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.
Monday, 14 December 2009
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.
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
What a summer
I hope that you may have noticed that our Saltire managed to get onto the front page of the BBC Scotland News website a few weeks back now and it looked very impressive too with a very good photograph put in by our snapper Phil McDermott.
What I now have to admit is that it is no longer there, well not in its original format. Unfortunately the Delta Pansies just proved to be a bit to disease prone for our moist climate here on Mull, I had been aware that this might be the case. So I had ordered a batch of 1400 Viola's as an insurance policy I got these in as small plugs and grew them on as quickly as possible. We did the swap towards the end of June and I'm pleased to say they are performing much better than the Pansies and no need to dead head not even the white ones.
Since my last report the vast majority of our time has been spent weeding and mowing etc, but we have been doing some progressive jobs as well. Last week we spent several days having another blitz on the Colonnades, as I wander over there I have on more than one occasion caught couples having a smooch in the rotunda at the end, so we have decided to theme the Colonnades as our romantic garden, so lots of colour lots of nice smells including plants like Roses and Lillie's.
The Colonnades has been built on the site of the original Peach house and is probably the sunniest and most sheltered spot in the whole garden. The heat reflecting rendered back wall is still mostly there along with some of the old rusting plant supports and the cast iron grid path. With the 14 pink marble pillars that support the overhead pergola (Don't even know where these originated they look Roman) we really do have an unique feature with a classical distressed appearance.
Another area we have recently done a bit of restoration work on is at the near end of our large pond. Two particular plants in this part of the garden had got well out of control. Firstly there was a huge Rhododendron that had started to cover over the inlet from the feeding Burn making that part very dark and dull and hiding a bit too much view
Secondly next to the Rhodo is a very large area of Thuya plicata this had been poorly pruned in recent years and older low foliage had become a bit unsightly. what lay behind this was another of our very old spreading families of Thuya originally probably 100 years ago, or even more one plant had been put in, this will have developed into a good strong specimen with some long downward swooping limbs which in time would root down and form a new tree a process which then will continue to happen until you have a family of several generations of Thuya covering a very large area.
We actually have several of these families around the gardens one is called Elephants trunk because that's what some of the large limbs look like. Our newly opened up area has been called the Octopus tree as it has lots of long sweeping branches some are quite twisted as well looking like tentacles. The fun bit is trying to work which tree is the original mother or grandmother.
I usually like to talk about at least one type of plant that is currently looking good in the garden this time it has to be Eucryphia of which we are developing quite a good collection, right now the lucida forms are in flower. The best pink flowered form is Ballerina with large pale pink flowers with a darker edge we also have a largish Pink Cloud its a good specimen, but the flowers are smaller. Possibly my favourite though is the very rare variegated White Cloud lovely flowers with the usual pronounced stamens. The other species will be following along shortly including our 30 foot high cordifolia, a good species as it is fairly lime tolerant and the other contender in my favourites list is the very tender moorei this makes a lovely small tree with evergreen foliage that looks like a Rowan. The flowers are small and white but masses of them I really can wait to see it probably in about a fortnight
What I now have to admit is that it is no longer there, well not in its original format. Unfortunately the Delta Pansies just proved to be a bit to disease prone for our moist climate here on Mull, I had been aware that this might be the case. So I had ordered a batch of 1400 Viola's as an insurance policy I got these in as small plugs and grew them on as quickly as possible. We did the swap towards the end of June and I'm pleased to say they are performing much better than the Pansies and no need to dead head not even the white ones.
Since my last report the vast majority of our time has been spent weeding and mowing etc, but we have been doing some progressive jobs as well. Last week we spent several days having another blitz on the Colonnades, as I wander over there I have on more than one occasion caught couples having a smooch in the rotunda at the end, so we have decided to theme the Colonnades as our romantic garden, so lots of colour lots of nice smells including plants like Roses and Lillie's.
The Colonnades has been built on the site of the original Peach house and is probably the sunniest and most sheltered spot in the whole garden. The heat reflecting rendered back wall is still mostly there along with some of the old rusting plant supports and the cast iron grid path. With the 14 pink marble pillars that support the overhead pergola (Don't even know where these originated they look Roman) we really do have an unique feature with a classical distressed appearance.
