The solstice has come and gone but the summer has just started…
Posted on | June 22, 2010 | No Comments
EDP article for June 27th 2010
The solstice arrived and swiftly departed without stopping, heralding the start of summer whatever our temperate climate throws at us over the next few months. We wouldn’t be British if we didn’t constantly complain about the weather! Too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, we muddle along and cope with all that out fair isle throws at us in our stride, with of course, plenty of grumbling on the way.
So our gardens are a few weeks later in growth than past years and in some years we are a few weeks ahead, though by high summer everything seems to even out and then we can grumble about the summer past! Some plants will always do better in some years rather than others depending on whether they like a lot of rain, heat, or sun, though a combination of all would be just fine and dandy. The blooms on the Torbay palm Cordyline australis for instance usually flower here at the Exotic Garden form mid May onwards and are only now coming into full bloom, with their intoxicatingly seductive Lilly scent with clouds of bees buzzing around.
Unfortunately the cold nights throughout the first half of the month often dropped down to single figures which has held many of the more tender planting back such as Coleus (Solenostemon) and Ricinus communis ‘Castor Oil Plant’ which loath cold nights, though with warmer weather they will soon perk up and grow into handsome plants by high summer.
A small tree that is doing very well here this year is the large leaved Magnolia macrophylla and what a whopper it is. This amazing small tree is indigenous to woodlands in south western United States and is hardy down to about -15°C (5°F). Mine is around 10 years old and about 3.5m (12ft) tall and doing exceedingly well, taking the past cold winter in its stride. Magnolia macrophylla prefers growing in dappled shade as it does not perform well in a full sun situation. The leaves on this monster can be from 30-90cm (12-32ins) long and 18-30 cm (7-12ins) wide. These over-the-top leaves are bright green above with a fuzzy, silver-grey underside, creating a beautiful two-toned effect with each passing breeze. From May to July it has showy fragrant blossoms, each up to 30cms (12ins) wide and pale ivory in colour with a slight rose tint at the base, lasting a day or so, hence easily missed.
On a far more diminutive scale is another woodlander that has grown to perfection over the last three years here at the Exotic Garden; Podophyllum ‘Spotty Dotty’. This perennial marvel of the plant world has been planted near the entrance to the garden under a large pink flowered Horse Chestnut Aesculus x carnea. I first saw this little gem when on a lecture tour of the US Pacific North West where I fell in love with its stunning beauty in the garden of Linda Cochran on Bainbridge Island near Seattle. This delightful, if not rather bizarre looking plant, has lobed umbrella-shaped leaves up to 30cm (1ft) across, which are deep chartreuse with dramatic chocolate-brown spotting throughout the spring and into the summer. The whole ensemble emerges in early spring where it pushes up through the soil like a closed umbrella and expands once it is clear of the soil surface. The drooping garnet-coloured flowers are found under the leaves in clusters, so you have to gently push the leavers aside to see them. The flowers appear from late May throughout June and have rather peculiar metallic scent that makes you recoil as it is not the sort of aroma you expect from a plant! Never-the-less, I think this fairly recent introduction to the UK will be seen far more often in our gardens in years to come especially as it is hardy.
Another gem from plant collector extraordinaire Dan Hinkle who also lives on Bainbridge Island is Disporum cantoniense ‘Night Heron’. This rare and exceptional cultivar emerged from wild seed collections in China. The stems emerge from the ground from late winter to early spring with lustrous deep brownish-burgundy foliage rising up to 1.8m (6ft) tall like a handsome well-mannered bamboo and by summer the foliage fades to greenish-purple. Myriads of delicate, drooping, creamy bell-shaped flowers appear in terminal clusters in spring lasting for weeks, followed by masses of small glistening black-purple fruit. Like the Podophyllum it prefers dappled shade and moist soil.
My cats are all making a racket in the kitchen – telling me that I forgot to feed them this morning! I better go and feed them and have a cup of tea followed by a slow stroll with them around the garden and soak up the summer warmth…
Video: Around The Exotic Garden in mid June
Posted on | June 17, 2010 | 8 Comments
A walk around the garden in early June before everything explodes into full glory by the end of the season. Filmed by my friend Chris Ridley on his Canon 5DMk2.
