The Gardener's Blog

Here we go again, planting,weeding, staking and grass cutting chaos!!

It all happens at once in the garden this time of year, and to add to the pressure we have had a pretty wet time of it lately that contributes to an increase in the growth of weeds.  Whilst juggling office admin, emails, guided tours, Health and Safety meetings, budgets and event management. It’s time to change the spring bedding for summer half hardy’s but the temperature has been so low we have to wait a bit longer. Yuccas , Dasylirions and Melaleuca have arrived from a delivery from Spain, hanging baskets are out and tender Abysinian Bananas are waiting to go out. Even though I try to wear gardening gloves my hands are as rough as a cheese grater these days. Soil, weeding, and watering drys the skin out; at least we don’t have nylon sheets anymore, remember them, remember the static !! Sorry I’m digressing.  Thank goodness I get a bus mans holiday with a day out to Chelsea flower show soon. As a committee member I get the privilage to go on the monday before the general public. Its a time to reflect on what others are growing and designing in the horticultural world. But really, I suspect, like me I am drawn in to people watching as much as anything.  As TV stars strut their stuff like Peacocks in full display and TV cameras josstle for best VIP status, I find it quite uplifting to mingle with the likes of Ringo Star or Joanna Lumley whilst peering into a bed of pink Petunias trying to be very casual about this very British occasion.

On another note we have had a fine display of Magnolias, Camellias, Azalea and now Rhododendrons. If there’s one thing that stops people dead in their tracks it is scented plants and there are some really fantasic Rhododendrons that have overpowering scent that holds and lingers in the pathway. We grow Rhododendron loderi ‘King George’ which has enormous trusses of pink flowers. Rhododendron fragrantissimum lives up to it’s species name as very sweetly fragrant being a hybrid between R.Edgeworthii and R.formosum. Another interesting yellow scented Rhododendron is ‘Michaels Pride’. Named after one of Caerhays castles head gardener’s, Charles Michael. It’s parents are R.burmanicum x R.dalhousiae.

Finally I must mention we have won the coverted historic houses association “Christies Garden of the year Award 2012″ . After many years of struggle and hard work to improve the gardens plant collections and its tourism infrustructure, this is the icing on the cake to prove we are one of the best gardens in the country. We held the ceromony with over 150 influential guests coming to the unveiling of the plaque, followed by garden tours led by the garden staff, then a dash across country to Melbury House ( Home of the Hon Charlotte Townshend, owner of Abbotbury gardens) to a wonderful formal dinner and tour of the house.

 

 

Well it’s come around again, just as we thought we had found the last of the golf tee tokens that were misplaced in the garden from last years Easter egg hunt – we were putting them out again !! Good Friday was very busy with many families making the most of the warm spring sunshine. Cream eggs were claimed in their thousands. Apart from the Chocolate bonanza and the following sugar overload in the

children, the parents were relieved of attention when the very good childrens entertainer came on the scene standing at about ten feet tall. He was on stilts actually, whilst blowing up sausage shaped ballons. Bamboos hoops were placed strategically around the garden, not just as an attractive low cost feature, but more practically, to try to avoid herds of stampeding little feet flattening the Hostas as their buds emerge from their winter rest.

There has been a stunning display of Camellias, Magnolias and Rhododendrons for everyone to admire, and now the weather has finally got back to a more normal pattern of cooler April showers the flowers might last a bit longer. Our Camellia reticulata collection is one of the biggest in the country. This species of Camellia with their enormous flowers can be a little tricky to overwinter, so Abbotsburys milder microclimate suits them . Many cultivars originate from the 1000 year old lineage of the temple gardens of Kunming and Yunnan in South West China. Oh and by the way- We have won the Historic Houses Association -”Garden of the year award 2012″ with a big award ceromony at the end of April. (More details later)

It’s been a while since I last reported on activities in the garden so at last I have a spare moment to update.
The sad news must have filtered through about the felling of our giant Wingnut tree.From tree surveys we found that the core or the basal trunk had rotted and had spread out into the root system. An estimated 20 tonnes of timber siting on top could have had fatal consequences so action had to be taken. One positive thing from this is that the light levels have improved in the walled garden and more open views can be seen across the garden.
New this winter will be the re-styled ticket office,designed to echo the ‘old colonial restaurant’ with wooden exterior and red tin roof.This will also be at a new location from the tea garden into the Victorian garden to help the visitor flow. Once we have had the remaining tree stump ground out we will landscape the area with new planting schemes.
The first half of this winter has been extremely mild and we saw a record number of Camellias in flower even on Christmas day. The cold snap eventually got to us in late January, browning off some of the early flowers and soft young growth.There is still a lot more colour to come even though some of the Magnolia campbellii trees have done their bit in a sudden blaze of colour. The golden Pheasants are also contributing to the late winter colour with their vibrant golden orange capes and red head dresses, all brightening up a dull winters day.

