A double act for our July meeting, when Brian and Margaret Dickinson from Swinton were our guests to talk about 'The Life of Victor Lemoine', the French hybridist and nurseryman.
What many of us were not aware of and Brian & Margaret enlightened us to was that Lemoine was not only a great fuchsia hybridist, but also tried his hand at hybridising many other plants.
Today there are still many begonias in cultivation that Lemoine crossed, also pelargoniums, montbrietias, hydrangeas, clematis, cannas, caenothus, paeonies, streptocarpus, astilbes and gladioli. Maybe a case of what didn't he have a go at!!  Many of his pelargonium were double flowering and include the still ever so popular Paul Crampton.  For the gladioli fraternity he was immensely important as he developed the new yellow and purple strain, previously, pre 1880 only red and yellow cultivars having been available, which has lead to the development of all the lilac, purple and lavender cultivars of today. He introduced over 100 gladioli hybrids!
The Dickinsons had brought along a very nice collection of Victor Lemoine introductions covering examples of all these genera, but not surprisingly, at a Fuchsia Society meeting, it was the fuchsias that attracted most attention.
Victor Lemoine (1823-1911) released about 400 fuchsia hybrids altogether of which nowadays there are still about 70 to 100 available, which surely testifies of the high quality of these introductions for them to survive for so long, in fact I guess most people's collections still include one or more of his introductions.
Amongst his many excellent hybrids the hardy cultivars stand out. Haven't we all admired Abbe Farges, André le Nostre (big double), Drame, Doctor Foster, Graf Witte and Dollar Princess? 
Other cultivars mentioned by Brian that you might be familiar with are Emile de Wildeman (Fascination) Gladiator, Gustave Dore (freeflowering trailer) Heritage, Heron (luminous glow) Lord Byron (loved by the bees), Monsieur Thibaut, Nautilus, Paul Cambon (intense violet-purple), Phenomenal, Royal Purple (well worth growing) and Théroigne de Méricourt.
One of his most noteworthy hybrids however was Rolla, which was introduced, after his death. in 1913, but subsequently was exported to the USA by Rev. H. Brown in 1929 and used extensively in hybridising. Many of the famous American hybrids can trace their parentage to Rolla.

Guest speaker at our September meeting was Alan Darkins of Nottingham who provided us with some most useful topical advice on 'Overwintering Fuchsias'. Hopefully you all took good notice and managed to implement it to get your fuchsias through this cold snap we are experiencing now!!

In my absence AUBREY BROOKER very kindly stood in for me and reports:
"Guest Speaker at our October meeting was Mr. Jim Muncaster, well know to many of us as, with his wife Kathleen, he runs the Kathleen Muncaster Fuchsia Nursery in Morton just outside Gainsborough.
Jim started by praising the product Armillatox. He stated it was the finest product to come onto the market for fuchsia growers for many years, adding that during his talk he would probably mention it some 40 times!
Jim stated that he takes tip cuttings in March into plugs, but it not very keen on tip cuttings due to botrytis. When taking cuttings he waters with Armillatox to which he adds a small amount of nitrogen to make a balanced feed. He roots at 65-70°f. He recommended using brown, not black peat, in the compost mix along with vermiculite and bark. He stated that the ideal pH for fuchsias was 5.8. He likes to use some bark as it 'makes the fuchsia roots work' as he put it. He also stated that vermiculite was useful in the compost for it's water retaining properties, it being the last component to dry out and the first to rehydrate.
For pests Jim favours biological controls and if he sprays he uses a mixture of 1-500 parts Armillatox with added soft soap and nitrogen to spray individual plants if found to be infested. He warned the meeting to wear rubber gloves when Provado as it has more or less the same properties as sheep dip i.e. organic phosphates which can be absorbed through the skin.
After the interval Jim continued with a very interesting slide show. He started by showing vine weevil grubs, then the adult beetle and what the leaf damage caused by these pests looks like. He then continued showing overwintering hardy varieties, impressing on the meeting not to cut hardy fuchsias back until spring as the stalks help to protect the plants from frost damage.
He then showed a number of slides of various varieties in flower, including the following: Four Farthings, Remember Eric, Logan Wood, Hawkshead, Pam Plack, Schiller, Twist of Fate, Heritage, Cotta Christmas Tree, More Applause, Peachy and various species.
The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks from the Vice-President David Edmond for a very enjoyable talk and the meeting dispersed at approximately 21.50 hours."