Yorkshire Revisited

Almost five years ago we wrote about friends garden in Yorkshire. Well last weekend we went "up North" for a visit and although the garden is only just waking up in April it was a delight to revisit this gem.

An old beach tree that was removed due to disease lives on as these characters

As you enter the garden a greenhouse that most of us would be very proud of greats you. full of tempting exotics tucked away for winter periods. Bananas were just starting to wake up. Unfortunately I go carried away in talking about the plants to actually remember to take a photo inside.

 

The stone cottage would typically be surrounded by cottage style plantings, however a backbone of hardy yuccas and tetrapanax and an understory of far more interesting plants provide a much more interesting feel.

A brave cat surveys her territory

The garden has a great addition with a valley style portion to the side of the house, with a covering of large deciduous natives, the exotics give a Cornish feel to this garden. Something we remarked on in our previous blog.
 

 

 The dappled spring sunlight filtering through a stand of bamboo.

 

One of the other garden kitties "helping out" by stripping the bark

 

 

Once again we were delighted to visit our friends garden, and we promise not to leave it quite so long for a follow up.

Gaz

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Tick Tock Tick Tock

Growing up, I've always heard about the famous Flower Clock (L'horloge Fleurie) of Geneva and have wanted to see it in the flesh one day. That day came thirteen years ago and when I saw it I exclaimed to myself...

"Is this it??"

Underwhelmed, I have put it in amongst the most overrated tourist attractions out there. Attractions that have gained popularity and status much higher than the impact they actually produce once seen in the flesh. It's up there with The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen and The Mona Lisa in Paris (ducks for cover...).

But now, thirteen years from that moment, returning to Geneva older and (hopefully) more mature, I am more forgiving with my thoughts. It's not too bad. It's the symbol and principle behind it that counts the most I suppose.

The display consists of around 6500 bedding plants and is changed four times in a year, coinciding with the seasons. Here's a few more detail shots.

And I can tell you that it is still a very popular attraction. The photos looks like the area is deserted when it was actually far from that. It took so much effort and timing to take these tourist free photos and I managed to irritate a several other photo takers for being in their way for a....funny enough a tourist free shot.

Mission accomplished, photos taken, it was time to move on...

Mark :-)

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Danish Interlude

Spring is now in full swing and all of us gardeners are in a flurry of activity preparing the garden for the growing season ahead. With all the growth happening now I don't want to dwell too much over winter hence I'll keep this post short and sweet. Short for a botanical garden visit blog post anyway...

In March we had a long weekend in Copenhagen and naturally we paid their centrally located botanical garden a visit. March is on the cusp of spring already but it still felt wintry when we visited, but at least it was sunny.

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Boom, Snap, and Crash

Midway through our visit at Monte yesterday, dark clouds rolled in and torrential rain fell shortly afterwards.

Boom the sound of thunder and the heavens poured. Not entirely unusual for Madeira, one moment it is sunny, the next very rainy.

Fortunately there were plenty of spaces to seek shelter in until the rain has subsided (they rarely last long it seems on this island). Whilst in that particular shelter our views were obstructed by columns of towering tree ferns, which in a way I thought was great. Oh to have tree ferns as a cause of obstruction! Not soon after though we heard an audible snap.

And then a crash.

Then as the rain has subsided we checked out what made that noise. And there it was, a tree fern that snapped. 

Oh dear...

Close up of the snapped base and its stele

In a garden where towering tree ferns are aplenty I suppose this is a rather regular occurrence. Every so often a tree fern succumbs to the weight of heavy rain or gusts of wind, just like in the wild. Wandering through the garden you do see stumps of them around, some even hollowed and planted with orchids.

Where it originally stood

Stele seen from the stump

It's almost a shame to see it lying there, what a waste! But on the scheme of that garden it's just a 'drop in the ocean'. The tree fern that snapped is more likely to be Cyathea cooperi.

Will it re root if the trunk were to be buried and given TLC for quite some time? I'm sure I've heard one or two individuals before, claiming to have done such a thing with success, or so they claim. But unlike Dicksonia antarctica which re roots from nothing from a sawn trunk, the case is not the same for Cyathea. It's unlikely to carry on living without a root ball intact.

To be in an area where you can take tree ferns for granted...

Mark :-)

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A Return to Paul's Garden

Autumn is in full swing here and lots of expected changes in the garden are happening. Before we look into these seasonal changes in our garden let us look take you first a month back into Paul's garden first. A fabulous exotic garden that we have featured before and revisited last month as part of our Koi Club day of pond visits.

