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.

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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!
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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. 

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.
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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.

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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.

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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.

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