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Channel: My dirty little secret

Schefflera taiwaniana

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I've a bit of a thing for members of Araliaceae, a love affair, an obsession you could say, but on one proviso, they have to be hardy (for the most part) to get a place in my garden. Another criteria that they must meet is to look exotic or be somewhat different from the norm, it's all the better for me if they look like they hail from some sub tropical woodland perched on a mountainside in some far off land.....

Step forward the beautiful Schefflera taiwaniana.
Here's a plant that ticks all the boxes, unusual and certainly exotic in its looks, with gorgeous evergreen leaves like an umbrella that's been through a hurricane with only the spokes left intact.
It's the hardy but refined cousin of that neglected umbrella plant (Schefflera arboricola) that grew in  the corner of your mother's bathroom during the eighties, well my mother's anyway. Yet this plant just has an elegant poise that its indoor dwelling relation lacks.

Look at the lightly fuzzy new growth in late spring, like little greyish shuttlecocks, gorgeous eh?


and then they green up, lose the fuzzy indumentum and gain that poise that I was talking about, see what I mean?

Just look at the size of the leaves, with the obligatory hand in the shot for scale.

My plant originally grew in a pot for three or so years but consisted of one stem that just kept going straight up, with a tuft of leaves at the top. 
Scheffleras can be prone to beanpolelikeness, they go straight up, heading for the sky as they're generally woodland understory plants and want to head up towards the light. This is not what I wanted from my plant, so before planting it out I took a drastic step. I approached it with my heart in my mouth and with secateurs held in a slightly unsteady hand, with relative ease I sliced through the pithy stem, chopping it down to about six inches from the base. 
It responded admirably, with new growth breaking from various buds on the stem. Now I've got a beautiful shrubby specimen with six or so branches growing in dry shade beneath a large Acer pseudoplatanus, how many plants that you can grow in dry shad look as hot as this??
It also survived two brutal (brutal for a normally mild coastal garden in Ireland) that decimated all my tree ferns, reducing them to oozing stumps. It sat there, not blinking an eyelid at the baltic temperatures.

....it is, in my opinion, stunning.





Fine, I give in!

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I've had a niggling nagging voice yacking in my ear for quite some time telling me it'd be a good idea to start a blog.
Up until now I've resisted, I've even been told not to do it. Besides, who'd want to read it, and why? Yet here I am and here it is, my blog.

I hope to share pictures of the plants I love to grow (I'm obsessive and think about little else), my garden and the gardens I visit, as well as a post or two about food along the way. I've a bit of a sweet tooth with a heavy leaning towards chocolate desserts so these may feature strongly at times.

I'm a gardener, in a sea of non gardeners. Since I was young I have gardened, obsessively, I just didn't tell anyone, I mean, who gardens? Certainly none of my friends did, and still very few of them do hence the title of my blog, as it has always been like my dirty little secret, but now I'm sharing it with you. I'm lucky that over recent years I've connected with some  new gardening friends and they're around my age too which is pretty amazing.

So this'll be my outlet, a place to share my exploits, successes and failures and occasional rant with people in all corners of the world.

They're weeds Jim, but not as we know them.

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While having a walk some weeks ago I came across stands of wild garlic Allium ursinum. Now, there's nothing at all unusual about that. It's a common plant, found growing abundantly throughout Europe and Asia in many woodlands and along lane ways with its preferred habitat bring deep moist soils and shaded sites.
It's one of those spring plants that leafs out and flowers early in the year, getting its business done before the canopy of leaves on the trees above becomes too dense blocking out much if the available light. While in flower the air all around is filled with a pungent garlicky scent, so even if you can't see them you always know when they're nearby.
It's a rampant spreader and if it gets a foothold in your garden it will quickly seed around and spread all over smothering any herbaceous plants not big enough to fight off the onslaught.
Although I haven't tried myself all parts of the plant: leaf, flowers and bulbs are edible.

Anyway, enough waffling, back to the purpose of the post. While looking around I glanced downwards and noticed  among the thousands of green leaves one with a white central portion, "Hmmm interesting" says I.
You see, I also have a bit of a thing for some (certainly not all) variegated plants. I like to keep my eyes peeled when out and about for any sort of foliage abnormalities that could prove interesting if grown on. Sport fishing some call it, the sport of looking for variegated sports on plain green plants.
I looked a bit closer at the patch and found many more leaves with varying degrees of variegation along the cental leaf rib, some a few millimeters in width while in others the majority of the leaf was white with the green portion having retreated to a thin margin around the edge.
I'll be growing them on, and time will tell if they're stable, fingers crossed. They will be allowed to flower but must be quickly deadheaded, I just can't be letting them seed around in my garden!

Crimes against horticulture

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Yup, they're pretty tacky looking, yet a small part of me kinda likes their psychedelic colours. :-s

 This little guy couldn't take it, the dyed cactus spines were just a step too far for him.


I'm never going to buy one of these travesties of course. My reaction is a bit like when you see that tackily decorated house at Christmas, all blow up Santas and an explosion of multi coloured lights. You wouldn't do it yourself, but you have a bit of a sneaking admiration for the balls it takes to pull it off.

An obsession?

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You could say that, but it's one that I'll admit to, even in polite company.
I grow numerous types and I'll cover each of them in turn over time.
Normally most Asiatic Lilies that you see offered are small plants, they're bred to be dwarf uniform travesties, most likely with upward facing flowers jammed together at the top of the squat stem. They have their place I'm sure, and sell well during the summer season when set out in pots everywhere from the garden centre to the DIY store to the petrol station forecourt.
The Asiatics that I've been turned on to are those with outward and downward facing flowers. They're just better looking plants, with the blooms spaced out at the top of the adequately tall stalk and hanging their heads coyly.
Today I'll start of with a stunner called Lilium 'Pink Flavour'.
They're pink, I mean really girly Barbie pink with slightly frilled edges, yet in spite of this I love them.
I bought three bulbs this spring, not knowing if I'd like the resulting flowers. Google images threw up many different pictures suggesting what they could look like, some spotted, some not. I'm glad that I ended up with plants of the non spotty one.
The only downside is that like most Asiatics it doesn't have any scent. You expect (well I do anyway) a flower that looks like this to pack a powerful punch in the olfactory department, sadly that isn't the case. Still I'm willing to overlook that indiscretion for blooms like these.

