Chelsea Flower Show, Brick frogs, Formula 1 vintage mowers, Sezincote and snails.

I went down to Chelsea Flower Show as part of the BBC Radio Oxford coverage on the last build up day before press and queen visit day. Some of the gardens were finished and  the workers and and designers were looking comfortable and just putting the final polish on things while others still had a way to go  and were a bit more frantic. Even by mid afternoon  the  atmosphere was still  one of a building site  with  cranes, tele-hoists, and huge delivery lorries clattering about the site. The BBC Local  Radio  studio - for studio read tent- was just around the corner from the  the eventual winner of the Best in Show award, the Australian garden. And it was  by far the most impressive garden and had taken full advantage of the most sought after pitch, the Rock Bank  

I could have filled a dozen blogs with images  of  the show but here are just a selection  of things that caught my eye,There is a lot of good stuff  that wasn't quite finished or where the exhibitors were so busy finishing off that  there were more  people than plants on the stand and it did not make for good pictures. Any way, here is a flavour.

P.S. Don't forget new blog posts are announced on twitter @pwhorticulture

Oztralia

The Australian garden was  overlooked by this  huge viewing structure  which the designer told me that   when  you were looking out from inside such was the alignment  that you could not see the  'petals' 

Huge rocks, torrents of water and an all Australian flora. 

The planting was solid and mighty impressive. There were one or two  recognisable  plants among  the low growers that  I have seen among the bedding plants now on sale in the garden centres including  Scaevola, Brachycome ( or Brachyscome depending on which book you read.) and Helipterum. 

Hillier's

The other mighty impressive display was that of Hillier's.  It took pride of place in the big Pavilion on the Monument site and was a triumph  of  plant exuberance and  flamboyance but what else would you expect from Andy McIndoe, Hillier's larger than life head man. The stand  had its  showy centrepieces but also a huge  bank of trees and shrubs which as Andy said  were  readily available  and could be grown by anyone.  He explained that  they leave the specialist plants to the  specialist growers  but  produce a very large range of the best varieties of  trees and shrubs that will thrive in  almost any garden. 

Pretty in Pink.

Anon.

In complete contrast  to  the colour and razzmatazz is this garden. I don't  know who sponsored it or  what  the theme was  but the simplicity of the shapes was satisfying.  A stone wall , wicker work shapes  and  clipped Yew on  a bed of  Barley. Simple  

Sorry I can't remember whose  garden this was..

Brewin Dolphin

Men at Work.

  Cleaning up  with shoes off  and working out backwards to  get the site  absolutely pristine and ready  for the judges.

Arthritis Research.

Man at Work. 

Do you think their wives or girlfriends know how meticulous they are at cleaning and tidying? 

Sentabale

This was the B & Q Sentabale  Forget Me Not  charity garden  with which  the  young, ginger haired royal was involved.  He is  a founder of the charity that  helps vulnerable  children in Lesotho many of who  have  HIV. 

This was  a garden you could enjoy without  having the 'Theme' explained to you.  

Many of the gardens were themed  and some of the  sponsors and designers  go to great lengths to explain the theme. I wonder  for whose benefit the theme is.   If it is  for the Chelsea visitors then it is a waste of time. I am not sure they will be looking any garden and thinking oh yes I can see the  passage of time and the struggles of life in this garden. Many will be thinking yeah, the colours are good and I like the shapes  and features and how on earth would you clip that box with all those  flowers around it , but only a rare few will be looking for and  I think struggling to find  any sort of deeper meaning. It is a bit like art,  if it has to be explained  it is missing the mark. First let it impress then give it greater depth with an explanation if you really feel you must. I am pretty sure the theme  is just to give  the designer something on which to hang a design  and of course to create a bit of publicity which is no bad thing.

Brum.C.C

Birmingham City Council  were celebrating the forthcoming opening of their new  library. There was spectacular colour themes, some  glass like sheets of water  and though it was explained to me  that they were all old books from the old library  and of no use it still made me uneasy seeing  books stacked  on damp ground and so close to all those flowers  which  are going to have to be watered  before the show is over.

Everyone one seems to have something of a claim on J R R Tolkien. Oxford obviously but Warwickshire and Worcestershire also claim a bit of him,however Birmingham  has a  more substantial claim than most because  Tolkien lived  in Moseley as  young boy and it is Moseley Bog and its dank woodlands that are said to have inspired him when writing Lord of the Rings.  The representation of the Ents and the Ring itself  being cast into the  fiery abyss at  Mount Doom was well done

Thailand 

Oh what confection!

It was hard not to be impressed by the detail  and sheer elaboration of the Thai exhibit. Swags and dangles of orchids added to the exotic enchantment. 

I wonder if there is any marzipan under there? 

