Its hot in Central America…
Posted on | February 28, 2010 | 5 Comments
Shampoo Heliconia – the inflorescences really do smell of shampoo when squeezed...
Greetings from the not so Exotic Garden. Just checked out Victoria’s favourite blogs http://victoriasbackyard.blogspot.com, and seen I hadn’t written anything for a month. Oops!
A few days before my dear father’s funeral at the end of a rather frigid January, I was asked if I would like to co-host a tour around Central America for Gardeners World Magazine with Matt Biggs of Gardeners Question Time R4. After the doom and gloom of the month past, I snapped at the offer and one week later found myself hurtling towards the small port of Puerto Caldera on the coast of Costa Rica with seventy six avid plantoholics. I was in a state of extreme tiredness arriving at the cruise ship MS Bramare after 24 hours of travel via Dublin and Orlando. Of course we were all lily white (apart from the serial cruisers) and unready for temperatures in the 30s C. I do love the tropics…
Over the next two weeks, we covered several thousand miles, visiting a wealth of fabulously exotic countries through jungles and tropical gardens dripping with ridiculously proportioned plants, often with 100% humidity and the sweet scent of the tropics pervading our jaded nostrils. During the voyage we had five days at sea, interspersed with visits to several Central American countries. On the – at sea days – Matt and I would entertain our gardening group with lectures and a gardener’s question time. Of course this had to be interspersed with eating vast amounts of sumptuous food and wading through a sea of sun bathers on the deck, though Matt and I were not averse ourselves to the British occupation of getting a tan that you can’t show anybody when you get back as it’s so cold!
Our travels took us from Costa Rica to El Salvador, then onwards to Guatemala. These were all ludicrously beautiful countries with far too many plants to write about here. The height of the tour for most was going to be our transit thorough the Panama Canal – one of the wonders of the world completed in 1914. We were supposed to go through in daylight but due to a backlog of heavy cargo (I counted about 50 ships) we unfortunately didn’t enter the first of the great locks until after dark. Day or night didn’t bother me though as just being there at all was the main thing. Luckily, I had read a book about the history of the canal and the huge task of cutting through 51 miles of jungle, swamp and mountain beset by malaria and yellow fever with the death of 25,000 workers during its construction.
After another day at sea we arrived at the port of Cartagena in Colombia – South America. Our group was transported for about 45 minutes inland to a Botanic Garden at Turbaco cut out of deepest jungle with towering tress with an understory of Alocasias, Alpinias and countless tropical plants dripping with insects and moisture. Colombian police were everywhere to make sure we were not kidnapped! Cartagena old town is an architectural paradise of stunning Spanish colonial buildings, I just wish we had had more than a short handful of hours there…
Now in the Caribbean the ship sailed onwards across the coast of Northern South America to the Dutch Antilles islands where we called in at the port of Willemstad – Curacao. Having been there several times before on previous trips, Matt and I did what good gardeners like to do – we looked for local plant emporiums to see what local people buy for their gardens. Poor Matt was staving of a bug, so in the afternoon, after hearing a rumour that there might be a carnival somewhere close by, I hired a taxi with a couple of new found friends on the ship Lez and Babs. We were whisked out of town to a village about four miles away bustling with activity, right at the beginning of the procession. We were bedazzled by ridiculous bright colours and ludicrously loud Salsa and Reggae with the largest bass speakers I have ever seen!
The next day it was onwards to the blisteringly hot desert Island of Aruba, which I found a tad Americanised for my liking and very expensive. The penultimate day was spent at sea where Matt gave his final talk where we both bid farewell to our illustrious group of gardeners. Our arrival in Barbados meant the inevitable return that evening on an overnight flight back to Blighty where during my four hour drive back home I was greeted by a beautiful sparklingly sunny morning and everything covered in fresh snow…
Plant nursery in El Salvador with Matt Biggs on the right in full flow...
Nursery owners dwelling...
A well kept El Salavador Nursery...
Golfito - Costa Rica. On our way to an interesting garden in an oil palm grove near the cost. Unfortunately our bus couldn’t get up a hill with us all on board, so Matt led the way walking to the pinnacle in searing heat and maximum humidity...
Local plant centre in a small Guatemalan town...
Matt was determined to have his hair cut in Central America – and what a cut he had!
Cashew - Anacardium occidentale. Widely grown in tropical climates for its cashew "nuts" and cashew apples.
Shampoo Heliconia – the inflorescences really do smell of shampoo when squeezed...
Entering the first lock (Mira Flores) on the Panama Canal at night at the front of the ship...
A local taxi in Panama takes us to some jungle in the Canal Zone for a stroll. Only minutes after arriving a policeman comes to check whether we have been abducted by locals – five minutes later another pair of policemen with huge guns arrive and ask the same question...
A street in Cartagena old town in Colombia on the Northern coast of South America...
Our cruise ship MS Braemar in Cartagena port...
Carnival parade near Willemstad on the Island of Curacao in the Dutch Antilles...
The parade lasted several hours and was accompanied by Reggae and Salsa bands with the biggest bass speakers I have ever seen....
