tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40381158385834153132023-11-16T05:20:14.008-08:00A Year At Great DixterMaggie Tran is the Christopher Lloyd Scholar 2012-13 at Great Dixter Gardens, East Sussex. Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.comBlogger218125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-65148460597345628212014-05-29T14:27:00.000-07:002014-05-31T08:59:55.029-07:00New adventuresThis blog is now finished, to see my current work please go to <a href="http://hortiventure.com/"><b>hortiventure.com</b></a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtwK5XRL2ewuv1ZNDq2OxR0rRST1rDIHpH4A58PWjwOi4r1NiTrO_MaT0bybez9Gg7MC73FvGL8Dkjc_euh3Htf-0VlQvpl7vLRXwhOP36I2I9AzBkc-vxmI1x9sTCGgGHfkT_fjE0BHA4/s1600/hortiventure.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtwK5XRL2ewuv1ZNDq2OxR0rRST1rDIHpH4A58PWjwOi4r1NiTrO_MaT0bybez9Gg7MC73FvGL8Dkjc_euh3Htf-0VlQvpl7vLRXwhOP36I2I9AzBkc-vxmI1x9sTCGgGHfkT_fjE0BHA4/s1600/hortiventure.jpg" alt="Maggie Tran Hortiventure" /></a></b></div>Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-67145095325819399832014-05-29T14:21:00.000-07:002016-01-08T12:26:45.038-08:00A final postSorry for the delay, but finally here is my very last post for this blog. Time moves fast, the two new scholars that started at Dixter when I had finished have already been plugging away at their blogs - the cycle of the garden goes round again, through <a href="http://www.greatdixter.co.uk/learning/student-placements">new eyes and voices</a>.<br />
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The experience I have had here will have a profound effect on me, it is yet too soon for me to have even fully assimilated it. But it is like what my friend James said, "New things will be learnt from it. Even though I am not there, it keeps giving".<br />
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It has often been said of Dixter, but in my case it has definitely been true - the people who I have met and connected with here have made much of the experience. People who have inspired me and some who have even become close friends.<br />
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I have started my new adventures! Ideas, thoughts and explorations will be highlighted in my new blog: <a href="http://www.hortiventure.com/">Hortiventure</a> - please do join me in the next stages of my adventures.<br />
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Here are some photos that I like but never got published:<br />
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This is the type of planting that goes on at Dixter that makes my heart melt (I have to point out that gardener Rachael Dodd was responsible for the <i>Panicum virgatum</i> planting). <br />
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This rush of colour makes me feel like the much needed vitamin D boost from the sun. <br />
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I didn't fully understand these plants until I saw them dramatically lit by natural light in a certain way that seemed to make them glow - <i>Valeriana pyrenaica</i> and <i>Melanoselinum decipiens</i><br />
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A fully opened poppy. <br />
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Layers in the Long Border. <br />
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Possibly my favourite part of the garden - <i>Inula magnifica</i><br />
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Thank you everyone who supported me and read this blog.<br />
My journey continues at <a href="http://www.hortiventure.com/">www.hortiventure.com</a>Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-65628483301001512362013-10-08T12:19:00.002-07:002013-10-08T12:19:34.531-07:00A splendid last planting (but not the last post)Tues 27th Aug<br />
Weather: Hot, a day where the sun felt like it was beating down on us. Up to 21°C.<br />
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One of the jobs given to me in my last week at Dixter, was the delightful task of planting up The Solar Garden, which was more than I could ask for. I have seen it through many phases, from planting tulip bulbs, to peasticking over a hundred antirrhinums in which Leo Böhm joined me in this painstaking task. And to whom I would like to dedicate the first pictures to:<br />
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We have had a fair few days of very windy weather this year, and even when the garden was being blown apart. These <i>Antirrhinum majus</i> 'La Bella Bronze & Red Series' remained proudly standing and barely ruffled.<br />
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I worked with James and Siew Lee. We placed boards over the lawn and methodically & almost meditatively we went through the whole bed taking out all the snapdragons and peasticks. Some of the better peasticks we saved, in case we needed any that season, and 10 - 12 strong plants of each colour of antirrhinums, which we put in recycled compost bags in crates. We dug out and collected bulbs of <i>Tulipa</i> 'Daydream' to store away for winter and then dug the bed over very thoroughly, so that it was a lovely fine tilth.<br />
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We looked at what stock we had and brought up a handful of things to try out, including a lot of <i>Salvia Splendens</i> 'Bonfire' and 'Flares' (shorter than 'Bonfire') which we had originally grown with that area in mind, <i>Coleus palisandra</i> and <i>Erigeron annuus</i>. We played around with these and made different combinations, even laying them out fully to see what they would look like. The <i>Coleus palisandra</i> although a wonderful deep dark purple plant, we decided was too dark, it seemed to just absorb colour and just got lost in the planting, and we didn't have enough of it to make something of it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-UvQGhfbJ-MsqsjIIjCWifF8CWippZeBc1rsH0ydQDyVaLdrDrYUZLSRJLLbw1Vfi0-sytNlv1TGzprR0bbbtyIIPKZJCjcnNgJ4qZyDPwzXZn0ekj6vpeH93i_U-rWZq7KlFPItZlOA/s1600/DSCN0057+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-UvQGhfbJ-MsqsjIIjCWifF8CWippZeBc1rsH0ydQDyVaLdrDrYUZLSRJLLbw1Vfi0-sytNlv1TGzprR0bbbtyIIPKZJCjcnNgJ4qZyDPwzXZn0ekj6vpeH93i_U-rWZq7KlFPItZlOA/s1600/DSCN0057+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lining out Salvia splendens 'Bonfire' and 'Flares'. Bonfire is a taller plant, Flares is smaller but<br />
with a lot of flowers and is also a bit brighter. </td></tr>
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In the end we decided to definitely start placing out the taller <i>Salvia splendens</i> 'Bonfire' at the back. Then using this one and 'Flares' we tried to create an undulation of red. This type of Salvia would not usually be my obvious choice, my first gut reaction to them I had to admit was that I found them hideous, but I always like to challenge feelings like this. If anywhere can do it, it is Dixter who can show me how a typical council bedding plant can be totally subverted and made into something extraordinary. And it was not an exception this time. Even I could see what an amazing impact they made when they were all lined out. We laid them out in the bed, then Fergus came and gave his magic touch and made them even better. Then he had the idea of putting some <i>Euphorbia donii </i>amongst them. Surprisingly the bright lime green of the euphorbia actually seemed to mellow the colour of the salvias.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close up of <i>Salvia splendens</i> 'Bonfire' and <i>Euphorbia donii. </i></td></tr>
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In the end we decided to plant some <i>Erigeron annuus</i> at the back at various spots, to spray out. The whole planting is very experimental - it is to be seen how long the salvias and euphorbia will last, and it is an area where we want the plants to go on for as long as possible.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Solar Garden bed after planting.</td></tr>
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<br />Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-73930833976602281922013-10-08T12:13:00.000-07:002013-10-08T12:13:20.463-07:00Tidying up the garden stockWeds 20th Aug<br />
Weather: Hot. Around 20°C.<br />
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Today we went through the garden stock, getting rid of, weeding, tidying up and organising. Siphoning off excess for sale in the nursery and to donate to Northiam Horticultural Society. As a trial we did some radical cutting back of some very well furnished <i>Hosta sp</i>.<br />
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Thurs 21st Aug<br />
Weather: Sunny, up to 22°C.<br />
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Still going through the garden stock, including repotting a monster sized<i> Geranium maderense</i>. We left any dead stems as they help to prop up the plant. We organised a lot of unknown <i>Hedychium </i>and was able to at least identify <i>Hedychium forrestii</i> as they have slightly hairy leaves. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk1ALbVZhvh5PPehVFEDy_tL9cL_iHFYhuzHaqR_ipohi2BKl69Pfk7U-zk1-VNgtnB1A_SQ10p2W964N8SAf8Sivo4oyYLfyvOIp-3MSsR4okCjvkYXtF1o3XBr8HYgAYfX_o1Kzkk7M/s1600/DSCN0048+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk1ALbVZhvh5PPehVFEDy_tL9cL_iHFYhuzHaqR_ipohi2BKl69Pfk7U-zk1-VNgtnB1A_SQ10p2W964N8SAf8Sivo4oyYLfyvOIp-3MSsR4okCjvkYXtF1o3XBr8HYgAYfX_o1Kzkk7M/s1600/DSCN0048+copy.jpg" /></a></div>
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Fri 22nd Aug<br />
Weather: Hot<br />
We did more freshening up of the kitchen driveway by weeding and taking out brown bits.<br />
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Mon 26th Aug<br />
Weather: Dull in the morning and hot later in the day.<br />
Nursery duty.<br />
<br />
The meadows have started to be cut in the last week or so. It signifies the approach of autumn arriving, which though beautiful in its course is melancholic. I can't help for it to reflect my sadness for the eventuality of my leave and the end of my scholarship here. But that is because I have had a good time here, it is part of the cycle, it is an end as well as an exciting beginning where I can't wait to take the skills I have learnt at Dixter out yonder. <br />
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<span id="goog_689501296"></span><span id="goog_689501297"></span><br />Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-44891611757748074732013-10-03T03:30:00.000-07:002013-10-03T03:30:32.507-07:00Furnishing the Exotic GardenMon 12th Aug<br />
Weather: Fair<br />
Maria Castro who is the current HBGBS trainee at Fulham Palace and my peer has come to work with me at Dixter this week, and it was great to have someone with so much energy. We did more staking in the Exotic Garden - more <i>Eupatorium capillifolium</i>, <i>Amicia zygomeris </i>and<i> Dahlia australis. </i>And took out overly brown leaves of <i>Musa basjoo</i> and <i>Tetrapanax papyrifer</i>. The routine has started now, where every gardener is assigned an area to brush up and deadhead up until the garden closes again for winter. My responsibility is the Exotic Garden - a full circle to where I began when I started my scholarship. After that we staked up some <i>Amaranthus</i> 'Autumn Palette' in the Peacock Garden - this is a great amaranthus, as it starts off a light rusty orange and goes deeper, darker and more prominent as it matures.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgJMqU_OiVM5pWpEOoYMV88MHlEy0Ye5oaRDmpCIMC6afTOcsTGZFs2OXVW0_c2OPTV96727LC96EzgQu_cuxXjI2D5FD4LRSl18DBi1u12tPvM5G6lrGV-z6g4V8cJ3cy4l6BpNTStdw/s1600/DSCN0017+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgJMqU_OiVM5pWpEOoYMV88MHlEy0Ye5oaRDmpCIMC6afTOcsTGZFs2OXVW0_c2OPTV96727LC96EzgQu_cuxXjI2D5FD4LRSl18DBi1u12tPvM5G6lrGV-z6g4V8cJ3cy4l6BpNTStdw/s1600/DSCN0017+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maria staking <i>Amaranthus</i> 'Autumn Palette'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Tues 13th Aug<br />
Weather: Hot, bright and sunny.<br />
We planted in the last layer of the Exotic Garden to 'furnish' it. First we laid out a selection of plants underneath the cow shed next to the Exotic Garden, mainly from the greenhouses, so we could see what we had for our palette.<br />
<br />
We planted in <i>Hedychium sp</i>, <i>Tibouchina urvillieana</i>, <i>Musa Basjoo</i>, <i>Tagetes lemonii </i>'Martin's Mutant'. ferns including <i>Adiantum sp</i>.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm_kiSaTwkl6JyZpjFWpdqyRWNcRfpu2vJVh3WKqDMlEdgRkPc-ycIto4pxFezu_MjMrFsCkAtaKkCuSa3Pk96cepJhvwZkwYgAF2poKi-K7vZ20JedDiKT-CVW2puFJaGFAT9IrTScz4/s1600/DSCN0025+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm_kiSaTwkl6JyZpjFWpdqyRWNcRfpu2vJVh3WKqDMlEdgRkPc-ycIto4pxFezu_MjMrFsCkAtaKkCuSa3Pk96cepJhvwZkwYgAF2poKi-K7vZ20JedDiKT-CVW2puFJaGFAT9IrTScz4/s1600/DSCN0025+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Planting of <i>Tibouchina urvilleana</i>. </td></tr>
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Weds 14th Aug<br />
Weather: Changeable but comfortable, moments of sun and overcast. Up to 20°C.<br />
<br />
We carried on with more planting in the Exotic Garden, using more <i>Tibouchina urvilleana </i>& <i>Tagetes lemonii </i>(they're a great foliage plant), <i>Persicara virginana</i> 'Tobara'...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2YZcGWZKgIeKOXt2KJ1k8Z7aK3bnyP3hRXi_au4LXqbgG8gsGewKc1QAx2teRVVHyGHlaKG5eKYqew9tUY3zAYGfjl0mHp33y75Tr1hvPkQoRCi0RodPlh1W5tcidaHRvByd4sIwiBqk/s1600/DSCN0019+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2YZcGWZKgIeKOXt2KJ1k8Z7aK3bnyP3hRXi_au4LXqbgG8gsGewKc1QAx2teRVVHyGHlaKG5eKYqew9tUY3zAYGfjl0mHp33y75Tr1hvPkQoRCi0RodPlh1W5tcidaHRvByd4sIwiBqk/s1600/DSCN0019+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Persicaria virginia</i> 'Tobara' next to what I think is a type of <i>Dasylirion</i> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
- <i>Begonia metallica </i>and a <i>Phormium cookianum</i> subsp. <i>hookeri</i> 'Tricolor'<br />
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We also replaced a Impatiens bicaudata, as the previous one that had planted had become sick and dying. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9XxR4qIikjtQeEI_tVWYV3msy4IXAJnmQMEDGB0cKfxE40ci0wJ3MEVqCrNfvmXDLK1mIiEwIX0ZeAL8adKipWgRPi1wNw3jBhYu3cAdy-isVoNiGpGX9xW-5k_1Yasq9LRzptURqy4Q/s1600/DSCN0045+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9XxR4qIikjtQeEI_tVWYV3msy4IXAJnmQMEDGB0cKfxE40ci0wJ3MEVqCrNfvmXDLK1mIiEwIX0ZeAL8adKipWgRPi1wNw3jBhYu3cAdy-isVoNiGpGX9xW-5k_1Yasq9LRzptURqy4Q/s1600/DSCN0045+copy.jpg" /></a></div>
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The beds in the Exotic Garden is like mounds, so when we are planting at the edge, we dig a sort of diagonal hole down and tip the plants forward, so that it sits more naturally. <br />
<br />
We helped Fergus but mainly observing him plant out <i>Gazania sp.</i> and <i>Tagetes cinnabar</i> in the High Garden. It's always a pleasure being able to see Fergus at work, as he's so fast yet precise & intuitive. He trimmed the Tagetes in a way that created an undulation which is highly unusual, but it works!<br />
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For a section next to it we brought up some <i>Tagetes patula</i> 'Cinnabar' from the garden stock in the nursery, and positioned them out ready for planting, using stakes and string to make a temporary structure to prevent them from falling down.<br />
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Thurs 15th Aug<br />
Weather: Warm. Up to about 22°C.<br />
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We planted in the <i>Tagetes patula</i> 'Cinnabar' we had 8 or 9 plants and had to bring up almost the double again, space always absorbs more plants than you think.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRpTEzj0coek64SPlEloG3ovzFbzWyGxGa31tGHyxDhpYIiQadmVqTq5RlRCunut85RaRdKWQXHdklzqUUBp4Yw4Ek5EBLjjZUu5pC1ReKN4lCVh4ffJNSjGUu6Kzu1dE5L8pTGv1Jruc/s1600/DSCN0037+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRpTEzj0coek64SPlEloG3ovzFbzWyGxGa31tGHyxDhpYIiQadmVqTq5RlRCunut85RaRdKWQXHdklzqUUBp4Yw4Ek5EBLjjZUu5pC1ReKN4lCVh4ffJNSjGUu6Kzu1dE5L8pTGv1Jruc/s1600/DSCN0037+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The patch of <i>Tagetes Patula</i> 'Cinnabar' that we planted.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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James gave a talk on his Japan exchange at the Millenium Park Forest over lunch.<br />
<br />