 BrandAlley   

After the Australian garden this was  my favourite and it was done on a  far more modest budget.  It worked in so many ways; the balance and proportions were right, the colours were  harmonious without being  innocuous, the  ceramic sculptures were ideally proportioned and their colour  kept the feeling light. There was a sunken level for sitting out  and you really did want to go down and sit in it away fro the hurly burly of the show. There was  an original and  curious water feature (for want of  a better description)  set into  spaces, alcoves,   in the wall . You can see them in orange  right at the back in this picture. They were  light and bubbly and just downright novel.   I am  so glad these guys and gals  were awarded  a  Gold. Well done!  Designer. Paul Hervey- Brookes

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The one thing I enjoy  about  Chelsea is that you meet old friends be they photographers, writers, gardeners or designers  and  this year it was great to meet up with a very dear gardener friend Beverley Hilkopp. We bumped into each other just in front of this garden. We both  looked  at the garden then she looked at me and I looked  at her  and she came out with one of her usual deadpan comments 'Maybe if it was upside down' . Well here it is upside down and it is just as tedious. 

Me? A Philistine?

I am not really a gladiolus fan but I could not help but be impressed by this display. I stood watching as the nurseryman selected the perfect stem, just enough open and unopened buds, from the great  bundles packed in large buckets of water and fed each one into the heart of each display until he had built the perfect star-burst of stems.

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The two pictures above  look like they are the wrong way up. It is because they are  vertical plantings    and the foliage is hanging down and  not upright as you would expect.
They  were  interesting mosaics of foliage  but whether this trend towards  greening of vertical spaces is a a green as is being made out, or is it even  successful,without  expensive maintenance, is hard to gauge. It may be that this is  a display for the show rather than  a display of what would be a successful,permanent display. They were still being planted while I watched and it was  interesting to see the  rock wool hole they were  being planted into. The top  picture looks to have  Heucheras, Heucherallas  and Acorus in it  and below is  Saxifraga stolonifera  or something similar along with  some small ferns

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A display of Heucheras and Tiarellas. Fantastic foliage.

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Here was a display suggesting alternatives to the lawn. The  square to the left  showed a perfect piece of lawn with nothing but grass. Opposite it on the right was a piece of lawn that  looks  more like yours and mine with a few (few?)weeds  here and there. In the middle is a 'lawn'  of  low growing plants. Some are natives and others not so native. There was no one to ask but I am guessing  they are trying to encourage us to offer something  for the bees and other insects. It is not going to replace a lawn that the kids and dog are going to play on  but  if your lawn does not get a lot of wear  then  this flower rich  low growing relatively  low maintenance ' meadow ' might be something to think about.

Chelsea. The Prequel.
If you have been to Chelsea Flower Show you will know it is like entering a small bustling town so I thought you might like to see how it looks before  work starts  and  during  the first few days of its life.
My neighbour's son  Tom is  a lorry driver. He was one of the first on site  and he sent me these  pictures.
If you need to get your bearings  take the  monument on the right  in the picture below as a marker.  It will be in the centre of the great  Pavilion when all the  tentage is erected. At this stage all is relatively calm.

Day 1.  The site is s marked out and  the metal roads start to go in. 

 Day 2 

 Things start to get  busy as  the structure is laid out. Makes IKEA flat pack look a doddle.

 By week two  the Pavilion roof is assembled and a  three hour operation is started to lift it into  place above the Monument in the centre of the picture. .  

 The covering comes  in large aluminium containers ready to roll out.  Have you got this bit campers?

And finally Tom's lorry in Belgium. It is just one load  of forty eight that will carry all the aluminium  structure and covering  for the Great Pavilion from Holland and Belgium  ( and a bit from Brackley) to Chelsea. The show ran  for five days  from 20th May  after  which it was  all broken down and carted back across to mainland  Europe.   

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We have left Chelsea and are now back in the real world.

I  wasn't sure whether to put this in or not because the picture doesn't do justice to  the real thing. It is a busy mix of Pulmonaria 'Diana Clare', a white tulip and the near black  tulip Queen of the Night with a young plant of variegated Euonymus and some Bluebells..

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I was asked to plant these 'plants by post' seedlings. Not sure what to make of them. They  were well grown  and when the plastic was flexed they  popped out neatly and ready to plant. Quite a bit of plastic involved when  a few  packets of seed and  a bit of savvy would have  produced the same results but still  a  pretty good way of getting started if you don't have the  necessary savvy. 72  hardy plants. I have no idea what they cost.

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'You need some timber edging around this new border' I told some friends  as we went round their garden. A few weeks later ......, well they sure did put some timber around them. 

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Brick frogs - that's  not a  frog  made of brick but the hole in the bottom of a brick that keys in the cement. 