Colour in the autumn garden

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In Ireland, on a windy and wet autumn day like today it's easy to believe that there's no chance of any more good weather at this stage, the concept seems like a dim and distant hopeful dream.  But it looks like the weekend is going to be dry and sunny, so the late show of colour in the garden should hopefully continue for a few weeks yet.
The Dahlias are still flowering away, if anything they're getting better as they were late started off this spring, subsequently taking quite a while to get going, especially with the cold early summer holding them back. 

Here's a few that are looking good right now, and each one very different to the next.

'Halo' I picked up in France last year while on holidays as a shriveled tuber that was being sold off cheap, a lovely single pink.


'Purple Haze' is a stunner, deep plummy purple with an almost black reverse to the central petals.





'Blue Bayou', well obviously not blue is it? Wishful thinking on behalf of the breeder methinks, blue being a colour not found in Dahlia. Colour aside this unusual Dahlia (Anemone flowered group) seems to draw most comment from anyone who has seen it. I still haven't entirely made up my mind about it, I'm giving it an 80% liking rating. ;-)


Lastly the shocking coral pink Dahlia 'Karma Fuchsiana'. It's a difficult colour to place in the garden but a spot in front of Canna 'Durban' seems to work well, the pink flower picking up the stripes in the leaf behind. The flowers produced vary in their doubleness, some having more petals giving a fuller look, but this one looks no worse for exposing more of its yellow centre. 

Tiger Lily

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I love it when Lilium lancifolium 'Supebum' starts to colour up in late August every year, and will point it out to anyone who is interested, and frankly anyone who isn't, cos hey, it's too good not to show off.
It's not a fancy hybrid, it isn't scented, and it ain't rare, but it's a good 'dooer'
So, here it is, firstly in bud.

Looking like so many little hanging orangeish chillies, starting almost red at the base and getting progressively lighter towards the tip and contrasting nicely with the dark slightly pubescent stems.

When the buds open they're pretty much an 'in yer face' orange, so I grow it with plenty of green around to provide a bit of relief, but it'd look cool with some more zingy colours too.

It's a prolific spreader via the load of bulbils that it produces in its leaf axils. I try to remove them before they detach and drop to the ground nowadays as I've more than enough of it at this stage. They fall and grow around the base of the plant so it's not going to spread all over the garden but just be aware so that you're not over run! 

It's an Asiatic, so like most of the rest is pretty easy to grow, and pretty hardy to cold. For those of you who gauge how cold a plant can get before deciding to cark it using the USDA system I've seen Zone 3a quoted, which it a pretty chilly -39.9C or -40C. That's damned cold. (Incidentally, how on earth do I do the little degrees sign, you know, that little circle between the temperature and the C or F?)
Bought as one bulb, three, possibly four years ago it has quickly increased to something like seven six foot high flowering stems.  

Incidentally, does anyone have any idea why they're commonly known as Tiger Lilies? Cos Tigers have stripes, not spots.

Autumn dig.

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Its that time of year when succulents that I'd bedded out in the garden for the summer must be lifted.
My location is normally very mild, with -3C being an exceptional low during winter. I won't mention the bad year, its still to raw and painful to dwell on the losses sustained. Let's just day it was a damned sight colder than normal.
The problem isn't the cold, it's the combined conditions of both wet and shade that will cause many succulents to turn to a gooey mush. Very few things in the garden smell worse than the exhumed corpse of a rotting Agave.
So, to avoid this I plant them out around April/May and dig them up again come September or early October.
Planting them in the soil, which provides relatively rich conditions causes these plants to grow lush and full, a look I enjoy for the planting schemes I envision. But with such rank growth also comes a loss of frost hardiness so up they need to come.
A dry day is necessary before work can commence as you don't want them being potted up while sodden. Dry roots are the key for successful winter storage. Terracotta pots are best as they won't hold on to moisture, and the recently acquisition of thirty or so antique Irish pots came in handy at this point. They were bought off Gumtree without a clue as to what I'd use them for but the price and their rustic beauty meant that it was too good an opportunity to pass them up.
When dug up and some of the soil shaken from their roots they were potted into almost pure grit, which will hopefully make it easier to keep them dry until spring.

Hail stones when I was away on holidays damaged the leaves of many of succulents, leaving them with unsightly brown marks, like on the Aeonium 'Compton Carousel' below. But they'll grow out of this again by next year.

They're all safely tucked up in my cold greenhouse, so providing things don't get too cold this winter all should be good come spring.

Munch, munch.

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When digging up my succulents a few weeks ago I found that the Echeveria came up a lot easier that it should, it just popped out of the ground.
"Uh oh" thought I. Yup, damned vine weevil grubs had munched through all the roots and one was making its way right up the centre of the stem.

She is no more. 



The top of the plant has been potted up in gritty compost and should re root. 
They're a bit of a problem, Fuchsia, Primula and Heuchera have all been chewed through this year. Luckily all were saved in the nick of time.
By the way, did you know that all vine weevils are female? Able to reproduce without any intervention from the less fair sex. They're triploids too, having an extra set of chromosomes than us humans who only have two, this gives them a slight advantage in that they are more robust and hardier to extremes in temperature and difficult environmental pressures. Kind like super bugs
They're not native to the UK or Ireland either, originally being found in only in one small area of central Europe. Modern horticulture has helped their dispersion, causing problems for gardeners world wide.

Horrible little feckers.

