Weekly catch up with gardens & propagation

Garden Team

Spring is such a magical time in the garden with scenes changing almost overnight, and suddenly there’s an abundance of plants to choose from for our weekly plant ident display in the visitor information centre. After a couple of very dry months, we’ve finally had some much needed rain. 20mm isn’t much considering how dry the soil is, particularly in some parts of the gardens, but it has enabled us to get a few new plants in the ground; filling gaps or replacing old, tired looking plants such as salvia, erysimum, thymus and Helichrysum italicum.

This week we’ve had the pleasure of welcoming landscape architect Sybille. She’s currently on a sabbatical and will be spending 4 months with us. We’ve also enjoyed having Lily with us this week. She’s recently been appointed the new head gardener at Horatio’s Garden in London where she previously did her WRAGS traineeship. We wish her all the best in her future role.

Having tidied the garden and finished the winter pruning, we’ve finally managed to get into the ponds and cut down the winter remains of Thalia dealbata which grows in shallow water. Its architectural paddle-shaped leaves turn brown in the autumn and we leave them over the winter to provide interest. In spring the stems are back just below the water’s surface. The ornamental boat, which had its wooden trimmings and details lightly sanded and re-varnished earlier in the year, is now back in the pond below Beth’s house, much to our visitors’ delight.

I’m always surprised how few people grow Atriplex halimus. This large shrub, with its silver-grey foliage, makes a lovely backdrop for euphorbia, lavender, cistus, alstroemeria and other drought resistant plants. We prune ours to a framework each spring to keep them in scale and proportion with the rest of the planting in the Gravel Garden, often giving them a lighter trim in early autumn. Another striking silver-leaved plant we couldn’t do without is Cynara cardunculus, its deeply cut leaves creating beautiful mounds of foliage in the Reservoir Garden.

Propagation Team

It's been a busy week over in the production department. Cuttings such as Salvia blancoana, Aster tataricus, and Osteopermum jucundum are being taken on mass. Many seedlings are also on their way, notably Salvia 'Allen Chickering' and Dahlia merckii we have to look forward to.

With favourable ground temperatures, we have managed to get our first vine weevil treatment of the year in. We are very proud, not just of being completely peat free, but also because we do not use pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, or any of those pesky chemicals which although would make our jobs much easier, have a detrimental effect on our planet. For this reason we incorporate positive biological based control measures to keep our plants healthy, whilst having a limited further impact on our environment, such as the nematode Steinernema kraussei we administered this week.

Elsewhere, Emily and Hollie have been working on our new nursery displays, with Beth's sempervivum collection finding it's spring/summer home. So many have commented how much they adore these little bowls of joy and we look forward to seeing these flourish across the year.