Adult Learning

Dicentra ‘Burning Hearts’: New this year

2009-11-21T14:48:00Z

Dicentras have always been valued as colourful shade plants, often with good foliage as well as good flowers. But new introductions from Japan have taken them a big step further.

‘Burning Hearts' combines the virtues of D. peregrina and D. eximia to create a plant whose spectacular flowers and beautiful foliage make a superb combination.

The foliage is bright blue-grey and unusually finely dissected to create the look of a shimmering silvery blue fern. Set against the lovely leaves are the flowers. Opening from rich red buds, they emerge deep red flowers edged in white.

Grow ‘Burning Hearts' in any partially shaded place in humus-rich soil - but make sure the soil does not dry out in summer or become waterlogged in winter. Good woodsy, shade-garden soil should be ideal.

Developed in Japan by Akira Shiozaki, he used pollen from the widely grown, robust and vigorous D. eximea, which grows in the woods of the eastern United States, to fertilize flowers of D. peregrina, a mountain species from China and eastern Siberia (sometimes growing on the sides of volcanoes) with tight tufts of silver foliage dissected almost into threads.

From this a series of plants with intense blue-grey foliage has been developed, ‘Burning Hearts' is the latest - following ‘King of Hearts' and ‘Candy Hearts' - and there are still more to come.

Dicentra ‘Burning Hearts' is available from these five RHS PlantFinder nurseries.

Sounds like a good excuse to me!

2009-11-20T14:44:00Z

The slabs in the courtyard have gaps between them and those gaps have become home to a variety of self sown plants. We have the usual tufts of grass coming up, but there are also chives, pansies, a mat-forming Sedum, which I believe is Sedum acre and, of course, dandelions.

I’d been thinking about the growth between those gaps and reckoned that it was probably time for a bit of selective weeding. I can’t bring myself to pull it all out because if there are flowers, then some species will be using them for food, so I pick and choose. Cut the grassy bits back, leave the pansies and chives to flower, cut back the dandelions before they go to seed and pull out that invasive Oxalis corniculata before it tries to take over the world.

Top 10 kids' gardening gifts for Christmas

2009-11-20T14:39:00Z

I know it's November, and some of you Christmas purists will think this is too early, but quite frankly I don't care. It's getting chilly outside, I've had enough of bulb planting and I'm very much in need of a good old-fashioned mid-winter festival. So here we go, my top 10 garden gifts for kids this Christmas*.

Exclusive Christmas launch at Wisley Plant Centre

2009-11-20T14:18:00Z

Last night we hosted our ‘Make Christmas Special’ Christmas launch evening, where we greeted more than 350 invited guests with glasses of wine and mince pies.

The place looked stunning, with many seasonal plants, decorations and novel gifts for sale. Our team created an inspirational display of Christmas front doors and gardens to demonstrate traditional, modern and cottage styles. They wouldn’t have looked out of place at Chelsea!

Our sought after prize draw for the evening went to Mary Humphreys who wins £100 to spend with us at a time of her choosing.

If you’re interested in coming to this event next year please email Tina at wisleyplantcentre@rhs.org.uk and she’ll put your name on the list.

More about Wisley Plant Centre

Low energy bulbs....

2009-11-20T13:52:00Z

When I woke to the sound of lashing rain Monday morning, I heaved a huge sigh of relief – whilst the rest of the country were battening down the hatches for the watery onslaught, secretly we gardeners were celebrating! Why? Because sat waiting in one of our storage rooms are over 20,000 tulip bulbs just waiting to be planted! Whilst the ground conditions are such on the whale border, their intended location - the back breaking mud bath has been suspended!

So with the bulb extravaganza on hold, we have been mending leaky buildings, soggy leaf collecting and having a general tidy up. There are times, usually when wet through and cheesed off when you question your sanity of working outside for a living! However we are treated this time of the year occasionally, when the sun decides to make an appearance, to the most beautiful light - golden and rich, which highlights all the textures and skeletons in the garden, usually fleeting, in between showers, but definitely worth the wait. The Cotinus and Sea Buckthorn are looking particulary stunning at the moment.

Pleiones in winter

2009-11-20T13:00:00Z

Hi, Zoe P here. If your pleiones are looking like this at the moment, then don't panic because this is perfectly normal, every winter pleiones loose their leaves. Just take the leaves out and stop watering. Keep them cool but frost free. In January you will need to repot your pleiones in fresh compost and they will flower in March and April. We start to water once the new shoot is about 2cm high.

Radio talk

2009-11-20T08:08:00Z

Hi Zoe B here. Why not listen to me on the radio. Yestereday I was on BBC radio somerset talking about our trip to south africa. You can lisen to me on wsbeorchids.org.uk

Last days of the pampas grass trial

2009-11-18T14:34:00Z

The trial of Cortaderia, pampas grass, has been both dramatic and intriguing. As it comes to a close, with some entries still looking good very late in the year, there was one that stood out above all the others - ‘Evita' (click the picture to enlarge). Except part of the point is that it didn't "stand out" at all - some varieties are huge, 3m/10ft tall, but ‘Evita' is altogether more manageable.

Reaching just 4-5ft/1.2-1.5m high, it combines vigour, dwarf habit, prolific flowering with plumes of good substance and also flowers as a young plant - a very valuable feature. Another notable feature is that ‘Evita' plants are female, but are not known to produce seed. I'm certain this will get an Award of Garden Merit.

One of the interesting things about cortaderias is that plants are either male or female so any seedlings produced will be hybrids. So when nurseries raise named varieties from seed the resulting plants will not come true - and there was some dramatic evidence of this in the trial; no awards for those entries.