Almost half way through the year…
Posted on | June 14, 2010 | 6 Comments
EDP article for June 20th 2010
It must be a sign of getting older; I find time seems to be accelerating at an ever faster speed! The first half of the year will have gone forever on Monday 21st at 11.28pm precisely as we celebrate the summer solstice. Let’s hope it’s the portent of warm summer days to come. Non-gardeners are probably wishing the rainy weather would stop and hot days arrive, though for plants this weather is ideal and fabulous for maximum growth. Most of the plants we grow in our gardens dislike cold weather in the growing season especially at night, but they equally dislike heat waves that put many plants under great stress as they lose so much water especially if recently planted as the roots are not established enough to cope. A minimum of 15C (59F) at night with rain and sunny days around 21C (70F) would be perfect! For non-gardeners I suppose 20C (68F) at night and 25-30C (77-86F) would be more apt!
At the moment I am sitting in the lower part of the garden writing on my laptop enjoying being surrounded by plants for inspiration and of course with several of my cats playing close by, much to the annoyance of a blackbird nesting in one of the hedges nearby. The late spring air is saturated with the overpowering scent of a rather large Holboellia coriacea, covering a pergola close by – a delightful introduction by Ernest Wilson in 1907 from central China. It is a vigorous evergreen woody vine with thick glossy dark green trifoliate leaves which produces clusters of fragrant greenish-white to pale pink bell flowers in spring from April to late June followed by plum sized edible purple fruit in the autumn. The foliage tends to cover the flowers – hidden gems amongst the foliage. It’s a lot hardier than some people give it credit for as it survived our low winter temperatures well.
One plant that is grabbing my attention is a Dahlia new to the garden this year named ‘Karma Chocolate’, a delightful Dahlia growing to about 90cm (3ft) tall. Everything about the plant is dark; the foliage is rich purple-bronze in colour, the stems are reddish-black and the elegant 12.5cm (5in) water-lily flowers open in a deep Bourneville chocolate colour, maturing to deep black-tinted crimson – very enchanting indeed. I have planted a group in front of the imposing dark leaved Canna ‘General Eisenhower’, which will grow to around 120-150cm (4ft -5ft) by high summer with showy bright red flowers. In contrast at the front of the border is a planting of Persicaria virginiana ‘Painters Pallet’, with leaves mottled with blotches of cream, light green, pink and maroon, with many of the leaves displaying a distinct maroon chevron. In mid to late summer the plant produces dainty, almost insignificant spikes of small scarlet flowers.
Close to where I am sitting is a mature clump of the well known herbaceous perennial Tradescantia virginiana (Virginia spiderwort), a species of Tradescantia (spiderwort) native to the eastern United States. It is an excellent late spring flowering plant with bright green strap-like leaves topped with purple flowers, which can also be found in alluring shades of blue and white. It grows to about 60cm (2ft) tall – unfortunately the whole plant is rather lax in habit and tends to fall over in wet weather, hence it needs staking well.
Under a now rather large Tetrapanax papiferus (Rice paper plant) I have planted a group of three Alocasia odora – an Aroid that hails from South-Eastern Asia – In Taiwan this is a common species in primary and secondary rain forest from almost sea-level to over 2000m (6000ft) elevation, hence grows fairly well if our summer is warm enough especially at night – we shall see! In past summers the glossy apple-green, upright leaves have grown to around 60 x75 (2ft x 1ft 6ins) across on long stalks.
These have been surrounded with a group of Colocasia esculenta ‘Mammoth’ which takes our cool summers well; having produced large dark bluish-green leaves up to 90 x 60cm (3ft x 2ft) across by late summer in past years. Unfortunately these two monster Aroids are not hardy, so have to be dug up in October and overwintered at around 5C (41F), but well worth all the effort for such a magnificent display of Tropicana! The winter past was a severe test for the common house plant Tradescantia fluminensis (Wandering Jew), a close relative of Tradescantia virginiana, which has come through with flying colours and is now officially a weed in the garden!
