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More hydrangea pruning & other challenges

February 20, 2013, 2:44 pm
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Tues 5th Feb
Weather: Cold. 3 - 4°C

The many bare wavy shaped hydrangeas adds to the layers of textures and colours that are found even at this time of year. The bright pinky red flowers in the middle is the Hellebore 'Anna's Red'. 

I did more Hydrangea pruning today. I was given Bruce who has come to work in the garden for a month from Kentucky, US to guide and to work together with. This time we tackled cultivars 'Bluebird' & 'Bluewave' in the Blue Garden (hence the name) and each came with their own challenges - some didn't have much flowering stems so we had to strategically decide what we leave.

Hydrangea intertwined with a cornus

One was intertwined into a Cornus and we had to consider giving space to the stems from the top down. After we moved onto pruning a Ligustrum quihoui in the Walled Garden, this was an interesting challenge. It was tall & dense and had a Clematis montana weaving through as well as being surrounded by fragile Hydrangeas (see future posts for more details on this).
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Pruning - from privet to philadelphus

February 21, 2013, 11:47 pm
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Weds 6th Feb
Weather: Horrible biting wind again. Moments of sun but not long lasting.

Ligustrum quihoui in the Walled Garden pruned
Privet at Dixter is grown like no other that I have ever seen. Actually cultivated for its flowers rather than as bog standard hedging plant. They have long elegant flowering stems that stick out like mad hair. These bear panicles of white flowers that weighs the stems down, causing them to arch gracefully.

We cut out all the stems that have flowered on old stems. Flowering stems are usually distinguishable because they split into many other offshoot stems, and if lucky confirmed by the telltale dried fruit or flowers. Some of the offshoots may turn into a strong flowering stem. Four or five stems usually come from a 'knuckle'. For this one we naturally thinned it out by taking out all flowered stems to the knuckle, but it is usually best to take out each flowered stem to the next flowering stem if possible to be safe, and then thin it out at the end. It worked out for us in this instance as there was a lot of material and it was hard to reach. Not a rule of thumb, but one might prune two out of five stems per knuckle, but it was better to confirm or do it by eye.

Ligustrum quihoui pruned in the long border

For a picture of the Ligustrum in flower follow here.

Philadelphus in the Walled Garden


After this, we moved onto some orange blossoms Philadephus including a large one in the Walled Garden next to the privet, and three in the High Garden, one obscured by an Abelia which Fergus thinks is the best one in the garden, one was variegated and one of them was a Philadelphus delavayi 'Calvescens'. These followed similar principles. We didn't try and take out every crossing branch but just to open out the structure more. Some were vigorous and had lots of stems, whilst others were quite old and minimal in growth that Fergus had been trying to bring back, so we only gave these a light touch, enough to help regenerate it but not to really manipulate/ shape it.
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Pruning & training one of the wall figs - a ficarious task

February 24, 2013, 12:50 pm
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Thurs 7th Feb
Weather: The wind has finally wound down a bit, temperature being 1-3°C was tolerable. There were even moments of sun.

Layers of lines & textures almost creates a sense of movement in the garden. 

There are three groups of fig trees - Ficus carica 'Brunswick' in the Barn Garden that are trained flat against a tall barn wall in beautiful wavy lines, with one opening out into a big fan shape in the middle. I worked on the left hand corner pieces next to the mess room. Armed with tacks, tarred twine and hammer I set about retraining the structure, incorporating & pruning the new growth that has occurred over the year. It was like working on a sculpture. I pinned down any good new young vigorous shoots to replace older stems if necessary. A lot of ladder work was involved, and I went up and down constantly to secure the stems in their new positions once I undid them to redo them again.

Fri 8th Feb
Weather: Sunny, 3 - 4°C.
What to train and how far you can bend a stem was informed by the fig itself, there was a certain limitation to how flexible or how far the stems would go. Each 'line' was reduced to one or two good growing stems and any excess especially ones that poked out too uprightly were cut off.