Then we weeded the much needed back of the Education Room, where it is still a rough space, where excess garden & nursery stock has been temporarily planted, and where students like me can use to grow their own - I have been using it as a space to grow a few bits of my own vegetable and to do plants experiments (growing things that I have never grown to see how they grow).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiupVBaC9EJlDnnSSxbyLWkhkwsnogMho-j7RBRnUS8Nvw22tlXVxtPZ0uwlapsuKdahwSpoGsTk5PeFyhuithJOwwYvLMJ2hkJrBSM_A355dHTyFdalLCsowVZMeRNkPZPqZqTyy9Nzo0/s1600/DSCN0039+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiupVBaC9EJlDnnSSxbyLWkhkwsnogMho-j7RBRnUS8Nvw22tlXVxtPZ0uwlapsuKdahwSpoGsTk5PeFyhuithJOwwYvLMJ2hkJrBSM_A355dHTyFdalLCsowVZMeRNkPZPqZqTyy9Nzo0/s1600/DSCN0039+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We weeded in the education room but left nice self-sowers like these magnificient<br />
<i>Dipthrascus fullonum</i></td></tr>
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Fri 16th Aug<br />
Weather: The nice summer weather continues.<br />
I started the day with my morning routine of brushing up and deadheading the Exotic Garden. As we had finished the last main level of planting in the Exotic Garden we put all the unused plants back. Then we repotted some <i>Begonia grandis</i> subsp. <i>evansiana</i>.Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-91850732054657729512013-10-03T03:27:00.002-07:002013-10-03T03:27:19.526-07:00Gardeners get the best perspectiveMon 29th July<br />
Weather: Windy & rainy.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDwJwHCuhSZEPceAtDKQ8yvdYvwwhztE6acwok9APZ3g4QrL0-ipm45-6qey8YI8AloPwAKh_y1VNhOQnSoMWWL9Z0QBQMnX_kjoBYKlLobxI7vnTyUjZY1FJvK365VqNLaDsYySiKvg0/s1600/Me+in+the+undergrowth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDwJwHCuhSZEPceAtDKQ8yvdYvwwhztE6acwok9APZ3g4QrL0-ipm45-6qey8YI8AloPwAKh_y1VNhOQnSoMWWL9Z0QBQMnX_kjoBYKlLobxI7vnTyUjZY1FJvK365VqNLaDsYySiKvg0/s1600/Me+in+the+undergrowth.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Right in the midst of the jungle. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
It was very windy and we had to do emergency staking all around the garden of plants that would be affected and that we had not got round to staking yet. So we went round stabilising all <i>Verbascum olympicum</i> & <i>Verbascum </i>'Christo's Yellow Lightning'. It was a rare opportunity to go into the middle of the beds at this time of the year, which are so dense that it was quite a feat to go in and out of them and for them to remain looking undisturbed. It was great to see the border/ garden from a perspective that one usually doesn't get to see - gardeners get the best perspectives. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhasc2Yp1QPJpwoXoab4lq9bXpRb63k7BAjkbGWsLb96cfFkI1a75lbo0Mb8kvebBD-QH3K57vFDydN8Lff-Oztk2b7a_QRnq0QDQ1UEHkT8gW0y7GhFnrHMhgcpEoLpg93PFiqCfg6w3Y/s1600/DSCN9842+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhasc2Yp1QPJpwoXoab4lq9bXpRb63k7BAjkbGWsLb96cfFkI1a75lbo0Mb8kvebBD-QH3K57vFDydN8Lff-Oztk2b7a_QRnq0QDQ1UEHkT8gW0y7GhFnrHMhgcpEoLpg93PFiqCfg6w3Y/s1600/DSCN9842+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View within the border, well and truly surrounded and encompassed by plants. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
For the stakes we malleted in short chestnut poles, recycled broom handles or thick canes, then tied two sets of tarred twine around them, using the clove hitch knot and figure of 8 technique around the plant. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnpTDpZp1cuRg-uh8oPDgbZCHHiPtQ8t0fdQ6Zt3YmaNbGak0SuMtFo2VbfhpefF9FnOAC06oLsdlnOGEbJtBOwl8q_XiWvvxdunEuQOG0VwLt0U5XD0MKgo_YLNU3VqiXh_nJYttYc1Y/s1600/DSCN9853+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnpTDpZp1cuRg-uh8oPDgbZCHHiPtQ8t0fdQ6Zt3YmaNbGak0SuMtFo2VbfhpefF9FnOAC06oLsdlnOGEbJtBOwl8q_XiWvvxdunEuQOG0VwLt0U5XD0MKgo_YLNU3VqiXh_nJYttYc1Y/s1600/DSCN9853+copy.jpg" /></a></div>
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Tues 30th July<br />
Weather: Similar to yesterday<br />
<br />
We finished staking all the verbascums (there's a lot of them!)<br />
Then I went to stake a <i>Cosmos bipinnatus </i>'Purity' & <i>Rudbeckia sp.</i> The rudbeckia was actually fine, but we were just pre-empting its need for support soon. With these we used the usual staking method (just with usual green twine and a single string around the plant). We don't use many varieties of <i>Cosmos, </i>only tried and trusted ones, as we demand from them to be tall and evenly floriferous, and not many are. 'Dazzler' & 'Purity' are good reliable ones, and I have seen 'Candy Stripe' doing very well at Gravetye as well.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLbpYU-EJBAQI-8s-KWvntl5BCyk3ToGyPevGAmZ9puX4kvt1G2cIHi27KpGoJBVUL407oWgms1MOJok-woLLe5wlbZYTimverRgEfzSQWSydK0gWyuYH-Nd0LICUSJLdimI0tYsp3s8k/s1600/DSCN9956+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLbpYU-EJBAQI-8s-KWvntl5BCyk3ToGyPevGAmZ9puX4kvt1G2cIHi27KpGoJBVUL407oWgms1MOJok-woLLe5wlbZYTimverRgEfzSQWSydK0gWyuYH-Nd0LICUSJLdimI0tYsp3s8k/s1600/DSCN9956+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cosmos bipinnatus 'Purity' on a good day, with its billowy grace. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Weds 31st July<br />
Weather: Fairer, more still weather.<br />
We decided that the string tying I had done on the<i> Cosmos</i> & <i>Rudbeckia</i> was too high and now as it was easier to see (not fighting against wind and drizzle) I went to adjust them. Then work started again in the Exotic Garden.<br />
<br />
Thurs 1st Aug<br />
Weather: Really hot up to 28°C.<br />
<br />
In the Exotic Garden we are now preparing it for the third and last layer of planting - thinning out more <i>Mysotis sylvatica</i> 'Royal Blue' and <i>Verbena bonariensis </i>and staking <i>Eupatorium capillifolium</i> & <i>Impatiens bicaudata</i>.<br />
<br />
Weds 7th Aug<br />
Weather: Cooler, up to 20°C. Cloudy & overcast most of the day, slightly humid but not uncomfortable.<br />
<br />
More weeding around the <i>Hemerocallis</i> trial bed. Many have had their moment now and are over.<br />
<br />
Thurs 8th Aug<br />
Weather: Up to 22°C but felt hotter.<br />
<br />
I did some planting throughout the Long Border and plugged some gaps with the Dixter classic<i> Tagetes patula </i>'Cinnabar'<i> </i>and some <i>Geranium</i> × <i>riversleaianum '</i>Russell Pritchard'. I cut back some spent <i>Geranium pratense</i> leaves, and took out some spent <i>Centaurea cyanus</i> 'Blue Diadem', that still had a lot of colour going for it and had only just turned.<br />
<br />
Fri 9th Aug<br />
Weather: Similar to yesterday.<br />
<br />
Some tall <i>Silphium perfoliatum </i>at the back of the Long Border was leaning onto the yew hedging. So I drove some tall stakes at intervals behind the mass of plants and threaded a none slip rope between them, to prop the silphium up.Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-51820928109081989032013-10-02T05:54:00.000-07:002013-10-09T10:03:26.427-07:00The day of the Hemerocallis trialsSat 20th July<br />
Weather: Warm, overcast but dry.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvoY5BgKvW5H8Kyga5hUJiu2xod2bGo9GRnq3kGFm2RH-fKXmIvIEJoWvqWJioZkJV6iFXF4PcTwewS8LyfevQKgker3q6qzXYUliuADRuVt5kUkUR-2_dcSzRrC8iKcPt3u4bBTC1_kA/s1600/P1010943+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvoY5BgKvW5H8Kyga5hUJiu2xod2bGo9GRnq3kGFm2RH-fKXmIvIEJoWvqWJioZkJV6iFXF4PcTwewS8LyfevQKgker3q6qzXYUliuADRuVt5kUkUR-2_dcSzRrC8iKcPt3u4bBTC1_kA/s1600/P1010943+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Listening in on the experts. The swathe of daylilies on the bottom are Dixter's own stock of <i>Hemerocallis</i> <br />
'Marion Vaughn'. These were not part of the trials though, as they are already 2 or 3 years old,<br />
and all plants were in their first year. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
It was a much awaited day, where the British Hemerocallis & Hosta Society came to judge the <i>Hemerocallis</i>, They couldn't have picked a better day, overcast but warm & dry, most of the Hems had come into flower just over a week ago. The RHS Herbaceous Perennial Committee had separately come to do their meeting and it was interesting how their judging criteria are different. The BHHS society set about deadheading the flowers as they felt that they needed to be seen in the best light, whilst the RHS committee group felt it was important to leave the dead on the plants, to see how they die. I agreed that the dead should be left, as it did make a difference if they quietly shrivelled and dropped off, or melted like a flaccid balloon in a horrifyingly showy way. Also to see if flower colours faded early. But I feel both methods are valid can be accommodated in one trial, and the <i>Hemerocallis</i> did look a lot better deadheaded. It just went to prove that working out what set of criteria you chose to judge and measure a plant was important and not straightforward.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0p08Jbmjf8c42BHWPmIt1HaSFtI4q1a_wWK80GlfRGJCxk38lVkcJWkkqO7Yr-uy9YhI-RAAVKkYIZtIQPw1kMwk186d5Wvu6Shy88xTctyV6vxCiIN6TIsY-TIAanJS3kSjE7KT_a0g/s1600/P1010967+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0p08Jbmjf8c42BHWPmIt1HaSFtI4q1a_wWK80GlfRGJCxk38lVkcJWkkqO7Yr-uy9YhI-RAAVKkYIZtIQPw1kMwk186d5Wvu6Shy88xTctyV6vxCiIN6TIsY-TIAanJS3kSjE7KT_a0g/s1600/P1010967+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Being presented the almighty Hemerocallis 'Barbara Alsop' and receiving on behalf of Fergus & Dixter.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
It was one of those days that I learnt a lot through listening - what made good flowers - spacing of scapes (flowering branches) were important. How they held themselves above the foliage. The different trends of flowers. Producing red flowers have been one of the latest achievements of breeding, it was good to consider if the throat of your plant was green and yellow, as that can make a difference to how it offsets a colour, another plant when used in the border and in combination with other plants. How there have been moments that indentations or textures on a flower has been all the breeders rage. The latest trend is producing spider type daylilies with 'teeth' (indented edges). Then there are terms diploid, tetraploid and triploid used for daylilies, which basically define how much chromosomes they have and is significant to a breeder. Diploids have 22 chromosomes, tetraploid 44 and then triploid have triple that amount. The more chromosomes they have - the more they can do to it - so this is where breaks in colours, two tone and extra frills for example is able to be possible. Triploids though is rare because they are usually infertile and cannot be pollinated.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Photos courtesy of BHHS.</span>Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-33814050399540837552013-10-01T14:55:00.001-07:002013-10-02T07:29:06.801-07:00Exciting plantingMon 22nd July<br />
Weather: Hottest day of the summer so far, apparently up to 34°C!<br />
Me and Ellen finished clearing the space behind the <i>Lupinus arboreus </i>in the Peacock Garden, including taking out weeds and digging it over. Then we planted in <i>Cosmos bipinnatus</i> 'Dazzler' - a tall dark carmine pink one and watered them in well. Meanwhile setting the sprinkler on the <i>Aster latiflorus </i>var. <i>horizontalis</i> hedges.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxn7JZfekS9lh3IhvpJtcnuq9sb0AL9EoyE_TJa1RcxhfIezTE400QN5YiLPzfQZjipkeaVt6jTUmxCUFn6euu_f43x6t8sIbjLoe5sdsxV_Ao6JufzFWNi_1tT7_11BdZ1sIkefe4LeM/s1600/DSCN9954+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxn7JZfekS9lh3IhvpJtcnuq9sb0AL9EoyE_TJa1RcxhfIezTE400QN5YiLPzfQZjipkeaVt6jTUmxCUFn6euu_f43x6t8sIbjLoe5sdsxV_Ao6JufzFWNi_1tT7_11BdZ1sIkefe4LeM/s1600/DSCN9954+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the back of the Peacock Garden near where we planted out the <i>Cosmos. </i>(Left to right) <i>Lilium lancifolium</i>, <i>Phlox sp. Eryngium sp</i>. Behind these are bright pink tufts of<i> Persicaria orientalis</i> and <i>Verbascum sp</i>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Tues 23rd July<br />
Weather: Thunderstorm - first rain in weeks, heavy showers but it didn't last long.<br />
<br />
We cleared one side of the kitchen driveway, weeding and taking out dead/ brown bits. We collected some <i>Leucanthemum vulgare</i> & <i>Papaver dubium </i>subsp. <i>lecoquii</i> 'Albiflorum' (Beth's poppy) seeds. Then we cut back the dead stalks of these, and of <i>Euphorbia sp</i>. & <i>Geranium sp. </i>We saved the offcuts of <i>Leucanthemum vulgare</i> & <i>Geranium sp. </i>that still had seed heads, and took them down to the farm complex to strew in cracks and barrens spaces there.<br />
<br />
Weds 24th July<br />
Weather: 24°C, mainly sunny. Nice and cool in the morning, especially moments when it was overcast.<br />
<br />
Fergus was away today and he left us to do a juicy bit of planting by ourselves in a sizeable bed on the kitchen driveway that we had just cleared. This is really exhilarating because he usually likes to inspect the different stages of how we place out the plants and how they look after they have been planted, as he wants to keep a tight unity over the garden. So it's a quite a honour to just be left with a task like this, naturalistic planting can be quite hard and it's a great challenge. He did indicate what he thought we should plant out there - <i>Amaranthus caudatus</i> (Love Lies Bleeding) and <i>Tagetes patula, </i>but it was pretty much free reign of what we did with it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUREbniQTAaMVU0R3OLcsRW91pFLO0ovsymDDbfmHJX-Oarw06rfv3IbJbmkL5s_K0cBBt44PoEB_iOCw_nz7SRPGqbAXoefhm-Vspmc6VemcZZadWyURj1pG5FBzlo_pG8aLH1NvDpMY/s1600/DSCN9523+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUREbniQTAaMVU0R3OLcsRW91pFLO0ovsymDDbfmHJX-Oarw06rfv3IbJbmkL5s_K0cBBt44PoEB_iOCw_nz7SRPGqbAXoefhm-Vspmc6VemcZZadWyURj1pG5FBzlo_pG8aLH1NvDpMY/s1600/DSCN9523+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ellen feeling triumphant!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
So with excitement and intrepidation I worked with Ellen & Yuka to place out plants, getting experienced opinion of gardeners like Graham who has been there for a few years. Ellen had a great eye (she is from a graphic design background, is currently training in garden design and is this years Ann Wright garden design scholar at Dixter), and we worked together well intuitively. We had done a good stint together already planting out the <i>Cosmos</i> on Monday, she has also been giving me amazing assistance with my <i>Hemerocallis</i> project. Yuka valiantly accepted our choices and contributed her commitment to ambitiously get it planted out before the end of the day (it took us the day just to get all the plants and to position them).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43iCCMEiUkyJEwzYNVMjs4sjbwI2vBnDkUmLTIWRnp9RnCOiYWEr-4Tl50vQRJnANrtOD5aSSOx_ek8wf0N5hDrHuG6I2mJokg78jfhkJ1NSXLPwyyHADSxgExcJzSmGQXz8PmBN-L6Y/s1600/DSCN9856+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43iCCMEiUkyJEwzYNVMjs4sjbwI2vBnDkUmLTIWRnp9RnCOiYWEr-4Tl50vQRJnANrtOD5aSSOx_ek8wf0N5hDrHuG6I2mJokg78jfhkJ1NSXLPwyyHADSxgExcJzSmGQXz8PmBN-L6Y/s1600/DSCN9856+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Planting in the kitchen drive - below Helianthus annuus (Sunflower) 'Valentine' of <br />
<i>Tagetes patula</i> & <i>Amaranthus caudatus. </i>One of the important things to consider<br />
in planting is where the main vantage points are and how it looks specifically from those<br />
views. Then you can work out best how to place out colour and shapes, how it jumps<br />
at the eye etc. </td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3C0wqWqxBAzAQNJsn8MCyiTdf5397JJSnE7NqV2NtevFcmwDY9mM38OV1AeG42Rb297mruZriu3ljQEw6kaZHl1pPCVcwImqKOLiWQ3-Go_JD3EjqROPnnQaiCnO8ZA-SJlGV2t5mFZ4/s1600/DSCN9857+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3C0wqWqxBAzAQNJsn8MCyiTdf5397JJSnE7NqV2NtevFcmwDY9mM38OV1AeG42Rb297mruZriu3ljQEw6kaZHl1pPCVcwImqKOLiWQ3-Go_JD3EjqROPnnQaiCnO8ZA-SJlGV2t5mFZ4/s1600/DSCN9857+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close up of <i>Amaranthus caudatus </i>- these were really great to work with, as they<br />
so striking you don't need much to make an impact. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
Thurs 25th July<br />
Weather: It was cooler today - up to 24°C. More overcast moments & cool winds, the optimum weather to work in.<br />
<br />
Our planting was rated by Fergus! In fact he paid us a high compliment (not given lightly), that we had planted it out better than he would have done?! As you can imagine we were over the moon. So with gusto we went round 'finishing' the area off, weeding, staking all the sunflowers, tagetes and amaranthus and tickled the soil of the whole bed to a satisfying finish.<br />
<br />
I also gave a tour to the volunteers & workers of Dean City Farm.<br />
<br />
Fri 26th July<br />
Weather 23/24°C. Sunny with intervals of relieving clouds and breezes.<br />
<br />