This bed greets you as you enter his garden from the side entrance, fabulous isn't it?

Then there's the koi pond of course...

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Tiny, But Packs a Punch!

The Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam is one of the oldest botanic gardens in the world and is located within the centre of the city which makes it very convenient to visit. And it is perhaps one of the smallest too, tiny even but it is relative to the size of the city rather than dominating it.

Tiny it may bet it certainly still packs a punch!

I'll let Wikipedia and it's own website do most of the talking when it comes to more information about it. For now let me share to you first some of the few photos we've taken outside before we give a tour of its three greenhouses on separate posts:

The entrance to the Three Climate Greenhouse

Winter still has its grip of the city and there's not much going on outside apart from the resilience of the evergreens. Phyllostachys to the left and Cortaderia to the right.

I thought it was a Schefflera at first but it was Daphniphyllum macropodum

Nice looking building but not open to the public, although parts of it can be hired for private parties. At other times I can imagine this is where most of their administration work is done.

Before we continue let's have a very quick look at their plant sales area first...

Hostas in leaf like it's late May already...

And Hydrangeas in bloom! This is Holland afterall...

Now on to other parts outside:

The Palm House, one of its three greenhouse attractions. The structure looks a lot newer than it's age of almost a hundred years old.

Winding paths with herbaceous beds in between

Carnivorous plants beds just outside the Three Climate Greenhouse. Hardy but scruffy!

Nice enough place to pause and sit. I wonder if next month the pansies will be replaced by tulips in bloom...

A small Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis) still in a cage??? We can't believe this gimmick is still being done!

Perhaps an instruction is written on the tag when they bought it saying - must be placed in a cage if to be planted in a botanic garden. Ah well, a little plant drama never did harm.

We only took a few photos outside especially as it seems winter still has its grip on the place but I can imagine change is about to happen pretty rapidly in the next few days. The biggest highlights of our visit were a look a look into their three greenhouse attractions which we'll feature on upcoming posts!

Mark :-)

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A Winters Trip to Wisley

RHS Wisley is a garden that we seem to visit far more frequently in winter than in the summer. When ever we go we always comment that we must visit in Spring and Summer as well as the colder months. But as its still January we will have to wait and see if we can manage to take advantage of our membership.

Anyway ignoring our musings, we visited recently.

When you first enter the garden the long pond stretches out before you, although cold the skies were very clear blue.

Henry Moore sculpture by the house

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Fling 2014: Danger Garden

Several months have passed since our trip to West Coast USA for the Portland Bloggers Fling and we are still only part way though all the posts we wanted to write. However it time to have a virtual trip back to Portland and the summer of 2014, with a visit to Loree's Danger Garden.

Of all the gardens and attractions on the agenda, this was the one we were looking forward to the most. Danger Garden was one of the blogs we discovered in our first days of blogging so have followed the gardens evolution for several years. Loree also visited our garden back in 2012 and we promised to make the return visit, so it was extremely fortuitous when Portland was selected for the fling.

The front garden is given over to a gravel garden packed with succulents, a pathway cuts across the garden at an angle to the front door. 

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A Day at Crete Lodge Exotic Garden

On our third and final stopover on our weekend away in Norfolk we spent an entire day at Crete Lodge Exotic Garden. Although intending on seeing another garden on the same day, somehow I had an inkling already in the morning before we even set off that won't be the case.

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An Afternoon at East Ruston Old Vicarage

Our next stop after spending the morning at Urban Jungle was East Ruston Old Vicarage Garden, an iconic garden that is usually heralded as one the finest in the UK. 

For more information about the garden, it's background and history I'll just refer you to their website and wikipedia but chances are you may have heard of this garden before. It is frequently featured in various gardening books and magazines and generally receives ample publicity.

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PlantSnapp Launch at Clifton Nurseries

Last week I attended the official launch of PlantSnapp, an iPhone and iPad based plant identification app. The premise of it is that you send a team of people working behind the scenes a photo of a plant you want identified using the app and within twenty four hours receive an answer, complete with care information and a list of suppliers. 

George Williams, CEO and Founder of PlantSnapp warmly welcoming us all

The event was relaxed, well organised, with lovely food and drinks, and I got the chance to know more about the app as I chatted to the team behind it. And they chose a perfect venue too for the launch, Clifton Nurseries which is a long running and well established garden centre right in the heart of London which somehow evaded my consciousness and have only heard of via the invitation to the event.

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