Mon 11th
Weather: 2 - 3°C

Tues 12th
Weather: Temperatures dropped to 0.
Finished one side of the corner, other corner to go...


Wed 13th
Weather: Overcast & cold, -1 to 1°C

Tricky ladder business:
One of the corners is adjacent to a low thatched shelter. For this I had to use double ladders. One to rest against the thatch itself, extra secured by a fork sunk deep into the ground at the base of the ladder, to stop it from sliding away, and one tall ladder against the wall that the fig was on. I climbed between the both like spiderman to complete the work.

Heights can make me feel a little bit giddy and it was a challenge when I was all the way up at the top, especially when it was hard to get tacks into the old wood, but I managed to overcome this. I felt a deep sense of satisfaction when I had finished this epic task.







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Three roses and a viburnum

February 28, 2013, 11:45 am
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Thursday 14th
Weather: 8°C. Rainy to begin with, much milder than it has been for a while. The sun finally came out.

Rosa× odorata 'Mutabilis' in the middle of the bed

I was on a pruning mission today. Fergus is properly getting me to prune different plants & namely roses all by myself - to 'read' the plant and prune intuitively to what I think the plant needs. It's a regenerative type of pruning really, which is great because it means not having to fumble around with textbooks trying to remember what the information said, but being able to understand what to do through looking at it. The main aims are to allow maximum sunshine into each stem, for them to be well spaced. Where it has flowered helps give an indication of what year wood flowers come on.

I have been choosing monthly articles/ excerpts for Dixter's website from the archive of Christopher Lloyd's Countrylife transcripts since the 1950s, here are a few interesting things he has to say about pruning - Christopher Lloyd article.

Viburnum opulus compactum

Hard lessons were still being learnt and Fergus would come after each one to give me helpful critique, advice/ guidance. I was given a variety of plants that gave me different things to consider. These are the plants that were part of my trials & tribulations:

Rosa chinensis 'Mutabilis' now known as Rosa× odorata 'Mutabilis' in the Barn Garden. From this one I learnt not to cut middle stems too short even if means cutting off a flowered head to next best flowering stem means doing so, because then they don't risk being crowded out by the others and not being able to grow as well. In this scenario it is best to cut it down to the next best bud.

Viburnum compactum opulus, Rosa moyesii (a shrub rose with big red flowers and bulbous hips), Rosa setipoda& Rosa glauca (bluey green leaves & flowers with 5 pink petals), all in the Long Border. Situated here, the back of these plants can be easily shaded out by the growth at the front. So the best approach was to think about the plant in the shape of a set of steps. Taller at the back and gradually shorter towards the front. Always mindful that everything stays tall enough for the light to hit it.

Rosa glauca - the tall thin red branches in the middle nearly camouflaged. 

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Pruning - Rosa virginiana

February 28, 2013, 11:32 pm
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Friday 15th Feb
Weather: Cold

I finished pruning the Rosa Glauca, then moved onto Rosa virginiana, a rose that has nice thin elegant red stems which gives it a nice shape. They are very floriferous so a lot was taken out, but they looked better for it. A chance to enhance the red stems as well as helping the plant. There was definitely plenty of flowering stems for the current year. It didn't matter that some of these 'crossed' over because the plant was light & airy enough, especially if it added to aesthetic satisfaction.

Rosa virginiana offcuts - the red really stands out but they have olive green stems too.
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Pruning & retraining a Lonicera x americana

March 5, 2013, 3:08 pm
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Mon 18th Feb
Weather: Beautiful sunshine, 6°C but felt warm for a change.


I finished off pruning and training the Lonicera x americana (Caprifoliaceae family). Like the Ligustrum quihoui (privet) there was an amazing amount of material to work with. I had to be careful though, because the way the branches were so intertwined with each other & twirled around the pole, it was hard to see what was what, and I had to really look. It was the same principles, I had to take out all the flowered stems - they would be multiple branched ones instead of one long slender one. I would cut these to the base or the next best flowering shoot. Then I would thin out any weak or over congested stems, crossing over ones really doesn't count here, as long as there was enough air generally in the middle.