I was  sorting  out these pavers which were smooth on the top face but had these lovely and  quite detailed patterns underneath.

This one had  tree motif which it seemed a shame  was on the underside.

This  star of David emblem was  very distinctive. Are there any brickophiles out there who might know whether you  can trace the source of the brick by the frog pattern? Get in touch.

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You've got a gall.

This a nail gall on a sycamore leaf . This is caused by a mite which lays its eggs and causes the leaf to make  these nail like (Some gat  3millimetres or so long) growths which hide the young mites underneath in a  tube or hollow caused by the abnormal growth. That is a gross simplification but it it is  none the less incredible how an insect can produce the necessary chemical to change the growth pattern of  plant cells. Some cause very distinct abnormal growth such as the oak apple. I will look out for other examples and post them when they show up. Feel free to let me know about your  favourite galls.

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It's a massive cliché but I could not resist this picture of bluebells in a wood. I had tagged along with  some bat enthusiasts and we were checking  to see if the boxes we had  installed a few weeks ago had  been used by the Barbastelle  bats we were particularly interested in. Only one of some twenty or so  were occupied and unfortunate it was not a Barbastelle bat. But the bluebells were great. 

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This was something I did  years ago and it was nice to see it was still there  and working  well as a neat way to give interest to the ordinary tree trunks whose colour would otherwise have disappeared  against the wall.

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Actinidia kolomikta, a bit fuzzy because the wind was blowing heavens hard. The white in these leaves will eventually go pink . Does anyone know why?  A very distinctive and easy  climbing plant. 

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Sezincote

Not quite what you expect to see in the Cotswolds. This is Sezincote House. It has an interesting history, a Humphrey Repton garden  and was a big influence  on the design  of Brighton Pavilion . It was built in 1810 and designed by Chalres Cockerell, owner, Samuel Pepys Cockerell architect and Thomas Daniell painter of Indian architecture. You can find out a lot more  if you  use the link above. It is built in the mogul style of northern India ( I am not exactly sure what that means either) and is like nothing else round about. The  long curved  glassed structure is  the orangery but now no oranges just very  nice teas and cakes.
I was  guiding a group around  Batsford Arboretum Arboretum, 5 minutes away, Bourton House, 5 minutes away,  and here for Cotswold Walks. I felt sorry  for the group of eight Californian ladies who were undoubtedly intrepid  and up for it as they say but no one could be expected to put up with cold blasting wind and driving rain that confronted them at every turn and least of all when you have come from the warmth that is Southern California.

Viewed from the  lower water garden  the house stands very proud

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Catch the buz.

Several of these bees were  buzzing around when I was trying to cut the grass. I had the  feeling they were ground  nesting bees and I had disturbed their peace though as much as they  hovered back and forth around the same spot  none of them went into a hole of any sort. Bee experts, is it Andrena cineraria?

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Classic example of the borrowed landscape.The  black and white house is  in the garden next door and there                       is a busy main road running between the two gardens.

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Tulipa Rajka. Not to everyone's taste but I like it. It adds a bit of razzmatazz.

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Snails doing  a demolition job on a defenceless Crown Imperial, Frittilaria imperialis.I should have been angry but it just made me smile.

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How about these beauties?

I went to collect a mower from the repair workshop and  outside were these two old machines, both still running and being used but  just in for a bit of TLC. The blue mower dates back to the 1970s. 

This  elegant looking petite green machine has to be a she and  the name Hayterette surely defines its sex. 

Okay all you Formula One fans eat your heart out and look  at the sweep of that  ducting  and the quick change  height adjuster. Superb!

Note the  complete lack of any safety device on this Landmaster Stoic. It was built for an age when common sense was in abundance.

And finally.............

The Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen said to me rather sheepishly  'See, you have to be careful  how you use  super-glue'


 "Armadillo"
 "Good, the country needs Dillos"

Wallpaper, Nitty Gritty Compost, Ribes x gordonianum, Muscari, Orange, Orange, Orange, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, - Lovely!

Very busy in the garden right now so not much writing but lots of pictures. 
There is a Japanese  edition coming up soon - no, not about Japanese gardens but written in Japanese so when things calm down look out for that. 


Ribes x gordonianum

New plants are coming into flower thick and fast at the moment  and this is one of my all time favourites. It is Ribes x gordonianum , a cross between Ribes sanguineum , the reliable Flowering Currant  and the scented  yellow flowered Ribes odoratum.  The shading of colours through  the flowers  is subtle and  delightful. They have lost some of the  brashness of  the Flowering  Currant but   gained  more oomph  than the plain yellow R. odoratum. It is easy to grow in any ordinary soil  in sun or light shade. My specimen is about a metre and a half high  and very tolerant of pruning which I would do  right after flowering.
It was  raised by Donald Beaton  in 1837  and I am surprised it is not seen more often.




