My Garden

Blog from the Orchard, by Jim Arbury, RHS Garden Wisley

Sara Draycott — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:46:00 GMT

Hi I am Jim Arbury and this is my first blog. I am an RHS horticultural specialist with a particular interest and experience in fruit growing. I have worked at Wisley for 30 years and so have seen the orchard and fruit gardens through many contrasting seasons. I have been involved with all aspects of fruit growing and in my own time grow vegetables and keep bees.

Pelargonium fans at Wisley - with Paul and Katie

Sara Draycott — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:40:00 GMT

Hi. We're Katie and Paul and we would like to ask if you're a "fan" of pelargoniums. We work in the Propagation Department at Wisley (Katie is a trainee, Paul is a long-standing member of staff having once been a trainee but now has many years experience - you can see us in Figure 4 below).

Fancy a bit of the Mediterranean in your life? A profusion of incredible scent and colour are on show in the Pelargonium display at Wisley. It is on for six weeks from May 4th - come now to see it at its best!

Going to sea in a sieve at Wisley - with Lucie Ponsford

Sara Draycott — Wed, 01 May 2013 14:49:00 GMT

March was freezing . . . thank goodness for April the drip, drip, drop has been just the ticket, combined with sunshine, to encourage the plants and us all to unfurl from what has been a long and bitter winter.

The Roots of RHS Garden Wisley, by Sabatino Urzo

Sara Draycott — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:50:00 GMT

Not many people know that on the western end of Liguria on the Italian Riviera, just before reaching the boundary at Ponte San Luigi, it is possible to admire one of the most delightful gardens created by Sir Thomas Hanbury. In 1867 he bought an estate producing the greatest gardens of the Riviera. Sir Thomas Hanbury was a gardener who, at the end of his life, bought a large estate at Wisley and donated it to the Royal Horticultural Society in 1903 "for the encouragement and improvement of the science and practice of horticulture in all its branches". To experience this legendary garden, Emily and Rohanna, two of the second year Wisley Diploma trainees, and I went to the breathtaking Italian Riviera to discover and work in this extraordinary garden.

Tarting Up the Tatty and Replacing the Rotten by Andrew Lane

sheiladearing — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 14:43:00 GMT

Visitors and staff alike may have noticed a sudden and rapid renovation occurring in the Potager at RHS Garden Rosemoor. A new wall here, new paving there and sadly the disappearance of long standing Vitis and Pergolas along with the mournful removal of an iconic Wisteria macrobotrys that has adorned the central structure for the best part of the last 20 years.

It’s not as bad as it sounds though and there’s no need to panic as the key to renovation is to get your target area to a stage from which it can be developed. This sometimes requires a seemingly drastic reduction of what is already in place so that you have wider parameters to work within and more scope for improvement.
In the Potager, however, it is a case of less is more and the four square iron pergolas that have been removed create a more open feel to the garden and allow the design to flow into that of the Cottage and Herb Gardens more harmoniously.

The Diary of a Wisley Gardener 2013 - with Lucie Ponsford

Sara Draycott — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:09:00 GMT

New beginnings:

Jan 7th 2013 marks the exciting beginnings for my second year at RHS Wisley. I am taking over custodianship of the Canal, Walled gardens, Conifer lawn and surround. For me, and I am sure many other families this is the quintessential vision of Wisley and one I have known of old.

Get Set – Get Sowing by Catherine Norman

sheiladearing — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 09:26:00 GMT

Now is one of my favourite times of year as spring starts and the days are getting longer it is time to start seed sowing and all the promise that holds for the coming year.

I have been busy on the nursery getting the seeds sown ready for the planting season. It started with sowing sweet peas, one seed into a 7cm pot on 15th February but there is still plenty of time to get them going. Ours will soon need potting up into 1 litre pots and tying into canes. Many people set their sweet peas off in the autumn but ours are ready and waiting to get out in the garden by the end of May and always put on a good display in the garden.