Weds 20th Feb
Weather: Still sunny but with a nippier wind. Apparently it peaked to 4°C.  Minuses at night though - not a deep frost but mornings are frosty.

Finished working on the Lonicera, retraining & retying it. I thought of it in tiers, trails of overflowing stems on top of each other. The stems will bow over more in time when they are heavy with flowers. So with this in mind I tied it in a way so that when this happens it won't just all topple on top of each other, or go to the ground and just reveal the pole, but graceful arches evenly spread. I also secured a couple at the top so that part of the pole especially would remained covered.
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The RHS Plant & Design Fair

March 6, 2013, 11:56 am
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Tues 19th Feb
Weather: Beautiful again.

We went on an outing today to the RHS Plant and Design Show held at their own halls in Westminster.


Highlights were Hellebores with frilly middles, plenty of snowdrops of course.

Hellebore hybridus 'Tutu'

Hellebore hybridus (Bradfield hybrids double)

A lot of care & consideration was put into arranging the displays & stalls. Woody scenes created with things like tree root stumps, dried leaves & moss. Often furnished with good looking ferns, my favourite was Polystichum setiferum (Divisilobum Group) with great tints of bronze and green.

This was the first time I have actually seen Ophiopogon planiscapus look good in an arrangement.  

This was one of the best looking Streptocarpus I have ever seen

There was a good display of begonias of different shapes, colours & patterns.


Avon Bulbs was one of the gold medallists, they had some Lunia annua with interesting foliage including this purple tinged one and a very dark purpley red one. 

Pachysandra axillaris 'Crug Cover'

Crug Farm Nursery were also gold medallists not surprisingly, as avid plant hunters they had some of the rarest & most good looking foliage plants, a lot of them hard to grow. Our own lovely volunteer Liz have been out on expeditions with them.

One of my favourite displays were from gardens around London like Chiswick House & Gardens and Myddleton House exhibiting their best winter interests including plants unique to them. Offering more than the usual fare of what can look good around this time of the year.

Stachyurus himalaicus

Pieris formosa

There were also lots of other niche stalls that specialised in succulences, potatos, vegetable seeds, agapanthus, epiphytes (air plants) & dry loving australian plants.

A firework of Agapanthus


Some of the Dixter crew underneath a Prunus tree (left to right) - Hajime from Hokkaido, Bruce from Kentucky US   and our own dear Yannick from Belgium. Hajime & Bruce came to volunteer for about a month but sadly has gone home now. Bruce knits great hats and Hajime makes brilliant Japanese curry.

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Roses, roses & more roses

March 11, 2013, 3:07 pm
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Thurs 21st Feb
Weather: Bitter arctic winds. - 2 to -1°C

For someone who was thought to be anti-roses, there are around 140 different types in Christopher Lloyd's garden. I have been pruning just some of them over the last two weeks.



I pruned another Rosa virginiana opposite one that I did last week in the Orchard Garden. Mid-way I transplanted some Ranunculus ficaria& Geum that wasn't wanted around that area but perfect for the orchard meadows. A rose that I kept hearing as 'Avritta', most likely a case of mishearing, but have not been able to find anything of or close to that name yet. I found this the most tricky rose, it flowered on old wood, a lot of the branches had flowered, it was tempting to take out substantial stems but then it didn't have that much material, so it was one where I had to really weigh the odds. In fact I got on with some others first before getting back to that one.

I also pruned a Rosa sericea which had barbaric albeit beautiful spikes that would try and lacerate me at any chance that it could, and a rambling Rosa called 'Edith's Treasure Trove', which is possibly not in commercial circulation, as someone bred it especially as a present for C. Lloyd. Both of which are also old wood flowerers. There was a lot of material on the rambler to take off, including flowered & dead shoots. Fergus liked how they were coming out of the roof even the tiles, so I left a lot of them arching over like that and trained only a selected few to the wall.

