Our visit from the Beechgrove Garden film crew went very well. Jim really is quite a character and it was good to chat with him about his gardening experiences. As usual we did film quite a lot more than actually went on air this is just as well.
A couple of weeks after the filming I had a call to say that the camera man had lost a bit of the recording this was mainly still shots of the Thuja family trees where they naturally layer themselves and also the Mull syndrome where the tree falls over in a gale and then the sideshoots grow upwards to become new trees. I was asked if I had a decent digital camera if so could I go into the garden at a similar time of day in similar weather conditions to take a few stills of these groups of trees. I was very relieved when the producer said that they had been able to use them.
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Finally Spring Arrives
In the last couple of days we have at last seen the first of our unforced Daffodils flowering, along with the first camellias (usually they would have been doing their thing for some time now but due to the weather we have had to wait a little longer) The Rhododendrons that had started to flower in late November have been in suspended animation for three months and are still only in their first flush.
The bad news is that we have definitely lost our Bush Echiums which is a shame, they had survived for many years, fortunately they are very fast growers so we should be able to replace them very quickly. The other sad news is that my Purple Aeonium that I managed to take care of, over winter outside last year in a pot, is looking very dodgy. Thankfully this is not a problem as I have dozens more to replace it, I just hoped it would survive.
Apart from these, very little in the garden has been lost of consequence, but I have had a few casualties in my nursery area where I have been growing a selection of plants to transfer into the garden when ready. One collection of plants in this area awaiting a final home is the Olearias of which we have over 20 different species. Some of these I have been keeping in a tunnel (others were outside) it was a good job that I duplicated the stock and thankfully have not lost any types! Whilst the weather has been cold, but dry, we have been able to prepare the bed to plant this collection, with generous amounts of seaweed and farm yard manure. It is quite exposed to the sea, so windy and probably quite salt laden, but it should make most of them feel at home.
Don't forget to pop in if you're on the Isle of Mull. The gardens are open all year round and we love to have visitors.
Till next time, happy gardening!
Duncan
The bad news is that we have definitely lost our Bush Echiums which is a shame, they had survived for many years, fortunately they are very fast growers so we should be able to replace them very quickly. The other sad news is that my Purple Aeonium that I managed to take care of, over winter outside last year in a pot, is looking very dodgy. Thankfully this is not a problem as I have dozens more to replace it, I just hoped it would survive.
Apart from these, very little in the garden has been lost of consequence, but I have had a few casualties in my nursery area where I have been growing a selection of plants to transfer into the garden when ready. One collection of plants in this area awaiting a final home is the Olearias of which we have over 20 different species. Some of these I have been keeping in a tunnel (others were outside) it was a good job that I duplicated the stock and thankfully have not lost any types! Whilst the weather has been cold, but dry, we have been able to prepare the bed to plant this collection, with generous amounts of seaweed and farm yard manure. It is quite exposed to the sea, so windy and probably quite salt laden, but it should make most of them feel at home.
Don't forget to pop in if you're on the Isle of Mull. The gardens are open all year round and we love to have visitors.
Till next time, happy gardening!
Duncan
Monday, 8 February 2010
Is Spring just around the corner?
What a winter we have all had this year! It has been quite a shock, the severity of the frosts that we have had here. Just before Christmas I was talking about how early some of the first Rhodo's were this season, well they certainly got put on hold, but they are looking good again now!
In the lower part of the walled garden, which is the area where the snow always hangs around longest, the temperature certainly got as low as minus 5 degrees maybe lower! It has been a bit of a disappointment as we have lost a few plants that we were quit attached to, the most upsetting being the Echium candicans, they look stone dead to me at the moment. However it does seem that the Echium pininana have survived.
Surprisingly my favourite succulent, the purple Aeonium, that lives in a terracotta pot in a recess in the south facing buttress wall does seen to be alive still!
Much of our time, so far this year, has been spent working with Hydrangeas mostly pruning old overgrown areas. I know that really it's a bit too early yet but when you are doing restorative work, rather than annual maintenance, the timing is not as important, as if you do it when you have the most time.
As well as pruning we have done a bit of thinning out, many of the plants just love the conditions here so much - the acidity and the high rainfall! They sucker a lot, so I had to get in and remove a few as it was like a thicket. In the summer when they were in flower I went through and named them all, so we'll be able to sort out the colours into better blocks using the spares to replant elsewhere in a new bed.
At this point I just like to remember the quote in Ken Cox's recent book 'Gardens in Scotland' that the Hydrangeas at Torosay are the bluest that he has ever seen !
I cant wait till they start to flower again!
In the lower part of the walled garden, which is the area where the snow always hangs around longest, the temperature certainly got as low as minus 5 degrees maybe lower! It has been a bit of a disappointment as we have lost a few plants that we were quit attached to, the most upsetting being the Echium candicans, they look stone dead to me at the moment. However it does seem that the Echium pininana have survived.