But others that looked especially good included. ‘Highfield Pink' which was seen as the best pink-flowered form - and one assessor said it had an "Afghan Hound quality"! The variegated ‘Pink Phantom' also impressed.

Those with variegated foliage must obviously be propagated by division and two of these stood out. Silver Feather (‘Notcort') is a white variegated form of C. pumila and the overall impression of the rather discreetly marked leaves was of grey foliage. It flowered well, did not grow too high (in fact it was one of the smallest) and its foliage was excellent.

The other good variegated plant was ‘Gold Band'. More vigorous than other variegated types, the overall effect was a wonderful golden colouring and the flowers were excellent too.

These were the stars of the trial and as well as identifying some excellent plants small enough for most gardens and which will give colour from both flowers and foliage, it really highlighted the necessity for nurseries to propagate by division and not seed.

I'll bring you news of the final awards once they're confirmed. In the meantime, take a look at the full list of plants in the Cortaderia trial.

BBC Tree O'Clock - Sat 5 Dec

2009-11-18T12:56:00Z

Muck in on Sat 5 December and plant your very own tree as part of a Guiness World Record attempt between 11am & 12 noon.

On 5 December the BBC are making two world record breaking attempts; the most number of trees planted in one location in one hour and the most number of trees planted in multiple locations in one hour.

Miniature orchids rule ok

2009-11-17T14:28:00Z

This lunchtime theWrithlington Orchid Greenhouse was looking great and we spent time photographing some of the plants in flower. There are some particularly interesting miniature orchids out at the moment. This is Barbosella handroi, a tiny species that grows in the coastal cloud forest of Brazil. In our greenhouse it flowers every November with masses of relatively large yellowish flowers. This plant has been grown from seed and is about ten years old. Simon Pugh-Jones says that school trips to Brazil have found this species covering the upper branches of trees in primary forest on steep mountain slopes exposed to the mists that come in off the Atlantic ocean. We grow it on a peice of cork bark and spray it with water once a day, so you dont need a Brazilian mountain to grow it well. If you want more information on how we grow our orchids check out the Seedling Portfolio page of our website. So far we have pages for nearly 200 of the orchid species we grow.

News from West Park School

2009-11-17T13:59:00Z

The latest exciting news from West Park School in Durban is that there is now a team of staff and students responsible for their orchid project and the plants that we left there at the beginning of November are doing well. We are working with both the Durban Botanic Garden and the local Orchid Society to support work in the school. As you can see the school has a shade house ideal for growing orchids and students have experience growing a range of plants. At Writhlington we have set a target of to raise sufficient funding for an orchid laboratory at the school in just twelve months. We will let you know how we do, or if you like check the South Africa page of the Writhlington's website. As you can see we are looking very happy to be amongst the gardeners at West Park School.

Quick! Get to the Glasshouse at Wisley to see the Peruvian daffodil

2009-11-17T09:46:00Z

You have just a few days to enjoy the beautiful, yellow, fragrant Peruvian daffodil. It isn't common in cultivation, and this is the best I have ever seen this rarity flower, so I extend my congratulations to the team in Glass.

Bulb planting, big red dogs and lots of rain

2009-11-16T13:25:00Z

The rainfall here has reached Biblical levels recently. There are only so many times you can say 'well, it's good for the garden' before you run the risk of death by cliche. However, after getting myself ready to send out a white dove in search of dry ground, the rain ceased yesterday and there was even a cameo appearance by the sun.

Mahonia ‘Cabaret’: New from Crocus

2009-11-15T11:48:00Z

We all know what wonderful shrubs mahonias are. They're statuesque, making imposing plants in the garden; their bold evergreen foliage is invaluable all year round; their long strings of dainty yellow flowers brighten any winter garden; and finally those flowers are followed by long strings of blue berries.

The only problem is that they only come in yellow. And they get quite tall if you don't prune them. And wouldn't it be good to extend the season a little? Not possible - until now.

The flowers of ‘Cabaret' are, actually, yellow (I have to say) but they emerge from furnace-red buds which for many weeks transform the colouring of the plant. And the foliage develops red tints as well. I'll let Peter Clay of Crocus, who are introducing this excellent shrub to Britain, tell you more:

"‘Cabaret' has fabulous colouring: with those glowing beads of molten steel on dark green holly-like leaves trimmed with red. But what we like most is that it flowers from August through to November. Most mahonias are winter flowering but this would be a valuable addition to a hot autumn border. It's nice and compact, so suitable for most people's gardens and would look great with rudbeckias or tall red (annual) salvias and grasses such as Anementhole leesonia (Stipa arundinacea as was) or dahlias like 'Ragged Robin'.

"In fact, it is a pretty good all rounder. During the spring and early summer it's architectural foliage provides a structural foil for more flamboyant neighbours. In late summer it starts it's valuable pyrotechnics and during winter it develops attractive bluish grey berry-like fruits that stand out well against the foliage."

You can order Mahonia ‘Cabaret' from Crocus.

Orchid of the week (1) Cymbidium tracyanum

2009-11-14T18:59:00Z

We think that there are at least fifty orchid species in flower in the school greenhouse on any day in the year so we have decided to pick out one every week to share with you. This week is easy as the greenhouse is dominated by the flower spikes of Cymbidium tracyanum with its large fragrant flowers. This species is found in the East Himalayas from India to Laos and grows in the mountains at altitudes above 2000m. At school we grow it cool with a minimun of 10C and find the secret to flowering it well is to feed and water it heavily during the summer.