Seeds everywhere!

Last year must have been a good year for Trachycarpus as many of the palms in our garden are laden down with seeds.

 



Trachycarpus fortune seeds




Trachycarpus fortune seeds

We tend to ignore the palm seeds, usually cutting off any the birds, mice or squirrels haven't taken once we get round to tidying up palms later in spring. In the past few years this has meant a small number of seedlings appearing under the palms each year. However given the abundance of seeds on them this year I think we may end up with a whole forest of them.

Still that makes a change from weeding out sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) seedlings that turn up in their thousands every year!

Gaz

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A Different Style of Stripping

It's been over three years ago since we gave one of our Trachycarpus wagnerianus a full Brazilian treatment, how time flies!

Here's how it is looking now...

And a few more angles of the same plant...

We haven't removed any more fibres and old leaf bases since then and it is due some soon, which we'll hopefully tackle in the next few days (not that it's a big job!).

However, a couple of month ago we spotted this in a nearby garden centre...

We think it looks good too, a different style of trachycarpus stripping. It looks very 'tropical palm' as well.

There is definitely more than one way to skin a ..... trachy!

Mark :-)

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Rain Didn't Stop Play

The weather forecast here over the weekend was adverse. A little disheartening last Friday especially as we were both really keen to start sorting both sides of the top patio, where the fences are that demarcates the boundaries of our property. The top patio is the last area of our garden needing a makeover, from its original state anyway. I suppose the conservatory built two years ago was a major change but it needed more than that.

Plan B was already in place in case the weather was too wet but we were hoping Plan A would still be feasible. Fortunately that was the case and the weather turned out to be good enough to get a lot done especially last Saturday. Phew!

From the house facing the garden to the left is a border that already contains some plants in the ground. They are on the whole effective already in screening and framing the garden. However, the planting is in a straight line, lacked depth, and you can walk from the side entrance down to the garden in straight line. A little bend on the pathway would make for a better journey. So we lifted more flagstones in the centre to create the bend and add depth in the middle of the border.

As it was, before we got started

First in was one of the four tall trunked Trachycarpus fortunei we bought earlier in the year to improve the screening.

The palms, subjected to bondage when delivered earlier in the year

Slabs were lifted

First palm in

A few more slabs out to reveal the new layout of the border

Then next would be the fibre stripped Trachycarpus wagnerianus at the front but that will have to wait until next week or so as it will be a big hole to dig. The palm would be a nice plant focal point in this border. Both palms are the two definite plants on our plans, we haven't figured out what else to put in the new spaces we created, apart from 'decorations' (to feature on a separate post).

The fibre stripped palm will be planted on that bare spot beside it, jutting out of the border

To the other side of the garden, opposite the border/fences above almost nothing is planted apart from a clump of bamboo near the house. This area usually is the home of some of our potted palms during the summer until the area finally gets planted up. That time has come finally. 

We've always wanted a row of trunked palms here so the next two of the trunked T. fortunei went here as well as a T. wagnerianus that's been languishing in a pot for years, finally liberated. Our largest Jubaea chilensis was also planted out, so no more lugging it in and out under cover as the seasons change! J. chilensis, the Chilean Wine Palm has a big girth of a trunk and grows gigantic however is very slow so I don't think we'll have to worry about it destroying the brick wall anytime soon. The tough trachies will also provide it some extra shelter during the colder month.

Again we lifted paving slabs, loosened and fortified the soil underneath them then positioned the palms as they will be planted before removing their pots which had to be cut off in situ. Blocks were then started to be built in front of them to form a low raised bed.

The raised bed will have grey sandstone coping, rendered then painted white which will tie in the top patio to the raised beds in the koi area. The palms will have better root run, all within the raised bed and underneath from where the paving slabs were removed.

Saturday was cloudy, humid, but dry enough to cement on the base blocks of the raised bed. Sunday was much more damp but there was enough interval in between light showers to put on the second layer of blocks. They had to be covered by the end of the day to let them set even if did rain during the night.

Next weekend we can put on the coping stones and do the rendering, weather permitting again hopefully!

Mark :-)

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In Praise of the Humble Trachycarpus

What would an exotic garden in the UK be without the humble Trachycarpus fortunei?

The wonderful and hardy palm, Trachycarpus fortunei

First of all, using the word humble to describe this palm is already doing it a disservice as it is actually a tall growing, potentially imposing, stately, and a very architectural palm.

However, it is also usually maligned for being so 'common'. And being maligned makes it humbled which is very unfair.

There are different types of Trachycarpus palms out there with T. fortunei being the hardiest and most popular and T. wagnerianus a very close second on both aspects. This photo was taken at the Palm House Nursery in Devon, a nursery specialising in T. wagnerianus

So what's not to like about this palm when it is:

As stated above: tall growing, stately, and very architectural.