After out epic plant challenge, we were each individually given our own small patch to plant up by ourselves. Mine was a sliver of bedding in one of the Peacock Garden beds, which I planted up with a yellow <i>Helenium</i> Sonnenwunder & <i>Aster</i> × <i>frikartii</i> ‘Mönch’. It is customary for us to place out the plants in the positions we want them before planting, and its usually a tight border space with lots of other plants going on, so one usually has to manoeuvre between what is being planted and what is already there. Sometimes the space is really tight, so one has to remove the plants mark (with canes) where they are to go and reposition them back in as we plant them. When you're dealing with different sized plants you also have to strategically think about how they are facing and are placed in relationship to each other and how big they are going to get. For example to make sure tall or bushier ones don't end up obscuring small, thinner ones. The general goal is to get them sitting there looking as comfortable as possible. The heleniums were hard to work with as they had gotten too big for their pot and were very brittle and had a tendency of toppling over as you position them.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4AByQCd1sFaaPtk5_kSjWVqXJLvQItcqQiUL3veam1EeD-HdYqmoKDxMPlE_GSnb_40PeNdpAQl-Mqt6zQZIkryQ6kO0y8PaZxmxoILbb18kpT2hR38AJuNor4XXcgI-qM0hniEJa-1w/s1600/DSCN9953+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4AByQCd1sFaaPtk5_kSjWVqXJLvQItcqQiUL3veam1EeD-HdYqmoKDxMPlE_GSnb_40PeNdpAQl-Mqt6zQZIkryQ6kO0y8PaZxmxoILbb18kpT2hR38AJuNor4XXcgI-qM0hniEJa-1w/s1600/DSCN9953+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What the <i>Helenium</i> & <i>Aster</i> planting looked like a few weeks later. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div>
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Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-33738791022568730822013-09-30T13:29:00.000-07:002013-09-30T13:29:02.555-07:00Grass ident 05/06/2013Grass is so common, that it is often overseen. There are great showy ornamental grasses of courses that can really add to the garden, but the common grasses are interesting if you have meadows. Also if it is a weed it is good to know what you are dealing with. And personally I find the constituents of what makes up a lawn, agriculture leyland and meadows fascinating, it can say so much and their uses are often so fundamental. Once you start seeing 'the grass' is not one green mass anymore.<br />
<br />
1. <i>Holcus lanatus</i> aka Yorkshire Fog (Poaceae family). <i>Lanatus</i> = Latin for woolly as it has a hairy texture. Distinguishable by its pink tinge, another way to identify it is the base of the stems are white with pink stripes/ veins. This grass is a common weed and is very invasive/ noxious weed in some countries like America and Australia. In Britain it can be part of meadows and hardy pasture grass. <br />
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Its preferable conditions are wet and disturbed ground, it can be an indicator of poor soil, low grazing and poor drainage, so if these were reversed it would be less rampant. In Europe it does not survive trampling and though hardy can be killed by severe frosts. It is also a food source for the butterflies Speckled Wood, the Wall and the Small Skipper.<br />
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2. <i>Dactylis glomerata </i>aka Cocksfoot Grass. It is originally from North America and was known as Orchard Grass. When not open and in flower, the tufty heads do look like feet of cockerels.<br />
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It is interesting in that it has been debated whether it makes a good alternative grazing grass to <i>Lolium perenne</i> (Ryegrass). <i>Lolium perenne</i> is used a lot in conventional agriculture because it takes in high nitrogen fertilisers well, and a grass that still provides livestock nutritional value, so this can help increase commercial productivity. Whether conventional agricultural methods are the best is debatable. But the advantage of <i>Dactylis glomerata</i> in this scenario is that it is drought resistant, so it can still provide a source of feed with nutrition when it is very hot and dry especially when mixed with other plants like clover. Plus it is thought that its deeper roots might bring up more nutrients. <i>Dactylis glomerata</i> like <i>Lolium perenne</i> also put back nutrients into the soil, and hence the latter is used to keep the land usable.<br />
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3. (Left to Right) <i>Cynosurus cristatus</i> aka Crested Dog's Tail. The seed head is a bit flattish. It is found in the wild in species rich grassland like purple moor grass and rush pastures which are good for biodiversity. But it is also used as an ornamental plant and for sheep grazing when young. It is drought & cold resistant and stays green in the winter. It is also used for straw plaiting.<br />
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4. <i>Alopecuris pratensis</i> aka Foxtail Grass. The seedhead is as its common namesake like a reddish foxtail that becomes silvery. It is found in meadow grass on clay or neutral soil. It is also a food source for the Essex Skipper butterfly. It is a early flowering grass.<br />
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5. <i>Anthoxanthum odoratum</i> aka Sweet Vernal Grass. It is a short lived perennial. It is used as a lawn grass and can be found in meadows. It is the one that makes the 'grass smell' and induces hayfever because of its coumarin contents. It has short broad green leaves that are slightly hairy, and flowers in spring.<br />
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6. <i>Festuca rubra </i>aka Red Fescue is often used in lawn mixes too. It is found all over the world and is tolerant of all sorts of climates and conditions, especially shade. It is not used as a meadow grass because it is unpalatable to livestock and has low-productivity.<br />
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7. <i>Bromus hordeaceus</i> aka Soft Brome is an annual grass found in wastelands, meadows, dunes and verges. It flowers from May to July and sets seed in May to early August. It can be a problematic weeds especially in cereal crop rotations. It is closely related to the lineage of wheat grass family though of important economic crops like <i>Triticum ssp</i> (wheat), <i>Secale cereale</i> (rye) and Hordeum vulgare (barley). It's name also means oats - so that would probably explain it's resemblance to some of these crops. The smaller plant <i>Bromus sp</i>. is also a sister one.<br />
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8. <i>Brachypodium sylvaticum</i> aka False Brome is perennial. It is mainly found in forests and woodlands i.e. shady areas but can grow in the open too. it doesn't like wet and prefers calcerous soils. It was introduced into North America and has become an invasive species and now a threat to the native flora in the state of Oregon. In Europe though it is also a good food source for the Chequered Skipper and Essex Skipper butterflies.<br />
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10. <i>Agrostis capillaris </i>aka Common Bent.<i> Agrostis </i>= Latin for field. It's a perennial that grows in moist grasslands, open meadows, agricultural areas, roadsides and disturbed ground. It likes low fertility, neutral - acidic soils and is rhizomatous/ stoloniferous, so runs and produces dense swards of fine leaves. Their seeds germinate in Autumn and Spring. It is a good grass for the type of grounds like lawns & golf courses, but is also an important constituent of high diversity areas of purple moor grass and rush pastures and sheep grazing land in high rainfall areas. It is also grazed by rabbits which helps control its seeding.<br />
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11. <i>Plantago lanceolata </i>aka Ribwort Plaintain is a a red herring as its not actually a grass. It has hairy wide ribbed leaves that are very distinctive. It is a perennial weed of arable and grasslands (invasive in the US) and can be found on roadsides. It can tolerate high altitudes and was present in prehistoric times. It is very palatable to sheep and is a good source of calcium, phosphate, potassium and sodium for them, as well as having trace elements of cobalt and copper. So it has been used in grass feed mixes and in Wales has been valued as plant for hillside improvement. Hence it is also an indicator for land that has been or is used for grazing. As well as healthy animals it apparently makes the flavour of milk taste good! It is also used in herbal medicine and I have witnessed the fresh leaves being used to effectively sooth a wasp bite. A lot going for a little plant that's also a weed.<br />
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<br />Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-11873595898881355012013-09-30T13:28:00.000-07:002013-10-02T09:04:49.389-07:00All stops out for watering and weedingMon 15th July<br />
Weather: Hot, 25/26 °C<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif_XHNPM0wjZWCO9jA9TlwDWzPkRilstJzy4RggakaK0JEEVcSNbRARMQ6q2kop3c2PbvWdf0Ya7iLwmv0TlmyNmtyCB2lvhMoMFUP4aBQ_46_-fFVRsu91meFqafvwBchSPTSu0sMeOg/s1600/Creating+your+own+rainbow,+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif_XHNPM0wjZWCO9jA9TlwDWzPkRilstJzy4RggakaK0JEEVcSNbRARMQ6q2kop3c2PbvWdf0Ya7iLwmv0TlmyNmtyCB2lvhMoMFUP4aBQ_46_-fFVRsu91meFqafvwBchSPTSu0sMeOg/s1600/Creating+your+own+rainbow,+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Creating rainbows with sprinklers all over the garden.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Back at Dixter! The Hemerocallis trial is due to take place at the end of this week, so all day was spent weeding this area.<br />
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Tues 16th July<br />
Weather: More overcast & sultry but still hot.<br />
Weeding in the Peacock garden.<br />
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Weds 17th July<br />
Weather: Hottest day so far! It went up to 28°C.<br />
I continued weeding and taking out brown stuff from the Peacock Garden, and staked a tall growing <i>Nepeta transcaucasica</i> of amazing wild sprawling habit just to tame it a little and an <i>Achillea cartilaginea</i> 'Silver Spray', a very fine big flowered yarrow from De Hessenhof nursery.<br />
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Then I planted in some <i>Persicara orientalis</i>, and it's watering, watering, watering everywhere, everyone is moving sprinklers around the garden as part of their tasks.<br />
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Thurs 18th July<br />
Weather: Hot<br />
Continued weeding, clearing brown bits in Peacock garden especially where a <i>Lupinus arboreus</i> has been cut down and has left a lot of debris.<br />
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Fri 19th July<br />
Weather: Hot<br />
All day working on the <i>Hemerocallis</i> again to make sure they're ready for tomorrow!Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-30970969282197445482013-09-30T13:27:00.001-07:002013-09-30T13:27:55.340-07:00A week at the Chelsea Physic Garden<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have always been interested in the Chelsea Physic Garden. It is the oldest botanical garden in the country, originating as an apothecary garden in the 1600s, it is a garden that retains a lot of character and an antiquated charm and is like a cabinet of curiosities for plants. It plays an tomey part in the history of horticulture and botany and now a garden specialising in ethnobotany, its significance still remains.<br />
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The Wardian case is one of many examples, used in up until the 1950s by institutions like Kew to transport plants, it was instrumental to the changes of entire countries. It was with this that Robert Fortune (one of the many curators of the garden albeit a brief stint) transported tea plants to India from China, hence causing a tide change of economy & politics within these two countries. The Wardian case itself was invented by Dr Ward in 1829 - once master of the Society of Apothecaries that formerly owned the garden.<br />
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My passion for Horticulture first began from wanting to grow my own food, and I have always been fascinated by people and how they work. When I worked as an artist my interest was in bringing people together and how to interact and elicit responses from them. So I have always been interested in the history of plants and how they have been used. It was only when I encountered Dixter that I found ornamental horticulture really exciting. As Dixter is such an all encompassing experiential place, it has given me a deeper understanding how plants can make people connect, use, think and feel about a space. My origin of interest is richer but still remains. I also love seeing lots of interesting plants and think of how they can be used in the garden! Anyway it was with this in mind I wrote to the Chelsea Physic Garden, asking if anyone there would be interested in an exchange, and their then trainee Tom Wells happened to be, so we swapped rooms and work for a week. <br />
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Mon 8th July <br />
Weather: Very hot, full sunshine. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFU9DV48y-htWl96ZEkG9m6kbqAYWRJUIRxEeZGp4_ttJlbSMsCYDg_KM5sh-gU39WStlvjWaR0G1M9ma9RfjdrnVR5vSZ7Y5alowj4MFz_0z97959LZJOv0R6yM3VrVsP3Tdzdxe3zMk/s1600/DSCN9252+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFU9DV48y-htWl96ZEkG9m6kbqAYWRJUIRxEeZGp4_ttJlbSMsCYDg_KM5sh-gU39WStlvjWaR0G1M9ma9RfjdrnVR5vSZ7Y5alowj4MFz_0z97959LZJOv0R6yM3VrVsP3Tdzdxe3zMk/s1600/DSCN9252+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This handsome <i>Tithonia rotundifolia </i>was grown in the Peter Miller section & DOB.<br />
Dixter has used this in the garden too, but it's hard to get good plants of it<br />
because it needs good heat. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I got an induction and brief tour of the garden. Helpfully head gardener Nick Bailey asked what I wanted to get out of the week, and without hesitation I told him that I wanted to learn more about glasshouse work, propagation and get a feel of how the garden worked.<br />
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My first task of the morning was to water the outdoor Canary Islands plant collection and deep water some big pots of mixed plants that had things like <i>Brugmansia suaveolens</i> in them. Then it was working in a team morning to strim the edges of the Dicotyledon Order Beds - DOB for short. I had to wear goggle over my glasses which misted up with condensation, making vision slightly difficult. I then helped Emma with the Peter Miller section of the garden. This involved picking up <i>Magnolia grandiflora</i> leaves including under some <i>Abutilon sp.</i>, topping up soil along a <i>Lavandula sp</i>. hedging. Then I replanted some of the <i>Lavandula</i> so they were more evenly spread out and less gappy. <br />
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Tues 9th July<br />
Weather: Hot, but not as hot as yesterday. Height of temperature around 26°C , min. 16°C at night. There was also a nice cooling breeze - gorgeous!<br />
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I worked with Kate manager of glasshouses on the 'Tropical Corridor'. I scrubbed scale insects off with a toothbrush and cleaned off mealy bugs with a powerful water spray using just water. She showed me the glasshouse check list, what she has to routinely go through once a week - checking each house methodically, to see if there any pests or diseases, if control is necessary, temperature etc, everything that ensured that they were in good working order and that the plants within them were happy. A feed is given to the plants once per week via a Dosatron - a non electric water powered chemical dispenser.<br />
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I tidied and watered an area that the Natural History Museum rents out to keep plants they are doing experiments on. There were a lot of fallen leaves. The plants were a brassica (possibly <i>Arabis</i>), Hyacinthoides non-scripta (English bluebells) & ferns. Near there was greenhouse that had some interesting smelling <i>Aloysia sp</i>. that smelt of mint.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Soleirolia soleirolii </i>in the bottom right corner.</td></tr>
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Then I scraped and hand forked out a weed called <i>Soleirolia soleirolii</i> aka 'Mind Your Own Business' in The Fernery.<br />
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Weds 10th July<br />
Weather: Hot<br />