Another area we have recently done a bit of restoration work on is at the near end of our large pond. Two particular plants in this part of the garden had got well out of control. Firstly there was a huge Rhododendron that had started to cover over the inlet from the feeding Burn making that part very dark and dull and hiding a bit too much view
Secondly next to the Rhodo is a very large area of Thuya plicata this had been poorly pruned in recent years and older low foliage had become a bit unsightly. what lay behind this was another of our very old spreading families of Thuya originally probably 100 years ago, or even more one plant had been put in, this will have developed into a good strong specimen with some long downward swooping limbs which in time would root down and form a new tree a process which then will continue to happen until you have a family of several generations of Thuya covering a very large area.
We actually have several of these families around the gardens one is called Elephants trunk because that's what some of the large limbs look like. Our newly opened up area has been called the Octopus tree as it has lots of long sweeping branches some are quite twisted as well looking like tentacles. The fun bit is trying to work which tree is the original mother or grandmother.
I usually like to talk about at least one type of plant that is currently looking good in the garden this time it has to be Eucryphia of which we are developing quite a good collection, right now the lucida forms are in flower. The best pink flowered form is Ballerina with large pale pink flowers with a darker edge we also have a largish Pink Cloud its a good specimen, but the flowers are smaller. Possibly my favourite though is the very rare variegated White Cloud lovely flowers with the usual pronounced stamens. The other species will be following along shortly including our 30 foot high cordifolia, a good species as it is fairly lime tolerant and the other contender in my favourites list is the very tender moorei this makes a lovely small tree with evergreen foliage that looks like a Rowan. The flowers are small and white but masses of them I really can wait to see it probably in about a fortnight
Thursday, 4 June 2009
Hay fever
The saltire is starting to fill out now that we are having some warm weather, some things are growing incredibly fast, like the salad leaves planted in the tunnel. A couple of days ago I was asked to find a few leaves for the cafe because they had run out, it was a bit of a struggle, since then they seem to have doubled in size.
Lots of plants are now doing there thing Embothrium coccineum looks stunning in the bright sun, our magnificent Cornus capitata probably the largest in the UK is starting to show its sulphur yellow flowers. My favourite plant at the moment just has to be the Echium wildpretti we have two flowering on our rock garden in frount of the Gardeners cottage. One of them spent the whole winter out there, the other one was planted out a few weeks ago when it showed that it was going to produce a flower spike. The inflorescence on both are about 1 metre in height a dusky deep pink spike made up of hundreds of small borage type flowers in amongst the other mediteranian type plants from all around the world they look quite breathtaking. Its good fun mixing up these plants like Puya from Chile, Osteospermums from South Africa and Phormium from New Zealand they would never be seen together naturally but they do look good next to each other.
The weather pattern this year has been a bit different from last, May was much better last year which has had the effect of putting us back a bit on putting out our bedding displays. We have made a start by building on the Italianate theme near the house the Tea room terrace bed behind the ballustrading has had a makeover 5 standard Olives have been underplanted with the new hardy Gerbera Pink Everlast the sivery Pink of the Gerbera looks stunning with the Olives.
Some of the plants being used for bedding this year are fairly new, last year we were very succesful with Nemesia so I have got three great colours for this season Peach, Kumquat (orange)and Cassis (Blackcurant). Last years Nemesia suvived overwinter outside. We are also using a new Erysimum (Wallflower) which has two coloured flowers on the same cluster some mauve and some pale Yellow it's called Plant World Lemon When the Tulips die down a bit more we might be able to plant them.
Another plant we are trying at Torosay for the first time this year is an unusual type of Ipomea batatas which is actually closely related to the sweet potato. Its a foliage plant that spreads and is good for baskets and containers I fist came across this little gem a few years ago as the purple leaved form Sweet Caroline. Since then some new forms have appeared we are trying a bronze leaved type. It has fairly large hand shaped leaves like a Castor oil plant what we have to sort out is what does it go well with and does it like Scotland? only time will tell.
Having got carried away with this blog it is nearly half past ten here on Mull, time to turn in for the night, doesn't feel quite right as its still broad daylight outside!.