My arrival back in Humberside with a four hour drive back home through a sparkling winter wonderland – a far cry from the tropics...
My next blog will be soon – I promise.
I am now invigorated and ready for spring, whatever our wonderful British climate throws at us. Spring is just around the corner and I’m raring to go, just bring it on!
A frozen winter wonderland…
Posted on | January 9, 2010 | 5 Comments
Our frozen Isles thanks to the Met office Satellite
It’s amazing how much can happen in life let alone the garden when you don’t blog for a few weeks! It was rather a quiet Christmas for me as my father of 96 passed away on Dec 23rd and there has been a lot to sort out which has been rather frustrating to say the least, as everything shuts down over the holiday period. His funeral has been put off until Mon 25th Jan, when the ground will hopeful have thawed out a bit by then – or will it! At least the days are getting longer now by around one minute a day, which always makes me feel hopeful.
What happened to the mild winter? So we are now having the coldest winter for 30 years! This is not only going to be a test for my garden, but everybody else who has dabbled with borderline hardy plants in recent decades. For many years now I have boasted that the garden never gets much below -3C and now the garden has experienced at least double this with added wind chill.
My oldest clump of Musa basjoo is around 25 years old and has never lost a stem throughout this period. Up until five years ago I built wooden towers out of old builders pallets filled with straw then covered over with roofing felt to keep out the rain. Needless to say I have wrapped nothing since then. I’m guessing that though the trunks are pretty substantial, they must be frozen solid by now. At least I will find out if they live up to their name of the root hardy banana! Last years cold weather did cut my Musa sikkimensis down to the ground after about eight years growth. Luckily the clump came back with a vengeance in the spring growing back up to about twelve feet tall by the autumn.
I wonder how my Tetrapanax papifera has fared – though it should shoot from the ground again if the top growth is frozen (I hope). It will also be a good test for the many gingers that normally come through the winter un-protected let alone many of the other borderline plants lurking in the garden. I wouldn’t be surprised if all my Cordyline australis get cut to the ground as they did in the 80s. Luckily all the really tender perennials were brought under cover before the cold weather hit – in fact all the cannas were dug up the day before the cold weather set in. These are all snug under the bench in one of my 20×10ft Polly tunnels. The warmest tunnel (lined with bubble insulation) has been down to a chilly 4C over the last two nights as the two kilowatt heater struggles to keep everything cosy.
The main bed in the desert garden was covered with polythene in November, so hopefully all the cacti and succulent lurking underneath should be OK – I hope!
Xerophytic plants lurk below a thin shroud of polythene...
I spent a few hours in the garden today taking photographs, but had to stop when I couldn’t work the buttons on my camera as all my fingers had turned to sausages’! My cats were running around as usual, totally oblivious to the cold, especially Dweezal, Tink and Dog (dog is a cat). I also took a few photographs inside my tree house which is kept at around a toasty 6C as it is full of plants as well. I also have another Polly tunnel that is kept a few degrees above freezing which is also crammed full of plants. On the side of my house is an old conservatory filled with Brugmansias and other tender things at around 5C. I shudder to think how much my electricity bill will be this winter…
Let it snow…
Posted on | December 18, 2009 | 4 Comments
I just had to do a quick blog on the snow that landed in the garden this morning, and no, nothing like they have had further south, but pretty never-the less. For some reason visitors to the garden think it never snows here – or even gets cold! Yes it does and here is the proof…
Apart from the snow it has been a strange day for me indeed – tacking my youngest cat to the vet to be spayed; having vinyl put down in my bathroom, then a phone call from my father’s rest home to tell me that he probably only has a few days to live – I feel as though I’m in a strange limbo land at the moment – a very odd day indeed.
Where has the autumn gone?
Posted on | December 16, 2009 | 3 Comments
Where has the autumn gone? I think my brain needed a rest after a very busy summer here at the Exotic Garden, hence the lack of a regular blog. Shame on you Will!
I have felt particularly bad about this, though I do have a good excuse for the last month! On the 11th of November the autumnal winds brought a large branch crashing to the ground from a rather stately old (dead) pear tree in the garden, tacking my telephone line with it. I was assured by my phone provider TalkTalk (all communications through India) that it would be fixed in a few days. I was even told that it had been fixed on the 18th November, even though the telephone line was still dangling forlornly from the tree! A few days ago five sturdy BT Openreach chaps arrived with a new 35 foot pole in hand to fix the problem. Three hours later and ten cups of tea – I am now re-connected to the outside world. I’m not going to mention this anymore or steam will start to emanate from my ears! Hssssss…
As for the garden, well, it has been all fun and games here. A friend of mine (Jami Spooner) has been staying in my tree house at the weekends since the summer and in return has been bringing in all the tender perennials in over the last month or so. The garden now looks as though it has been hit by cluster bombs, with craters all over the place; never the less all the tender exotics are now residing in various locations in and around Norwich. My main polytunnel (10-20ft) is heated to a minimum of 5C (40F) with a large propagator inside heated to a min of 15C (60F) for the really tender stuff. I have two other tunnels of the same size with plants that need protection from winter wet, and these are only heated if we go arctic! I also have a large conservatory stuffed to the gunnels with mostly Brugmansias. Amazingly and despite the chilly weather of late, they are all flowering their hearts out, so much so, that I can smell their intoxicating scent with the door closed!