I worked with propagation manager Nell Jones and did some semi-ripe & heeled cuttings of <i>Salvia officinalis</i>. For both type of cuttings some we cut the leaves in half, some we left as small whole leaves. Of each set, we put one under the automatic mister, the other outside of it to be hand watered. This was because the last ones she had tried the leaves had rotten off.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The sage was taken from the Superfoods exhibition, that showcases food labelled in such a way.<br />
To better inform people about them and to dispel any marketing myths. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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She showed me how to search for plants on their database, and informed me what their accession numbers were (an unique sequential number given to every plant, so they can be tracked) and how to label using these. I learnt about the meaning of 'species' in the context of this garden & standard botanical gardens. At Dixter we talk about any plants that is not a cultivar as a species, here they are talking about the unique DNA that every plant (and person) has. Two plants could both be labelled <i>Salvia officinalis</i> but they could be genetically different even though they are the same type of plant, because they have different parents, unless they are clones. This is why species used in the Dixter context could be confusing. This reveals another function of a botanical garden, which is helping towards conserving a more diverse gene pool so that plants don't just come from a limited set of parents.<br />
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After that we set about clearing & watering an area called the nursery, which is currently a store of stock for the garden or unused plants.<br />
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Nell is inspiring in that she started out as a recruitment consultant and wanted to change careers. She started volunteering at the Chelsea Physic Garden and applied for their one year traineeship. After that they employed her as the Propagation Manager. She hardworking, committed and not fazed by anything she doesn't know. It is this attitude to keep trialling and observing like we did with the <i>Salvia</i> that given her success of propagating many different types of plants. She treats them all the same at the start, she tells me, then observes and start asking questions.<br />
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Thurs 11th July<br />
Weather: Hot! At least 26/ 27°C.<br />
I helped trainee Joe with his Pelargonium greenhouse, taking off any dead bits, weeding pots, brushing up and generally making sure the collection is presentable.<br />
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When to leave the dead - At Dixter we are meticulous about taking dead bits out if it affects the overall visual picture, but we also meticulously leave the dead when we are doing trials, so that we can see if a plant dies gracefully or not. In a botanical garden they sometimes do the same but coming from a different angle, the dead is left on specimens plants for another kind of educational purpose.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUEuV1s9hhS31Bp5dx4anMf6JaPp45c6NEbUpqvI7SvpwQCyilPsmtioV0MAEeg1rNLjukmxyMTnBDfXATfQZ-7SzMaGPmB-q4Q-LpKYYf5mN07ops_nz-DrK8fZcDDHdwFlKhw8FTWRk/s1600/DSCN9248+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUEuV1s9hhS31Bp5dx4anMf6JaPp45c6NEbUpqvI7SvpwQCyilPsmtioV0MAEeg1rNLjukmxyMTnBDfXATfQZ-7SzMaGPmB-q4Q-LpKYYf5mN07ops_nz-DrK8fZcDDHdwFlKhw8FTWRk/s1600/DSCN9248+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Brassicarium, one of my favourite things in the garden, showcases<br />
many different types of brassicas - one of the<br />
food groups that is labelled a Superfood. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
We fed beans and peas in the Superfoods area with Miracle Gro that is in the form of a bright blue powder - 2 scoops to 10 gallons of water. Then I helped do some weeding, feeding and watering of the 'Brassicarium' also in the same section, designed by Tom the trainee whom I had swapped with, and who I still hadn't met yet.<br />
<br />
Then I helped do some planting around and near the Edible garden, helping to fill in any holes in the display. I planted some <i>Amaranth viridis</i>, <i>Arachis hypogaea</i> (peanut) in the plants used to make oils and Aztec sections, <i>Apium graveolens</i> var. <i>rapaceum</i> (celeriac) and some <i>Francoa sp.</i> in the woodlandy area. After that I helped stake some <i>Cannabis sativa</i> plants (botanical gardens have to obtain a special license to display these) and tied up a <i>Vitis sp</i>.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFLaH8r4vzrMdgmW9w-KAjcvTL19eK3cyZOyTYsnsJu4DLCVq6SHhao484T4sHIyHlJcIiGgUQKl73dnLZWw4Ser8tVJzcu2_I8bCgpp6HTWxQbOtTiupXtgbEfaIHRLdhqy0L523XnxU/s1600/DSCN9898+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFLaH8r4vzrMdgmW9w-KAjcvTL19eK3cyZOyTYsnsJu4DLCVq6SHhao484T4sHIyHlJcIiGgUQKl73dnLZWw4Ser8tVJzcu2_I8bCgpp6HTWxQbOtTiupXtgbEfaIHRLdhqy0L523XnxU/s1600/DSCN9898+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Aztec section. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
Fri 12th July<br />
Weather: Hot.<br />
Friday at the Chelsea Physic is teamwork day and they usually pinpoint a job that particularly needs doing and would be good if lots of people did it together. This included filling up a skip of general rubbish that had built up in the boat yard, wire brushing weeds out of cracks in the paths and weeding DOB.Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-90275687192238530102013-09-26T06:55:00.001-07:002013-09-26T06:55:51.260-07:00The HBGBS study tourAt the end of June there was a study tour for all of the HBGBS trainees. It was a chance to meet everyone again before they all went off in different directions to do further other things, get some careers advice & mutual support, and get passionate about seeing gardens and plants together.<br />
<br />
Here are photographic highlights of the my favourite parts of each garden we visited:<br />
<br />
<u>Abbotswood</u><br />
A privately owned ex-Jekyll & Lutyen Edwardian 20 acres garden. It is open to the public on special open days. It has a formal garden with a lily pond, terraced lawns, a special fountain by Lutyen, a large landscape rock garden & arboretum with a stream meandering through it, and a kitchen garden with new sections being developed, including a rose garden.<br />
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Fascinating fasciation - the vascular bundle of this <i>Asparagus</i> in the kitchen garden has been damaged, possibly by a viral infection carried by aphids. It is usually not re-occurring. <br />
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A lovely mass of scented <i>Crambe maritima</i> flowers in the formal garden. A garden that gives a great insight to the plant & colour palette of Gertrude Jekyll. <br />
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A tree with a face. <br />
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One of my favourite plants <i>Cornus kousa</i> seen in situ. <br />
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<u>Barnsley House</u><br />
A garden once owned by Rosemary Verey, now a boutique hotel. Rosemary Verey in the 1950s & 60s popularised English gardening including making kitchen gardens more ornamental.<br />
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The well known <i>Laburnum</i> Walk.<br />
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My favourite part of the garden - The Potager, a wonderful blend of flowers and vegetables, formerly managed by Ed Alderman, now the current Christopher Lloyd scholar. A man of my own heart - using heritage seeds from places like the Heritage Seed Library. <br />
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A beautiful companion plant and green manure <i>Phacelia tanacetifolia</i><br />
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A great colour combination of red <i>Latuca</i> (lettuce) and <i>Brassica</i>. <br />
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<u>Hidcote</u><i></i><br />
10.5 acres of Arts & Craft styled garden set around a manor house. Created and belonged to rich American Major Lawrence Johnstone. Now a National Trust property. It is one of the few NT gardens where the plants are not labelled.<br />
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A view that gives you a peek at the many layers of rooms in the garden.<br />
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This satisfied my personal craze for chandelier primulas this year. <br />
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A large garden with the potential to stumble upon small pockets of rare and unusual plants like these black irises... <br />
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and double petalled red <i>Helianthemum</i>. <br />
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I'm always admire a good fruit cage and am interested in how people lay out their veg gardens. <br />
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<u>Perrot's Brook</u> - John Sale's garden<br />
John Sales worked for 25 years as the National Trust's Chief Garden Adviser, a heavyweight in the world of horticulture. His garden consists of ornamental sections, woods and meadows, and as you can imagine not your average garden, full of unusual plants and interesting methods. Perrot's Brook is open on special open garden days.<br />
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His garden is up on a hill so is very well sited, as the frost drains away from them.<br />
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Different meadow management:<br />
Dixter cuts their meadows twice, once around the end of July/ August and again in November for the spring bulbs. John has two 'squares' of meadows, one square has no spring bulbs and that one he cuts again and again, keeping it around 4" long up until the Chelsea Flower Show. At that stage he will leave it until September to help the <i>Rhinanthus minor</i> germinate, this one is classed as his 'summer' meadow. His other one has spring bulbs of <i>Scilla, Chionodoxa, </i>and<i> Cyclamen. </i>This one will have no cuts in the beginning of the year until September and then the grass is taken off for hay. Orchids have also come into the meadows of their own accord here too, the ones he has are similar to our spotted orchid <i>Dactlylorhiza fuschii, </i>they are also pyramidal but are a darker pink. He also has lots of <i>Iris latifolia</i>. For unwanted weeds in his meadows like <i>Heracleum sphondylium, </i>he manually digs them out.<br />
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Quote: 'Management makes gardeners not designers' - John Sales.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidpJ9Ii4v2ZyCY11mPA_2tCAW1djpMiuyI_GaQkimn7XLfJcnPSurSkOmb483homzNTOnh0YL-szddY-kJ8NlTS_Cisu9bMj9gHSiD-tN6lpxsdp1Ripa8F4OkB6HnxXGhxFmyUH-9HmA/s1600/DSCN9060+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidpJ9Ii4v2ZyCY11mPA_2tCAW1djpMiuyI_GaQkimn7XLfJcnPSurSkOmb483homzNTOnh0YL-szddY-kJ8NlTS_Cisu9bMj9gHSiD-tN6lpxsdp1Ripa8F4OkB6HnxXGhxFmyUH-9HmA/s1600/DSCN9060+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The man himself. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<i>Lilium martagon</i> self-sowing everywhere. He also had the thinnest <i>Buxus sempervirens</i> hedge that I have ever seen, that he cuts during Ascot week, and the biggest <i>Heptacodium micinoides</i> tree in the country.<br />
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<br />
An amazingly rare saxifrage type plant that John does not know the name of.<br />
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He had a kind of gravel/ rock garden at the front of his house. I love how he had very niche specimen plants spill out of the trough and into the gravel or the cracks of paths. <br />
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<br />
Another special saxifrage type plant from the Crassulaceae family specific to the Cotswold: <i>Chiastophyllum oppositifolium</i><br />
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<br />
<u>Kiftsgate</u><br />
Last but not least was my favourite garden, created from the 1920s by three generation of women, a romantic place, like an amazing silent refuge, that at once took one away in time and then to surprisingly modernist elements. Built almost on a cliff, a place that feel full of secrets with breathtaking moments. A real plants lovers garden too with an amazing array and choice of perennials. Temptingly they have their own little nursery selling their own unusual plants. The is only opposite Hidcote and interestingly the first lady who started it Heather Muir, was a good friend of Lawrence Johnstone, but instead of designing the garden first on paper, she developed it organically as she went along - which is probably what gives it its unique character. It is open to the public during the months April - September.<br />
<br />
Before you get into the garden - an interesting red hedge.<br />
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Hidden and revealed views<br />
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One of the dramatic pools<br />
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<br />
Dictamnus albus - which Christopher Lloyd couldn't grow at Dixter but enjoyed at Glyndebourne Opera House. To demonstrate the volatility of the oils given off by the plant in the evening, he would light a match above it. <br />
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The first time I saw the moss rose <i>Portulaca grandiflora</i>.<br />
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<br />Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-27325793868869903062013-09-26T06:55:00.000-07:002013-09-26T06:55:18.080-07:00PropastinacatingSun 23rd June<br />
Weather: Constantly changing, very windy.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlJdzS0ZpobQ6DNnzEPbjoqr9NZ0WzKPbvPj6lQe2lqN6Mx6p_xacMsMZdM3yI0kVu3U3MGc8st9vtHvbOowQwesUwwsmfkvA6OfKJRcs_AjokvOjH4UFS0TLTUIKTB1S5pc-tHhURTBM/s1600/DSCN9027+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlJdzS0ZpobQ6DNnzEPbjoqr9NZ0WzKPbvPj6lQe2lqN6Mx6p_xacMsMZdM3yI0kVu3U3MGc8st9vtHvbOowQwesUwwsmfkvA6OfKJRcs_AjokvOjH4UFS0TLTUIKTB1S5pc-tHhURTBM/s1600/DSCN9027+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The main High Garden stockbed floated with<i> Pastinaca sativa</i>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I was on nursery duty today. It has been really wet, so I only had to spot water pot displays. I did some emergency staking of a few <i>Pastinaca sativa</i> (Parsnips) & <i>Lupinus</i> because the wind had really got to them. Then I spot watered garden stock, did some customer & sales work and potted on of different kinds of petunias.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7H6UnQj2IqlDFLcbzwO2wO2neJ7D4tEoeYp58qFgckRTcu7_rpwtN4J7h5o23t5VvYQhUIrSOlGN7MZpYVHBQpM7TnUBgmv31X8Cr1fztn0gdHKCWd4HZadfNXnlvjMgebfAUEVm7Cgk/s1600/DSCN8893+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7H6UnQj2IqlDFLcbzwO2wO2neJ7D4tEoeYp58qFgckRTcu7_rpwtN4J7h5o23t5VvYQhUIrSOlGN7MZpYVHBQpM7TnUBgmv31X8Cr1fztn0gdHKCWd4HZadfNXnlvjMgebfAUEVm7Cgk/s1600/DSCN8893+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Lupinus polyphyllus</i> 'The Governor' (the blue & white one) & 'Chandelier'<br />
(the yellow one)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Mon 24th June<br />
Weather: A bit windy & cooler, though it was suppose to be about 16°C.<br />
<br />
I partook in Fergus's <b>Good Planting</b> study day, which gave advice on how to achieve this, and an insight of the planting choices that made Dixter special. Here are some points to consider:<br />
<br />
- understanding your conditions and the requirements of your plants<br />
- to make an effort at the start to help things establish<br />
- breaking our own rules<br />
- being free with colour<br />
- seeing plants in the wild<br />
- aiming to create a 'community of plants'<br />
- being influenced by the landscape<br />
- being influenced by a single plant<br />
- being naturally inquisitive about composition<br />
- thinking of contrast<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfidgkvApuijeh_HHg1xdenKnz2VZCgYcU_PvVX4en4f8Zt15cpm3LHVIP7FyXxwIxwne_RlpHZDdpWL6maN_J-noFVMoU8YbJGObtu7JUSZwrxeZjp1yblHXRftze8FTOGhgS0wQyjp0/s1600/DSCN9011+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfidgkvApuijeh_HHg1xdenKnz2VZCgYcU_PvVX4en4f8Zt15cpm3LHVIP7FyXxwIxwne_RlpHZDdpWL6maN_J-noFVMoU8YbJGObtu7JUSZwrxeZjp1yblHXRftze8FTOGhgS0wQyjp0/s1600/DSCN9011+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Good Planting study day: <i>Centranthus ruber</i> in the wild from a New Zealand beach <br />