Lots of plants are now doing there thing Embothrium coccineum looks stunning in the bright sun, our magnificent Cornus capitata probably the largest in the UK is starting to show its sulphur yellow flowers. My favourite plant at the moment just has to be the Echium wildpretti we have two flowering on our rock garden in frount of the Gardeners cottage. One of them spent the whole winter out there, the other one was planted out a few weeks ago when it showed that it was going to produce a flower spike. The inflorescence on both are about 1 metre in height a dusky deep pink spike made up of hundreds of small borage type flowers in amongst the other mediteranian type plants from all around the world they look quite breathtaking. Its good fun mixing up these plants like Puya from Chile, Osteospermums from South Africa and Phormium from New Zealand they would never be seen together naturally but they do look good next to each other.
The weather pattern this year has been a bit different from last, May was much better last year which has had the effect of putting us back a bit on putting out our bedding displays. We have made a start by building on the Italianate theme near the house the Tea room terrace bed behind the ballustrading has had a makeover 5 standard Olives have been underplanted with the new hardy Gerbera Pink Everlast the sivery Pink of the Gerbera looks stunning with the Olives.
Some of the plants being used for bedding this year are fairly new, last year we were very succesful with Nemesia so I have got three great colours for this season Peach, Kumquat (orange)and Cassis (Blackcurant). Last years Nemesia suvived overwinter outside. We are also using a new Erysimum (Wallflower) which has two coloured flowers on the same cluster some mauve and some pale Yellow it's called Plant World Lemon When the Tulips die down a bit more we might be able to plant them.
Another plant we are trying at Torosay for the first time this year is an unusual type of Ipomea batatas which is actually closely related to the sweet potato. Its a foliage plant that spreads and is good for baskets and containers I fist came across this little gem a few years ago as the purple leaved form Sweet Caroline. Since then some new forms have appeared we are trying a bronze leaved type. It has fairly large hand shaped leaves like a Castor oil plant what we have to sort out is what does it go well with and does it like Scotland? only time will tell.
Having got carried away with this blog it is nearly half past ten here on Mull, time to turn in for the night, doesn't feel quite right as its still broad daylight outside!.
Thursday, 21 May 2009
Midges and Saltires
We have had some very mixed weather up here over the last couple of weeks, a week of rain every day followed by a week of almost continual sunshine but overall it has now warmed up quite a bit. So much so that we are beginning to get a few midges about, but don't worry they don't bother tourists for a while yet!
Whilst we are gardening (i.e. standing still) we get lots of people asking us "why are you wearing that net over your face?" and we explain that its to keep off the midges. most folk look at us a bit strange and think that perhaps we are making a bit of a fuss (that may well be true) but what happens is the little beasties can detect the carbon dioxide given off by humans, so unless its a windy day if you are standing fairly stationary, you usually have about five to ten minutes before the itching starts!
During that warm spell last week I took advantage of the dry soil conditions and planted up our Saltire, a massive 60 square metre St Andrews flag on the right hand corner of the Lion terrace. It has been positioned for viewing from the principal floor of the house, as it would have been in the heyday of the country estates. We have built it on a slight tilt towards the house and have tapered in the front corners all to take account of perspective.
It is made up of over 1000 delta series pansies that should flower right through until the autumn. The varieties we have used are blue blotch and pure white, this is our little contribution to the Homecoming Scotland 2009 celebrations. It should look really good by the middle of June, all this rain we have had in the last few days is really helping, because at first we were having to water it by hand and we didn't want to continue doing that for very long.
Whilst we are gardening (i.e. standing still) we get lots of people asking us "why are you wearing that net over your face?" and we explain that its to keep off the midges. most folk look at us a bit strange and think that perhaps we are making a bit of a fuss (that may well be true) but what happens is the little beasties can detect the carbon dioxide given off by humans, so unless its a windy day if you are standing fairly stationary, you usually have about five to ten minutes before the itching starts!
