A dazzling late show – EDP Newspaper – Sept 6th 2008
Posted on | September 6, 2008 | No Comments
Only last week I was writing about it being the wettest August for 100 years and now it’s been revealed that it was also one of the most dismally overcast on record! But we Norfolk people are a tenacious lot, tackling whatever the heavens throw at us in our stride.
Now September is here and the evenings are pulling in fast, but the Exotic Garden goes on getting bigger and bigger until the first frosts, usually in mid November. And as we fast approach the season of mellow fruitfulness and autumnal mists, this is a good time of year to reflect on how our gardens have fared this summer and note what has worked well and what hasn’t. Despite the recent dull weather and torrential rains, my garden has done well, with lush growth though often less stature due to a distinct lack of hot weather.
The bananas have suffered the most this summer with our unusually high number of windy days. Even amid such mixed weather, the xerophytic garden, which was constructed to take hot dry summers, has grown well with all that our temperate climate can throw at us and is now looking very established indeed. One plant in particular that is growing to perfection is a stately and architectural clump of Ochagavia carnea, a hardy bromeliad from central Chile with greyish-green leaves, looking somewhat like a Puya. It is just starting to produce globular inflorescences which consist of as many as 50 tightly packed, pink–petaled flowers surrounded by pink bracts.
This dramatic plant was given to me by Mike Nelhams, curator of the Abbey Gardens on Tresco island off Cornwall, where frosts are rare. This gem of the spiny world has survived lows of -5C here in the past, with little damage. Another hardy bromeliad in the garden that’s also coming into flower at the moment is Fasicularia bicolor subsp. Bicolour, which is also from Chile and equally hardy.
Several of these sturdy plants have been happily growing here for two decades with little damage apart from slight blistering on the leaves below -5C. Similer to Ochagavia, but with longer and thinner spiky dark green leaves, its flowers are deeply set inside each rosette. The innermost leaves become bright scarlet red towards the base where they surround an inflorescence of tightly packed clusters of pale powder blue flowers – unfortunately it’s also loved by slugs!
On a different theme, Begonia sutherlandii is another beauty I have grown since way back when and is always popular with visitors. It is a dense, branching, clump-forming, tuberous begonia, growing to a height and spread of about 46cm (18in), with bright green, lanceshaped leaves up to 15cm (6in) long, often with red veining. Throughout the summer and well into the autumn, dainty panicles of pendant orange flowers up to 2.5cm (1in) across are produced in profusion. As they die down, bulbils are formed in the leaf axils, which can be collected for growing the following year or left to fall on the ground where, in mild winters, they root freely. Anemone Japonica, more commonly known as the Japanese anemone, is an essential ingredient in the late summer/autumn garden, adding height and clear colours in shades of purple, pink and white.
Although considered as more of a cottage garden plant, they inject plenty of presence, filling the gaps left by perennials that are going over, taking shady conditions well. My colony of white A. Japonica have certainly been in the garden longer than the 26 years I have lived here and will probably be flowering away merrily at this time of year for many decades to come, making it an invaluable late summer flowering perennial. Towering above these is an ever-expanding thicket of Clerodendrum bungei from southern China.
A deciduous suckering shrub with large, greenish-purple, coarsely serrated leaves on upright stems to a height of 2m (6ft) and similar spread. At this time of year it is covered in tightly domed clusters of small and fragrant, deep pinkish-purple flowers. Since it blooms on the current season’s growth, pruning stems that come through the winter will make them bushier.
The dark green leaves have a rather peculiar odour of peanuts or burning rubber. Although hardy, it may be cut back to the ground in severe winters. That said, however, I have been growing it for over 15 years in Norwich without any die-back! Clerodendrum trichotomum from eastern China and Japan is also in flower at the moment. Mine is a small tree with large dark green leaves which are delightfully bronze tinted when young. Its most revered feature is the deliciously-scented exotic cymes of pure white flowers which are followed by steel blue fruits in the middle of bright red calyxes that remain attractive for a long period, providing they are not all consumed by birds. Both clerodendrums mentioned are hardy to around -15C.
Visitors to the garden often ask where I obtain many of my plants, and the answer is anywhere and everywhere, although in saying this one of my favourite nurseries – Urban Jungle in Norwich on Ringland Lane, Costessey (www.urbanjungle.uk.com) – has an excellent range of exotics. I dropped in during the week to find that they are having an early autumn sale, with many plants such as the majestic tree fern Dicksonia antarctica being sold at half price along with many of the ludicrously exotic plants that are essential for this style of gardening.
The sale ends on Sunday, September 14, so now is the time to stock up without breaking the bank! Whatever you do in your garden this weekend, enjoy every moment of this delightful time of year.
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