transposed to here with <i>C. ruber </i>'Albus' in a drystone wall.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAAmCS9DrfuMF7OlYmGORPRsTzx5tgPmf0S5CTn60baFs9w8A3ZB08op2G-fozL0uXWobs4KVXfwA9m5WgyRQEkWgX2BFc0LOoakFq5rai7h22ZfatQxS6DN3JE7lQPiPptndZ4gBdzSg/s1600/DSCN8927+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAAmCS9DrfuMF7OlYmGORPRsTzx5tgPmf0S5CTn60baFs9w8A3ZB08op2G-fozL0uXWobs4KVXfwA9m5WgyRQEkWgX2BFc0LOoakFq5rai7h22ZfatQxS6DN3JE7lQPiPptndZ4gBdzSg/s1600/DSCN8927+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Good Planting study day: one can't believe the painterly quality this community<br />
of plants achieve.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Then I staked the rest of the parsnips just in case, as they have another month of flowering. The reason why they have not been withstanding the wind so well by itself, is because you usually leave parsnips in the ground. But we actually dug these ones up and replanted them in the way that we wanted them, which destabilised them a little, and didn't give them quite enough time to be fully rooted again in the ground. The sap of <i>Pastinaca</i> can burn so one has to be careful when handling them.<br />
<br />
Tues 25th June<br />
Weather: Hot & sunny, 17/ 18°C.<br />
Finished staking parsnips. Potted on plugs of <i>Nemophile</i> 'Penny Black' and <i>Erigeron annuus</i> one of our trusty self-sowers.<br />
<br />
Weds 26th June<br />
Weather: Lovely and mild.<br />
<br />
I put plants in pots for pot displays. Helped out with the lining out and planting of <i>Hemerocallis</i> <i>lilioasphodelus </i>(species formerly known as <i>flava</i>) in the High Garden. Plants are really starting to overspill the paths, there is a certain section that is like walking through two walls of <i>Salvia turkestanica.</i> I went round tweaking the ferocious growth along the edges of the path with peasticks and string.<br />
<br />
Thurs 27th June<br />
Weather: Another sunny & mild day, although it had started to change again.<br />
<br />
Potted up of <i>Celosia</i> seedlings - lots of watering of gardening stock and greenhouses, and taking heed of what we have at this point. Moved new Exotic plants together. Did a presentation on our Turkey trip. Staked & weeded in the High Garden and did some straight forward pruning of <i>Lonicera purpurissi -</i> taking out two big branches of mainly dead bits.Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-62546390001081890912013-09-26T06:54:00.002-07:002013-09-26T06:55:39.284-07:00A summer medleyMon 1st July<br />
Weather: Beautifully hot.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kemal pointing at <i>Geranium macrorrhizum</i> 'Bevan's Variety'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I cleared the area near the Blue Garden and the cellar. I deadheaded <i>Geranium macrorrhizum </i>'Bevan's Variety' and left the bushy foliage, which will stay there for the rest of the year until it dies back a bit in winter. I cut back <i>Pulmoneria sp</i>. leaves to make room for <i>Adiantum venustum, </i>staked some <i>Campanula sp.</i> that had gotten top heavy and had keeled over. Cut off <i>Meconopsis cambrica</i> seedheads to the foliage, cleared dead debris from the ground, taking out any brown yellowing bits. Cut back <i>Brunnera macrophylla</i> and <i>Melianthus major</i>. I put on the sprinkler round that area and systematically moved it around every hour. This is the time of year where a lot of 'freshening up' happens as some things die back and others start to grow. The weather has been so hot for the 'hot lips' on <i>Salvia</i> x <i>jamensis</i> 'Hot Lips', they have seared off!<br />
<br />
Some of the things that have been growing very well around this area from June:<br />
<br />
<i>Dianthus deltoides</i> in the trough. <br />
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<br />
<i>Deutzia</i> x <i>rosea</i> 'Carminea'<br />
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The wheels of flowers on the 'wheel tree' <i>Trocadendron arailoides</i><br />
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The layers of <i>Clematis</i> on other trees & shrubs, all are from the Montana Group, the white one smells of white chocolate and is possibly <i>C. montana</i> 'Wilsonii' or <i>C. montana</i> 'Elizabeth', the deepest pink one is <i>C. montana</i> 'Freda'.<br />
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In the evening I went to a second of Kemal Medhi study tours around Dixter garden. Kemal is a neighbour of Dixter and was a good friend of C. Lloyd. He worked at Sissinghurst as a gardener during the time of Pam & Sybil as head gardeners and later on taught at Hadlow College. His tours consists of meaty pages of plant identification, but his aim is not to throw names at you, but for you to actually understand the plants used and gain a deeper understanding of the garden. They last for hours and go into the wee hours of dusk - wonderfully epic.<br />
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Tues 2nd July<br />
Weather: Cloudy & overcast, a bit chilly in the morning & evening. Min. 14°C at night now and generally 20°C in the day.<br />
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A medley of chores - raking leaves off the lawn in the Blue Garden (fallen from the <i>Phyllostachys nigra</i>). Looking at how to judge & record the <i>Hemerocallis</i> trial we are doing. Some of them are a bit riddled with gall midge and is distorting the growth of the plant & buds.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Buds attacked by gall midges are picked off. </td></tr>
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I finished clearing leaves on the ground in the area around the cellar and pulled up any <i>Bryonia dioica </i>because they are a bit of a weed here. We have to extract the roots out as much as possible and they head to the burn pile rather than the compost.<br />
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I deadheaded <i>Lupinus sp.</i>, weeded beneath the hedge where <i>Hemerocallis</i> trials are, and put some organic slug pellets down between them.<br />
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Weds 3rd July<br />
Weather: Muggy, up to 20°C again. Cloudy & overcast most of the day with the sun breaking through sporadically. The evening light was lovely.<br />
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I had to take out some <i>Dahlia</i> x <i>Cosmos</i> 'Mexican Black' and <i>Dahlia</i> 'Witteman's Superba' out of the hothouse that had been grown on from cuttings, and have been growing very fast. Their foliage has fleshed out significantly in just a week. There are slight signs of spider mite so I thought it would be best to move them outside. I washed the spider mites off where I could, repotted them, some staked and put them in an open frame. Kemal tells us that Dahlia x Cosmos is written as it is, because people are not certain of their origin yet. If it is for certain that the resulting plant is a cross bred of two genera then they would usually have a new genus name and an x at the beginning of the name like x <i>Fatshedera </i>(a combination of genera <i>Fatsia</i> & <i>Hedera</i>).<br />
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Then we planted out some <i>Lathyrus odoratus</i> 'White Supreme' to float the bed next to the shop with scent and lots of them. We dug a hole for them twice as deep, mixed in mushroom compost at the bottom before planting and put a small peastick behind each one, to give them some initial assistance to clamber all over the shrubs & perennials there. The soil is quite poor there so we added some chicken manure, and also put some organic slug pellets down and watered them in well.Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-5654806132324316722013-09-26T06:54:00.001-07:002013-09-26T06:54:33.446-07:00Rose ident 20/06/2013Dixter as mentioned before has over 140 roses, but scattered throughout the garden and mixed into the borders. Frank one of our lovely volunteers and a big lover of roses, brought in some of his favourites from his garden for us to see, touch, smell & identify.<br />
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(Left to right)<br />
1. <i>Rosa</i> 'Crimson Glory' is the dark red one. It's a climbing hybrid tea rose and opens out to a very full flower and is a repeat flowerer.<br />
2. <i>Rosa '</i>Crown Princess Margareta' is the small tight apricoty one at the top which opens bigger to a very multi-layered rosette. It a shrub type one or a small climber and is a repeat flowerer.<br />
3. <i>Rosa</i> 'Mrs Oakley Fisher' is the loose orangey one at the front with the earwig in it. This beautifully scented one can be found in the Exotic Garden also. It grows as a single petalled hybrid shrub.<br />
4.<i> Rosa </i>x<i> odorata '</i>Mutabilis<i>' </i>is the single petalled darkish pink one (last one on the right). This can also be found in the Barn Garden. Characteristically not as thorny as some roses. It is a shrub one and a continuous flowerer.<br />
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(Left to right)<br />
5.<i> Rosa</i> 'Wisley 2008' is the light bright pink one. A vigorous shrub that is a strong flowerer and also has double petals.<br />
6. <i>Rosa</i> 'Benjamin Britten' is the red one with yellow tints. This is the one that steals Frank's heart. A medium shrub that becomes a double bloom<br />
7. <i>Rosa</i> GERTRUDE JEKYLL 'Ausbord' is the bright pink very multi-layered rosette. It can be a shrub and a rambler. It can have showy red or purple hips. It's a vigorous grower and reliable flowerer. There was much debate about whether this rose was too 'showy', Dixter interestingly enough have bought a plant recently...<br />
8. <i>Rosa</i> 'Abraham Darby' is the pink, yellowy orange one (the last one on the right). It is a tall vigorous shrub or climber.<br />
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(Left to Right)<br />
9.<i> Rosa</i> 'Pat Austen' is the yellow apricoty one. A medium shrub or climber and strong repeat flowerer.<br />
10. <i>Rosa</i> 'Just Joey' is the big apricot flouncy one (last one on the right). It is a small shrub, a continuous flowering hybrid tea.Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-87435689112677579452013-09-24T13:34:00.002-07:002013-09-24T13:34:16.604-07:00Sticky WicketSat 22nd June<br />
Weather: Blustery, rainy, grey.<br />
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Sticky Wicket is the garden & meadows of Pam Lewis who she initially created with her husband Peter Lewis when they moved there in 1986. Pam and Peter had bought the place to run as a smallholding. Both were familiar with working on the land - Peter Lewis was an ex-farmer & Pam a gardener.<br />
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Unhappy with the way conventional agricultural practices destroyed natural habitats, they wanted to create a wildlife haven as well as a garden. Pam also saw it as a outlet for her creativity, using plants as her medium to play with colour. The garden ended up becoming their main focus and was opened up to the public.<br />
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When Peter died in 2004 it was a shock for Pam. She carried on trying to maintain the garden as it was, but after breaking her back from falling off a horse two years later, she decided to change her approach on how she managed the garden & meadows, and loosened her control on it. She described it as 'firefighting, ungarden, editing & orchestrating, self seeds & self destructs'. It was the result of this that we had come to see, and it is only this year she has reopened her garden but only as tours to groups of no less than 10 people.<br />
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The journey took 3 hours each way, but we were keen. After an interesting journey of first train to Dorchester and then taxi - where the taxi driver was a local man, who told me about the prestige of having sheep fleece on bike saddles and to beware of local fete and dodgy cakes baked by old ladies who can't see properly, I arrived and met the others from Dixter, who had come by car. <br />
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Instead of bird tables she had willow ball structures, different sizes for different birds to access and feed, so that more varieties would be attracted to her garden and that she wouldn't just have a bird table dominated by pigeons. She had a live willow wendy house for her grandchildren also. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Living <i>Salix</i> wendy house. </td></tr>
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She had green corridors of diverse shrubs & hedges and woodlandy edge areas of things like <i>Stephanandra sp.</i>, <i>Rubus phoenicolasius</i> (Japanese Wineberry) and <i>Crataegus monogyna</i> (common British hawthorn). In these she would stick offcuts of spiky things like bramble and roses so that wildlife had some protection and would be able to settle in there. She had her own and wilder take on of a 'white garden' made up of plants like <i>Prunus avium</i> (wild cherry), <i>Cotoneaster bullatus</i>, <i>Hippothae sp</i>. (sea buckthorn) and <i>Prunus spinosa</i> (blackthorn). As she pointed out, a lot of wild fruiting plants have white flowers.<br />
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Letting go doesn't mean no work, but a different way of management - <i>Buddleia</i> are cut late in mind that they will just come back later, teasels are chelsea chopped. Keeping <i>Hedera sp</i>. under control is cutting away the biggest stems. They have 'weed of the week' and concentrate on extracting those for a bit. Some & some is the ultimate conservation saying.<br />
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It was interesting to hear how they first started their meadows, Clive Farrow her 'butterfly man' was her mentor. To first prepare their land, they scraped the top surface of the soil off with a turf cutter. The scraped soil was then used to create a hill which her goats really like as well as the nettle patches, these are cut down in June for fresh growth, leaving some old ones . The soil before the substrate is 'chalk capped' like the pattern of black & white Friesian cows. Which was good for inducing <i>Onobrychis </i>(Sainfoin) to grow - a pea family plant that is great for grazing. The best things seeds into where the paths through the meadows, so to encourage diversity, they cut a new one every year when they cut the meadows and let the former one rest for couple of years. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The turf scraped hill.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9DHk8VouAEPIflEVc5O9eap3OiR3GQRO4PdRU5IPbVgxYza_UK_BJF1r5WRB9XolwAniJSGqOeXrBR7fPcTyzFd6dr8DgnTKteBrDPzfJ0k6RTVMRf57LdYftopRk2RnQoYdg3dP40uI/s1600/DSCN8946+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9DHk8VouAEPIflEVc5O9eap3OiR3GQRO4PdRU5IPbVgxYza_UK_BJF1r5WRB9XolwAniJSGqOeXrBR7fPcTyzFd6dr8DgnTKteBrDPzfJ0k6RTVMRf57LdYftopRk2RnQoYdg3dP40uI/s1600/DSCN8946+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The goats</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi08CTsq2prtZY0AsOC75mG1pSFOzd8bAFoURjhf63lrUrTyPcNOEhmKWlLU6jA_RvHCzxkg692UIPAs1-45mbqHH-lLRvS17I7D0aVc_Xp9P8kM1u17UAKPgd1ppOPkuiu-ND4Yq0ubdA/s1600/DSCN8944+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi08CTsq2prtZY0AsOC75mG1pSFOzd8bAFoURjhf63lrUrTyPcNOEhmKWlLU6jA_RvHCzxkg692UIPAs1-45mbqHH-lLRvS17I7D0aVc_Xp9P8kM1u17UAKPgd1ppOPkuiu-ND4Yq0ubdA/s1600/DSCN8944+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Stachys officinalis</i> (Betony)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Near her 'vegetable' garden (which had more flowers than veg) I witnessed the best looked after compost system I have seen, which they don't turn but precisely layer up with grass cuttings & cardboard, started off with poultry manure first, and methodically maintained with potatoes & squashes grown on them in between. Weld grew in her polytunnel, and she had special propagation experiments happening in sandbags, plants grown through these and grids of pot holders. She is the only person I have met so far, actively experimenting growing <i>Centauria nigra</i> (gnapweed) and picking out the pinkest.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwRBWbM6OgBA063WzYcgT4N8JrStKp9pCv1qqczecErqqtD-U2JiDBvvvqyzoFJ9hKDV07lh92xQ-wShNtTHjGPLSH4fvecxUe3pC5UfH58BHHQoSJniRTlxfHxN3kiBqxKkpAXOLk6gA/s1600/DSCN8951+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwRBWbM6OgBA063WzYcgT4N8JrStKp9pCv1qqczecErqqtD-U2JiDBvvvqyzoFJ9hKDV07lh92xQ-wShNtTHjGPLSH4fvecxUe3pC5UfH58BHHQoSJniRTlxfHxN3kiBqxKkpAXOLk6gA/s1600/DSCN8951+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Compost - cardboard & grass cuttings layers.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2SXqc8LI2az548G_NX1zeeMW7dq3XXDAkODyrxqtkEBqaaBAEmNWS36CYptsCImeOEJonnZL908OPwCxWNluxTsOFJ2xR7b-EbYy02PwNfDk7dJ35yWGXjzmvKaXiUlZIGD5KBcx-Rsc/s1600/DSCN8953+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2SXqc8LI2az548G_NX1zeeMW7dq3XXDAkODyrxqtkEBqaaBAEmNWS36CYptsCImeOEJonnZL908OPwCxWNluxTsOFJ2xR7b-EbYy02PwNfDk7dJ35yWGXjzmvKaXiUlZIGD5KBcx-Rsc/s1600/DSCN8953+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Growing potatoes as part of compost rotation.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
