My Garden

This is the best time to see a range of Pinks and Carnations at Wisley, both on the Trials Field where new varieties are being trialled for the Award of Garden Merit, and the Glasshouse Gallery where the massed display and scent will delight you.  The British National Carnation Society are celebrating their 60th anniversary and together with the RHS plant trials office have put on a fantastic display together with a wealth of information about growing, breeding and propagating carnations and how the AGM is awarded to the best ones for garden use.

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A 3 year trial of Bergenia (otherwise known as 'Elephants Ears) is just about to end but there is still time to visit the Trials Field at Wisley and make your choice. Valued for their winter foliage (bright greens to blazing reds) some of them also produce a dazzling floral display in late winter/early spring.  Many flowers were caught by the frost but some entries have withstood this and are still performing magnificently. 

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Since the last posting on this subject many more of the small bearded irises have come into flower. 

The list of entries to trial sounds more like the line up for the Grand National than the Trials Field, with El Torito' (which received the Award of Garden Merit in 2004) setting the pace for newcomers 'Tickety Boo', 'Blubeards Ghost' and 'Exotic Aire'. 

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The recent warm sunshine has caught us by surprise and some of the dwarf bearded iris are already flowering on the trials field!  All are under 30 cm and some of the most spectacular are Iris 'Flirting Again' and Iris 'Pumpin' Iron', both of which received the Award of Garden Merit at the end of the last trial in 2007.

A stunning newcomer is Iris 'Farleigh Damson' and another to watch out for is the profusely flowering, delicately coloured Seedling 98/2/5

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If you are visiting Wisley this weekend for the Taste of Autumn Event, you will find the trials team in the Marquee, in front of the restaurant, with an outstanding selection of vegetables and flowers from the trials field and model vegetable garden.  You'll also be able to taste some Squash Soup alongside their stand a delicious creation made from the entries in the this years squash trial. 

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The Floral Trials Sub-Committee made another of their bi-weekly visits on Tuesday.  The invited seed trials; Tagetes (Marigolds), French & Afro-French and the Hardy Annuals have really come on in the last couple of weeks and we spent quite some time assessing these two trials. 

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Amongst the blackberries and hybrid berries such as boysonberries and tayberries the committee assessed the Japanese Wineberry which is not a hybrid berry but a different Rubus species, Rubus phoenicolasius.  Read More...

When the Floral Trials Sub-Committee met on Tuesday we spent some time looking at the Kniphofia trial which is setting the trials field on fire with a blaze of yellows, oranges and reds.  http://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/documents/Kniphofia2007Index.pdf

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As well as floral and vegetable trials, the RHS also conduct fruit trials and regular assessments of top fruit and soft fruit in the Wisley collection with a view to selecting the best for the Award of Garden Merit. 

Regular assessments are carried out by the Fruit Trials Sub-Committee between June and late October every year.  The first assessment of 2008 took place last Wednesday 18 June with an initial look at the early Raspberries that are part of the trial at Wisley (2007-2009) in the fruit nursery area.  website:http://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/documents/Raspberry2007Index.pdf Read More...

The Curator at Wisley, Jim Gardiner, raised this Pacific Coast iris from seed bought at a British Iris Society Show.  At yesterday's meeting the Committee Referred it for Further Assessment at the next PCI trial at Wisley

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The pinks trials are now both well into flower and the slightly earlier flowering miniature and dwarf pinks trial is looking particularly colourful at the moment. 

Our Pinks and Carnations Open Day takes place on Wednesday 18 June alongside the British National Carnation Society Show.  There will be a series of talks and demonstrations during the course of the day and, of course, all the exhibits in the BNCS Show for you to have a look at.  The open day is free once you are inside the garden.

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The Vegetable Trials Subcommittee met on Thursday this week to assess the 34 entries in the early spinach trial http://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/trials_list.asp.  During the assessment 8 existing AGM awards were reconfirmed and 11 cultivars recommended for the AGM for the first time.  The long and the short of it, there's a lot of good spinach out there!  Look out for the final report once the awards have been put forward for ratification in September.

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This week started on a real high as four of us made our way to Chelsea on Monday.  From 10am we were involved with RHS Plant Committee meetings.  Often these meetings at Chelsea include discussion of plants bought to the meeting for interest and possibly award. 

Monday saw what was perhaps one of the largest exhibits put before the Herbaceous Plants Committee for interest!  Committee member Fergus Garret bought in a Fennel seedling cut that morning from the Great Dixter Garden.  Perennial, with one parent Ferula tingitana 'Cedric Morris', the foliage was a distinctive dark green and noticeably coarser than the likes of Ferula communis.  Fergus reported that the foliage did not turn brown after flowering like F. communis did at Great Dixter.  The committee agreed that the seedling would merit being named as a clonal cultivar if propagation were possible and that the sister seedlings could be included in a named seedling group.   Read More...

It is a very exciting time on the trials field at the moment, we are at our busiest period in terms of planting.  Over the next few weeks we will be filling up the beds with a range of annuals, herbaceous and vegetable plants.  For more information about what's on trial in 2008 visit http://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/trials_list.asp

A few highlights I think to look out for this year will be; Dahlias, Chrysanthemums, Delphiniums, Tagetes (marigolds), sweet potatoes and Kniphofias (red hot pokers).  Read More...

The Delphinium Committee met on Tuesday to make their first assessment of the Delphinium Seed Trial.  Some of the entries have started to flower and most are looking very vigorous, it will be interesting to note their performance in this second and final year, considering what a good display they made just 5 months after being sown last year!  There will be an open afternoon from 1.30pm on Saturday 25 June, for more information see the link below: http://www.rhs.org.uk/RHSEventfinder/details.aspx?Id=5249

http://www.delphinium.org.uk/main.html Read More...