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.
Thursday, 30 April 2009
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!
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