Surprisingly my favourite succulent, the purple Aeonium, that lives in a terracotta pot in a recess in the south facing buttress wall does seen to be alive still!
Much of our time, so far this year, has been spent working with Hydrangeas mostly pruning old overgrown areas. I know that really it's a bit too early yet but when you are doing restorative work, rather than annual maintenance, the timing is not as important, as if you do it when you have the most time.
As well as pruning we have done a bit of thinning out, many of the plants just love the conditions here so much - the acidity and the high rainfall! They sucker a lot, so I had to get in and remove a few as it was like a thicket. In the summer when they were in flower I went through and named them all, so we'll be able to sort out the colours into better blocks using the spares to replant elsewhere in a new bed.
At this point I just like to remember the quote in Ken Cox's recent book 'Gardens in Scotland' that the Hydrangeas at Torosay are the bluest that he has ever seen !
I cant wait till they start to flower again!
Monday, 14 December 2009
Making the most of the weather
The Christmas craft fair went very well and we sold most of the forced Hyacinths and Paperwhite Narcissii, as many as we wanted to anyway, as the idea was to save enough to brighten up the castle over the festive season. I did enjoy meeting lots of the visitors as I had not seen very many in the garden for quite a few weeks now. It did remind me of my many years in retail talking and selling plants to the puplic on garden cetres. I am pleased that I didnt have to sell xmas trees though, as that could be a bit tricky at times especially if husband and wife came together as well as salesman often I ended up being a marriage guidance councillor aswell.
Wandering around the garden a couple of weeks ago I noticed that the first of our early flowering Rhodo's was breaking out from bud for us the first one is usually Nobleanum closely followed by Christmas Cheer. My first thoughts were my goodness it does'nt seem like a year ago when they were flowering last. After a few minutes of thought on the matter I realised that perhaps time is not on quite the hyperbole as I had imagined last year these two rhodo's did not start to flower until early February so it was only ten months ago. It's not so rare for them to flower this early in the southern counties but it did suprise me up here. It does also show how the seasons can vary.
Work in the garden at the moment is mainly of a maintainance and construction nature unfortunately sometimes one of these can end up leading on to the other. Old tree stumps can be a real eye sore as well as being a bit of potential source of infection of plant diseases. Whilst digging out and then removing a few the other day I ended up having to dismantle a bridge. The bridge was due for some repairs anyway but I did'nt plan on having to do it right now, it was'nt exactly what I wanted to do in my last week leading up to Christmas. As this is most likely to be my last posting before the break have a jolly good one.
Wandering around the garden a couple of weeks ago I noticed that the first of our early flowering Rhodo's was breaking out from bud for us the first one is usually Nobleanum closely followed by Christmas Cheer. My first thoughts were my goodness it does'nt seem like a year ago when they were flowering last. After a few minutes of thought on the matter I realised that perhaps time is not on quite the hyperbole as I had imagined last year these two rhodo's did not start to flower until early February so it was only ten months ago. It's not so rare for them to flower this early in the southern counties but it did suprise me up here. It does also show how the seasons can vary.
Work in the garden at the moment is mainly of a maintainance and construction nature unfortunately sometimes one of these can end up leading on to the other. Old tree stumps can be a real eye sore as well as being a bit of potential source of infection of plant diseases. Whilst digging out and then removing a few the other day I ended up having to dismantle a bridge. The bridge was due for some repairs anyway but I did'nt plan on having to do it right now, it was'nt exactly what I wanted to do in my last week leading up to Christmas. As this is most likely to be my last posting before the break have a jolly good one.
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Bulb potting
One of the most exciting jobs in the autumn is planting and potting the new seasons bulbs, but it is one of those jobs that you have to resist doing immediately if the weather is dry needs must and you have to go out and do jobs like leaf raking. So we wait for it to rain I prefer to pot most of my bulbs as I use a lot of them in containers for their first season then having had a good look at them I can then decide where to put them in the garden borders for future displays.
This year I have been asked to force a large batch of Hyacinths for our Christmas craft fair on December 5th and 6th. So we made sure we got our order in very early to get the bulbs in for the first week of September. The potted bulbs were put in the dark for about 6 weeks, then brought up onto the benches to develop the flower shoots its been a bit touch and go and I did put some of them back outside to hold them back a bit however I think they are going to be okay.
There was more excitement a few days ago when the terracotta bowls arrived to pot the hyacinths on into. As the bowls on their own was a fairly small order I was able to get hold of some new large planters for summer displays next year and also some very elegant pots for the herbs that we keep on the tea room terrace. 3 bulbs of a single colour went into each bowl. Now all the Hyacinths need is to be dressed with a topping of moss, then its about three weeks in a well lit room not too close to any radiators and they should be in flower for the festive season.