If you like Geranium maderense, but can’t grow it because it’s frost tender, Geranium palmatum is an equally attractive alternative that self sows freely at the Exotic Garden and is now in full flower. This seductive short-lived perennial has long stems and finely divided mid-green leaves up to 35cm (14ins) across. The flowers are saucer-shaped, five-petalled, pinkish purple up to 4cm (1 ½ins) across on large terminal heads up to 60cm (24ft) across. The flower stems are rather sticky when touched as the stems are covered in purple glandular hairs. This is a beautiful geranium that deserves to be more widely grown.
In the Xerophytic garden the colours are dazzling with self sown Escholzia Californica with their intense, almost day-glow orange flower on top of feathery glaucous blue-green foliage, which contrast well with spiky agaves and towering Trichocereus species. Many of the sprawling succulent Lampranthus are now in full bloom in shades of pink, white orange and red.
I love this time of year when everything is on the edge of exploding into full summer glory, let’s hope the summer is a good one!
Greetings from the Exotic Garden in Norwich and a happy late spring.
Posted on | June 7, 2010 | 4 Comments
This is my first article of the season for the Eastern Daliy Press
Another year has passed and a few more grey hairs have been added and maybe the old bones creak a bit more than they used to, never-the-less I have been working frantically in the garden in recent weeks getting the garden ready for its first open day of the year this Sunday 13th June.
A decision was made last summer to open the garden a few weeks earlier this year as a steady trickle of visitors usually arrive every weekend throughout the spring thinking the garden is open all the time! Unfortunately, after having the coldest winter for over 30 years, it has had a devastating affect on the garden and everyone else’s that dabble with plants on the edge of hardiness. Here, the temperature dropped down to about -5C (23F) though I have heard stories of –9C (16F) and lower in the wilds of Norfolk. Up until the winter before last some plants such as Cannas and Dahlias had been left in the ground for many years, in fact Canna indica ‘Purpurea’ had done a stint of over ten years returning regularly in late spring, though thankfully Amulree Exotics and Urban Jungle have guaranteed a good show of these wonderfully exotic plants again this summer.
Like many gardeners, with such a long run of mild winters I had discontinued wrapping my large clumps of the root hardy banana Musa basjoo about seven years ago. Here in the garden this hardiest of bananas has lived up to its provenance of being root hardy though I did lose about 60% of the stems on several of my twenty years old clumps due to such low day temperatures. The stems that have survived are producing new green leaves from the tops but are very slow indeed. On the bright side though, one of the clumps that was cut to the ground now has twenty one new pups sprouting with bursting vigour around the base. I would expect that these will do very well this summer, especial with lashings of compost and blood fish and bone liberally spread around!
I am really surprised that most of the gingers in the garden survived without protection as permafrost went down about two inches into the ground during the coldest part of the winter. Gingers are always late to shoot, and several are only 3-4ins tall, but will accelerate as the season progresses into monsters of the garden.
One plant I have mentioned in past years is the common house-plant Tradescantia fluminensis, more commonly known as Wandering Jew. This supposedly tender plant had survived at least six winters here, dying down with the first frosts of winter only to return again in late spring, and to my absolute amazement it survived last winter with flying colours. Even multicoloured form like T. Fluminensis ‘Maidens blush’ with its pink splashes on apple green foliage has survived the big freeze.
Unfortunately a large old Pear tree in the garden covered in Ivey lost one of its largest branches bringing down my phone-line, causing me to be phone and Internet free for three weeks – a very odd experience! This grand old tree had to be cut back to its main trunk, were the Ivey and a very established old Clematis Montana will soon go crazy and cover it up again. Unfortunately the dear old tree gave shade to my collection of tree ferns Dicksonia Antarctica, so I am now having to carry out a very strict regimen of watering the trunks every two or three days to keep the fabulously lush new growth happy.
Large plants such as the Phormiums were not affected by the frost, but did collapse under the many inches of prolonged snow weighing down the foliage over a long period; hence they have all had a severe haircut this spring, though I know by the end of the season they will all be back in fine fettle.