It might explain why her hen cage was the biggest and lushest I have ever seen - another section of a world/ garden in itself. Initially to try and grow plants that chickens liked she would try and grow them in between plants that they didn't. It is satisfying to hear that eventually they were defeated by Persicaria hydropiper (water pepper). <br />
<br />
What was once the formal part of the garden was now a wonderful and delicate intermingling of wild and more cultivated plants <i>Geranium phaeum, Cirsium heterophyllum, Thalictrum vulgare, Valeriana officinalis, Viola labradorica, Hordeum jubatum </i>(squirrel tail barley grass), and <i>Lobelia syphilitica</i>. There were thug beds (like Christopher Lloyd experiments) - <i>Epilobium</i> cultivars fighting it out with a <i>Persicaria sp.</i>, keeping each other in check. A <i>Sedum</i> seating area. I have never seen a bush of vetch seemingly gently clipped & tousled. Flower borders and meadows blurred here, <i>Rhinanthus</i> threaded through more ornamental types of grasses. What was once a <i>Matricaria chamomilla</i> (chamomile) lawn & paths through and around the beds built on gravel to keep its shape, is now a more varied mix of <i>Prunella vulgaris</i> (self-heal), <i>Rhinanthus</i> & <i>Trifolium sp</i>. clover. This is one part that does get cut regularly (every three weeks) and it is interesting how the flowers were in a shorter minature form. It was the first time for me to see how a more mixed lawn can remain functional.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3PVb0XJle-lmHHv65bgVI9vH8ALV_frd0yupRjtvUtzy5He6Zl8qdG_u5lPs29pRSZVijBES-5NMKupsfrwt-TJxaSGIH8Ee0CHwOspRkJSOlmNHCsEvr3KrFkHNlHKwnVAUjgRGN2aQ/s1600/DSCN8976+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3PVb0XJle-lmHHv65bgVI9vH8ALV_frd0yupRjtvUtzy5He6Zl8qdG_u5lPs29pRSZVijBES-5NMKupsfrwt-TJxaSGIH8Ee0CHwOspRkJSOlmNHCsEvr3KrFkHNlHKwnVAUjgRGN2aQ/s1600/DSCN8976+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thug plant <i>Persicaria sp</i>. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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In the gloomy light of the day the geraniums shone pale & colourful even more, and the whole place still hummed with bees and insects. Coming from a garden that is a riotous explosion of colours, it was strongly noticeable that there are no hot colours here (except in her veg garden area), it was a more purpley, bluey pink pallette, - a different feeling - more soothing & tranquil, whilst Dixter is a place of stimulations that makes your pupils dilate and your heart palpitate, here was a place that was more associated with the word serene. Pam Lewis is an artist, it is obvious that she has a strong sensibility for colour and even through letting go it still remains. In fact it is almost she has mastered the artistry of being so on the brink of wild but with skillfully held back remnants of cultivation. Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-59808502810468786952013-09-24T13:34:00.001-07:002013-10-01T05:06:37.501-07:00A hotch potch weekTues 18th June<br />
Weather: Muggy, cloudy hot & humid, strong sun in the afternoon. Up to 20°C!<br />
<br />
A day of many things - we put some <i>Cyperis papyrifer</i> in some non-sterilised loam so that they were ready to be put in the Sunken Garden pond. We tidied up the cold greenhouse to make more room for plants to grow on a bit more. The cold greenhouse was not so suitable for storing succulents & <i>Agave</i> over winter because of the lack of sun (it is North facing) and is too humid, but it is working out as perfect once there are no more frost to grow on our staples of tender perennials like <i>Salvia confertiflora, Senecio petasites</i> and <i>Tibouchina urvilleana, </i>especially because it has good height. Then we dug out some dock (<i>Rumex</i>) all around the edges of the meadow down at the farm complex, broad leaved dock types - <i>Rumex obtusifolius L</i>. &<i> Rumex crispus</i>. The small leaved ones can be so beautiful, one of my favourite accidental combinations has been a type of maroon <i>Rumex </i>with some hogweed! - <i>Heracleum sphondylium. </i>Then we made sure the Exotic Garden was well watered because of lots of recent new plantings.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi58SZx5o_Zj6w8-YPxgNN_Ps3X3DN9GJ6x7RsvpO6MsnRfbtv6k89qeK0JSpAmoAds4NdAEMiEAw0-x6sWLehohTjWaYCHgaKtnnG9wRLjCbN5laYkmg5t7HCrwZAaYkJfvEHOt-aFG70/s1600/DSCN9866+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi58SZx5o_Zj6w8-YPxgNN_Ps3X3DN9GJ6x7RsvpO6MsnRfbtv6k89qeK0JSpAmoAds4NdAEMiEAw0-x6sWLehohTjWaYCHgaKtnnG9wRLjCbN5laYkmg5t7HCrwZAaYkJfvEHOt-aFG70/s1600/DSCN9866+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Accidental wild combinations. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLBcvPOiiXWy9ph_7qjsi-JdD9HvIGGfHBZvP8Xr1FKouYijOcIFm9BL6z6rdYdR92ed6DIXBSV-7Z9K3KEgAcRrhYXRyjq-IScmmYKyi5OEE-fO1Yo2gTcevewYUesf3rg-KyNheRvcY/s1600/Rumex+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLBcvPOiiXWy9ph_7qjsi-JdD9HvIGGfHBZvP8Xr1FKouYijOcIFm9BL6z6rdYdR92ed6DIXBSV-7Z9K3KEgAcRrhYXRyjq-IScmmYKyi5OEE-fO1Yo2gTcevewYUesf3rg-KyNheRvcY/s1600/Rumex+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Rumex acetosa</i> (common sorrel) is the nice reddy dock that we <u>do</u> keep in the meadow.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Weds 19th June<br />
Weather: Similar to Tues. The sun was so hot in the afternoon that plants had started to wilt in the hot greenhouse & I had to do some rapid watering & extra damping down of the floor. Watering is now up to three even four times a day. I have to be careful that when its too hot that watering is done before lunchtime to lessen the risk of wilting.<br />
<br />
We processed <i>Tetrapanax papyrifer </i>and <i>Musa basjoo </i>(that we had dug out and needed potting up). We potted a series of Salvias for the nursery - <i>Salvia confertiflora</i>, <i>S. leucantha</i> 'Purple Velvet', <i>S. mexicana </i>var. <i>minor</i>, <i>S</i>. <i>microphylla</i> 'Belize' (beautiful variegated white & dark red stem with bright red flowers), S. 'Blue Enigma'. Then for us in the garden <i>S. microphylla</i> 'Bellhaven' and <i>S. 'Indigo Spires'</i>.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizXYOscNGhI14jWBkw-I2retQ5wjwuU5TorpelRMZqqpgHV-oW2nSPZHo5v3Vw1ki9apZExc0ar5uGkdlksCXGCxbqI84SzKcjmBlomVy7o1ZkMWzDObTWZtVWz87uCXCjYWUUDbcGtw4/s1600/DSCN8905+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizXYOscNGhI14jWBkw-I2retQ5wjwuU5TorpelRMZqqpgHV-oW2nSPZHo5v3Vw1ki9apZExc0ar5uGkdlksCXGCxbqI84SzKcjmBlomVy7o1ZkMWzDObTWZtVWz87uCXCjYWUUDbcGtw4/s1600/DSCN8905+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Processing <i>Tetrapanax </i>by trimming the roots, dividing them up, then putting them in pots of<br />
slightly bigger volume. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Thurs 20th June<br />
Weather: Warm humid days. Up to 19°C<br />
More potting for the garden, this time we potted on some tender salvias for ourselves. Fergus was relieved to get them ready for growing on so that they would be in good form for planting out when the time is right. Any surplus stock we potted up for the nursery. More of the same as yesterday, but also <i>Salvia vitifolia, Impatiens bicaudata</i> & <i>Impatiens tinctoria</i> (these had red flecks on them because of restricted growth but with more room they should grow out of it).<br />
<br />
Then I did a little planting in the Exotic Garden - <i>Dahlia australis</i> two between two <i>Rosa</i> 'Madge' (I think it was the same as last year that section). We lined out plants in the sun just outside of Exotic Garden, that had been under the adjacent dark hovel for possible planting. Then I repotted some <i>Canna '</i>General Eisenhower' and made more room in the hot greenhouse for them.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiESeMbJxj9ch8k7eH5U7IWjR_x1noD90uYyu6fkg9CXXaCA02JgeeBXfsX_xMHtSwZ26AGS_TClT0sdSJbVser3Dqbksb5-vCamU05o92YkaMm1HmkK435SDmXWEsRFarSQbmsJx232X8/s1600/DSCN9233+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiESeMbJxj9ch8k7eH5U7IWjR_x1noD90uYyu6fkg9CXXaCA02JgeeBXfsX_xMHtSwZ26AGS_TClT0sdSJbVser3Dqbksb5-vCamU05o92YkaMm1HmkK435SDmXWEsRFarSQbmsJx232X8/s1600/DSCN9233+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moment of the roses in the Exotic Garden, the one on the first left is<i> Rosa</i> Chanelle, which<br />
flowers May - June, then repeats late summer - September/ October. The light pink one closest<br />
to the front is <i>Rosa</i> Madge. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Fri 21st June<br />
Weather: Hot & sunny most of the day.<br />
Carried on potting - <i>Petunia</i> Old Fashioned Climbers, green & red striped <i>Pennisetum</i> and <i>Scabious</i> 'Ace of Spades'.Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-35431991951513055212013-08-16T13:40:00.002-07:002013-08-16T14:17:40.837-07:00Planting up the ExoticBefore<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnCJx9Jntur1vMTmsbPLI69xLO92x0nXB1hrGOuOFq3Rzm7FpcsUZS191viMkpbx9eOILdic6u8pfUfDFOManLyVB9nzZ6BDqSIRWdFUT9RvhiyiyAEtHZUJb0oaBGhYvGQGFVbDwgmB0/s1600/DSCN8876+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnCJx9Jntur1vMTmsbPLI69xLO92x0nXB1hrGOuOFq3Rzm7FpcsUZS191viMkpbx9eOILdic6u8pfUfDFOManLyVB9nzZ6BDqSIRWdFUT9RvhiyiyAEtHZUJb0oaBGhYvGQGFVbDwgmB0/s1600/DSCN8876+copy.jpg" /></a></div>
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Thurs 13th June<br />
Weather: It went up to about 16°C apparently, but felt colder.<br />
Worked with gardener Graham to clear an area in the Exotic garden for planting, taking up old <i>Hedychium</i> plants and some very old roots of a <i>Yucca</i>, and potted on anything that looked like it still had life.<br />
<br />
After<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcwyM3_SdbrTPHzfkoTFjWV7lhKi8xYSnjtTocJkO8gSdbpRmIQxlItqKSwl3WoNMK9-MEcmFANyAU3ME5eGhZCRifgFPjKhzRKZPG_9pJUd75WeKk8CWMOzDR3y3F0ZOQCKHwCHHxKyk/s1600/DSCN8877+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcwyM3_SdbrTPHzfkoTFjWV7lhKi8xYSnjtTocJkO8gSdbpRmIQxlItqKSwl3WoNMK9-MEcmFANyAU3ME5eGhZCRifgFPjKhzRKZPG_9pJUd75WeKk8CWMOzDR3y3F0ZOQCKHwCHHxKyk/s1600/DSCN8877+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In that area we planted <i>Colocasia esculenta</i> & a banana <i>Musa basjoo</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Fri 14th June<br />
Weather: Hot<br />
I did more planting in the Exotic Garden, the <i>Yucca elephantipes </i>came out again, this time smack bang in the middle of a bed alluding to the feel of a desert island, <i>Dahlia</i> 'Twynings Number 8' with dark read leaves put in a bigger block and a more prominent position this year (they were a little overcrowded last year), & an <i>Arundo donax</i>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtqdOn6bBYWrXRehMIiPdwkShHs8dr6AqBvX0L9Affn7ZrdvMQRbyJD7UmyXUXmyTUb7fb_4k6PgX6t9Hxf1EV6_ahLH_WsBrM4bm7lQ0OPuiZsFXt54ENOLsxVX4uX8hvB1T7yO9lHP4/s1600/DSCN9701+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtqdOn6bBYWrXRehMIiPdwkShHs8dr6AqBvX0L9Affn7ZrdvMQRbyJD7UmyXUXmyTUb7fb_4k6PgX6t9Hxf1EV6_ahLH_WsBrM4bm7lQ0OPuiZsFXt54ENOLsxVX4uX8hvB1T7yO9lHP4/s1600/DSCN9701+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What the island looked like a few weeks after.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
Sat 15th June<br />
I gave a tour to some Finnish people who were interested in gardens.<br />
<br />
Mon 17th June<br />
Weather: Cloudy & a bit of rain at first, then hot sunshine. Went up to 18°C.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKvwMtzgGWJ6fBt3jWjCvr2M5wXmv9XV-oWOdCwO18T3dG_LNFRE0kmhftUdhYcxbNn5AiPCMYXJkM20LVRqKpHGUIzdnEtUgVD3y9YtGh1or-evujQk0bQg_meHAOj5JJicZhJwLS4rY/s1600/DSCN8898+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKvwMtzgGWJ6fBt3jWjCvr2M5wXmv9XV-oWOdCwO18T3dG_LNFRE0kmhftUdhYcxbNn5AiPCMYXJkM20LVRqKpHGUIzdnEtUgVD3y9YtGh1or-evujQk0bQg_meHAOj5JJicZhJwLS4rY/s1600/DSCN8898+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taking out smaller plants of <i>Musa basjoo</i>.</td></tr>
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Planting continued in the Exotic Garden - <i>Senecio petasites</i>, <i>Arundo donax</i>, and <i>Impatiens sodonii</i> (pink one). We took out some young banana shoots, which had to be dug as close to the main plant as much as possible so it would come away with enough roots for them to survive.Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-29317938958828961792013-08-16T11:01:00.000-07:002013-08-16T11:01:19.134-07:00Hemerocallis trial & the start of the Exotic<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw3pNqK85Qn0t3uz1hDeywu264fKhNFZmdDLVAziCKQolGci6u0WDqOk2TagU8TiGbqS_hTdNVD1obVNiQaZAz14vNUIlabWHgdnevjObUtxCzjtNHllBl734P9NB_aEpFA5PX6HxJT4g/s1600/Hem+fields+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw3pNqK85Qn0t3uz1hDeywu264fKhNFZmdDLVAziCKQolGci6u0WDqOk2TagU8TiGbqS_hTdNVD1obVNiQaZAz14vNUIlabWHgdnevjObUtxCzjtNHllBl734P9NB_aEpFA5PX6HxJT4g/s1600/Hem+fields+copy.jpg" /></a></div>
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Tues 11th June<br />
Weather: Around 14°C. Grey but warm & hazy, with a very fine drizzle later in the day. Quite beautiful weather actually.<br />
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Last year in October, we prepared a bed in the High Garden to accommodate for a <i>Hemerocallis</i> trial. We planted in 96 cultivars & added another 8 AGM ones later (114 in total) and we put our own stock of 'Marion Vaughn' & 'Stafford' next to it. I gave the area a much needed weeding and started labelling them up properly. We never label our plants, except sometimes we have small ones for our own guidance, so it was quite a sight to line out 114 labels. They were like soldiers or a concrete poem. I will give some highlights of the trial soon.<br />
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Weds 12th June<br />
Weather: Windy, 14/15°C<br />
The wind can change everything in a days schedule. We had to go round quickly supporting lupins, <i>Ferula glauca</i>, <i>Anthemis</i> with hurdles, canes & peasticks.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUMsc6Rs7ntAoy907n_4srq5ZBdKkhFur74R79dY46jMN87DD_nB8yQ-8iCBb7KB9NwKrBuFe-KGIfacuyEG0fZHOiFJVpfL-pAWliAfXtRAjtPa6wk3ifWvp-NEIghnzmEJbV7LKBbDI/s1600/DSCN8865+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUMsc6Rs7ntAoy907n_4srq5ZBdKkhFur74R79dY46jMN87DD_nB8yQ-8iCBb7KB9NwKrBuFe-KGIfacuyEG0fZHOiFJVpfL-pAWliAfXtRAjtPa6wk3ifWvp-NEIghnzmEJbV7LKBbDI/s1600/DSCN8865+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Double tying the <i>Ferula glauca, </i>with a short stout can and tarred twine against the direction of the wind. </td></tr>
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Then we started moving some of the plants out of the cold greenhouse like <i>Schleffera</i>,<i> Aralia</i> & all sorts of a strange array of plants - we have started to plant up the Exotic Garden it is terribly exciting.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE-FFQ3Cr-LYJcQBOHAhz3B-6ww41s_XNzGqwwx3mNxIHLws8SSEfY-vhCpt24cM1GCIoeuafwEFWKtW-5PBJJaX6ih8u98F5kdk4_FBPXwvOVRGXooNRSNSfKiu8kUPMGsH8idFwA6t0/s1600/DSCN8867+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE-FFQ3Cr-LYJcQBOHAhz3B-6ww41s_XNzGqwwx3mNxIHLws8SSEfY-vhCpt24cM1GCIoeuafwEFWKtW-5PBJJaX6ih8u98F5kdk4_FBPXwvOVRGXooNRSNSfKiu8kUPMGsH8idFwA6t0/s1600/DSCN8867+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This photo weirdly reminds me of Vietnam. </td></tr>
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The beginning of the Exotic Garden:<br />
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To see a photo of its wintry state, <a href="http://great-dixter.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-days-before-opening.html">click here</a><br />
