While the weather has been kind, the Alpine Team have been busy at work planting hardy carnivorous plants in our new feature at the bottom of the Rock Bank. After Anita Drury and Paul Cumbleton came up with the idea last year they and their colleagues began transforming this area back in the depths of winter, just after New Year.
Now the area is a bog garden, bringing another new habitat into the garden. We’ve planted it up with strange-looking pitcher plants, Sarracenia, Darlingtonia and a few sundews, kindly donated by South West Carnivorous Plants (www.littleshopofhorrors.co.uk). These survive the nutritionally challenging bog environment by supplementing their intake with insects. So beware around here!! We are watering with rain water and hope to finish the area off with sustainably sourced sphagnum. In the next few weeks the area should establish beautifully.
For more information on carnivorous plants visit the Carnivorous Plant Society website. And check out Paul's blog on the subject due out this week.
Elsewhere, the magnolias are beginning to start their glorious performance.
Trilliums, drumstick primulas and daffodils are among the plants looking wonderful this week. I hope the weather holds out to give you the opportunity to come and enjoy them too. If not, I hope the pictures are enough to sustain you until your next visit.
