By Victoria Plum 
By Victoria Plum
At the November meeting of the Reepham & District Gardening Club we were treated to the story of how Erica Vaccari travelled from Italy with her bicycle and secateurs to Bressingham to help out just as the Covid lockdown happened – and she is still there!
We’ve all visited the gardens and steam museum in the past and heard the history of how Alan Bloom sought land for a new garden which brought him to Bressingham in 1953 (I remember the photograph of the walled garden with about a quarter acre of rhubarb growing), where he bred perennials and started a nursery to sell them.
He established beds to enable him to assess the worth of his new varieties, and these are now a “curated garden”. Erica explained this concept, which was completely new to me.
The plants are immaculately cared for, deadheaded and cut back in October, all of which ensures no unintended hybridising, and the plants remain as initially intended, some unique to this place.
As a foil to the colourful summer show of the perennials Alan’s son Adrian grew many sorts of dwarf conifers.
I inherited a garden at Saxthorpe with three dwarf conifers in the front garden – they were no longer dwarf. They had grown and grown, which is of course what Adrian Bloom discovered at Bressingham over a few decades. This gave him the opportunity to prune, clip and attack these trees and experiment with them to add structure and style to the gardens.
Gardens are always evolving, and it seems that Bressingham is entering a new period of regeneration and rejuvenation.
New ventures are afoot, such as holiday lets, glamping, a wedding venue, cut flowers – all with the aim of supporting the gardens. A gardening club trip is planned for next year.
Meanwhile, buy your essential mistletoe from the gardening club at the Reepham Festival of Light in the Market Place on the afternoon of 4 December.
And join us for the Reepham & District Gardening Club Christmas party in the Town Hall, Church Street, at 7 pm on Tuesday 13 December.
Please bring a small plate of finger food to share and consider creating a table decoration for which a prize can be had. There will be a quiz (hooray!), a raffle and entertainment.
Into the New Year (I can’t quite think where this year has gone) on Tuesday 17 January when Chris Bell will talk to us about climate change at 7.45 pm in the Town Hall.
Photo: Bressingham Gardens
Geoff Fisher