By Geoff Fisher 
By Victoria Plum
A packed audience, keen for thrills, were treated to a host of dramatic images illustrating diverse ghost stories with watery Norfolk Broads themes by the famous and knowledgeable Wally Webb in Reepham Town Hall at the October meeting of the Reepham & District Gardening Club. His long career at Radio Norfolk had given him many stories about this area.
I aim to check the veracity of these tales by visiting St Benet’s Abbey on 25 May to hear the Shrieking Monk (there’s another on 2 April) and I’ll watch out for the dragon, only 12−15 feet long, which once terrorised Ludham but then fled to St Benet’s. And on 7 April (and again at Halloween) the blood of the murderer Josiah Burge can be seen in the water at Acle Bridge.
I have now brought all my precious succulents into the conservatory. I have had one of my favourites, an Epiphyllum anguliger, for several years; I love the crazy leaves. But in this hot year it has really grown and must have had a happy summer because it has flowered for the very first time. I enjoy the leaf structures, and the flowers, which are prettily scented, are a real bonus.
More bonuses: a tree peony, now five feet high that grew unannounced from a pot after a Salvia had run its course, and a Kniphofia, 18 flowers this year that arrived in the garden from nowhere. But this year’s best surprise prizes are a pepper plant growing up in a Photinia pot (eight peppers this year with no effort from me) and an Echium.
A friend gave me a green Aeonium arboreum. His had a glorious flower this year, (hugely busy with bees), and the green sort seem to flower more freely than the dark red sorts, which I already have.
Unfortunately, the stem snapped in transit (they are top heavy and brittle) but I managed to save it by tidying up the stem and some lower leaves, then just sticking it in a new pot of well-drained medium; it survived and is growing well.
I left the original pot with the original root on the off chance that it might regrow. It did not, but a different leaf appeared, then another, and it turns out to be a self-seeded Echium. The task for the winter will be to wrap it up in cotton wool – not too warm, not too cool, not too wet and not too dry.
There are some magnificent examples in the walled garden at Felbrigg, and also near the war memorial in Cromer. Like the Aeonium these Echium flowers attract vast numbers of insects and bees.
Join us next month in Reepham Town Hall, Church Street, Reepham, on Tuesday 17 November at 7.30 pm to hear Ajay Tegala describe Wicken Fen, rewilding and various projects with which he is concerned in his work as a ranger.
The meeting also sees the Bag Sale, when we all bring any spare, surplus plants in a carrier bag to sell for £1 per bag for club funds. Please bring any plant material you think could be useful to another member.
Above: Epiphyllum anguliger. Photo: Tina Sutton