During that warm spell last week I took advantage of the dry soil conditions and planted up our Saltire, a massive 60 square metre St Andrews flag on the right hand corner of the Lion terrace. It has been positioned for viewing from the principal floor of the house, as it would have been in the heyday of the country estates. We have built it on a slight tilt towards the house and have tapered in the front corners all to take account of perspective.
It is made up of over 1000 delta series pansies that should flower right through until the autumn. The varieties we have used are blue blotch and pure white, this is our little contribution to the Homecoming Scotland 2009 celebrations. It should look really good by the middle of June, all this rain we have had in the last few days is really helping, because at first we were having to water it by hand and we didn't want to continue doing that for very long.
Thursday, 30 April 2009
Sorting out the little people and keeping out the deer
A huge amount has happened in the garden over the last few weeks so much so in fact that it has been difficult to keep up with the blog.
First of all we thought we should sort out the little people so we gave the children’s play area a good tidy up from the winter and refurbished some of the timber safety rails etc. We then went on to build a new sand pit I think that this has gone down quite well as the James children couldn’t wait for us to finish it.
All good things start from a good base, from the ground up as it were, so another little project we have been working on has been improving the facilities down at the nursery. Ever since I started at Torosay, just over a year ago now, I have been struggling for space to put new plants whilst I bulk them up or wait to get planting areas prepared. It had got so bad that I was filling up the pathways, any way we brought in quite a few tons of aggregate and virtually doubled our standing down area.
Quite a bit of planting has taken place near the entrance; we have put in a screen of yew's to hide the staff car parking dustbins and oil tank. At four feet plus tall and grown as field root balled they were damned heavy but in the difficult conditions they needed to be fairly instant. Why Yews? Unfortunately the entrance area is not deer fenced so we have to use something that they do not like to eat.
Close by we have done some more screening with another plant that the deer seem to find unpalatable - Rhododendron. We had some large specimens that were in a position that spoilt a vista in another part of the garden so we lifted them out with the aid of our digger and they were pruned heavily to make up for the root disturbance, even so they still stand over 2.5 metres tall and I am praying that they take.
First of all we thought we should sort out the little people so we gave the children’s play area a good tidy up from the winter and refurbished some of the timber safety rails etc. We then went on to build a new sand pit I think that this has gone down quite well as the James children couldn’t wait for us to finish it.
All good things start from a good base, from the ground up as it were, so another little project we have been working on has been improving the facilities down at the nursery. Ever since I started at Torosay, just over a year ago now, I have been struggling for space to put new plants whilst I bulk them up or wait to get planting areas prepared. It had got so bad that I was filling up the pathways, any way we brought in quite a few tons of aggregate and virtually doubled our standing down area.
Quite a bit of planting has taken place near the entrance; we have put in a screen of yew's to hide the staff car parking dustbins and oil tank. At four feet plus tall and grown as field root balled they were damned heavy but in the difficult conditions they needed to be fairly instant. Why Yews? Unfortunately the entrance area is not deer fenced so we have to use something that they do not like to eat.
Close by we have done some more screening with another plant that the deer seem to find unpalatable - Rhododendron. We had some large specimens that were in a position that spoilt a vista in another part of the garden so we lifted them out with the aid of our digger and they were pruned heavily to make up for the root disturbance, even so they still stand over 2.5 metres tall and I am praying that they take.
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Pink Glow
As usual spring has come in a rush over the last few days and now a lot of the early flowerers are coming through thick and fast.
I was a little caught out earlier this week when the gardens' owner Chris James pointed out that the view of a pink Rhododendron just outside the walled garden was being obscured by a self set Fuchsia Ricartonii. I was forced to admit I had not noticed that this particular Rhodo was in flower. Shortly after coffee I went to investigate and sure enough, there was a beautiful specimen of R. Calophytum in full flower. It is a lovely pale pink form standing about 2.5 meters high with long drooping leaves. My excuse was that the colour from a distance is not disimilar to the Christmas Cheer that stands only a few yards away and had been flowering for about the last month so I think I had just been seeing a pink glow in that general direction. Not a very good excuse I know, anyway the wild Fuchsia has gone now.
As well as the buds of various Rhodos swelling fast, our Camellias are starting to flower including our pair of C. Donation on the steps leading down to the walled Garden. They are definitely the best that I have ever seen of this variety. As you know, usually they are very straggly but these two are very bushy.