Sorry if all that has put you off your lunch. ;-)

Autumn harvest

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The last of the tomatoes have been picked, I say that last but they're also nearly the first as they were so late going in that they took some time to get going (I'm a terrible and neglectful vegetable grower)

There's all sorts in there beefsteak, the two stalwarts of the tomato world, 'Gardener's delight, and 'Ailsa Craig' as well as a couple of cherry types.
The keener eyed among you may note the banana stem sticking up from their midst, the idea being that its presence this should help ripen them faster as it yellows and releases ethylene gas.

This is the first year that they haven't suffered from blight which is always a problem for me despite being grown in the greenhouse.

He's like a little ugly fat green pumpkin:


They've spent a few weeks ripening in their bowls and have been combined with roasted peppers, cumin, red onions, paprika, ginger and waaay too many chillis to make a few jars of 'Blow your socks off chutney'.


and just cos they're there, some of the last of the summer's flowers....


The Dillon Garden, Dublin. July 2013

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There are some gardens that you visit that you just can't wait to see again, The Dillon Garden is one of them.

The garden is the creation of Scottish born Helen Dillon and her husband Val, located in Ranelagh, south Dublin.
Helen is famous among plants people as a connoisseur of amazing, stunning plants. The thing is, although she grows so many unusual things its not your usual plants nut's garden, so often we fall into the trap of creating a collection of plants rather than a thing of beauty. Rather, Helen has an artistic eye and combines colours and different forms beautifully.
Sadly the battery on my camera died so I had to resort to taking pictures on my phone.....







The front garden is quite restrained, a breathing space, cool and sophisticated.
However in my eagerness to see the back garden I rushed through without taking proper pictures.



Before, when visiting the route to the back garden was down the side of the house but on this occasion I went straight to the front door. 
The sight that greets you when looking out the long windows of the drawing room at the rear of the house is stunning, and probably one of the most photographed views of the garden.

Entry to the garden from the rear of the house is via a raised deck which has been attached to the house below which is nestled a lush sheltered seating space.

I was amazed at the sheer number of flowers on the Nicotiana mutablis, simply amazing:
The secret, I have been informed by Helen, is to overwinter cuttings taken from the base of first year plants and overwintered frost free, then when planted out in year two you get an avalanche of candyfloss pink like this.

Along the base of the house wall various potted succulents spend the summer months basking in the Irish sunshine. (Irony alert!)

Looking across the end of the canal

The green firework explosions that are the heads of Cyperus papyrus


Sonchus fruticosus growing in one of Helen's famous containers.


I have intense greenhouse envy, and Dasylirion envy

Begonia luxurians and Fuchsia boliviana 'Alba' 

I've been informed by Helen that the sultry dark Pelargonium below 'Lord Bute', 

A particularly dark Pelargonium which looks like sidoides, (and I've been told that for those of you growing sidoides in the British Isles, what you have probably isn't sidoides at all but a hybrid!)

Origanum

Canna 'Durban' and Pelargonium 'Ardens'

Canna 'Erebus' one of the glauca hybrids created at Longwood gardens.

A nice unnamed red which Helen got in India (at least I think that's what she said)

Looking back towards the glasshouse.

Dianthus 'Chomley Farran', it's amazing, I'm not one to lust after Dianthus but this one I've got the hots for!
I couldn't detect a scent but you can't have everything, eh?


Adiantum?



Succulents growing perfectly in a raised bed, looking impeccable despite the high rainfall we get in Ireland.

Aloe polyphylla

Agave bracteosa



The stark but beautiful canal set in Irish limestone, exuberant colour bordering each side.

The rear of the garden is planted lushly with cool greens of ferns, grasses, Astelia and numerous Aralia.

Cautleya spicata

Look at the Woodwardia unigemmata, freakin' amazing!!!!!



Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle'

Leycesteria formosa 'golden lanterns' and the stunningly foliaged Rosa glauca. Why has this rose not been used to create hybrids with better leaves?



A cloche keeping the wet off Mandragora officinarum



So that's it, a brief tour of the Dillon Graden. I could have taken pictures of hundreds of plants and vistas so perhaps my lack of camera was a good thing!





























Lilies of summer

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I've just been looking at pictures taken in the summer, in some ways it seems like I was snapping them only a few weeks ago. Yet, being outdoors today with a cold cutting wind blowing it was very obvious that summer was some time ago.

The optimist in me knows that spring isn't so far away, the shortest day of the year is this Saturday 21st December so it won't be really long at all until the warmer days and longer daylight hours work their way around again.

Lilies are one of the most stunning groups of flowers that can be grown for summer colour. New to me this year were these two. The first, 'Tiger Babies' is an American Hybrid created by Judith Freeman, a famous Lily breeder. Apparently its parents were lancifolium and regale so it gets a slight scent from the second parent, but it's not strong. However it is a very vigorous grower and the colour is a soft peachy orange so is easy to place in the garden, here growing through the almost black foliaged Sambucus 'Black Lace'.


Next is 'Karen North', one of the North Hybrids or Mylnefield Lilies created in Scotland by Dr Chris North, a stunning and subtle hybrid group.
They're hard to track down and I'd love to be able to grow more of them in the garden, they have an elegance and grace that many Lily hybrids lack, and most are delicately scented as well.
Plentiful reddish orange spotted flowers with dark maroon dashes and gorgeous red speckling are produced in summer and it also has a stoloniferous habit, meaning it will wander about a bit below ground but without becoming invasive. It's one I'm really looking forward to bulking up in the garden.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

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Slugs, they're a bit of a problem.
Many gardeners are in a bit of a quandary when it comes to them. They feel slightly guilty about controlling them, especially using poisonous pellets in these environmentally responsible times. But then, they also have a major issue with them eating prized plants.

