My Garden

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...

Since the demolition of the old glasshouses, lots of work has been carried out to clear the site and prepare it for our amazing maize maze. 

A 1 metre border of sunflowers was planted around the edges of the site on Friday using 5,000 seeds of sunflower 'Bicentenary'.  These will provide lots of colour round the outside of the maze and will also provide plenty of food for the birds later in the year. 

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With the recent spell of hot sunny weather, more of the trials have begun to burst into flower.  The Delphinium perennial from seed trial 2007-2008 has begun to flower and so have some of the entries in the Kniphofia 2007-2009 trial.

The median bearded Iris trial 2008-10 began flowering last week and, with the additional sunshine we've been having, lots more entries have started to flower this week.  It is the first year of this 3 year trial and a new approach is being tested to treat and prevent the bacterial infection iris rhizome rot (Pectobacterium carotovorum) which was found on a couple of entries. 

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Back in 2007 over 250 entries of Phlox were sourced and planted at a site in Wisley Village.  These were used as mother plants from which root cuttings were taken in December 2007 in order to grow on trial material that would be free of eelworm.

Just one problem.... by April 2008 only about a third of the root cuttings had taken and the decision was made by the Floral Trials SubCommittee to postpone the trial a year.  We think the root cuttings may have failed as the compost used was not free draining enough or the roots of the mother plants were not sufficiently mature.  As a result top cuttings were taken from the mother plants in March, and if necessary another round of root cuttings will be taken in December 2008. We hope to plant this trial in May 2009 now

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In case you were wondering what the five raised beds alongside the Begernia trial 2007-2009 were for, one of the Roscoea planted there in has risen to the occasion to give visitors to the trials field a sneak preview.  Just two weeks after planting, Roscoea cautleyoides AGM (H4) 1993 has broken the surface and produced a single flower!

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Through out the trials this year at Wisley we are reviewing the chemicals which we use to grow our plants to a high standard.  We feel that the general public do not like to or wish to use too many chemicals when growing plants, so we are trying to reflect that in our work.  This year we have started a programme of spraying our Delphiniums (including the Delphinium, perennial, from seed trial pictured above) with a product called compost tea which is a mixture of enzymes and natural humic acids which supposedly reduces powdery mildew.  The tea also improves soil bacteria and generally feeds the plant without the use of chemicals.  We are applying this every two weeks and are excited about the potential outcomes, although not widely available at the moment we think this product has great potential, time will tell.  

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