A few weeks ago I reported that we had an Aeonium Urbicum Zwartkop that had so far survived outside in a container. I am pleased to report that it is now starting to bud up and send out some very bushy new growth. I was also suprised to notice today that the one Zonal Geranium we had accidentally left outside in an open position, near the tea room, has also survived. I was also quite relieved to see that all the Echeveria Harmsii that I planted sideways in a wall outside the Gardener's Cottage have come through the winter unscathed.
Lastly on my list of heros is my old favourite Arctotis. Just a couple of plants managed to hang on in a position that had less sun than the others but they were in a corner and so less exposed. It's not exactly been a mild winter here - our coldest night was only -2C but from what I gather, our losses have been fewer than lots of places in Devon and even Cornwall.
I was a little caught out earlier this week when the gardens' owner Chris James pointed out that the view of a pink Rhododendron just outside the walled garden was being obscured by a self set Fuchsia Ricartonii. I was forced to admit I had not noticed that this particular Rhodo was in flower. Shortly after coffee I went to investigate and sure enough, there was a beautiful specimen of R. Calophytum in full flower. It is a lovely pale pink form standing about 2.5 meters high with long drooping leaves. My excuse was that the colour from a distance is not disimilar to the Christmas Cheer that stands only a few yards away and had been flowering for about the last month so I think I had just been seeing a pink glow in that general direction. Not a very good excuse I know, anyway the wild Fuchsia has gone now.
As well as the buds of various Rhodos swelling fast, our Camellias are starting to flower including our pair of C. Donation on the steps leading down to the walled Garden. They are definitely the best that I have ever seen of this variety. As you know, usually they are very straggly but these two are very bushy.
A few weeks ago I reported that we had an Aeonium Urbicum Zwartkop that had so far survived outside in a container. I am pleased to report that it is now starting to bud up and send out some very bushy new growth. I was also suprised to notice today that the one Zonal Geranium we had accidentally left outside in an open position, near the tea room, has also survived. I was also quite relieved to see that all the Echeveria Harmsii that I planted sideways in a wall outside the Gardener's Cottage have come through the winter unscathed.
Lastly on my list of heros is my old favourite Arctotis. Just a couple of plants managed to hang on in a position that had less sun than the others but they were in a corner and so less exposed. It's not exactly been a mild winter here - our coldest night was only -2C but from what I gather, our losses have been fewer than lots of places in Devon and even Cornwall.
Monday, 2 March 2009
March Hares
Just before we got to the end of February, on the 26th to be precise, we had the first buds begining to open on one of my favourite Rhodo's. The reason that I like it so much is that it has more than one period of interest..the plant I am talking about is R. barbatum.
If you're not familiar with it, it has very dark scarlet flowers which tend to highlight the beautiful pinky bronze peeling bark. I always remember seeing several of these at Stourhead, I wonder if they have started to flower yet down in Wiltshire?
Another early bird Rhodo that started to flower in February is fargesii. Its pale rose flowers are suprisingly large for its size and abundantly produced.
Torosay has a large number of Daffodils around the gardens, some of them very old varieties, fortunately a number of them have started to flower. already. As one of my staff is Welsh it meant she was able to have a few blooms in the house for St Davids day.
We have had to start getting ready for what we hope are going to be lots of visitors. The 1st of April is rapidly approaching when we open the gates to the house, so lots of gravel has been spread about on the forecourt and the Tea room terrace to give the place a fresh new feel.
Talking of opening the gates we have had to do a bit of work on them aswell, rabbits and hares are quite a problem in the garden so keeping them out is of paramount importance. Rabbit netting is vital but on the gates it gets a lot of extra wear and tear so something tougher is needed for this purpose. We have been fixing some one inch square welded mesh sheets onto the gates so that should hopefully do the trick.
Down by the railway on the shore most days there are a pair of hares running around in their winter coats, pure white as driven snow. Just a couple of our many friends from the animal kingdom that reside on the Torosay estate.
If you're not familiar with it, it has very dark scarlet flowers which tend to highlight the beautiful pinky bronze peeling bark. I always remember seeing several of these at Stourhead, I wonder if they have started to flower yet down in Wiltshire?