My hat in the clutches of Rosa sericea

Rosa 'Edith's Treasure Trove' behind the soil shed
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Prunus, hydrangeas & a weigela

March 11, 2013, 3:42 pm
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Mon 25th Feb
Weather: 3°C. More degrees today but it still felt cold because of persistent arctic wind, but not as bitter as over the weekend.

I trained the morello cherry Prunus cerasus today, which followed similar principles to the fig.

Prunus cerasus
Then I pruned some blue Hydrangea macrophylla 'Blaumeise' from John Massey of Ashwood Nursery in the long border, a Weigela praecox 'Variegata' that is apparently one of the oldest plants in the garden. I gave this only a really light touch and took out about a 1/10th - mainly dead/ flowered branches just to air it out alittle. Then I moved onto an Abelia in the walled garden.
Hydrangea macrophylla 'Blaumeise'. These hydrangeas are tricky, I had to think about where the light/sun would hit them and they were potentially obscured by other plants. For notes on Hydrangea pruning Click Here

Weigela praecox 'Variegata'


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Pruning - Abelia grandiflora

March 11, 2013, 3:55 pm
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Tues 26th Feb
Weather: 3 - 4°C. Still quite nippy. Overcast.



I pruned an Abelia grandiflora today, it was not so straightforward. It has beautiful tints of colours all over, from their pink calyx to their reddy hued dark green leaves. In fact their very pale pinky white flowers are lightly scented from summer to autumn - there's not much not to like about this shrub. In this instance it was important to keep the shape of this semi-evergreen and maintain the graceful arches rather than taking out all the flowered stems. Each stem had non-flowered & flowered stems on it, technically they flower on the current years wood. So the key was to take out more skeletal growth & older paler stems, enough to give more vigorous reddish stems and for them to take over gradually.

In the afternoon we pored over Chiltern's seed catalogue and decided what we would like to grow for the garden or to try out. We have already done this with Thompson & Morgan and Moles Seeds.

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Plant ident 23/01/2013 - More leaves

March 13, 2013, 10:41 am
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1. Phlomis fruticosa (aka Jerusalem Sage; Lamiaceae family). It has sage like leaves and exotic yellow flowers in the summer. It likes full sun and can be found in the Long Border.


2. Trochodendron aralioides (Trochodendraceae family) is the only species of this genus. I had this in my evergreen ident but here is more info about it: a big evergreen tree like shrub, native to Japan, Korea & Taiwan. It is intriguing in that it has been known to exist as an epiphyte. It doesn't like to be pruned! This is probably due to the lack of the usual vessel elements found in plants (e.g. the xylem that usually carries water through a plant).


3. Viburnum rhytidophyllum (Adoxaceae family). Their individual leaves look like shiny patent leather with velvety paler undersides. A large shrub found by the lower moat pond.

4. x Fatshedera lizei 'Variegata' (Araliaceae family)

5. x Fatshedera lizei

6. Sasa veitchii

7. Schleffera taiwaniana
A hardy tropical plant with compound palmate leaves. It remains outside in the Exotic Garden over winter.


8. Prunus laurocerasus 'Castlewellan', another one that came up in my evergreen plant ident. This is a large shrub found in the Long Border. It has beautiful marbled leaves, but gardener James pointed out that due to its habit, it was a shame that the interesting patterned side tend to face upwards, rather than outwards so that it can be appreciated more.


9. Ilex x altaclerensis 'Golden King' (Aquifoliaceae family), the big domed one at the end of the Long Border on the East side. (The leaf is the one on the right in the photo).

Single leaf of Prunus laurocerasus 'Castlewellan' & Ilex x altaclerensis 'Golden King'

10. Viburnum davidii (Adoxceae family). The leaf is the one in the middle in the photo below, with distinctive deep ridges. A shrub that has beautiful metallic blue berries. I have to say that the best specimen that I have seen of this is at Wisley gardens near the front.







