Exotic Garden open for National Garden Scheme…
Posted on | July 29, 2010 | 3 Comments
EDP article for Saturday 31st July
It doesn’t seem like a year since the garden was last opened for the (NGS) National Garden Scheme – where has the year gone? This Sunday August 1st the garden gates will be flung open again for visitors raising monies for this august charity. It is always one of the highlights of the year here at the Exotic Garden and being August is usually warm and sunny for such an occasion. Using my rather rust memory, I thought the garden had been opening for about 18 years, but a quick phone call to NGS headquarters revealed that this is in fact the 21st year, so I think I can safely say that the garden has come of age, raising thousands of pounds for charity for over two decades! The garden has changed dramatically over the years and is now very firmly fixed on the map as one of the most well known gardens in Norwich.
Despite having had the coldest winter in recent years the garden is look very sumptuous. Most the tender perennials and annuals were planted out in the third week of May, only to be thwarted again by another cold snap setting the garden back several weeks. Luckily the last months clement weather has redeemed the garden with relatively warm days and balmy nights giving it a chance to catch up, and now it is ahead as growth has been phenomenal this month – in fact I’m always amazed at the speed plants can grow if the conditions are right!
Three years ago a new long raised bed edged in flint was added to the garden near the entrance and planted up in the Victorian style with mostly tender bedding, including a mixture of Coleus, Cannas, Dahlias, Iresine, purple bananas and more recently – ornamental sweet potatoes – relatives of the popular edible sweet potato. Several varieties have become available to gardeners in recent years adding a new dimension to summer bedding. They thrive in hot sunny weather and are now growing really well as lots of organic matter was added at planting time along with the obligatory blood-fish- and bone for good measure. Known botanically as Ipomoea batatas, these ground cover plants are actually sweet potatoes selected for their vivid and attractive leaves. Planted about 45cms (18ins) apart, they soon grow together forming mats of dense foliage with outstanding colour. ‘Blackie’ is a favourite of mine with large, deep purple to black leaves, while ‘Black Heart’ is another dark form with virtually black, heart shaped leaves. A great foil for such dark foliage is a delightful form named ‘Marguerite’ which has bright heart-shaped, chartreuse lime-green foliage which seems to glow in the evening light. Tricolor (this is the correct spelling) is more diminutive, with small, sharply pointed leaves which are deliciously multicoloured with green, pink, and white foliage – this form is less vigorous than the others, though never-the-less attractive. There are several forms available here in the UK such as ‘Sweet Caroline Light Green’ and ‘Sweet Caroline Purple’ which make great additions to the summer border. I recently purchased a new form I hadn’t seen before from Urban Jungle in Costessey called ‘Sweet Caroline Bronze’, a wonderful sweet potato with rather alluring pale brown foliage – I really do like this one!
Iresine herbstii also make excellent foliage plants with dazzling leaves that rapidly grow into large plants as the summer progresses, with some growing up to 1.2m (4ft) tall by October. Also known as Beefsteak plant and Blood leaf, they form upright, bushy, short lived perennials, used as annuals in this county as are the ornamental sweet potatoes. The leaves are strikingly variegated, and on mature plants can be up to 8cm (3ins) long. I have planted two different cultivars which grow into each other; ‘Aureoreticulata’ which has mid-green leaves with striking, prominent yellow veining and ‘Brilliantissima’, with rich, vivid magenta leaves, making a stunning combination.
Towering above these is large clump of Canna ‘Australia’. This difficult to find Canna has the darkest burgundy-black foliage with a satin-like sheen, rising to 1.2 -1.6m (4-5ft) tall, topped with a magnificent display of large, shocking red flowers. Unfortunately it is rarely offered as it is one of the more difficult cannas to over-winter. Where most cannas happily slumber as tubers, ‘Australia’ requires mollycoddling, as it doesn’t like to go dormant, preferring to be kept in full foliage at around 5C (41F). I find this well worth the effort though for such a wonderful display, with the added bonus of flowering early – in fact this one flowered for me at Christmas time!
Close by is a clump of Colocasia esculenta ‘fontanesii’, which is enjoying the summer heat at around 1m (3.3ins) tall, with shiny purple-black stems topped with equally shiny, large heart-shaped pointed leaves up to 30cm (1ft) long, though I know American readers can grow much bigger plants than this. Underneath is planted a drift of the common spider plant Chlorophytum comosum, which I grow from pups taken from parent plants in late winter, that soon grow on to be handsome plants in their own right. All these plants grouped together produce a veritable, almost psychedelic explosion of colour to greet visitors to the garden.
Colocasias are a must for the exotic effect, though many people find them difficult to grow in this country as they do love heat and require rich soil with plenty of added organic matter to perform at their best. I have tried several new introductions to the UK this year that have rather spectacular foliage, and one that I obtained earlier this year from Amulree Exotics http://www.turn-it-tropical.co.uk/ looks almost unreal. Colocasia ‘Mojito’ is its name, (pronounced Mo-he-toe) a sport of C. ‘Burgundy Stem’ via C. ‘Black Marble’, discovered at Agristarts nurseries in Florida. Named after the popular Cuban mixed drink, the amazing leaves are medium green with dark purple flecks looking as though ink has been splashed at random all over them giving a very jazzy effect. Although it grows to about 90cm (3ft) in Florida, mine are only 30cm (1ft) tall but no less attractive for that.
What every you do this weekend, have a good one…
Comments
3 Responses to “Exotic Garden open for National Garden Scheme…”
Leave a Reply
July 29th, 2010 @ 5:48 pm
I love your Colocasia ‘Mojito’. (I love mojitos full stop, come to that!) The garden is looking gorgeous and I hope you get loads and loads of visitors. I’m determined to come and see it one of these days.
July 29th, 2010 @ 10:26 pm
BLOODY fantastic cant wait to see it all ,must be very MOIST
July 30th, 2010 @ 6:24 pm
Victoria – ‘Mojito’ is rather delicious! Yes, it’s going to be busy on Sunday but always enjoyable – I think I will need a liquid ‘Mojito’ afterwards. Do come and visit the garden some time and I will look forward to showing you around. Its 1 hour 50 mins from Liverpool Street Station and The Exotic Garden is only 10 mins walk from the station here in Norwich.
The Bees – it’s always moist here – see you in mid August.