We're told to use the organic and supposedly harmless (to wildlife, pets and people, not slugs and snails) pellets based on iron phosphate. But after recent reading I'm not so sure if they're anywhere near as safe as we've been led to believe.
The poor, confused gardener then feels that their only hope is to resort to using the deterrent method for dealing with the problem.
Try coffee grounds he's told. So off to Starbucks he goes and grabs a couple of bags to spread liberally around the base of Hosta plants. After a few days the slugs outright ignore the fine mulch and slide right across, presumably having a feeding frenzy while high on caffeine, meaning they can eat twice as much leaf in half the time.
Build up a ring of crushed egg shells around the plant, the books say. I refuse. It might work but I haven't tried it. I've tried composting egg shells but they take an age to break down, then when you spread your compost as mulch there are unsightly flecks of shell all over the surface. I certainly don't want an ugly ring of broken shell that will detract from the plant that its designed to protect.
Nematodes are an option, but such methods of control bring back traumatic memories of Sigourney Weaver in the Alien films. Something I try not to think about, having watched them at a much younger age than I should have been allowed.
Then there is the method of partially sinking a ring of copper in the ground completely encircling the plant, along comes Mr (and Mrs, 'cos they're both at the same time) Mollusc, (s)he approaches the succulent Hosta, thinking that the low wall of copper is a an easily surmounted obstacle. 'Ha, think that will stop me do you? (s)he scoffs, but the gardener has the last laugh as the copper gives the unsuspecting slug a mild electric shock which stops it in its tracks, so off it must go with its slimy tail between its nonexistent legs.
But the now confident gardener has not won yet, those cunning and acrobatic gastropods have another trick up their metaphorical sleeves.

Enter Super Slug.
Super Slug is a wily, nimble, but secretive character, rarely seen and not often spoken of. Like the fabled Loch Ness monster, some photographic evidence does exist but it is often unverified, grainy and poor in quality, much like the snap below taken by yours truly.


Super Slug eschews slithering over the ground like mere mortal molluscs.
Not for him(her) the daily drudge of sliding through mulch, over spiky gravel or across shards of broken egg shell, (s)he will not suffer the pain of electric shocks from your ring of impenetrable copper tape.
(S)he scales a tree and slithers along an overhanging branch, clambers to a porch roof, up your garage wall or some other high vantage point. It then produces a thick and strong slime mix and slowly but surely lowers its leaf munching body down onto the prized plant, bypassing all the high tech security measures that the smug gardener has put in place. I mean, abseiling slugs, really?? What will thy think of next to outwit us poor hapless souls?

Having witnessed this event last summer the gardener feels that he now has only one option left in his arsenal, garlic spray. But it seems that the resourceful slug is always one step ahead, so it's likely that they will develop a taste for Hosta and Canna leaf salad with a nice dressing of homemade garlic spray.
The only hope, if they do chew the treated plants, is that any potential mates will be put off any thoughts of amore as their breath will smell so bad, thus ultimately decreasing their numbers.

Well, that's the plan anyway.....

Bargain bulbs

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Ah crap, I've done it again.

When is a bargain not actually a bargain?
When you buy an excessive amount of anything, including bulbs.

As I said, Crap.
That's pretty much what I'm thinking now that I have to plant this lot. Late, much too late, they should have been in the ground weeks ago.

I'm a sucker for a sale on plants and bulbs are no different, add a 75% off sticker and I'll almost buy anything. I'm an exotic plant nut, so these almost grotesque parrot Tulips kinda fit in.

Dwarf Narcissus can be squeezed in anywhere and die back relatively unobtrusively, so you don't have the same problem that occurs with the rank leaved large hybrids.


A pink Muscari? Hmmmm, we'll see if it's worth the garden space being a nice clean pink, or if it's a dirty murky colour.....


 I get excited just looking at the picture below, the potential explosion of colour that awaits in the spring. :)


Alliums. Can a garden ever have enough Alliums. I'd say NO!!


Weather permitting tomorrow will be spent trying to get a load more of them in the ground as well as a bit of a reshuffle of existing plants in the front garden,


Happy New Year!

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Well tomorrow marks the beginning of another year, the festive period is coming towards its end and soon this years decorations will be coming down.
It's been a great year all in all. The garden has been so so in parts, I want it to be so much better next summer, with plans and schemes afoot to make it a great space.

I gave my first two gardening lectures, the first in Belfast and the second in Dublin at the prestigious National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin.

I admit, when I saw the size of the lecture theater I had to take a very sharp intake of breath!
But I needn't have worried, they were a very friendly, attentive and interactive audience.
Who knows there this all will lead in the future.....

I've also met some new gardening friends, and I hope the four of us manage to do a bit of garden visiting in 2014.

Fingers crossed the incoming year is mild and that we don't get the kind of freak weather experienced in Northern Ireland last March, with excessive amounts of snow that stayed for weeks.

I'm not one for New Years resolutions or any of that nonsense, but here's to a bigger, better and happy 2014, where the days are sunny and warm and ample rain falls, but only at night. 


This is gonna be epic

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Pepperoni pizza, currently in the oven and fluffing up nicely.

Book learnin'

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It's winter, I'm not a fan of winter. I actively dislike it.
That's not entirely true, I like the first sniff of coldness in the run up to Christmas with frost in the air, when it's chilly but dry. Then the holidays come and go the decorations are taken down. The cold light dawns on new years day and and then it's back to work and many of us feel that post festivities slump. Winter drags on, and on and the proper cold weather hasn't even hit yet.
Late January and February are when the worst weather normally arrives and if we're going to get snow it tends to be around then.
Now's the time to retreat indoors with a roaring fire in the grate and get to reading, I've been collecting books for a few months and am looking forward to gettin' to readin'


An eclectic selection, eh? Food, Whiskey and gardening, my great obsessions.

A bit of plant hunting, old school with Frank Kingdon-Ward and more modern day with Roy Lancaster.

I've already read Plant Breeding last spring, but I want to have another go, I enjoyed it so much.
As yet I'm reserving judgement on 'What A Plant Knows', it's not my sort of book usually, but it's good to try new things...