Orchid Fantasy comes to life at Wisley - with Helen Feary

Sara Draycott — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 15:04:00 GMT

It’s been a hive of activity down in the Glasshouse and now the 'fantasy island of orchids' is open and will run until Sunday 21 April.

Not quite a hedge, but a 'Fedge' by Peter Earl

sheiladearing — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:11:00 GMT

Next time you are near the PBLC site, look out for the newly planted ‘fedge’; it’s a cross between a fence and a hedge, made of willow and you can see it contouring around the Willow bed.

This bed was planted up last winter with a selection of hard wood cuttings, and they have established well in what was a very wet year.

First steps for Top Terrace Summer Bedding at Wisley - with Rohanna Heyes

Sara Draycott — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:52:00 GMT

A soft, light-filled, bird chirping beckons through curtains, before my alarm has even contemplated jarring my dreams with its woeful lament. Despite the faltering march toward springs symphony (yes we know Siberian snow) there remains optimism. At Wisley the *** willows from Seven Acres to the Aboretum are adorned with silvery bunny tail buds. Now that's a sure sign for the bees. Also it's the angle of the sun, it lingers a little longer, shines a little stronger, day by day rising higher, until the skies of summer (I hope) it shall conquer.

It is for this hope that we gardeners brave the cold and prepare. At the moment we are caught up in the excitement of sowing and growing for the summer bedding on the Top Terrace at Wisley Garden. Annually, trainees are given a brief from which to design a scheme for this area, this years theme being centred on the centenary of the Chelsea Flower Show at its current location. It is a very involved process from start to finish, especially for the team of the chosen design, which this year was myself and fellow trainee Tina Garland. In our design we wanted to create a journey through time, showing bedding plants with significance to different periods of gardening in the last 100 years. To reflect this timely journey our design begins with a traditional bedding scheme consisting of edging plant, dot plant and filler plant/s. As you move through the design this conventional layout is deconstructed by spacing the filler plants in decreasingly smaller blocks.

Butterflies with personalities - Cara Smith

Sara Draycott — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 12:01:00 GMT

After working with the butterflies for three years I have definitely decided that butterflies have personalities and noticed that certain species exhibit certain characteristics. Some show off and are very visible flying around and landing on people as they walk around whereas others seem to disappear as soon as you release them and can only be spotted by those with a keen eye. I will share with you some of my observations.

Exploring South Africa by Peter Adams

sheiladearing — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:47:00 GMT

At the start of February I swapped the cold and damp winter weather of North Devon for the far hotter and drier climate of South Africa’s late summer. I spent 17 days adventuring around some of the furthest reaches of South Africa’s Eastern Cape, covering some 2273 kilometres; travelling from the coast at Port Elizabeth to the high Drakensburg Mountains overlooking the Eastern Cape and bordering on to Lesotho. I took the opportunity to climb the highest mountain in the Eastern Cape some 3001 metres above sea level, then ventured back to the coast at Kei Mouth to explore the coastal plants of South Africa; whilst visiting everywhere, it seemed in between. This included venturing over South Africa’s highest road at Naude’s Nek at 2500 metres above sea level on dirt roads that seemed to have been scratched into the mountain side with shear drops on every corner. To give you an idea of height, Ben Nevis is only 1344 metres above sea level.

South Africa is well known for its never ending array of plants, one that has strongly interested me for years as a horticulturalist, South Africa seems to produce a never ending list of genus, that we all enjoy seeing grown in gardens all over the world and botanist continue to find new species on a regular basis even today. Yet very few horticulturalists and gardeners get to view them growing in their natural environment, often tucked away in minute plant populations in some extremely remote areas with the ever present risk of extinction caused by humans over grazing areas with animals or developing areas of land for roads and buildings; so the opportunity to fulfil the ambition of visiting South Africa was one not to be missed.