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Some of the plants we have started to put in:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtLaZhr5Fvbt7yFs_eV3RqVRvVmXvwLFielBmUuiRcLCUUG7GsWrvjwOIUVlr-NxSFEdMaF-62Fo2Bc5z-SxeYKGf-A0vdUJCshGBAGnAHt_a6ZT-xFy4Prq8BUgJYggU0dJZgFI5pZ5Y/s1600/DSCN8871+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtLaZhr5Fvbt7yFs_eV3RqVRvVmXvwLFielBmUuiRcLCUUG7GsWrvjwOIUVlr-NxSFEdMaF-62Fo2Bc5z-SxeYKGf-A0vdUJCshGBAGnAHt_a6ZT-xFy4Prq8BUgJYggU0dJZgFI5pZ5Y/s1600/DSCN8871+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left to right - at the front the brighter green leaved plant is a Tamarillo - the tree tomato (<i>Solanum betacea</i>), behind this to the background is <i>Ailanthus altissima</i> (Tree of Heaven), a young plant of<i> Eucalyptus gunnii</i>, <i>Ensete ventricosum</i> 'Maureli' - the red banana plant that looks a little like a canna leaf/ The variegated grass is <i>Miscanthus sinensis</i> var. <i>condensatus '</i>Cosmopolitan'. The big plant next to the tamarillo, is a Japanese <i>Kalopanax</i>, which Fergus took out later. Then carrying on right at the bottom is <i>Begonia luxurians</i> that luxuriates in shade & a rather handsome <i>Dryopteris wallichiana</i>.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjalIM5tGZxnnori8pEypfmj5Aumot7qH3VYkhCZDBCkjBYrSUt5gHeA7Cr12BiBOXRi9XqF_ymhK5mNMNpNTcZoitdHWVf2IRaKodqAA1jCtpmqcrouHJ4nYFdz_d4UeSaWYUIyvXzq2o/s1600/DSCN8872+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjalIM5tGZxnnori8pEypfmj5Aumot7qH3VYkhCZDBCkjBYrSUt5gHeA7Cr12BiBOXRi9XqF_ymhK5mNMNpNTcZoitdHWVf2IRaKodqAA1jCtpmqcrouHJ4nYFdz_d4UeSaWYUIyvXzq2o/s1600/DSCN8872+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the back on the left with interesting shaped leaves is <i>Macleaya cordata</i>. The three plants in the middle are <i>Dahlia australis </i></td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4m-HnO29Siw2yik8CxovVG7MeLrPPAujdHR2_zx_GquRqjRRdcn0_mbXzjzLe63MHbIOo9QIKTZ8Gsctw-clTxPnK75bddo0gWRzV1yEo63uytVlzUaTMctkJB_mLvaU15jJhiSIKZRU/s1600/DSCN8873+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4m-HnO29Siw2yik8CxovVG7MeLrPPAujdHR2_zx_GquRqjRRdcn0_mbXzjzLe63MHbIOo9QIKTZ8Gsctw-clTxPnK75bddo0gWRzV1yEo63uytVlzUaTMctkJB_mLvaU15jJhiSIKZRU/s1600/DSCN8873+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Ginkgo bilboa</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqEEn_W2ajH04szh4UZBTu9Hi-gHc88y8P0ZNLveG1GTGsT7E7Rb-ffPN_XYfCSjQMv7UAO2TJapOpVsD1SM5ZvemYpsL1jCyIwDmX1MFhqGn3ZfCdNRdBOpdaGMNkrBlTHMcatTsxyrc/s1600/DSCN8874+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqEEn_W2ajH04szh4UZBTu9Hi-gHc88y8P0ZNLveG1GTGsT7E7Rb-ffPN_XYfCSjQMv7UAO2TJapOpVsD1SM5ZvemYpsL1jCyIwDmX1MFhqGn3ZfCdNRdBOpdaGMNkrBlTHMcatTsxyrc/s1600/DSCN8874+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A small <i>Amicia zygomeris</i> to start with. It is quite hardy & we have kept some out that have survived, overwintering others in glasshouses and then planting them out in July. </td></tr>
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<br />Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-5461950965118149752013-07-31T07:45:00.001-07:002013-08-10T11:11:28.376-07:00Meadow study dayMon 10th June<br />
Weather: 13 - 14°C grey & cloudy.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_GMrx_UbqDYoEctS3t1ulBb16HIsdheDkrgVcnIIc4jMdque39D8F5X-IIaied-ZokJTap592HowldrXlbpSfzgnlmyWTxMXEwrgj-fKoH4qVwVVRoGgeNvtYR7NzCU7bpXT7rIEXcQ/s1600/FSCN8900+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_GMrx_UbqDYoEctS3t1ulBb16HIsdheDkrgVcnIIc4jMdque39D8F5X-IIaied-ZokJTap592HowldrXlbpSfzgnlmyWTxMXEwrgj-fKoH4qVwVVRoGgeNvtYR7NzCU7bpXT7rIEXcQ/s1600/FSCN8900+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The meadow down at the farm complex, in year two it is already full of wildflowers - <i>Leucanthemum vulgare</i>, red & white clover, <i>Centauria nigra </i>(Knapweed) and lots more. </td></tr>
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There was a meadow study day with Fergus today. There are many different types of meadows at Dixter. The one next to the horse pond is made up of juncus sedge grass. The big orchard meadow opposite the long border was ploughed land in medieval times, so has a long heritage. We have new ones in the making 2 - 3 years old, the one down at the farm complex is already impressive even though it is so young, helped by our own rich seed source (see <a href="http://great-dixter.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/strewing.html">Strewing</a>). Our topiary lawn was basically what the lawn turned into when it was let go. Meadows are a complicated topic. It's not so much hard but there are a lot of questions that you have to consider when creating one - what you want it for, how you want to use it, what you want to get out of it, and what factors are you affected by. It can also get very scientific, there are formulas for seed mixes and schedules for cutting times.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZfiUJQzkgVCshyphenhyphenzFBYKmZpCd6CMZDZYkKU4TTmOlDJ59F0QFHlM3MnCt2M6Afs39sNhLwv3QYaRi5oL5r9gBC7TqqTh2BqGDc_HsT0S6kvGVRczbB19grEVcYqb8ATnCT7X_snZkFWMg/s1600/DSCN8762+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZfiUJQzkgVCshyphenhyphenzFBYKmZpCd6CMZDZYkKU4TTmOlDJ59F0QFHlM3MnCt2M6Afs39sNhLwv3QYaRi5oL5r9gBC7TqqTh2BqGDc_HsT0S6kvGVRczbB19grEVcYqb8ATnCT7X_snZkFWMg/s1600/DSCN8762+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Topiary lawn in April full of tall meadow buttercups (<i>Ranunculus acris</i>) with the two cotinus (Smoke Bush). Underneath the green cotinus are Cow Parsley (<i>Anthriscus sylvestris</i>). </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS4rUcK2JCYVG3bpioq1gP8jxgLw_8_k5PA7hFyIDhnL1BevDFH4NRwVXF0ezs1F5iTBpjJSizLwBgfTyBemtE1jJXJa5JsNSk6q_PMXhFe-UgZolHX3umHkqMa4hS5dBH9I7PJgsSLwo/s1600/Light+in+the+grass+near+horse+pond.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS4rUcK2JCYVG3bpioq1gP8jxgLw_8_k5PA7hFyIDhnL1BevDFH4NRwVXF0ezs1F5iTBpjJSizLwBgfTyBemtE1jJXJa5JsNSk6q_PMXhFe-UgZolHX3umHkqMa4hS5dBH9I7PJgsSLwo/s1600/Light+in+the+grass+near+horse+pond.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Meadow by the horsepond just coming up in March - April. The light is shining through Water Dropwort - <i>Oenanthe crocata </i>(which is very poisonous). </td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7cNm-5T73gCq6zeKSYLw2j9PHWSCM8W3LYeMkqCh4vhuKfd8IJ_bvDTfAR2NJxqtZaDds-sKz7NkaS3m4KhVRVDZvghQYMYCKZ_IdCjvy88y7CMLnqoAqSWfm9euzISHRKG9_OTiDI90/s1600/DSCN9137+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7cNm-5T73gCq6zeKSYLw2j9PHWSCM8W3LYeMkqCh4vhuKfd8IJ_bvDTfAR2NJxqtZaDds-sKz7NkaS3m4KhVRVDZvghQYMYCKZ_IdCjvy88y7CMLnqoAqSWfm9euzISHRKG9_OTiDI90/s1600/DSCN9137+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This quiet meadow in between spaces it began with <i>Fritillarias</i> & <i>Erythronium descanis</i>, then <i>Iris latifolia </i>(originally from the Pyrenees but has seemed to naturalise here), and now in July there are chicory <i>Cichorium intybus. </i>The tree in the middle is a quince.</td></tr>
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Fergus distinguished the difference between a cornfield and a meadow, which people often get mixed up with. The former is usually of colourful plants but they are all annuals & have many 'nursing' plants like poppies that makes it look good for the first one or two years, but does not last. The soil requirements for each are different. A meadow with longevity takes time & patience. It's good to think about the type of seeds that you want to use. Fergus is strongly for local provenance seeds usually obtainable from the local Wildlife Trust, but is not adverse to 'exotic' elements like the crocus, fritillarias & daffodil bulbs.<br />
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When one looks at our meadows especially the ones at the front of the house and the orchard meadow, the way the bulbs comes up in a drift, one can see a likeness to some of the prints in the 'Wild Garden' by William Robinson - the grandad of naturalistic planting. Daisy Lloyd - Christopher Lloyd's mother, was very influenced by him and studied his work. She was the one who was particularly keen on starting and developing the meadows, which Christopher expanded upon in later years.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEUIf6PAuUuAKRNNMQj1BOWdTCa0WZFa2DgfYUyp4tYD1iWWHkMLOfUxj1t0VggGd1ItRWBI6_icb6QIY2ddUMZu2q2Ft5Fl1beJGRyYUTUejLl5Eea0lTQtHE-nMrlB-LxDYd_AAw77I/s1600/Frits+in+the+meadow+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEUIf6PAuUuAKRNNMQj1BOWdTCa0WZFa2DgfYUyp4tYD1iWWHkMLOfUxj1t0VggGd1ItRWBI6_icb6QIY2ddUMZu2q2Ft5Fl1beJGRyYUTUejLl5Eea0lTQtHE-nMrlB-LxDYd_AAw77I/s1600/Frits+in+the+meadow+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fritillarias coming up in drifts in the orchard meadow in April - Daisy Lloyd planted many of the original ones. </td></tr>
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Some of the most important elements of setting up a meadow is starting from the right type of ground, to ensure that there are no weeds like dock & creeping thistles, and the less nutrition it has the more diverse the wild flowers will be. Cutting is another important element in meadow management, when & how its done. At Dixter we cut our meadows twice - once when the orchids have dropped their seeds which is usually in late summer (end of August) and then again around November to make sure that the grass is short enough for crocus bulbs to come up well.<br />
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Orchid pollens are in the air and will always drift in if the ground is right. Orchids are not the end all of meadows, but if they show up, then it is a good indication that your ground is good.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg7ARn50OYLUPD-gq9kUhpdZq8Z_bQABbLuxsOIejXvoDlVcdO5_0sAu6rRE47wIGWIRp1m9AAqrWmrp1xfjzFQFDojhEiQqJLAW5zjEsCJTBrIGhlw1jgmLZGLF_TY7D0fxlOINvtGGc/s1600/Orchis+maculata+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg7ARn50OYLUPD-gq9kUhpdZq8Z_bQABbLuxsOIejXvoDlVcdO5_0sAu6rRE47wIGWIRp1m9AAqrWmrp1xfjzFQFDojhEiQqJLAW5zjEsCJTBrIGhlw1jgmLZGLF_TY7D0fxlOINvtGGc/s1600/Orchis+maculata+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The green winged orchid - <i>Anaphalis morio, </i>before these there is also another dark purple orchid called <i>Orchis mascula</i> (Early Purple orchid).</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_bITB6zsqDSQ-lMdcyjqqFVusznTZ3S35NWLQVzDPqqDVt_QELf58opMHgKa_WhJfmBI5glhWF3YV_5f2fRZum8QVIYo7uO_R_7NC7b2iqJZviZ8yC09v8LWWGjkQ5KV0Q8WO-HXNMJo/s1600/DSCN8845+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_bITB6zsqDSQ-lMdcyjqqFVusznTZ3S35NWLQVzDPqqDVt_QELf58opMHgKa_WhJfmBI5glhWF3YV_5f2fRZum8QVIYo7uO_R_7NC7b2iqJZviZ8yC09v8LWWGjkQ5KV0Q8WO-HXNMJo/s1600/DSCN8845+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Twayblade orchid - <i>Listera ovata</i></td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgplcQesliP4lkAscVFPuvvM1tSWeHw5NEAcx4Y_wD2rPedqGIPY4w9LnLfLv2s7OKkDMSz3mKfHnOgfxXi8sMWExV2w-XibFC3uaevj5y8ddf-a-LCj1MtNb1RTOr0rKzE5oigo5ts3N4/s1600/Spotted+orchid+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgplcQesliP4lkAscVFPuvvM1tSWeHw5NEAcx4Y_wD2rPedqGIPY4w9LnLfLv2s7OKkDMSz3mKfHnOgfxXi8sMWExV2w-XibFC3uaevj5y8ddf-a-LCj1MtNb1RTOr0rKzE5oigo5ts3N4/s1600/Spotted+orchid+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The common spotted orchid <i>Dactylorhiza fuchsii. </i>These came in particularly noticeable drifts and swathes this year. Some were even freakishly big, as well as a couple of curious albino ones. </td></tr>
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<br />
A significant meadow plant is yellowrattle - <i>Rhinanthus minor</i> which I wrote about about last year (<a href="http://great-dixter.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/today-in-meadows-i-got-to-use-tracmaster.html">click here to see post</a>). These semi-parasitic plants helps keep the grass low so that more diverse plants can grow.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfgM6UktlQTRX2KP9TkPflKip9eotn6IYcLA5BXlQBUip-ytt2KmtcKb_iU3KB_KW-d7J69iqH6ljpmWglBM29LUMveXe4BOcrkQLL_Rw4boAfNH3m34j-CBYaIc_8eiu-1t0dcXqVUCM/s1600/DSCN8852+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfgM6UktlQTRX2KP9TkPflKip9eotn6IYcLA5BXlQBUip-ytt2KmtcKb_iU3KB_KW-d7J69iqH6ljpmWglBM29LUMveXe4BOcrkQLL_Rw4boAfNH3m34j-CBYaIc_8eiu-1t0dcXqVUCM/s1600/DSCN8852+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Rhinanthus minor</i> - Yellow Rattle. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Then there is the wider picture to consider - is it purely for aesthetics, or is it for conservation & supporting biodiversity. Or is it part of a bigger system like a farming rotation and be used as pasture land, which is a more holistic approach to horticulture & agriculture and how things used to be done. Much of this has been lost and hence the threat of meadow land also.<br />
<br />
They are great habitats for wildlife - gnapweed, hawkbit & dandelions are perfect for honeybees, more different butterflies have been found in the meadows because some of them like to lay their eggs on the tall grasses. This is why we only cut our meadows with a slower machine that cuts like a scythe and only in sections at a time, so it gives a chance for the wildlife to move onto somewhere else. Fergus is hoping to eventually just to use hand scythes to cut the meadows. This has spurred Dixter to hold a scything competition at the end of this summer.Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-29060231246337849702013-07-31T07:45:00.000-07:002013-07-31T07:45:02.426-07:00Bits, pieces & toursMon 3rd June<br />
Weather: 14/15°C, sunny.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP2wjwSEC-o-U4604X-GRwCpoxfifv38xvWd6s3U8TM0Y_cIkwqItmWvnAesoADfhiQt4gNFM0ejCJyVftMAByRPqhCN5cBQLGkWxIsZPXuHaovCfy-CQKYQ_G0QUccfY2u7zuGJRIJs4/s1600/DSCN8777+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP2wjwSEC-o-U4604X-GRwCpoxfifv38xvWd6s3U8TM0Y_cIkwqItmWvnAesoADfhiQt4gNFM0ejCJyVftMAByRPqhCN5cBQLGkWxIsZPXuHaovCfy-CQKYQ_G0QUccfY2u7zuGJRIJs4/s1600/DSCN8777+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leo's pot display. </td></tr>
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<br />
Assisted Leo with one of the pots display on the circular step. Fergus is wanting us to take it in turn to take the creative initiative and lead how it is done, so it was Leo's turn to guide it.<br />
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Brushed up paths and potted up <i>Allium senescen </i>subsp.<i> montanum</i>. We are helping the nursery at the moment to close the gap there, before we start doing more planting in the garden. Things are always having to flexibly change according to circumstances, it is never guaranteed that it will stay the same.<br />
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Tues 4th June<br />
Weather: 15-16°C, sunny but windy.<br />
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Potted up <i>Aster </i>x<i> frikartii '</i>Mönch' as stock for the nursery from our own cuttings. I gave a tour of the house & gardens to my former college teacher and her current students. It was great to show students contemplating their next steps what they could do and sharing with them how passionate & inspired I have felt being here.<br />
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Planted out dahlias in the high garden in the main stock bed. We put in<i> '</i>Gloire de Heemstede' next to <i>Agastache </i>Black Adder as a more unusual combination and <i>Dahlia</i> Dove Grove on another side to give some red to the scene. Dahlias were staked and watered in well.<br />
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Weds 5th June<br />
Weather: Around 14°C, the wind made it feel cold in the morning but it was distinctively hotter late in the afternoon.<br />
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Setting up a hose & sprinkler system to water one side of the main stock bed in the High Garden before visitors came, and brushed up path areas there. I did some cuttings of <i>Dahlia</i> Dove Grove and transferred smaller ones into bigger pots. Then I moved them all into a hotter frame in front of the shop, to see if we can bring them on more as they're a bit weak.<br />
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I did my first tour for 18 people from the North of Switzerland, they were just generally interested in gardens and had been touring a few already so just wanted a brief one, which made it easy enough. They were pleased that a gardener was taking them around so that someone could actually answer their plant related questions. <br />
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Sat 8th & 9th June<br />
Weather: 13 - 16°C. Very windy!<br />
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Nursery duties (<a href="http://great-dixter.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/nursery-duties-and-rain-guage.html">read here</a> to see for what nursery duties usually consist of; a lot more watering replaces stoking fires later in the year).Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-76065152890066247482013-07-29T07:25:00.001-07:002013-07-29T15:32:16.223-07:00Stakes & hurdlesThurs 30th May<br />
Weather: Apparently around 14 - 15°C today, cooler in the mornings & evenings. Bitty. Drizzle & heavy rain.<br />