I've more plans for the front garden, I carried out a bit of an overhaul last spring but wasn't happy with the result, it was much too softly and herbaceously floral. More spikes and architectural plants are the way forward methinks, hopefully it will actually come together this time.

Dan Pearson writes well, I enjoy reading his words and he makes me think more holistically about what I'm doing and how I need to plant and plan for my conditions. 

The most difficult decision facing me now is deciding which book I'm going to make a start with....



Dhu Varren Garden

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Back in July 2013 a few of us intrepid Irish exotic gardeners arranged a meet with our friends Mark and Laura at their garden, Dhu Varren outside Milltown, Co. Kerry.
Mark is originally from Northern Ireland and Laura from County Tipperary, but they chose to live in the mild south west of the island so that they could cultivate the extensive range of exotic and unusual plants that Mark covets.
Since 2001 they have built their garden on this wet two and a half acre site which was originally a farm small holding in a previous life.
It has come a bit of a way since then......
The area to the front of the house is very naturalistic in appearance, there's a pond surrounded by Gunnera and reeds and a stonking big four meter high triple headed Dicksonia antartica.
This behemoth has been through quite a lot, during a cold snap Mark and Laura arrived home from a trip to find that it had fallen into the pond and was trapped under a thick layer of ice. When the thaw eventually came they had to enlist the help of a local farmer who managed to haul it back into an upright position with his tractor. It looks none the worse for wear despite its ordeal.


To the side of the house is a sign of things to come, an extensive 'rockery' has been created. Christened Red Rock Canyon after the colour of the enormous sandstone boulders that it has been built from, this area is a more Mediterranean than Milltown.
There are no dwarf conifers and Heathers in this rockery, spikies are the order of the day.

These Trachycarpus fortunei will add an exotic canopy as they mature.

Cistus line the path that snakes along the 'valley' floor.

Beschoneria albiflora.

 Multi trunked Yucca, looking really good with the old foliage removed.

A Furcrea, probably parmentieri

One of the best looking groups of Kniphofia northiae I've seen. The secret to avoiding brown withered tips is copious water but the ground must be extremely free draining at the same time.

Spikey and arid, yet still manages a lushness that I really enjoy seeing.

At the rear of the house things take another direction completely with a stunning Japanese tea house and Koi pond. Some of the fish here were absolute monsters but due to reflections I didn't manage to get a photo of them.

Some exotic enthusiasts

The detail was amazing, imagine the water flowing through each of these on its way down during a rain shower.



 Phyllostachys growing through a carpet of Mind Your Own Business, Soleirolia soleirolii.

Schefflera delavayi, who couldn't love this plant?! Mine has some way to go being only six inches high...

A new addition since my last visit, perhaps a more traditional looking rockery but the plants used are anything but ordinary.

Next there's an area where Mark grows many trees and Bamboos either side of a raised wooden boardwalk. What with discussing and discovering so many amazing woody plants I was too distracted to remember to take any pictures. DOH!!

 Ligularia veitchana

Petasites japonicus var. giganteus, I keep mine in a huge pot with a saucer of water beneath, there's no way I'm letting this free in the ground in my tiny garden.




 A tall Tetrapanax papyrifera 'Rex'


 Gunnera leaf, phone for scale.

The new silvery finger like fronds emerging on Cycas revoluta, looks like alien tentacles? Just me? OK.



Schefflera taiwaniana, rock hard in most coastal areas of Ireland and unbeatable in shade.

Cyathea medullaris, The Mamaku or black Tree Fern from the north island of New Zealand.
This is another lust worthy plant, and I'm now on my third attempt with it. They're hard to track down but I've managed to find another and had it shipped over from the Netherlands to be tortured cosseted in Ireland. It's not very hardy so needs overwintering under cover or extensive wrapping and insulation to keep out the cold.
I'm determined that this time I will finally succeed!!!!!!!

A potentially rampant spreader, but Tropaeolum ciliatum is a lovely herbaceous climber and one that I'd consider introducing to my own garden. I do grow invasive plants but something about this one scares me a bit.

 But then look at it here twining up a Bamboo culm, so innocent looking.

Look at the spines on the leaf surface of this un! Seriously cool plant! Zanthoxylum laetum

Schefflera macrophylla, outdoors!! Mine will not, sadly, ever get to experience such a thing. The last one I grew carked it during its first mild winter outdoors, I don't want that to happen its replacement.

Can a garden ever have enough varieties of Schefflera, nope.
I think I'd chop them like I did with mine, though I know their natural tendency is to rocket straight up.

 The unheated arid greenhouse is full of cool succulents that seem to be enjoying life.



You have to feel the felted leaves of Sinningia leucotricha, the closest thing I can liken them to is a Labrador puppies ear. You gotta love this plant, growing from an enormous swollen caudex. Coming from a seasonally dry climate, the leaves and stems are discarded over winter leaving the woody swollen tuber in view.
I'll get my hands on one of these some day, when I have appropriate overwintering facilities.


The 'Tropical' house is jam packed with all sorts of cool stuff.

So much that you really need Mark on hand to point out the 50% of plants that you've missed.

Hedychium wardii, some day my little baby will produce a big fat club of flowers just like these.....



Finally, a view of the herb and butterfly garden, one of Laura's spaces, believe it or not the giant Miscanthus are growing in soil the depth of the railway sleepers. The whole area is covered with a layer of concrete, a remnant from its previous life as a farmyard, so the plants are growing in very shallow soil, yet they thrive.
Mark is eyeing it up as a potential space for yet another glasshouse......


Winter colour

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My favourite plant in the garden this week is the sedge Carex oshimensis 'Everillo'. I say this week but it's really a year round plant.

