ivy or some other evergreen climber which we hope will bind it all together.

See the next stage – Grotesque Welcome (2)

Report – BPS East Anglia Group – Autumn Meeting – Norwich

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On 27th October 2018 a small group from The Friends of Danesbury Fernery (FODF) met in Welwyn for a convivial drive up to Norwich for the regular autumn social get together of the British Pteridological Society East Anglia Group (BPS EA). Thanks go to Andrew for driving myself, Sarah and Harry all that way.

A visit en route to – The Plantation Norwich

The Plantation is a restored Victorian garden in an old chalk pit very close to Peter and Nick’s house, where the BPS EA Meeting was to be held. Before the start time of the EA Autumn Meeting we therefore took the opportunity to visit the Plantation under Nick’s guidance. Go to The Plantation -Norwich for a separate report.

The BPS East Anglia Group Meeting – attended by Andrew, Sarah, Colin and Harry 

After our visit to The Plantation, everyone was pretty chilled so warming coffees pulled us away from the Fern haven of a front garden, rising in steps to the house. A very friendly welcome and a quick tour highlighted Peter and Nick’s love of India, as well as Peter’s vast and impressive collection of ferns.  More impressive is Peter’s knowledge of ferns. Later we wandered outside again for the plant (fern) sale and got a chance to explore the front garden delights again and discover that the rear garden is similarly profuse with Pteridological delights.

We four had interesting conversations with attending BPS members over lunch provided by our hosts. There is a great deal of knowledge in the group, as I’m sure there is in any enthusiastic and specialist organisation.

With most members comfortably seated in Peter’s lounge Andrew began the presentation of Danesbury Fernery. With much interest and questions, and the other three of us chipping in occasionally, I think we ran over our time slot a little, but nobody seemed to mind. There was surprise at how much had been achieved in such a short time by a relatively small volunteer group at Danesbury. I am sure we can expect a good group of BPS members when they visit Danesbury on Saturday 20th July 2019.

Two more interesting and varied presentations took us on tours of foreign lands with ferns in the forefront and many splendid photos. Time constraints meant we had to make our excuses and we packed the boot of Andrew’s car with our purchased ferns. Some were for individuals, but the bulk have now been planted at Danesbury.

If you wish to see the individual plants and know where to find them just catch Sarah or myself on one of the working party days. We moved many of the Dryopteris filix-mas (male fern)  and Matteuccia struthiopteris (Ostrich, or Shuttlecock fern) to ‘themed’ beds under trees to make room for the more interesting varieties.

Ferns being ferns, they will look a bit sad for the winter, but with the return of warmth, and some moisture, I am sure they will look beautiful by the summer next year. The themed beds should slowly become impressive as they form  homogeneous banks.

Colin Adlam