The Other Blue Yucca

Whenever you mention the words 'Blue Yucca' within the exotic gardening circle, everyone immediately thinks about Yucca rostrata. Rightfully so, it is a very blue leafed yucca and a specimen grown well is a spectacular sight to behold with its inherently architectural habit and form. Most especially once it has developed a perfectly spherical head, with leaves gracefully billowing with even the slightest of breeze, on top of a trunk of which the taller it is the better, commanding more presence within its surroundings. Mind you, even young specimens without a visible trunk already looks good, and as it slowly develops one you know you have something good to look forward to.

The Blue Bed enjoying some summer sun

But it has its own set backs: it is slow growing, unrooted trunked specimens can be finicky to re-root and re-establish, the roots are so delicate and brittle that a well rooted specimen in a pot is prone to being damaged upon transplantation, and flowering sets it back and can ruin its 'perfect head' for quite a reasonable amount of time (although flowering triggers it to split its head, resulting in a multi headed specimen which can make it look even more architectural than it is already).

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Spring Greenhouse Review

Spring finally seems to have arrived and we have been able to check how the plants in our greenhouses have been doing. We have two at present, both are 8'x6' aluminium framed greenhouses, one is used for more arid plants and the other for the lush/leafy ones. We provide a little bit of heat to both greenhouses, keeping them just above zero Celsius - usually about 2 or 3C as a minimum. Through experience we have found that for the plants we want to over winter under glass this is just enough heat to prevent the pots from freezing. More tender plants are over wintered in the house, but we try not to have too many like that.

First up is the greenhouse in the working area next to the filter house for the new pond. This greenhouse will be moved in due time, but for now its home to the more leafy plants.

A selection of choice plants, Cussonia at the back, with an Illicium just in front on the left hand side and Cordyline stricta on the right hand side.

Schefflera delavayi 'oak leaf form', we have tried a hardy selection of this Schefflera outside for the last winter, and i'm pleased to say it has shown no problems from winter.

And on the other side a few more plants waiting their time to be planted out, including Fatsia polycarpa and small Schefflera taiwania. The young palm seedling in the lower left of the photo is a Butyagrus - the mule palm, a cross between a Butia and a Syagrus palm, there was hope at one point that this would be a hardy palm for the UK, however sadly this has proved not to be the case.

As I mentioned this particular greenhouse will be relocated within the working area, and will have a new function once it is moved. It will no longer be used for plants but will house a quarantine/treatment tank for our fish. This will allow us to quarantine any new fish before we introduce them to the pond - just in case any have an illness or parasite not spotted at the dealer. We wouldn't want to introduce any problems to our large pond. It will also allow us to remove a sick fish from the main pond so that it can be treated on its own. Hopefully there will not be too many sick fish, but it is worth thinking ahead just in case.

I'm sure you are thinking why would we give up greenhouse space, well, that's not quite the full story. Do you remember this blog when we collected a second hand greenhouse... This greenhouse will be erected in the working area to be our new 'lush greenhouse' and as its bigger at 8' by 10' it will allow us to grow on more plants over winter, or at least have them better spaced out. When we bought it I don't think we anticipated it would be in waiting for quite so long, so I will be pleased to finally build it. Both of the greenhouses will be built on low walls to give an increased head height making it more comfortable for us and also easier to house slightly larger plants.

The other greenhouse houses our arid plants, keeping them separate allows a different watering regime and helps to keep the humidity lower in this greenhouse.

Its been a tricky winter this year for the arid house, autumn was very wet, so potted plants had to be placed under glass whilst still quite damp, and then with the wet cool winter they stayed on the moist side. This was sadly fatal for a small number of plants, including all the Aeoniums Mark had propagated last summer to be used for this current years displays. Fortunately we are off to Cornwall next month, so will be able to pick up some replacements.

However despite a small number of losses, the vast majority of plants are looking good after their winter holiday into the arid house.

Once the spring weather arrives it is always nice to see plants move back out to their summer homes, allowing us to give the greenhouses a good spring clean and undertake any maintenance needed. Of course they never become totally empty and will be home to plants we are propagating during the summer months.

Gaz

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Deserts and Arid, History of Plants - Jardin des Plantes

Here's the second in the series of blog posts regarding the glasshouses at Jardin des Plantes in Paris.

The biggest section of the glasshouses are the plants from the humid tropics and the remaining three sections are much smaller yet still packed with several interesting plants. The arid section is on the same glasshouse as where the humid tropical section is but it along a narrow section that connects the front to back parts of the structure.

It is more like a Desert and Arid corridor...

A skinny Desert and Arid section with a modest selection of xerophytes

Mixed arid plants with overly prominent tags.

Agave filifera (is it about to flower??)

Agave desmettiana

Agave parrasana

That's a bit better!

We loved the form of this Opuntia microdasys

A wide selection of barrel cactus, again the display could have been more engaging to the visitor.

Sulcorebutia steinbachii var. gracilior - tongue twister of a name but I really like this one!

Agave tequilana (?)

We whizzed through this section and just took photos as we passed by, not just because it was comparatively small but also it still lacked the impact of planting as what you'd normally expect in glasshouse specimens. Perhaps this section is newly planted and the plants haven't grown or settled in yet? Newly planted or not they could do with more plants in this area or re-think the planting altogether for more impact.

After passing by this 'dry and white' corridor you go back into the humid tropical section where there is a passageway to get to the New Caledonia section (more of this on the third and final instalment). The last part, which was oddly not connected by glass walkway and is separate from the rest is the History of Plants (Evolution) glasshouse. Small selections of lichens, horsetails, ferns, conifers, and cycads are to be found there, arranged in a way to demonstrate their timeline of appearance on the face of the earth. This section is interesting enough for a ten minute amble. Curiously, this part has a security guard...

The primitive genus that is Equisetum

...and the delicate and fern-like beauty of Selaginella, the spikemosses

Blechnum brasiliense

Fossilised tree trunk

It may be winter outside but it's only autumn inside the glasshouse - Ginkgo biloba leaves

Encephalartos lehmannii

A large Podocarpus salignus at the back

Cyathea robusta

More Equisetum (I wonder if this was deliberate or just spread around...)

Quite a contrast of a post, from dry to moist and lush! On the next and final instalment will be a short yet very interesting glimpse of the plants from New Caledonia.

Mark :-)

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