I grow this in a raised area underneath a Sycamore (in the UK a Sycamore is Acer Pseudoplatanus and not a Platanus) so it's got a tough set of conditions to deal with. Dryness at the roots does not appear to cause it any trouble and it gets no direct sunshine so it's an ideal contender for that difficult dry shady spot, where it adds a splash of brightness. I think it's best grown on a height so the long ever(lemon and lime)green leaves can cascade gracefully otherwise they will flap and trail on the ground. It'd also be a great contender for a tall pot, looking as good in winter as it does in summer,that's something I must do myself, get another and put it in a pot at the back of my house where it's shady.
I spend a few minutes a couple of times a year pulling out withered leaves but other than that it's remarkably trouble free. Luckily my garden doesn't suffer their depredations but it's also apparently resistant to deer munching which would come in handy for those of you who are regularly visited by Bambi's hungry cousins. Hardy too, it'll grow anywhere in the UK and down to zone 5a in the USA.
Looks can deceive as although it looks like a grass but is actually a sedge, and appeared as a sport from Carex o. 'Evergold' in an Irish nursery.

It'd look perfect among large foliaged plants such as Hostas but of course they're not so good with dry shade, so I'm trying to find other plants that will compliment it and also grow in the harsh conditions. Astelia nervosa 'Westland' grows nearby and does well but the hunt continues for other good bedfellows.

You've got mail

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I love ordering stuff online, be it books (either garden or food related), guff from Ebay (almost always garden related) or plants.
In Northern Ireland there are very few nurseries that supply the sort of plants that I like to grow, so I either have to buy them when I'm away on holidays and smuggle them home (not really, there's free movement of plants within Europe) or rely on mail order.
Buying plants online is a great experience, there's a whole world of cool stuff available out there. The only down sides are that you can't see what you're buying before hand so you're relying on the honsty of the seller to provide good health plants.
It's also incredibly easy to get carried away and order more than you wallet or available garden space allows.
Last Autumn I received word that an exotic nursery were selling off many of their plants to concentrate on the seed selling side of the business. They were offloading their Canna tubers so I had to take a look.
It's almost impossible to find Cannas offered for sale that don't come pre-infected with various viruses, which will stunt the plants and quickly spread to your uninfected Canna plants through sap sucking insects such as aphids or propagation. Faced with the prospect of being able to buy plants that I may never see available again I went a bit mad and bought around seventeen or so different forms. Where they're going to go if they resprout in spring will lead to much head scratching.

A few years back I had a stunning Cyathea medullaris growing in a pot, this tree fern hails from the south-west Pacific with its range extending from Fiji to New Zealand, with most of the population there being found on North Island. It's known as Mamaku in the Maori language or the black tree fern in English due to its jet black stipes and trunk.
I love tree ferns, I mean seriously, they're one of my favourite types of plant. When I lost my grove of Dicksonia antartica to the epic winter I was a mess, ok, not really a complete mess but I was incredibly anxious while I waited for months to see if they would unfurl new croziers. So when they didn't I was mightily peeved for quite some time.
Cyathea medullaris is even less hardy and was of course wiped out that same bad winter. I've been hankering to replace it ever since, but they're rare as hen's teeth unless you're willing to pay a fortune for a trunked plant.
I finally managed to track one down from at this nursery in the Netherlands and couldn't resist ordering.
A few weeks ago this large box arrived after me tracking its progress online as it traveled across western Europe.
.

I'm sure you can imagine my excitement tearing into it!

But, I realised after cutting through the packaging tape that this was going to be a more delicate procedure that I was expecting, unless the kitchen was going to end up looking like the floor of a barn.


First out was a Strelitzia nicolai, this'll be a summer resident in the garden, overwintered indoors somewhere with high ceilings as it's potentially a biggy.

Then I extracted Yucca rostrata, looking very much like a small Cordyline australis, but eventually a stunning plant. I'd really like a few trunked plants but will make do with this baby in the mean time.

Finally I uncover the Cyathea medullaris. It's big, with a wide wingspan despite only just beginning to form a small trunk. 
I'm impressed.

All three on the kitchen table, I'm a happy man.


A nice fat juicy crozier waiting for a bit of spring warmth before it unfurls.

Hopefully this one does better for me long term than the last, I will torture cosset it in a pot until it's to large to manhandle under cover for winter (an unheated greenhouse) so here's hoping for a nice run of mild winters so it can eventually reach gargantuan proportions. 

The straw came in handy too, as you'll see in the next post.......













The final straw

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Ok, excuse the less than snappy title, but I do enjoy a cheesy pun as much as the next, err, fan of puns.

I don't normally bother wrapping my Musa basjoo plants for winter, sometimes this works out fine for me, at others not to well. I've grown it for quite a few years now and some winters I lose all top growth while others it comes through intact.
It's a root hardy banana that originates from China and can stand a lot of cold, the portion below ground that it, the trunks (pseudo stems really) can take a bit of frost but if it starts to get too cold they will freeze solid and die back. This isn't really a problem if you live in a climate with a guaranteed warm spring and reliable summer warmth. In maritime north western Europe we do not receive this kind of weather, spring can be a bit of a start stop affair taking some time to gather up a head of steam, subsequently some plants that need warmth to get going can be slow to restart.
So with a large box of straw that had been used as packing around some plants I bought I decided to give my bananas a bit of protection a while back.
So far winter has been very mild, but who knows what the weather could throw at us in the next few weeks and I don't want to lose any height from the pseudo stems this time.

A cage of wire was placed around each stem, then secured in place with bamboo canes which I weaved through the mesh and pushed deeply into the soil to give a firm anchorage.


The it's a simple matter of filling the wire cage with the straw, packing it in well but not too tightly



When the wire cage is full it's a good idea to give it some form of waterproof cover. Ever mindful of the aesthetic quality of my handy work I racked my brains to come up with something suitable. A polythene bin liner was the only option apparent.
I think you'll agree that it has become quite an attractive feature in the winter garden. Not.


Ugly as they have turned out they'll do the trick and ensure maximum stem height survives until spring comes along and really only need to stay until the end of March or so.
Afterwards the straw will also be a useful addition to the compost heap to add dry bulk.



