Schefflera taiwaniana
Fine, I give in!
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.
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
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?
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
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.
Tiger Lily
Autumn dig.
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.
Munch, munch.
"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.
The top of the plant has been potted up in gritty compost and should re root.
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.
Autumn harvest
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.
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:
The Dillon Garden, Dublin. July 2013
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.....
Lilies of summer
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?
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
When is a bargain not actually a bargain?
When you buy an excessive amount of anything, including bulbs.
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.
Happy New Year!
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.
This is gonna be epic
Book learnin'
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.
Dhu Varren Garden
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......
There are no dwarf conifers and Heathers in this rockery, spikies are the order of the day.
Beschoneria albiflora.
A Furcrea, probably parmentieri
Spikey and arid, yet still manages a lushness that I really enjoy seeing.
Some exotic enthusiasts
The detail was amazing, imagine the water flowing through each of these on its way down during a rain shower.
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.
Schefflera taiwaniana, rock hard in most coastal areas of Ireland and unbeatable in shade.
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
I'm determined that this time I will finally succeed!!!!!!!
Look at the spines on the leaf surface of this un! Seriously cool plant! Zanthoxylum laetum
I think I'd chop them like I did with mine, though I know their natural tendency is to rocket straight up.
Mark is eyeing it up as a potential space for yet another glasshouse......
Winter colour
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
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.
The final straw
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.
Wordless Wednesday
Ulster Alpine Society spring show
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.
I spent a happy half hour going through the Scottish Rock Garden Club seed list and picked out a few interesting bits and bobs.
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
and a fine leaved silver species
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
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
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.
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.
Especially ones with long slim Willowy leaves.
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.
Brahea armata looked good,still snuggled down but getting ready to wake up for spring.
The leaning trunks looked great.
Lagarostrobus frankliniim, a conifer with cool flailing branches going off in all directions.
Its rhizomes snaking over the surface of a Dicksonia antartica whose trunk it is blanketing.
Purple peeping through
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.
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.
and closer
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.