The tree house is also home to many Kentia Palms, Philodendrons, a rather large variegated rubber plant and several Chlorophytums, making it look more like the interior of the Palm house at Kew Gardens. My ever expanding collection of eighteen purple bananas – Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’- are now having their winter holiday away from the garden as I have no room left for storage. Many of the bananas had reached 12-15ft tall this year, hence had to be decapitated down to a more reasonable 6ft high, cutting the giant paddle-like leaves off just above the trunk and removing most of the roots. Half of these are now in a large greenhouse at Urban Jungle, a marvellous exotic plant emporium on the other side of the city from the Exotic Garden. The other half are now comfortably housed in a tunnel in the Bishops Place Garden in the grounds of Norwich Cathedral, where they should be nice and cosy for the rest of the winter, where they will have zero water until late March-ish.
The Colocasias – Alocasias and the more tender gingers were left in the ground until last weekend as frost had not touched them and they were still putting on good growth. Yesterday I went around the garden taking cuttings of the many different types of Tradescantia that grow in the garden – in fact three carrier bags full as I want large drifts of these delightful sprawlers in the garden next year. I’m glad I did as all the top growth was blackened this morning. All I have to do now is dig up the Cannas which were in radiant health until last night’s frost, so these must be dug up over the next few days before the roots freeze. These will be placed in large trays of bark for the winter months and wintered frost free. For years I have left most of my Cannas in the ground, but unfortunately lost the lot last winter so am now being very courteous indeed.
My guilt has been eased by writing this blog – at least for a few days. Should I squeeze another one in before Christmas?
Just checked out Rob’s new updated blog http://dirtyhose.blogspot.com – do write more about travel Rob – we all love it…
Iresine herbstii Brilliantissima and Colocasia esculenta still looking good untill yesterdays freeze.
Dweezal Mc Sqeezal enjoying the garden a few days ago from the dizzying heights of a Cordyline australis
The summer has ended, the clocks have changed and we are now in the season of dark evenings.
Posted on | October 27, 2009 | 6 Comments
The Exotic Garden in late October
The summer has ended, the clocks have changed and we are now in the season of dark evenings. Luckily, the weather here in Norfolk refuses to let go and we are still having comparatively warm days and nights, hence most of the exotics are still growing well despite the diminishing day length.
The last open day of the season at The Exotic Garden has also passed and the thoughts of brining in all the tender perennials is looming, though not as yet with such pleasantly mild weather. This afternoon I have been taking some pictures of the garden, to remind myself how the garden still looks fabulous as we approach November. It is good to know that we are only eight weeks from the winter solstice the shortest day of the year on December 21st. Although it will then be the depths of winter, from that moment on, the days will lengthen – in fact I feel the spring has almost started from that point despite whatever winter dares to throw at us.
Since my last drought ridden post we have had a few spells of welcome rain, bringing colour back into our lawns and unfurling desiccated leaves as they change into their dramatic autumnal colours.
At the beginning of the season I mentioned a new addition to the garden, a shrubby-tree I bought form Crug Farm in Wales with name Schefflera macrophylla. When thinking of Shefflera’s most gardeners would probably think of the house plant Schefflera arboricola more commonly known as the ‘Umbrella Plant’ catching dust in the corner of a living room. Luckily for us there are now several hardy species that have been introduced in recent years, such as S. taiwaniana and S. delavayi which are also very attractive and tough to boot. Visitors to the garden always ask me what is my favourite plant in the garden, a question I usually distain from answering, or, I say the plant in front of me – but now, I have to say Schefflera macrophylla is my plant of the year and I haven’t had one of those for a long time. This fabulous beast is certainly the rival of Tetrapanax papiferus the Rice Paper Plant.
Originally identified as S. Petelotii, it is a spectacular species which Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones discovered in the Fan Xi Pan area of northern Vietnam, where this most architectural of the species can reach 7 meters tall (23ft) with large paddle-shaped leaflets combining to form one meter wide leaves on slender purple petioles (leaf stems). On emerging, the entire new growth is smothered in a ginger indumentum a sort of velvety fluff that is easily rubbed off so it is best not to touch as you will leave fingerprints on the stems. This is an exceptional plant that I’m sure will be more commonly seen in our gardens in the years to come.
As I write, my new kitten who is fast becoming a cat, is sitting on the back of my shoulders with his feet on the top of my head so he can see the computer screen. When I walk around the garden with my other four cats, he is invariably sitting on my left shoulder – I think he must have been a parrot in a past life!
Without further ado, here is a selection of pictures from the garden in very late October.
Schefflera macrophylla serounded by other exotics
Dweezal
Yucca Gloriosa variegata with large leaves of Alocasia below
Yucca Gloriosa variegata -flower detail
Iresine herbstii ( Brilliantissima )
Kalanchoe luciae
Iris foetidissima
liriope muscari
View from my front door
Bromeliads and October flowering Paperwhite Narcissus