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A peek behind the scenes of Kew Garden

March 19, 2013, 2:38 pm
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Weds 27th Feb
Weather: Sunny. More sheltered at Kew

A single leaf of Amorphophallus titanum

The Kew Diploma is one of the places I am seriously contemplating to do further training, because there is one side of me that is interested in people in almost an anthropological way, and their relationship with plants and how plants function. I am wanting to get behind the science of plants to enable to be even more creative with them. In a way I feel that Dixter is all about people. Also training at Dixter is very intense and when I move on I would like it to be something just as challenging or more.

It was an exciting visit behind the scenes, we went under the Palm House and saw the tunnels where coal was transported to the furnaces that use to heat it. The arboretum was in top form with their innovative air pots which allows plants like trees to develop good root systems and makes it easier to transplant without having to grow them on in the ground first. They are currently growing 1800 species for the Temperate House and re-propagating collections like their 130 year old Hamamelis collection. They use wax to bind their grafts, and they heat only the grafted part, keeping the roots & tops cool, the whole operation was impressively efficient.

Up on the treetop walkway

We went into the Tropical Nursery where there are 21 climatic zones, at one point we were standing in a room surrounded by 100s of rare orchids. This was the part where I forgot my camera of course. I was almost breathless when I came face to face with Amorphophallus titanum seedheads, and plants of these in different stages of growth,  - the largest single flowering plant. The corm of the plant will either produce a plant or leaf that resembles a huge cartoon like tree (see photo above). It brought me back to my college days when my tutor Jim had got us all excited about this plant, and was growing related species. He had one growing by the classroom window where it would open on the last week that the students were due to leave, with its carrion smell this was his departing present to us.

This was only but a few of the fascinating things that I experienced. The day ended literally on a high note as we soaked up the views of the garden on the treetop walkway.
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Old rose and new rose

March 20, 2013, 4:05 pm
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Thurs 5th March
Weather: Sharp, cold & misty in the morning, followed by glorious sunshine. Most of the day was about 10°C. Stripping down to t'shirts was to be seen today! It felt like a proper spring day, lots of crocuses & galanthuses were wide open.


I pruned a huge Rosa called Cerise Bouquet, I only cut off any flowered shoots, as it is growing through a tree of Prunus lusitanica 'Variegata', so we wanted it to retain its strength as much as possible.

Then I worked on Rosa 'The Fairy' & Rosa 'Perle d'Or'  in the long border, both flower on new wood, so I pruned them a bit differently to the ones that I have been doing, which have been on old wood. As they flower on all stems, I did the thinning and taking out of weaker or not so favourable stems as I went along, as well as taking off all flowered stem heads. I always tried to leave at least two or three buds when I cut any stem down. Then if necessary I would ensure that the rose was well shaped.

Rosa 'The Fairy' in the middle and some little pink flowers of Cardamine quinquefolia starting to come out under the Hellebore. 





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The pruning season continues

March 20, 2013, 4:26 pm
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Weds 6th March
Weather: Around 9°C. Intermittent sun, really warm again at certain points.

Hydrangea 'Hamburg'

I pruned a Hydrangea 'Hamburg' in the High Garden, a smaller H 'Preziosa' in the Peacock, and a  smaller Rosa in the barn garden in front of the fig. (See Hydrangea pruning)

H. 'Preziosa'

Then a really old rose next to the ivy shed that I had to change all the rules for - I basically had to leave stems that I wouldn't usually because so much of it had died that it couldn't afford to lose much and every new shoot was precious.

Old rose next to the Ivy Shed
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Pot displays

March 20, 2013, 4:34 pm
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With the first sniff of spring, pots of hopefulness comes out...

The Early Spring Collection

The Conifer Winter Collection is now so last season :)


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Pruning - Spiraea

March 25, 2013, 11:44 am
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Thurs 7th March
Weather: 8 - 9°C. Light drizzle most of the day. An atmospheric mist enshrouded the whole site late afternoon.