If you get a chance to come along to the fair it would be great to see a few of you out in the garden weather permitting of course.
This year I have been asked to force a large batch of Hyacinths for our Christmas craft fair on December 5th and 6th. So we made sure we got our order in very early to get the bulbs in for the first week of September. The potted bulbs were put in the dark for about 6 weeks, then brought up onto the benches to develop the flower shoots its been a bit touch and go and I did put some of them back outside to hold them back a bit however I think they are going to be okay.
There was more excitement a few days ago when the terracotta bowls arrived to pot the hyacinths on into. As the bowls on their own was a fairly small order I was able to get hold of some new large planters for summer displays next year and also some very elegant pots for the herbs that we keep on the tea room terrace. 3 bulbs of a single colour went into each bowl. Now all the Hyacinths need is to be dressed with a topping of moss, then its about three weeks in a well lit room not too close to any radiators and they should be in flower for the festive season.
If you get a chance to come along to the fair it would be great to see a few of you out in the garden weather permitting of course.
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Winter Approaches at Torosay
It was very satisfying last week to be able to get in what will probably be the final mowing of the lawns for the season. We were also able to give some of the lawns a scarifying, I don't think this had been done on the walled garden for many a year.After two passes we had taken off more thatch than we have in green mowing's all season and the bad news was that it all had to be raked up by hand.
Eventually after allowing a whole growing season as a stale seedbed for weeds to come and then be dispatched, we have now started to plant the beds that we built around the entrance area last winter. It has been quite a tricky area to plan as it cannot be protected from rabbits or deer, some of the things that we are trying are foxgloves, Hellebores, Euphorbias, Bergenia and Geranium macrorrhizum. We are trying a few shrubs as well Rhodo's and Escallonia, it seems that the smellier or aromatic the foliage the less they like it, I'll keep you posted! One thing that I know from experience is that tough leaves and prickles don't work I've seen Hollies Berberis and Roses all devastated by deer.
Planting has also been started in the Primeval Dell including tree ferns (acquired from Logan Botanic Gardens) Cycads, Wollemi Pine, Woodwardia fern and our own bog oak tree discovered on the estate, planted vertically it looks quite spooky almost black with a very rough surface. Planting in this area will be ongoing as and when we acquire more ancient plants.
We have also managed to do some planting in the very far corner of the garden known as Roberts Corner. This is an area that was rescued from wild raspberries and a very aggressive colony of wasps last summer, it did contain a few hybrid Rhododendrons that have improved immensely in the last year since they have been unshackled and by the look of their heavy budding should flower profusely next spring. It seemed appropriate that we should marry them up with some of the many species and hybrid deciduous Azaleas that have been sitting around in the nursery area for the last 18 months.
Still lots to look forward to we start autumn leaf sweeping next week...
Any volunteers ?
Eventually after allowing a whole growing season as a stale seedbed for weeds to come and then be dispatched, we have now started to plant the beds that we built around the entrance area last winter. It has been quite a tricky area to plan as it cannot be protected from rabbits or deer, some of the things that we are trying are foxgloves, Hellebores, Euphorbias, Bergenia and Geranium macrorrhizum. We are trying a few shrubs as well Rhodo's and Escallonia, it seems that the smellier or aromatic the foliage the less they like it, I'll keep you posted! One thing that I know from experience is that tough leaves and prickles don't work I've seen Hollies Berberis and Roses all devastated by deer.
Planting has also been started in the Primeval Dell including tree ferns (acquired from Logan Botanic Gardens) Cycads, Wollemi Pine, Woodwardia fern and our own bog oak tree discovered on the estate, planted vertically it looks quite spooky almost black with a very rough surface. Planting in this area will be ongoing as and when we acquire more ancient plants.
We have also managed to do some planting in the very far corner of the garden known as Roberts Corner. This is an area that was rescued from wild raspberries and a very aggressive colony of wasps last summer, it did contain a few hybrid Rhododendrons that have improved immensely in the last year since they have been unshackled and by the look of their heavy budding should flower profusely next spring. It seemed appropriate that we should marry them up with some of the many species and hybrid deciduous Azaleas that have been sitting around in the nursery area for the last 18 months.
Still lots to look forward to we start autumn leaf sweeping next week...
Any volunteers ?
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Autumn Blues
The autumn blues that I refer to here are not the sad ones that start to happen now that the days are starting to get shorter, more the excellent blues of our Hydrangeas. Probably the most spectacular one that we have here is one of the Teller hybrids from Germany called Blaumeise it's a lacecap with very large flowers which are an almost luminous blue particularly when they brighten up a shady glade.
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