Wordless Wednesday

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Petasites japonicus var. giganteus blooms

Ulster Alpine Society spring show

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When April comes around it's time for the Alpine society's spring show at Greenmount College outside Antrim town.
Among other disciplines Greenmount teaches Horticultural courses so I was interested to see what the grounds were like as well as attending the show.
The  area used to be a large estate owned by the Thompson family with the manor house dating from the 1820s

After changing hands it was sold to the Goverment in 1910 where it was transformed into an agricultural college.
I do like a good weeping Ash, Fraxinus excelsior 'Pendula', they've a bit of an Addam's family look to them.

The college buildings are the usual uninspiring utilitarian architecture that you'd expect from a school campus. With the usual boring shrub collection.

But what's that on the gable wall?


Ahh, a green wall. Kind of.


Some plants appear to have done very well, others not so good. It doesn't really stand up well to close (or distant) scrutiny but perhaps that's unfair after taking a winter bashing.



The Dianthus looked relatively happy

As did the Ivy, but I did kinda wonder what the point of Ivy in a green wall is, surely you could just grow it on the wall without all this palaver.

The reason for the show is a competition between entrants for the best plant in each category. I personally go more for the members' sale, as you can pick up all sorts of unusual plants, as well as peruse the stalls of the nurseries who sell their wares.
Despite arriving at opening time I'd already missed out on the pick of the plants as a group had swooped in early, bought the most choice plants and promptly left. 
Still, no matter, I was happy with what I got on the day.


Woodwardia unigemmata at the back, a stunning fern. I've got one that needs to find a suitable spot in the garden, but it has a BIG wingspan.

A cute little Primula.

Rather worryingly I seem to be increasingly attracted to 'old lady' plants, so this auricula came home with me. It has a really nice incense type scent.

 These small uns were little larger than a finger nail.


I spent a happy half hour going through the Scottish Rock Garden Club seed list and picked out a few interesting bits and bobs.

Now onto the main hall to view the plants on display.

 Being April, Trilliums feature heavily.

 I loved thus unnamed Saxifraga species

Its purple bobbly flowers

and tiny silvery leaves


Celmisias are cool little plants, I could see myself building a collection of these in future years

 Yes, it really was that golden!


and a fine leaved silver species

Cute little Narcissus

I had lust for this dark Fritallaria affinis var. tristulis

and Tropaeolun azureum looked good

I find it hard to believe that it's a Nasturtum, but of course it is.

I spotted this small Astelia nivicola and immediately thought of Dangergarden for some reason.

Gypsophila aretioides 'caucasica'

A really nicely scented Paeonia broteroi

and a Soldanella carpatica x pusilla grown to perfection and covered in hanging blooms

Pleione shantung

Afterwards I went for a quick walk around the walled garden, it's all very neat and tidy and I realise it was early in the year, but I was kinda expecting a bit, you know, more. 
I'm sure they're turning out excellent well qualified pupils but there was little in the grounds to inspire or excite.

The Dicksonias suffered like so many others from the bad winter a few years back and still haven't been removed.

This golden leaved Symphytum really stood out among the greens, I wonder if it holds onto the vibrant yellow or if it fades through the summer. 



 The glasshouse in the formal walled garden is quite a grand structure




Mind how you go!




As I left I noticed a drift of Muscari latifolium which were flourishing and alive with bumble bees.
*Note to self must get more of these.






Logan Botanic Garden, Port Logan, Scotland

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Back in March I spent a few days over in Scotland and finally, after many years of trying had finally managed to arrange my time to allow long enough to spare a few hours to visit Logan botanic garden before getting the ferry back to Ireland.
It's a bit out of the way, being situated near the west coast in Dumfries and Galloway, south of Stranraer. Its positioning means that it is washed by the warmth of the gulf stream, a warm current of waters that originates on the opposite side of the Atlantic off the coast of Florida. It's due to the Gulf stream that the northerly latitudes of Europe have much more moderate winter temperatures than would be expected for an area as far north as southern Alaska and means we can grow many unexpected exotics.
Originally part of the next door Logan estate, Logan botanic garden became a regional garden of the Royal Botanic gardens of Edinburgh back in 1969, one of three satellite gardens in Scotland that they have taken over responsibility for.

I love the architecture in this area, small whitewashed stone cottages, similar to what we'd have at home.

Fatsia polycarpa,  matt leaves which much more deeply indented than F japonica.

 Shefflera taiwaniana, I wonder if these have been pinched/pruned every so often to encourage branching.

I was intrigued by these boxes, sheltering something from the winter weather, but despite trying to peak through I was unable to work out what exactly they were protecting.

I really liked this urn built from pieces of slate, perhaps something to attempt at some point in the future.

Turning around and looking in the other direction there was a large cord tree Carmichaelia/Chordospartium stevensonii

This New Zealand native is quite rare in the wild due to habitat loss, I'd like to see it covered in its mauve flowers some time.

 In a protected corner near the cafe (yes, I partook in cake) Aechmea distichanthia seems to be doing relatively well.

and a Protea was thinking about blooming as well, though it's a bit of a wonky grower.

I've a bit of a thing for Eucalyptus trees, just don't ask me to attempt to identify them.


Especially ones with long slim Willowy leaves.

 In contrast this Ilex had very large exotic leathery leaves.

Wollemia nobilis has established well and is shooting for the sky. I was actually surprised at just how slim it was.

I'm mad for Cordyline indivisa, the broader the leaves the better, but it's tricky in many parts. Not too warm, and not too cold, not too dry and not too wet, as a consequence it is very prone to dying. They do well in mild wet areas of Britain and Ireland.

Polyelpsis australis native to South America and reputedly is the worlds highest altitudinal (is that a word?) woody plant. It's a member of Rosaceae and has lovely rufus coloured shaggy bark, this one needed a bit of propping to stop it form keeling over.