Hardy for most parts of the UK

Hardy for most parts of the UK

Relatively fast growing for a palm, more than a foot a year is possible once it is established on the ground, slower when in a pot.

Fancy a different look? When it is tall enough you can strip its trunk from its fibrous covering

Evergreen

Leafy and very exotic looking. Equally at home to jungle, xeric, and Mediterranean style of garden.

It's a jungle out there!

Solitary trunk. Once it has gained a significant size of trunk and the crown is well above ground you regain precious garden space beneath it for layering and under planting. Or just leave it as it is for a minimalist look.

It can be dug up with just a small rootball left and yet survive and transplant successfully into a new location. It will sulk for a year or two of course but afterwards it will carry on growing as usual.

Will grow happily either in full sun or shade and anything else in between. 

Drought tolerant (except in pots) but does appreciate and perform much better when watered generously and fertilised during the growing season.

Severely scorched by flames but it carried on producing new growth as normal

Provides a very good backbone and structure to a garden.

Easy, undemanding, reliable.

However, it's own good merits are also the very reason it is often maligned by other exoticists. By being so easy, undemanding, and reliable it is readily available hence 'common'. And by being common, snobbery comes into place by others.

Personally I am so glad, thankful, and appreciative for the existence of this palm and all of its good merits. It's easy enough to focus on what's not existing out there (like a reliably hardy feather palm for a start) but I can't imagine if this palm did not exist at all!

It is of course possible to have an exotic garden in the UK without any palm in it. Or even a palm based garden with only a few or no Trachycarpus fortunei in it at all. But you'll have to be in one of the few milder areas in the UK, or have an exceptionally good microclimate, or do loads of protective measures during the winter.

Whenever we visit nurseries it's funny how we still gravitate towards this palm whether it is surrounded by other exotics or not. We don't always buy them of course but good sized ones for a good price the temptation gets very high and resistance becomes weak, just like when we recently went to the Palm Centre.

Bargain Trachycarpus fortunei

Sometimes I wander down the garden, looking out for some of our rarer and more unusual plants and thinking of writing a blog post about them. Often I get on such a mindset that I overlook some of our reliable stalwarts, like this palm when they really deserve as much focus as some of the rarer ones. So here I am singing praises for this wonderful palm, a plant we couldn't be without in our exotic garden.

What about you, any plant in particular that is 'common' and yet you couldn't be without in your garden?

Mark :-)

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Winter Protection Austrian Style

A couple of years ago we had a lovely short break in Vienna in the run up to Christmas. Whilst there we visited the small botanical garden which rather conveniently was located close to our hotel. Heading towards the small exotic house we spotted this strange wooden tower...

What was in it....

Heating cables and a thermostat to keep it warm!

That's what it is a tall Trachycarpus fortunei protected from the harsh Austrian winter in a giant insulated shed.

Now thats dedication!

Gaz

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Fine Disarray

Our top patio is a bit of a jumble at the moment with lots of pots scattered around as we start preparing for the coming cold months ahead. I have been grouping some of the plants, mainly based on where they will be going during the winter, so it will be easier once we get into full swing of shifting these tender/borderline hardy plants under cover.

I don't mind though, in fact I quite like the way this 'temporary display' looks as I get the chance to see some of these plants more individually, and in a different angle too, and enjoy this short, rather avant garde arrangement of plants. A fine disarray me thinks!

One of the plants I'm especially fond of at the moment is this Aloe plicatilis, which is one of the first plants I brought back from our very first trip down to Cornwall many years ago. It was a small, unbranched specimen back then with a perfectly symmetrical appearance that looked like a menorah. Since then it has grown slowly to what is now a multi-headed plant. A special thing about this particular plant is how unfussy it has been when it comes to being overwintered. I have been putting it every winter indoors, in a room that doesn't get any sunlight all winter and is only illuminated by artificial lights and it sails through fine, just making sure I keep it on the dry side. Most aloes detest the lack of winter sun and will die even if kept in a warm spot, but so far this has been an exception. It has stunted it's growth though but that's a good thing as it remains a more manageable size. I might be kinder to it this winter and put in a sunny spot for a change.

More, more, more! Another batch of building materials came in on Friday. This is our sixth delivery from this company this year (they have to be staggered as there's nowhere to put them all in one go) and they know exactly where to put things now with very little supervision. Quite fun to watch though as they unload the pallets!

Also, whilst doing a bit of cutting back on another part of the garden I noticed that one of the leaves I took off a Trachycarpus fortunei is '360 degrees'. Now this phenomenon is a rarity and highly desirable, but only really if all of the leaves of that palm exhibit the same trait, not just one or two like this palm had. Oh well, the leaf was in the way so it had to go.

Here you go, just a little snippet on what we've been doing so far garden wise. Winter preparation continues and I'll blog about it along the way. In reality, there's not much to do compared to how it has been in previous winters, and that's a good thing, and preparation is generally very relaxed this time around. 

Mark

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