Another early bird Rhodo that started to flower in February is fargesii. Its pale rose flowers are suprisingly large for its size and abundantly produced.
Torosay has a large number of Daffodils around the gardens, some of them very old varieties, fortunately a number of them have started to flower. already. As one of my staff is Welsh it meant she was able to have a few blooms in the house for St Davids day.
We have had to start getting ready for what we hope are going to be lots of visitors. The 1st of April is rapidly approaching when we open the gates to the house, so lots of gravel has been spread about on the forecourt and the Tea room terrace to give the place a fresh new feel.
Talking of opening the gates we have had to do a bit of work on them aswell, rabbits and hares are quite a problem in the garden so keeping them out is of paramount importance. Rabbit netting is vital but on the gates it gets a lot of extra wear and tear so something tougher is needed for this purpose. We have been fixing some one inch square welded mesh sheets onto the gates so that should hopefully do the trick.
Down by the railway on the shore most days there are a pair of hares running around in their winter coats, pure white as driven snow. Just a couple of our many friends from the animal kingdom that reside on the Torosay estate.
Monday, 16 February 2009
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
The green shoots of recovery
It seems that we have had an exceptional winter here at Torosay, with a lot more frost than normal. Fortunately there has been very little snow and it has been very dry which has been extremely good for us in the garden, enabling us to complete the hard landscaping of the entrance area to Torosay.
We have now moved on to a new area, just off from the statue walk, where there is a 'wee dell' that for a long while has not been doing very much. It's slightly boggy and contains some yellow Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanus) a Royal Fern and some Darmera peltata (Peltiphyllum). As it does get very wet there, during the winter we have put some drainage in to the wetter low-lying areas which seems to be working very well.
The big job this week has been to put in a new path which will make the area even more accessible to the public. The current path has been extended and now carries through the Crinodendron hedge to the circular rockery. A very peculiar rockery actually, out on a limb, resulting in very few people visiting it. My hope is that this will now change with the addition of the new path.
I did say it was a very peculiar rockery and not without good reason. The rockery is in a rough circle, divided into four segments, so it is quite formal in appearance but the really strange thing is...whoever heard of a rockery being built in a hollow where it does not get a huge amount of light!?
Work on the rockery will be a future project.
Anyway, it currently houses some very nice Salix boydii, also a good Eucrythia milliganii, some Celmisia, Leptospermum prostrata and Podocarpus alpinus. Apart from the Willow there does seem to be a bit of an Antipodean theme which we may expand upon, perhaps we should call it the 'Southern Alps'.
Lets go back to the boggy dell. It is a fairly large area with very few plants in it and we thought as it is so sheltered it would be a great place for some Tree Ferns. There are already some existing specimens, but they are not well situated in this area. However it is the perfect growing environment for the Royal Fern, which is already thriving there alongside the Wollemi Pine and a large piece of Bog Oak. It actually looks like the beginnings of a bit of a primeval jungle down there.
There are a few more brave souls starting to flower in the garden; we have two very nice plants of Rhododendron 'Christmas Cheer' which are looking great, they don't look like the 'Christmas Cheer' that I remember down south, but I am no expert on Rhododendrons. The Hellebores at the top of the statue walk are now looking good with a little splattering of Aconites and the limey buds of Daphne laureola - things are looking very cheerful! Also to be found in these beds are some of the first Snowdrops but there are masses of them elsewhere creating a wonderful blanket effect. Going back to the aforementioned Daphne, we now have a small collection of Daphne bholua types and amongst them a very nice 'Alba' on the lakeside bank.
We have now moved on to a new area, just off from the statue walk, where there is a 'wee dell' that for a long while has not been doing very much. It's slightly boggy and contains some yellow Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanus) a Royal Fern and some Darmera peltata (Peltiphyllum). As it does get very wet there, during the winter we have put some drainage in to the wetter low-lying areas which seems to be working very well.
The big job this week has been to put in a new path which will make the area even more accessible to the public. The current path has been extended and now carries through the Crinodendron hedge to the circular rockery. A very peculiar rockery actually, out on a limb, resulting in very few people visiting it. My hope is that this will now change with the addition of the new path.