I can't quite make up my mind about Restios. I like them, but they can look quite untidy at times.

Saying that, the colours of  the base of the shoots is stunning

Rhododendron sinogrande was thinking about doing its thing.

Any ideas what this silvery shrub is???

Hakea epiglottis was giving me a serious case of the lusts.

Winter wrapping was still in place, protectively swaddling the Cyathea dregei plants.

Brahea armata looked good,still  snuggled down but getting ready to wake up for spring.

I've haven't managed to overwinter Fascicularia bicolor subsp bicolor, but then my attempt did coincide with pretty low winter temperatures a few years back.

The Dicksonia antarticas were on a primordial scale, with a mass underplanting of Blechnum chilense.

The leaning trunks looked great.

As did the props.

Tetrapanax aren't rare in exotic gardening circles any more, but I still love coming across them. The new growth looking like golden hands as they expand-to monsterous proportions.

Despite the relatively windswept position the Trachycarpus fortunei looked surprisingly good.

As you can see it's very open to westerly winds blowing in from the Irish sea in the distance.

I couldn't get a decent picture of Drachophyllum arboreum, but trust me, it's one hot plant.


Lagarostrobus frankliniim, a conifer with cool flailing branches going off in all directions.


 I want to get my hands on Pyrrosia eleagnifolia!

Its rhizomes snaking over the surface of a Dicksonia antartica whose trunk it is blanketing.

 Sophora tetraptera, the pea flowers are a harsh yellow but it's amazing to have such exotic, waxy blooms this early in the year.

More treeferns

A triple trunker, something you don't see to often.

Hairy Magnolia buds

Purple peeping through

  and bursting out all over. Magnolia campbellii subsp. mollicomata 'Lanarth'

We've many venerable old Cordylines like this in coastal areas of Ireland, but you still have to stand in awe when you see them.

and then we're back at the entrance with another mass planting of Trachycarpus.

Despite it being so early in the year there was still plenty to see, now I just have to try to get over in summer some time soon.










Tremenheere Sculpture Garden, Cornwall.

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Back in July we hopped on the overnight ferry from Belfast to Birkenhead, crossed the Irish sea and headed southwards through England 'til we reached the bottom, our destination being Cornwall. It's a bit of an epic trip but worth it for having the comfort and freedom of having your own car.
Our base for the week was the beautiful coastal town of St. Ives, it's a bit of a busy tourist hot spot but luckily wasn't overly crowded despite being July.
Incidently, if you find yourself in St Ives and are a bit peckish, some of the best fish and chips we had (a must on a seaside holiday) came from the takeout at Porthminster cafe on Portminster beach, where you can enjoy your food sitting on the beach.
If you're a fan of waffles, (and who of sound mind isn't?) you must try those on offer from Waffleicious on the harbour, the range of toppings available is expansive, (as will be your waistline, they're plenty big enough to share) but any combination involving chocolate and clotted cream is a winner in my book. Watch out for the seagulls though, they will literally swoop in and grab your tasty morsel out of you hand.

Anyways, enough about food, (you can tell it's close to dinner time as I write) the reason for this post is to share some pictures of our visit to Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, close to Penzance, on the south Cornish coast.

You enter the garden (after purchasing you ticket from the lovely visitor centre and perhaps stopping for some delicious looking food) by wandering up a lane to the rear. The first area of garden that we encountered was a pool surrounded by lush planting, but I was slightly underwhelmed, I totally get the look that they're going for, wild and lush but as a first impression maker it didn't do much for me.




I did love the wooden detailing on the log seating


and great for keeping your butt off the damp wood.

 Some one was having a bit of fun with the rocks

As we emerged from the trees I began to get much more excited when I saw the view that stretched out below.


 Sculpture.....

 Agave celsii, in bloom

and closer

 Anigozanthos flavidus, happily blooming away in the great outdoors

It's not for nothing that it's common name is the Kangaroo paw, with those furry flowers.

Delosperma was blooming abundantly


and various Agave were growing big and fat

The Minotaur

Looking down over the arid planting

I really liked the textural and colour contrast between the Stipa and the Agave

Turning around to face the other direction I was greeted with the stunning view of the rocky St Michael's mount in the distance



Beauties

 Crocosmia, invaluable for late summer colour

The building to the left in this picture is the entrance to a chamber with a large elliptical hole in the ceiling where you can watch the sky, as the clouds rush by overhead. Beautiful, relaxing and providing a restfult contemplative space I'm sure, when conditions are right.

Sadly our visit coincided with a rather flat cloudy day.

Bocconia frutescens, up until now I didn't 'get' this plant, while others raved about it.

Having seen it in person I'm now a convert and need to track one down.


Butia capitata, are these plant that we grow in the UK now all called odorata?

Musella lasiocarpa, I've never seen this in flower before, an interesting sight, dunno if I'd describe it as a thing of beauty though.


I've a thing for members of Proteaceae, they're incredibly exotic in appearance for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, represented by Banksia in this instance.


I wish I could get away with Cycas revoluta planted outside permanently.


This has to be the iggest clump of Musa sikkimensis that I've ever come across, sadly winter, while normally mild for me, just drags on that bit too long. As a result, rot always sets in by spring when I've tried it out over winter.

Look at the leaves on the young shoots

Pretty exotic?

Signaled by the presence of the Bananas we descend into the moist lower woodland area, all lush and leafy with plenty of ferns

and Scheffleras


and Colocasias, masses of them.

 My favourite fern, Cyathea medullaris, an enormous black stemmed beauty.


New plantings of interesting stuff can be found if you look


 The palms will be stunning in a few years

as will the plantation of Phoenix canariensis on the lawn.

Tremenheere is an incredibly exciting new garden that will only get better as time passes and the plantings establish, I look forward to revisiting in a few years to see how it has progressed and what interesting changes have taken place.
If you're in Cornwall it's a must see.





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