New arrivals and seed pod lookalikes - Butterflies at Wisley with Cara Smith

Sara Draycott — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 17:10:00 GMT

At last warmer, brighter weather arrived, albeit temporary. The butterflies certainly enjoyed it and were very active for a few days. When the snowy weather was with us I ordered some extra pupae to bulk up numbers to make sure the butterflies were visible in the Tropical Zone. Stratford Butterfly Farm supply us and despite the late notice were able to oblige (thank you!). In the extra order were some Eryphanis polyxena, a species we have not had in the event before. This lovely, large butterfly looks like a cross between a Blue Morpho and an Owl Butterfly. It has browny caramel coloured wings with spots resembling eyes which open to reveal iridescent blue patches. Below is a photo of it resting with wings closed.

Ornamental Prunus are looking great!

sheiladearing — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 10:06:00 GMT

I was walking round the garden earlier in the week and noticed how wonderful our early flowering Prunus were looking. I spotted the first one on approaching the Herb Garden from the Stream Field. This is the beautiful white blossomed Prunus mume 'Omoi-no-mama' (Japanese apricot); a small tree that is in its prime when everything else in the Herb garden is still to get going.

Points for cuteness with the butterflies at Wisley - Cara Smith

Sara Draycott — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:28:00 GMT

We had our first Malay Lacewing (pictured below) emerge this week, with its beautiful fluted wing edge, and many others followed along with plenty of Tree Nymphs (the balck and white butterfly pictured lower down the page), Blue Morphos and Giant Orange Tips. The snowy weather has been a challenge as optimum conditions for butterfly flight are bright and sunny and around 26-28°C so for those who dared to venture out in the snow a little more spotting skill and patience was required to spot all of the species (about 26 different ones) we have at the moment.

Horses for Courses - By Andrew Lane

sheiladearing — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:49:00 GMT

Did you ever wonder what the saying ‘Horses for courses’ actually meant? I discovered that it is an old English idiom that means the right method or tool for the right situation. Well, here at RHS Garden Rosemoor we have the perfect example of horses for courses, in the actual form of horses!

Remember the tree felling and brash burning that ensued before Christmas? It was done with the intention of removing hazardous trees that had been killed or were dying due to Dendroctonus micans infestation. I did tell you to watch this space and here it is. As a continuation of that effort, with the brash burnt, the final thing to remove is the felled and cleaned trees.

Breaking the Board....om of January by Peter Adams

sheiladearing — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:21:00 GMT

At the beginning of January, we decided to give the allotment plots in the Peter Buckley Learning Centre (PBLC) vegetable growing area a spruce up for this year’s growing season by boarding out each plot.

The vegetable growing area has multiple uses; however the main one is by Rosemoor’s own community allotment course. We offer ten plots to members of the local community to come and learn the skills they need to successfully grow their own veg. For £50 each, the allotment keepers are given a small plot of ground, all the tools and equipment and the manure and compost they require. The seeds are generously donated by Thompson and Morgan for each plot holder. The allotment keepers also receive one tutorial a month from one of the fruit and veg. team on what they need to be doing at that time of year, from soil cultivation and seed sowing to pest and diseases to harvesting their crops which they get to keep and enjoy. The course runs from February through to October, with a new group of people starting each year.

Blocked Drains, Steinbeck and Bunnies in Wisley's Wild Garden with Rohanna Heyes

Sara Draycott — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 10:00:00 GMT

John Steinbeck said: “What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” Surely after all the wintery weather we have had of late, it must be time for a sweet summer ahead. But actually I quite like some bits of winter, the excess of layers, of hats, hoods, scarfs, mittens and gumboots. A time of bonfires, hot tea, pruned branches and puddles with deep reflections.
I am now working with the Turf Team, who, you guessed it, look after all the turf at Wisley, but actually they do other things besides, including helping keep the gardens accessible to the public. After the snow and rain of late there were some rather overflowing ditches in the Wild Garden, so we donned the waders and got into some pretty cool waters to inspect was causing the blockage of flow.