Orange, Orange, Orange, yellow yellow yellow,- lovely!

When I  accept  border design work I  ask clients if  they have any colour preferences  and it is surprising how many time they say 'Oh, I don't mind as long as there  are no yellows or oranges', so as a  reaction  to that attitude  I have started planting the  path-side  border up to my front door in yellows and oranges . They  are such vibrant  and warm colours. Why would you want to be without them.  Here are  some of the flowers looking good at the moment.

I am not normally a fan  of double flowers and particularly ones that mix yellow with pink  but this works. It is a very cheery mass of flowers  right now. I don't know the variety of this  Primula but it suffers full sun and a  dryish soil in summer and still manages to get itself together to give a very bight display in spring.

 Doronicum orientale  'Little Leo'  which must be a reference to its common name of Leopard's Bane and indeed it must be the bane of Leopards because I have to say  there has never been a leopard any where near my garden , Ha Ha Ha.
This is a  more compact version of the  straight Doronicum orientale. It is a straight forward, easy to grow, non pretentious, early season, yellow daisy. It fits right in with the brashness of spring.

Berberis x lologensis Mystery Fire - I know it will be too big for the space I have given it  but I will do my best to keep it small and  hope it still  flowers. Stunning colour at this time of the year - late April - and tiny holly like   evergreen   leaves  in the winter -  very yummy. It must have a lot of evergreen  B. darwinii  in its blood.  If you only think of Berberis as a municipal plant for  car parks and  burglar proofing, think again.

 Don't know what Daffodil this is but it fits right in with my yellow/ orange scheme

                    

This  red  really  has a bit too much blue in it for the orange / yellow border  but hey, its my garden  and  I like  it and  it  adds some zest. Tulip 'Gavota'

Muscari, woh ho, Muscari wohohoho.

Muscari are the Grape Hyacinths that are flowering their little blue heads off at the moment but  there is one Muscari  that ain't blue and  one that  ain't gonna take over you garden either but it is going to wow you.
This plant  has  stood in a pot in my  unheated greenhouse for three years at least  and despite not  being   watered for months on end each year it sends  up leaves  which eventually wither because I forget t to water it.  This year s soon as the leaves appeared in early February I decided to  water it,  albeit rather spasmodically  and it rewarded me with  two flowers. Having since seen pictures of the flowers on-line I realise how feeble mine are but that's not the point. This is the point. Take a sniif at  this quite small  and in many ways   insignificant flower and you will be bowled over by the sweetness and power of its scent. It is very much like a souped up Hyacinth and described by  Brian Mathew as having 'a very strong fruity aroma'.  Musscari macrocarpum ( macrocarpum = big fruit) is not tough enough to  thrive outdoors  in the English  Midlands   though it is  far from being out and out tender.
If your garden has been overwhelmed by the common Muscari negeletcum   and you have been put off them then check out M. comosum and  M.latifolium. There is a  M. latifolium  hiding in the  background of the Narcissus  above. It is a very classy plant  with one  very broad leaf and flowers that grade from  paler blue sterile flowers at the top of the head to  dark violet almost black blue at the base.

Wallpaper

Nitty Gritty

If this doesn't make you smile then I would go and get yourself  checked out. Four little aliens  taking a look around. Alpine Saxifraga federici-augusti ssp grisebachii in tiny tin pots. 

Anna Purna,  prompted by the recent piece on Kabschia Saxifrages  has written to me.  She says , 'All the books tell me to grow my alpines in  gritty compost but when I get them from the shop they are always grown in ordinary compost. Why do the suppliers grow them in  what looks like multi-purpose compost when I am told they need gritty compost?'
I know just what you mean Anna. I have  bought  cacti where the advice is just the same but they are grown in either peat based compost or something very similar with not a chip of grit or grain of sand  in sight.
I think the reason may be this. The vast majority of  mass produced alpines are not among the  trickiest plants to grow and the grower will want the cheapest way of growing them which will mean be using the most readily available and lowest cost compost which will almost certainly be a compost that contains no soil/or grit. The lower weight of this this type of compost will also help keep transport costs down. The commercial grower will  most probably  be growing these  plants undercover so he has direct control of how much water the plants are given so the reason for using gritty compost i.e. good drainage to prevent root and crown rot  doesn't apply. The same  method  will also be used for succulents.
The specialist grower who may be supplying plants that are more difficult to grow and particularly need sharp drainage will look more closely at the compost and  you may well find that plants from such sources are grown  in a gritty compost.
It is the same with orchids. Some are supplied in a very open  bark compost, some in  a much closer mossy style of compost and then you buy a  bag of  orchid compost and it is nothing  like  either of the  composts used by the commercial growers. What is a man to do?

That's all for now see you soon. PW