 

It’s 20.C and rising, warm air is circulating in the early morning sunshine, spiders webs glisten with the dew and late summer herbaceous plants are providing a real show to talk about. Nerine bowdenii produces attractive umbels of flowerheads on stiff stems. A native to the Drackensburg mountains of South Africa, yet it does well here in the uk with a little protection. Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ and Rudbeckia hirta ‘Black eyed Susan’from North America are star performers this time of year along with Salvias, Dahlias, Kniphofia rooperi, Fuchia, Grasses, Cleome , Aconitum, Eucomis and Cosmos. Who said summer glory fades in late August, well come and see the garden right now ,it’s stunning.

There were families queuing to come into the garden the other day and I overheard children moaning about wanting to go to the beach. Half an hour later I passed them running down the woodland path with shrieks of delight as they searched for fallen Pine cones, dead leaves and even commenting to their parents about the size of the Cobolt blue Hydrangeaflower heads. Another lovely comment overheard was that the hairy trunks of Trachycarpus fortunei looked like daddy’s legs!! I took the steep path up to view out over the Chesil Beach, firstly to check on the progress of the Magnolia avenue, and once again I couldn’t help eve’s drop on visitors comments as they admired the stunning views out to Portland Bill. “The best view of the Jurassic coast they have ever seen and well worth the effort of walking up the hill”. There are so many different aspects and dimensions to this garden that even the non gardener will delight in the secret vistas through the woodland as if seen in a remote Himalayan glade, or admire the colourful roaming Golden Pheasants, and even feed the fish in the Lily ponds. I bumped into the family again as they began to exit the garden for the Colonial Restaurant. The children were clutching sticks and pheasant feathers, and by now had burnt off some of their never ending energy. The family all stopped in their tracks to wonder at the distant call of an unfamiliar sound, the call of the “Laughing Kookaburra”, a memory I’m sure they will all cherish from the day’s outing.

PS: We have surplus ‘Cheer Pheasant’ chicks for sale this year.

I love this time of year when the massed drifts of perennial flowers interspaced with annuals and summer bulbs combine like a painters palette. This year the ‘Mediterranean bank’ looks stunning with many South African species combining to produce vibrant colour.Deep blue Agapanthus inapertus,shell pink Watsonia hybrids and crimson Crocosmia ‘lucifer’create intense colour permeations.
Another favourite of mine is Impatiens tinctoria, one of the largest species in this remarkable genus and one of very few plants from tropical Africa to be hardy outdoors in the British Isles.The flowers look more orchid like than its smaller relative the ‘Bizzy Lizzy’.It survives our winters because it’s tuberous root system is tough enough to avoid deep frost penetration, aided with a good layer of mulch like leaf mould. In Ethiopia this fleshy root is the source of a red dye, hence the latin name tinctoria.
Friday 22nd – I am leading a “Garden Walkabout Tour” Ticket only tour of the gardens, looking at planting schemes, design elements, choice plants and the Sub tropical effect. We are limited to 30 people for this informal tour, lets hope the weather is kind to us on the day!

It’s been an odd sort of season with the weather baking hot in April, hose pipes in early May, and a cool damp start for June. At least there are still some good old standby plants that never let us down. One of my firm favourites and one that is as tough as old boots is Salvia transylvanica. The latin name, or specific epithet to be precise, transylvanica, indicates it’s origin as as being a native from central Russia through to Romania and the Transylvanian Alps. No wonder it’s nick name is the ‘Vampire Sage’. It forms very leafy clumps which produce lax stems of rich violet blue whorls. We have been growing it flanking the steps that lead to the Lily ponds, and here it looks wonderful with the purple Aeonium ‘Swartkop’ and the spreading Erigeron karvinskianus. If there was one criticism about this Salvia, it is that it self seeds like crazy if you don’t dead head them, but hey! thats not such a bad thing for a plant that will flower for about two months.

Abbotsbury gardens can be a real haven for wildlife, especially passing migrant birds. This year a rare Hoopoe was spotted as he came up from the continent and paused to rest a while at the gardens. Talking of exotic birds, when I first started work at Abbotsbury many years ago now, there were 10 peacocks that roamed the grounds. Unfortunately they had to go as they were destroying the garden. My compromise was to introduce Golden Pheasants which are colourful and add interest for visitors without eating all our Hostas….well not too much damage !! To add to the visitors experience in the garden I believe using all your senses with touchy feely plants, scent, and sound effect. That is why I introduced our British bred Australian friends…Kookaburras. Dawn in the Australian….or…Abbotsbury bush, has no more delightful or characteristic sound than the chorus of the Kookaburras. The rollicking laughter adds another dimension to the atmosphere of the garden from their woodland aviary, and the good news is they have hatched out three chicks this year to add to the family. All beak and no feathers at the moment, but I’m sure you’ll be hearing from them later in the year!!