Having a "nose" around the butterflies at Wisley - with Cara Smith

Sara Draycott — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:40:00 GMT

The first weekend of the event went really well with many of the pupae we stuck last week emerging.

Magical Witch Hazels by James Shepherd

sheiladearing — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 11:53:00 GMT

The mild weather before and immediately after Christmas has hastened the flowering of many of the shrubs in the Winter Garden at Rosemoor and the Hamamelis, or witch hazels, have been putting on an especially dazzling display of colour.

Pale yellow-flowered Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’ AGM and red-flowered H. x intermedia ‘Diane’ AGM are two of the star performers in the Winter Garden, although neither has the strong, spicy fragrance of H. x intermedia ‘Pallida’ AGM.

Butterflies in the Glasshouse - peek behind the scenes with Cara Smith at Wisley

Sara Draycott — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 12:15:00 GMT

Hi. I'm Cara Smith, a horticulturist in the Glasshouse at RHS Garden Wisley. At this time of year I'm also responsible for care of the butterflies during the Butterflies in the Glasshouse event.

No Hedge to High by John Bridge

sheiladearing — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 09:03:00 GMT

For the last few years we have been finding a new innovative way of cutting the tops of our ‘New Garden’ hedges. With the hedges slowly creeping up each year and the difficult access, coupled with the various dangers of using ladders; using a hired M.E.W.P (Mobile Elevated Work Platform)or cherry picker known to some, saves time, effort and increases productivity.

Armed with risk assessments, cones and more safety barriers than you can shake a stick at, our team of trained operatives begin work.

A Christmas Spruce by Andrew Lane

sheiladearing — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 14:19:00 GMT

It’s that beautiful time of year once again, where frosty mists hang in the valleys; roaring fires keep the cold out and warm our toes; and many people decorate a traditional Christmas tree with lights and baubles to brighten up the long nights.

At RHS Garden Rosemoor however, it’s a slight variation on a theme. Instead of a warm cosy fire in the grate, it is blazing bonfires and instead of decorating a quaint little spruce, we’re burning them! This is a continuation of our on-going battle against the dreaded Great Spruce Bark Beetle (Dendroctonus micans)!

Fencing in the Car Park by Sally Cosgrove

sheiladearing — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 08:37:00 GMT

Over the course of a weekend a few of the garden staff started the first phase of an upgrade to Rosemoor’s car park. Our job was to erect fencing around a section of the perimeter of the car park, leaving walk-through gaps for easy access to the picnic tables on the grass. The new fencing will prevent cars from driving onto the surrounding lawn areas which ruins the edge and turns the grass into mud. Any sturdy fence can be used for this job but we chose wooden knee-high fencing, or bird mouth fencing, as it is solid, leaves a neat finish and isn’t so high as to block a view.

The first part of the project was to ensure that precise measurements were made so that the fence posts were the correct distances apart. We used a motorised earth auger to create neat holes for the posts to go in. An auger is a drilling device that, due to its rotating screw blade, is able to remove the earth that is being drilled. Despite this, one of us needed to be on hand with a small shovel to remove any excess soil. Some of the drilling on the edge of the road was tough in places as the ground was incredibly stony. Perseverance was key, however, as to avoid a wonky fence it was important to make sure that all of the holes were at the same level.

A little something for summer...Rohanna Heyes: Wisley Trainee

Sara Draycott — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 13:28:00 GMT

A frosty view from the propagation glasshouse at Wisley.

The sun breaks through finally on a frosty morning, the moment all morning my fingers and toes have been waiting for. Suddenly the stained glass windowed leaves of the poinsettia shine, eager to be off to their new home, poster children for Christmas in the Wisley Glasshouse. Today we lost them to their new home but there is plenty to be getting on with in propagation, as here its not so much about the present, nor the gifts, but the planning and preparing for the seasons ahead.