The Exotic Garden opens for the NGS on Sunday July 31st
Posted on | July 30, 2011 | 5 Comments
Gosh – it’s that time of year again, when we fling the gates of the Exotic Garden open for the National Garden scheme. This year sees the garden opening for its 22nd year to raise monies for NGS charities. It only seems like yesterday that I was first asked to open the garden to the public, how time flies! When I look at photographs from its early days, it’s almost unrecognisable from how it looks today, so do come along and support such a renowned institution raising monies for charities including Marie Curie Cancer Care, Crossroads Care, Help the Hospices and Macmillan Cancer Support.
At this time of year there are so many plants coming into bloom that it’s almost impossible to keep up with them, hence a daily walk around the garden to inspect everything (with cats in tow) is de rigueur. Last week I mentioned Thunbergia grandiflora and am pleased to say that mine is just coming into flower for the first time this year, so great excitement all round for having such a full blown tropical climber in bloom on my doorstep!
As you probably know, I have always had the urge to grow hopelessly tender plants in the garden. One plant in particular that I first grew when I was seven years old was Aphelandra squarrosa ‘Saffron Spike’, an incredibly exotic looking plant with glossy dark green leaves with sharply contrasting white or yellow vein and midrib markings. It has waxy yellow flowers that emerge from stiff yellow bracts clustered along a spike up to 8 inches long at the top of the plant – in fact the whole plant could almost look as though it was made of plastic! I first spotted this irresistible plant delight when my grandmother Nellie Giles took me to Kew Gardens way back in the 1950’s. I spotted a group of them in a series of glasshouses that have long gone called the T range. Of course I am still growing it to this day and find it just as alluring as I did way back then.
I plant all sorts of tender things out for the summer months where they usually grow away regardless of the fact that most of our summers are nowhere near tropical and often rather cool! Of course I have lost countless plants over the years while experimenting, but have settled down to a collection of tropicals that I know take our summers in their stride whether hot or cold, bright or dull!
Some of them are not even houseplants, but tender bedding plants introduced from the US in resent years like the ridiculously metallic purple Strobilanthes dyerianus more commonly known as ‘Persian Shield’, a real corker of a plant with dark green leaves flushed purple with a silver overlay. This ludicrously over-the-top plant hails from Burma and is actually a soft-stemmed shrub grown for its awesome foliage. For some reason it seems to have become more difficult to get hold of this year, but never-the-less worth seeking out and if you do find some take cuttings for next year.
A perennial favourite of mine here at the Exotic Garden is the good old ‘Swiss Cheese Plant’ Monstera delicious (the one with all the holes in its leaves!) I find this an incredibly rugged plant, growing really well during the summer months in a dappled shade situation, where, with a little judicious feeding it will produce enormous lush and extremely bold shiny leaves well over 1ft across that will really get your neighbours talking! It takes cool to cold nights in its stride despite being tropical in nature, only having to be brought under cover when temperatures get close to zero. I find that Philodendron selloum with even larger deeply cut leaves, grows well in the garden, taking deep shade and low temperatures well. I have managed to over winter this monster for many years in my tree house!
Thinking of plants that shouldn’t take cold conditions at all is the totally tropical Tradescantia ‘Maidens Blush’. I planted this very succulent leaved houseplant out last summer and to my amazement it has come back with a vengeance this year, having survived at least 2ins of permafrost in December and now producing drifts of green leaves with wide splashes of white to pink throughout the summer to first frost. It is growing to perfection in a drift underneath a towering Tetrapanax papyriferus (Tung-tsau or Rice-paper Plant).
Another good summer bedding plant that only survives the mildest winters if mulched well is Sparmania africana, a very vigorous shrub from South Africa. It can grow from a small plant up to 6ft tall in a single summer season with large leaves easily reaching 1½ft across if well fed. There is also a variegated form which I unfortunately lost a few years ago – I do hate losing plants!
Aspidistra elatior more commonly known as the ‘Cast Iron Plant’ as it is virtually impossible to kill in a living room as it takes low light conditions and extreme neglect well. Plant it in the garden though and it slowly grows into a good sized clump of stiff leathery upright leaves on long stalks, taking -10C in my garden without any ill effects. The only drawback is slugs and snails are rather partial to the taste of its chlorophyll!
Chlorophytum comosum or ‘Spider Plant’ is another plant that desperately needs to be liberated from the top of a wardrobe or window ledge, where I think they tend to look rather awful when neglected! In the garden, either planted in the ground or as a hanging basket plant they come into their own and ‘sye with relief’ as they enjoy fresh air and rain for the summer months before being tortured again in some dark place during the winter months!
There are countless houseplants that can be liberated to the garden for the summer, though like us, if brought from a darkened room to full daylight will get sun burn, so be aware of your plants needs and slowly introduce them over a couple of weeks to strong light or cover with horticultural fleece on very bright days, or to be really safe place in a shady corner of the garden where they can relax and enjoy the rest of the summer.
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5 Responses to “The Exotic Garden opens for the NGS on Sunday July 31st”
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July 30th, 2011 @ 10:06 pm
Hi will
Like the write up, garden sounds good, pity you are so far away otherwise we would be with you tomorrow.Good luck hope you make lots of dosh for your charities
Love the MOIST BEES XX
August 1st, 2011 @ 10:31 pm
These photos are simply stunning and I am excited to experience the real thing in next few weeks.
That bumble bee is certainly in heaven!
August 2nd, 2011 @ 7:53 am
It doesn’t seem like a year ago that the garden was last open for the NGS. Was it a buisy day? Thinking of hardy house plants, when it was -7 here in oz a few weeks ago I spotted a massive stags horn fern growing in a tree which seems quite happy. There were some huge philodendrons in the town centre that have been reduced to mush tho. Also, hows your Primuladendron?
August 2nd, 2011 @ 8:59 pm
Hi Will,
Visited your garden on Sunday and it looked great. Have you got any takils. How hardy is the smaller Schefflera.I am in rural Cambridgeshire.
August 15th, 2011 @ 4:46 pm
Mr and Mrs Moist and Damp – I would love to visit your garden, you are just so darn far away! The 22 year of opening for the NGS day went well. You might like to know that I am leading a tour from Dover down to Madeira and the Canary islands in late September as a stand in for Ashley Stevens who unfortunately had a heart attack – fancy coming along?
Debbie – Glad you like my pics…
Jamie – Yep a busy day as usual as all NGS days are – fun though. I have heard that some Staghorn ferns will take a degree or so of frost, but probably not the sustained stuff we get here in good old Blighty! Primuladendron is fine – she has only fired herself three times this year but now seams back on form -touch wood! Liam is off to The Guildhall school of Music on Sept 17th, so I will miss him very much, though I don’t think Prim will!!
Sam – glad you liked the garden. I have quite a few Trachycarpus fortunei, about seven I think and one Wagy, don’t think I have Takil, though several of my fortunei’s look quite different to each other in leaf size and shape. I presume the small Schefflera you are referring to is Schefflera taiwaniana. My S macrophylla took -11C with a plastic cover over it open on one side and came through the winter very well. My taiwaniana is new to me this year though I would expect it to have a similar tolerance – at least I hope so!