The Xerophytic garden (desert) had the most damage this winter despite being covered with a rather clever, almost sculptural construction made by Jamie Spooner from home-grown bamboo canes with multicoloured plastic balls on the tips so as not to puncture the plastic. Unfortunately, there had been several weeks of rain in the autumn before its construction which sealed in moisture which then froze during the prolonged cold weather. If it had been dry when constructed, I’m sure there would have been fewer casualties. Most of my Agaves looked in perfect condition until it started to warm up in early spring when many of them collapsed into piles of goo! Two keen exoticists Keith and Melisa in Costessey Norwich, lost many fine and established specimens in their fabulous garden, a veritable paradise I hope to write an article about later on in the season. A well known and keen plantsman and exoticist Paul Spracklin who also has an extensive range of cacti and succulents lost countless specimens and managed to fill a skip with carcases, with one Agave in particular have been in his collection for over 40 years. The question is: will they grow such things again? Of course the answer has to be yes!
A friend of mine has his own view of how he thinks the seasons work, at least here in Norfolk. Rather than the standard block of four segments three months long, he considers it seems to be more like – two months spring, three months summer two months autumn and finally five months winter. I certainly do see where he is coming from on this; the winter section of the year always seems a lot longer than our woefully short summers. I suppose this is the joy of living on a temperate Island surrounded by water, though if we didn’t have the gulfstream to buffer us we would be much colder indeed. Never-the-less, I think we should be prepared for the possibility that we might be in for a string of cold winters over the next few year, though I hope not!
There of course have been many more casualties in the garden and far too many to mention here, though I hope when visitors start arriving it will all look as though nothing has happened. As usual my newest Devon Rex cat Dweezal is sitting on my right shoulder as I write this so I think it must be time for a cup of tea…
Schefflera macrophylla planting time is here…
Posted on | May 18, 2010 | 4 Comments
Will Giles struggling with a rather heavy Schefflera macrophylla...
I bought this rather delicious Schefflera last March from Crug Farm in Wales and wrote a blog about it with the following picture. It arrived with three large leaves which have withered away, but as you can see it has gone absolutely ballistic since then. As I wasn’t sure where to plant such a spectacular monster, it was re-potted, fed and watered through last summer and overwintered just frost free in one of my Polly tunnels.
Schefflera macrophylla with chair in March last year...
One year’s growth – marvellous...
I normally plant the purple Abyssinian banana Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii in front of my house, but I have decided that my new Schefflera should take pride of place here instead. So you know a little more about this plant, here is some information from the Crug farm website.
“A spectacular species which we (Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Joneses) discovered in the Fan Xi Pan area of northern Vietnam, where this most architectural of the species can reach 7 metres (23 feet) tall with large paddle-shaped leaflets combining to form one meter wide leaves on slender purple petioles (leaf stem). You may think that would be enough, but on emerging the entire new growth is smothered in a ginger indumentum. Best grown out of strong winds in a warm site. Has taken -11C (12F).” http://mailorder.crug-farm.co.uk/default.aspx
I am rather dubious about its low temperature tolerance after a conversation I had last year with Dan Hinkley from Bainbridge Island, Washington State USA who said that it defoliated at a much higher temperature with him. He said that Schefflera delavayi is much hardier. Luckily I have one of these as well if all goes pear shaped! The position I am planting it in is fairly close to my house facing south, where it rarely drops below -3C (26.5F) so it should be fine.
Another reason for planting this fine specimen in front of the house is that it can be viewed from a balcony on the front of the house giving a fine view of its wonderfully monstrous foliage from above and seeing that it reportedly gets up to 7 metres (23 feet) I will soon be able to see it at eye level in a few years time..
Chris Ridley took photographs of me planting up this beast, so here is a little how-to in pictures…
A three inch layer of well rotted garden compost has been spread all over the ground, then a hole dug slightly larger than the root ball with the base of the hole spiked with a fork to loosen the soil to make it easier for new roots to get down.
Blood fish and bone being added to the base and mixed in with a fork. Some fertiliser is also sprinkled over the surrounding soil that will be mixed in when refilling.
Nearly there...
Carefully remove the pot - luckily it has become well rooted in the last year, perfect for planting. You can tease the roots out a little if you wish, though it is not strictly necessary. Also - watch your back when lifting such a heavy plant...
Making sure the stem is upright, backfill around the root-ball firming the soil in as you go....
Level of the surface of the soil mixing in the compost as you go, leaving a slight depression around the plant ready for watering in...
Job done – now all I have to do is water it regularly throughout its first season to make sure the roots get into the soil and become well established. Now I think it’s time for a cup of tea!