Spiraea japonica 'Goldflame' before


Spiraea japonica 'Goldflame'

I have been pruning the spiraeas in the Long Border. They are of the Rosaceae family, Spiraea arguta is one that has a light green leaves at this time of the year and will have wreaths of white flowers and a red one I think called S. japonica Goldflame' that will turn green later in the year and have pink flowers. These ones flower on current years wood. Spiraeas are very resilient. I took off dead flowered and really weedy parts but most of the time didn't cut a stem right down to the base but to a good strong bud. I did a much lighter touch on the red one than the green one. Apparently spiraeas are great for attracting butterflies.

Section of what lawn that we do have (e.g. strips alongside the main orchard meadow) were fed today with a lawn dressing & chicken manure. Some of these overly worn parts will be re-turfed. I also cut down a Clematis 'Perle d' Azur' right down to the ground, as we wanted to control the height of its growth & potted up some Pleioblastus that had been split and divided into smaller pieces of one or two growing points.
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The grass really is greener on the other side

March 25, 2013, 12:11 pm
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Dixter has eight resident sheep. In the past week or so they have managed to escape twice from the field that they are fenced into. They are more cunning than they seem as we were puzzled how they got out a second time. There is a scare that when they get out they will mow down all the lovely crocuses and daffodils in the meadow or goodness knows what they decide are delectable delights on the Long Border. I have witnessed one of them before on their hind legs tearing at a Leylandii tree. Each time we have had to have about five or six of us forming a line and surrounding them slowly to herd them back. Sometimes when Fergus runs and claps loudly they will follow him. Even though they knew we were shouting at them, despite the fact they are extremely well fed, they would look up with a greedy guilty face and would still quickly steal a chomp any chance that they could.
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Pollarding, parasites, carbonised poles and a whole lot more

March 25, 2013, 4:12 pm
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Apologies to the people who actually read my blog that there are often long gaps periodically between posts, but life gets incredibly hectic sometimes and I get a bit behind. In the next few days there will be a few bumper posts to get up to speed of what I have been up to in the garden. I'm also sorry if the posts are sometimes a bit technical & dry, as this is part of the way that I have to keep my journal as part of my scholarship. Hopefully the photos keep it interesting!

Weds 13th March
Weather: Cold but sunny, still a bit of snow present from the past two days (there was a blizzard on Monday). Very dry. 5°C going down to minuses again in the night.



Worked in the nursery - learning the best and easiest ways to do things. I cleared out a lot of sorry looking ferns that were to be repotted from a large cold frame. I dug out the old grit from this frame because the level of it had gotten too high. Initially I thought this would be quite a hefty task as I found the grit knotted with roots that had grown underneath, but Fergus showed us how to skimmed it off with the spade by using it horizontally so that the surface remains as level as possible too. Using a small flat board after to smooth it over, like plastering or concreting. I poured the old grit into the old soil pile, and put a fresh layer of new grit on top. Again levelling it out like plaster with the board.

Thurs 14th Mar
Weather: Cold & frosty to begin with, but went up to  5°C. Sunny. It's now already much lighter at 6am and lasts well up until 6pm.

Three Salix, an elm is in the back 

I pollarded some salixes (cutting off all their stems) in the Long Border. Usually I don't like this method, but they were such old & gnarly knuckles of beautiful shapes, that again it made me appreciate that it is how you do things and what context the is.

Salix pollarded


Above are the buds of the curious parasitic plant Lathraea clandestina aka Purple Toothwort that mainly live off the roots of salix and poplars. It is part of the family Orobanchaceae (the broomrape family).

We made poles out of chestnut wood to replace ones in the Long Border for a Lonicera& a Clematis. I didn't realise we used a really old but effective method to make them. We stripped off the bark off the chestnut to the paler part. Then we 'carbonised' the end of the pole by burning it until a snake skin like pattern appeared. This makes it water/ rot proof. It was most important to ensure that the 'collar' is carbonised - the section that is just below and above the surface of the soil. With this method the pole will lasts about 7 years which is more than your average fencing, which is about the same as creosote (banned now) or the stuff that they use to treat wood commercially now.