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I staked some <i>Ammi majus</i>, with canes a foot higher than the plant to anticipate their future growth. Then I tried to make an <i>Aconitum</i> looked untouched and staked those with some tricky manoeuvres.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGSfUX7TFB30MV7bgzYw5JH7AhU_i4yWPASqj1PwoPbqhhqcilAVR30UxMTN7PDn-olUwCTsXmU6QLMx1OThzOy5_3wGxnYj5cSIWwLDXurvRbaanYN_VgzjxdunCske2cOfZDo-ZLRXM/s1600/Ammi+majus+&+papaver+somni+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGSfUX7TFB30MV7bgzYw5JH7AhU_i4yWPASqj1PwoPbqhhqcilAVR30UxMTN7PDn-olUwCTsXmU6QLMx1OThzOy5_3wGxnYj5cSIWwLDXurvRbaanYN_VgzjxdunCske2cOfZDo-ZLRXM/s1600/Ammi+majus+&+papaver+somni+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Ammi majus</i> all grown up a few weeks after staking with Papaver somniferum 'Danish Flag'. Not a poppy I necessary like on its own, but made a striking combination with the ammi.</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigUIjQuWHACRIR4j4GnZA7L4U29U4QKWUC7wRZE712Epy7-pIj5ofoVnRqg-VzhGIV0DO43D9Ohvz4JGv_jFlYJvavcNbCDiNfeG_qLFoUEvFPn-xqAKY31kWdJNxpFdqLDkqd5MUxrjA/s1600/DSCN9707+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigUIjQuWHACRIR4j4GnZA7L4U29U4QKWUC7wRZE712Epy7-pIj5ofoVnRqg-VzhGIV0DO43D9Ohvz4JGv_jFlYJvavcNbCDiNfeG_qLFoUEvFPn-xqAKY31kWdJNxpFdqLDkqd5MUxrjA/s1600/DSCN9707+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The aconitum now (July). Two of the types we use are 'Spark's Variety' & <i>carmichaelii</i> 'Kelmscott' (Arendsii Group), both very blue. This one is 'Spark's Variety'.</td></tr>
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<br />
I went round malleting in hurdles that Fergus had laid out. Sometimes putting them at an angle to make them look as 'natural' as possible - for the plants to not be too hemmed in anyway.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk7jWnr9DjHHfETNC8sxOdSvxDJj8VY9fjVx9oG1E9Y9IkKCPOw-f6DF4lUc9mapI1n3hR1AhyLzLDwXUSrnU2dDZE52nLIEulTo9lW0LSlzQlD8vqdtKGiuO2SK6OyBYE2gCBKh804Lw/s1600/DSCN9708+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk7jWnr9DjHHfETNC8sxOdSvxDJj8VY9fjVx9oG1E9Y9IkKCPOw-f6DF4lUc9mapI1n3hR1AhyLzLDwXUSrnU2dDZE52nLIEulTo9lW0LSlzQlD8vqdtKGiuO2SK6OyBYE2gCBKh804Lw/s1600/DSCN9708+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hurdle made by Simon, woodworker apprentice for Dixter, he makes them for the garden and for sale at the shop/ upon request. </td></tr>
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Fri 31st May<br />
Weather: Apparently going up to 18/19 even 20°C.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUmqjt91rDGIlec_RqqKP6EX41lNsKBBWMpZhQBxiOM4rDMZGRPiLr1AqnHIAHB2B0tHFJKs-RFKPcrsB9s-8UqsxykhZgNNaPoSjO-uxZGRLT1lTMOCxOWtAiJD4KUkZ0SncnxUHZxZ0/s1600/BG+Behind+border+2013+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUmqjt91rDGIlec_RqqKP6EX41lNsKBBWMpZhQBxiOM4rDMZGRPiLr1AqnHIAHB2B0tHFJKs-RFKPcrsB9s-8UqsxykhZgNNaPoSjO-uxZGRLT1lTMOCxOWtAiJD4KUkZ0SncnxUHZxZ0/s1600/BG+Behind+border+2013+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A view from behind the border. </td></tr>
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I staked <i>Hesperis matronalis </i>now that the weather was better<i> </i>and it is suitable for getting into the beds more <i>- </i>these have been helping to provide colour much of May. We have alot of purple ones and a few white ones, the purple as an isolated colour is not something I thought I would like, but in <i>Hesperis</i> enmasse it seems to shimmer and glow. I shaved two chestnut poles and hammered them into the ground as support for a clematis. We decided that it was too much, so we took one out. The borders are definitely getting harder to get into as they are so full now.<br />
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As things change quicker than I can put up my posts, many of these things have passed over already, but here are some highlights of the Barn Garden during April/ May: <br />
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This sweetly scented <i>Viburnum carlesii </i>was in flower in April and was planted by Christopher Lloyd when he was a child. To read his letter of this account <a href="http://www.greatdixter.co.uk/garden/this-month-in-the-garden/april-2013/">click here</a>.<br />
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This striking <i>Omphalodes cappadocica </i>'Cherry Ingram' in the perfect shelter & shadow of the steps derived a lot of cooing from visitors as they walked by.<br />
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This was a great combination before these extra prickly dead cardoons <i>Cynara cardunculus</i> (dwarf Chelsea Physic Form) were cut down. <br />
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<i>Santolina pinnata</i> subsp. <i>neopolitana </i>looking good before it gets split by the wind and its own weight.<br />
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<i>Cestrum fasciculatum</i> next to the <i>Ammi Majus</i>. In front of this, unfortunately not in view in this photo was <i>Ligusticum scoticum</i> another white umbellifer aka Scottish Lovage.<br />
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There was also the 'giant' giant fennel - Ferula communis, who made a fine display from February and is only going over now. The tall dark red tree peonies - <i>Paeonia delavayi,</i> <i>Euphorbia styrgiana </i>that gave us a honey scent for so long. As well the quick succession of ladybird poppies - <i>Papaver commutatum</i> (the reddest I have seen of this cultivar) with the acid lime green of <i>Euphorbia polychroma</i> 'Major', and so much more.Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-34437929230535971552013-07-07T04:09:00.000-07:002013-07-07T04:12:42.282-07:00A birthday treatFri 5th July<br />
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The tempo of the garden has gone up quite a few notches, so I have barely had time to even think about blogging. I will still be putting my month(s) old posts up though as I do have to do it as part of my scholarship, plus it's useful for me too and nice to share with others. But here is a special more current post in between.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRzP8qrErMIbm5fRL_5D5KYCAK5q7yTx7e8F7JuRW4ctQ_yV4l-nZ3Q0UyxTj5c0KvuzJaYamiDKZjp2Cs0XPTJLSK1NfxvM_dpNuFqhB8V6Apdum6C3ClVA-tsN7KhyphenhyphenEw7Odl3G-WZyc/s1600/DSC_6591+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRzP8qrErMIbm5fRL_5D5KYCAK5q7yTx7e8F7JuRW4ctQ_yV4l-nZ3Q0UyxTj5c0KvuzJaYamiDKZjp2Cs0XPTJLSK1NfxvM_dpNuFqhB8V6Apdum6C3ClVA-tsN7KhyphenhyphenEw7Odl3G-WZyc/s1600/DSC_6591+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me left, Makiko right. <i>Photo courtesy of Perry Rodriguez.</i></td></tr>
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It's my birthday and I couldn't have asked for more - glorious weather and a juicy bit of planting, whilst eating peas straight from pods at lunchtime. Here is me and Makiko (a freelance gardener designer from Japan who has come to volunteer for three weeks) tackling one of the patches of bedding that gets changed over once the spring interest has finished, ready for summer up to late autumn interest. Here we had purple <i>Hesperis matronalis</i> & <i>Tulipa</i> 'Abu Hassan'. We are changing it over with <i>Dahlia</i> 'Emory Paul' and <i>Nicandra physaloides - </i>the shoo-fly plant. The latter is used as a filler really until the dahlias get going. I can't find any written material about it but I heard it is good for warding off white flies.<br />
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Before<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-wYf-Bb9danprpR7LL-2giwEwYCHOgmIbjvGvj59dBY1gygcuipp_fO7fnm28eHsoN9Cjb5KKkVhpVwgNKToHSfkDdGMM2E2dHMcOwxapgAB2nDzR5BaZ8hq9H-fIrxYD3aL19N9Ybi0/s1600/DSCN9229+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-wYf-Bb9danprpR7LL-2giwEwYCHOgmIbjvGvj59dBY1gygcuipp_fO7fnm28eHsoN9Cjb5KKkVhpVwgNKToHSfkDdGMM2E2dHMcOwxapgAB2nDzR5BaZ8hq9H-fIrxYD3aL19N9Ybi0/s1600/DSCN9229+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With <i>Hesperis</i> passing over. </td></tr>
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The rate of people coming through to experience & work in the garden has also increased and from this I have realised that demonstrating something as basic as planting is not so straightforward, especially if one does not have much practical experience, it can be a little bit of a shock. Dixter has such a particular but commonsensical way, from how the hole is dug, how a plant is staked to how it is watered. It's not a task you can just switch off to but involves a constant state of thinking (which is also why I love it). The more you practise these steps and have tuned into that intuition (how a plant should be placed, where its foliage is tending towards), it just flows as one long action, instead of lots of staccato bits, and it is pretty much foundational stuff that helps make you a great gardener. Makiko my lovely assistant did a sterling job and hopefully gained a deeper understanding of everything.<br />
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We always lay out our planting to see what it's like before planting it in. We keep stepping back to see that the planting is still going ok. The shoo-fly plant being a filler is less priority than the dahlias, so these are planted and repositioned if necessary at the end. We have been planting up the Exotic Garden, so when I put these posts up I will briefly go over the whole process step by step that we go through when planting. <br />
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After<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dahlia 'Emory Paul' which will be huge plants with dinner plate like flowers, are well staked to anticipated their growth. </td></tr>
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<br />Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-58464830297911954722013-06-26T16:07:00.000-07:002013-06-26T16:07:08.814-07:00Chelsea chop & paintbrushes - behind the scenes of the Chelsea Flower ShowA month ago I had the privilege of getting a pass to see the centenary Chelsea Flower Show a couple of days before it opened, and before the glitzy & glamorous strided through the doors. Many were still in the thick of setting up, power water misters seems to be the order of the day and the finesse of the work went down to people brushing soil off plant leaves with a paint brush.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The interesting site of the Royal Hospital where the show is held. </td></tr>
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A few nurseries has been at the Chelsea Flower Show all the way, including orchid nursery McBeans. They recreated the first showy stand that they did of exotic orchids at the first Chelsea Flower Show, but now with even more genera.<br />
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Perfect lupins. It's mind boggling to think how they manage to get plants ready and in such top condition exactly for the dates of the exhibition. All sorts of keys & secrets I'm sure, hence the method known as the 'Chelsea chop' & probably some deep freeze action. <br />
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The building of a stand. <br />
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It never ceases to me amaze me how niche horticulturalists can be, from heuchera lovers to just being dedicated to one type of primula or even strawberries. The range of specialism was impressive. There was of course stands by famous nurseries like David Austen roses & Cayeau irises. The smell inside the marquee of all these plants was phenomenal. Here is the carnivorous plant stand being tweaked.<br />
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Nothing satisfies me more than seeing three grown men getting particular about primula auriculas, breaking stereotypes in a positive way. <br />
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I couldn't help but admire these aquilegias. <br />
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Waterside nursery dealing specifically with aquatic & marginal plants:<br />
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Not to mention one of my favourite nurseries 'Crug Farm' with their daring exotics from their intrepid plant hunting expeditions. One of their latest adventures was in Vietnam, which as the birth place of my parents I am very interested in.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A box of artefacts & seeds part of the Crug Farm display</td></tr>
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I am intrigued by how these vegetables are displayed, it is like a shrine for a harvest god. <br />
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I have a thing for chandelier/ tiered primulas for some reason, so I was curious to see the different types on display (there was many).<br />
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I loved the lush planting/ display of Hillier. They had great plants & combinations and made it feel like a bit of a feast.<br />
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This is the first time I have seen rhododendrons pruned this way, almost as standards with some of their leaves stripped off.<br />
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This <i>Cornus kousa</i> was one of many plants that I saw on my desire list.<br />
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There were many other things going on in the main marquee too, different societies, RHS demonstrations of different gardens throughout the last 100 years and intensive floral displays by Birmingham Council and Nang Nooch Botanical Garden in Thailand. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Part of the Birmingham Council display</td></tr>
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I was not as taken with any of the show gardens as I would have liked to have been. I liked Chris Beardshaw's planting that he did with Arthritis Research UK, especially the tall echiums. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib7QmOJs0jr5h12L1pjXl77ETW0MRNP7dd-Fa4zlV05EjODvknmoLO5Uu6pWBP53UQPqq-KC78FeLnHsn7cVoy95EoW-C4w6-cyOwp8a6v78IUqw1O2uGcBJpOHs6Xoi7QyW5edT6YiFs/s1600/DSCN8527+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib7QmOJs0jr5h12L1pjXl77ETW0MRNP7dd-Fa4zlV05EjODvknmoLO5Uu6pWBP53UQPqq-KC78FeLnHsn7cVoy95EoW-C4w6-cyOwp8a6v78IUqw1O2uGcBJpOHs6Xoi7QyW5edT6YiFs/s1600/DSCN8527+copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A lot of the show gardens used this light flooring which I think was a type of york stone. I was wondering though if it was giving everyone a headache, as footprints & dirt seem to show up really easy on it. </td></tr>
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There is a big trend at the moment in green roofs, vertical growing, dealing with the urban environment and using modern materials. Nigel Dunnett uses concrete to make planters and modern metal grates as walkways as part of his design for a roof garden.<br />
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Tempting textures. This reminds me of the increasing interest in no grass lawns, they are pretty, are more multi-sensory and can potentially support more wildlife, but I have wondered about how they fare in terms of functionality too (e.g. lying on the grass, playing ball games, repeat walking etc.)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Section of the B & Q Sentebale Forget-Me-Not Garden</td></tr>
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I couldn't help but feel that JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit was having its influence to designs too. Birmingham council had definitely highlighted The Lord of the Rings, as part of the celebration of the library that's opening there. If only the LOTR & Tolkien fanatics knew!<br />
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Many of the show gardens were very conceptual, this one was called 'After the fire', demonstrating growth that would occur after a fire and to symbolise a new beginning.<br />
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There was lots more, not including the product stalls who made just as much effort to present their wares as did the nurseries. It was only when I had gone home that I realised I had missed the whole 'Artisan Gardens' section, even though I thought I had walked round several times. And I didn't even manage to brush the sides of the Chelsea Fringe this year either.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stalls creating their own planters & cheerful planting. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The amount of packaging used was an installation in itself. </td></tr>
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Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4038115838583415313.post-43462230778592947772013-06-26T16:03:00.001-07:002013-06-26T16:03:48.341-07:00Bluebell woods<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It has not been that long since some of these bluebell woods have finished. The ones around here are the best I have ever seen. This sparkling carpet was a scene from Dixter's 'Four Acre Shaw'.Maggie Tranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13117623902637100879noreply@blogger.com0