I did say it was a very peculiar rockery and not without good reason. The rockery is in a rough circle, divided into four segments, so it is quite formal in appearance but the really strange thing is...whoever heard of a rockery being built in a hollow where it does not get a huge amount of light!?
Work on the rockery will be a future project.
Anyway, it currently houses some very nice Salix boydii, also a good Eucrythia milliganii, some Celmisia, Leptospermum prostrata and Podocarpus alpinus. Apart from the Willow there does seem to be a bit of an Antipodean theme which we may expand upon, perhaps we should call it the 'Southern Alps'.
Lets go back to the boggy dell. It is a fairly large area with very few plants in it and we thought as it is so sheltered it would be a great place for some Tree Ferns. There are already some existing specimens, but they are not well situated in this area. However it is the perfect growing environment for the Royal Fern, which is already thriving there alongside the Wollemi Pine and a large piece of Bog Oak. It actually looks like the beginnings of a bit of a primeval jungle down there.
There are a few more brave souls starting to flower in the garden; we have two very nice plants of Rhododendron 'Christmas Cheer' which are looking great, they don't look like the 'Christmas Cheer' that I remember down south, but I am no expert on Rhododendrons. The Hellebores at the top of the statue walk are now looking good with a little splattering of Aconites and the limey buds of Daphne laureola - things are looking very cheerful! Also to be found in these beds are some of the first Snowdrops but there are masses of them elsewhere creating a wonderful blanket effect. Going back to the aforementioned Daphne, we now have a small collection of Daphne bholua types and amongst them a very nice 'Alba' on the lakeside bank.
Thursday, 22 January 2009
First impressions
The quiet months of winter give us an opportunity to improve the facilities of the gardens. Whilst there's not too many people in the car park we have been able to do some work on the entrance area to improve visitors first impressions.
We are very fortunate to have a lot of natural resources available to us - mainly a lot of building stone lying around - so we have raised the walls on either side of our entrance path to make some raised beds. To improve the quality of the soil in these beds we have added compost from our own green waste mixed in together with seaweed collected from the beach. So in the future we will be able to create a more memorable first impression with welcoming floral displays. We are hoping to start planting during the summer.
It has been great fun building these walls, it's a good stress reliever. Apparently Winston Churchill used to build walls as a form of relaxation. It wasn't quite so nice filling the beds with the compost, especially when it's pouring down with rain and your wellies get stuck in the mud!
We are very fortunate to have a lot of natural resources available to us - mainly a lot of building stone lying around - so we have raised the walls on either side of our entrance path to make some raised beds. To improve the quality of the soil in these beds we have added compost from our own green waste mixed in together with seaweed collected from the beach. So in the future we will be able to create a more memorable first impression with welcoming floral displays. We are hoping to start planting during the summer.
It has been great fun building these walls, it's a good stress reliever. Apparently Winston Churchill used to build walls as a form of relaxation. It wasn't quite so nice filling the beds with the compost, especially when it's pouring down with rain and your wellies get stuck in the mud!
Sunday, 18 January 2009
January in the garden
It has always been a tradition at Torosay to go around the gardens and make a list of all the plants that are flowering on the first of the month. This is probably not a unique idea and I know for certain it was done by a certain Mr Dorrien-Smith, at Tresco Abbey gardens Isles of Scilley, over a hundred years ago. We have had some sub zero temperatures here and a relatively cold dry winter but even so there are a number of interesting subjects braving the weather...
So far it does also seem that the Aeonium canariensis Zwartskopft that we always leave outside in containers in the receeses of the buttressed wall on the Lion terrace have survived the frost but its still early to be sure.
- Latua pubiflora
- Hamamellis mollis
- Prunus subhirtella Autumnalis
- Rhododendron praecox
- Rhododendron nobelianum
- Lapageria rosea
- Mahonia japonica
- Daphne bholua
So far it does also seem that the Aeonium canariensis Zwartskopft that we always leave outside in containers in the receeses of the buttressed wall on the Lion terrace have survived the frost but its still early to be sure.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