Carbonised pole on the left, the stump on the right is what is used to help keep the pole just above the fire. 


Fri 15th March
Weather: It was about 4-5°C but felt much colder as there was a really biting high wind today. Even the hardiest of gardeners winced today.

We finished helping to put the poles in the ground, and I pruned a Rosa chinensis 'Bengal Beauty' a beautiful deep pink rose that blooms on new wood.
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Plant ident 30/01/2013

March 28, 2013, 12:18 am
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1. Sarcoccocca ruscifolia (named so because it has ruscus like leaves; Buxaceae family). Has red berries. They are originally from South-East Asia and the Himalayas. All Sarcoccocca has that honey sweet scent, and are wonderful slow growing evergreen shrubs that is quite happy under shade. At Dixter they have self-seeded in different places.


2. Sarcoccocca hookeriana var. dygna. Less berries but they are beautiful almost metallic dark blue


3. Daphniphyllum macropodum (the sole genus of the Daphniphyllaceae family). A shrub or small evergreen tree that is from China, Korea, Japan. One of the plants that is resplendent all year round and frames the cellar area.


4. Eryngium pandanifolium. Had this in a couple of idents. It last appeared in the Umbellifer, a surprising member of the Apiaceae family.

5. Astelia chathamica  (Asteliaceae family). A silvery evergreen bush, the genus is native to the Pacific region.

6. Geranium palmatum (Geraniaceae family). Hardy geranium from Madeira that has bright pink flowers in summer.


7. Dryopteris erythrosora (Dryopteridaceae family). Native to countries like Japan, China and South of the Phillipines. It can tolerate drier soils but prefers moist, humus-rich soils.


8. Euphorbia mellifera (Euphorbiaceae family). All euphorbias has a milky white irritable sap, in order to stop it bleeding you can dip cut surfaces in lukewarm water or charcoal. This one has brown scented flowers in spring.


9. Choisya ternata aka Mexican Orange Blossom, part of the rue Rutaceae family. It has fragrant citrussy white flowers.


10. Choisya x dewitteana 'Aztec Pearl'


11. Danae racemosa it is the only species of this Genus (monotypic) and is part of the Asparagaceae family. It is a curious evergreen shrub, as its leaves are actually modified stems sort of flattened at the end.


12. Erysimum cheiri, the original wild wallflower native to Europe. This one has self-seeded into cracks outside of the house and has been impressively flowering since January.


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Plant ident 06/02/2013 - Snowdrops & Conifers

March 31, 2013, 1:34 pm
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In Britain the official date for spring is the 21st March, but this year the weather has stayed in the throes of winter for longer. The snowdrops are still around, whilst the first spring flowers peek out tentatively but hold themselves back. Here is an ident of snowdrops before they finally disappear...

Snowdrops - Liliaceae family.


From top left to right.

1. Galanthus 'Atkinsii' - the tallest & biggest one and a good self-coloniser.

2. Galanthus 'Hippolyta' - one of those that has a beautiful intricate pattern worth lifting its head to admire.


3. Galanthus nivalis - the common species snowdrop.

4. Galanthus 'S. Arnott' - which is one of the best ones for scent, like nivalis it is meant to smell like honey.


5. Galanthus 'Comet'

6. Galanthus sp.  - rare unknown one that is also really fragrant.

Conifer are also another good steadfast group of plants for winter. Here are a selection:

7. Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Tetragona Aurea' (Cupressaceae family)


8. Thuja occidentalis 'Rheingold' (Cupressaceae)


9. Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Ellwoodii' (Cupressaceae)


10. Pinus mugo (Pinaceae)


11. Cryptomeria japonica 'Elegans' (Cupressaceae)

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