This week in the Garden
with Malin
This week has offered more bearable summer temperatures and a little breeze which made it possible for us to spend some time in the Gravel Garden.
Our intern Josh was joined by Caroline. It’s been great having two extra people on the team! We brought out a couple of brollies for a bit of shade, which turned out to work quite well.
The eucalyptus is dropping a lot of leaves at the moment so one big task was to rake through the beds and remove all debris. Another job was to cut back nepetas to encourage a second flush of flowers. Some of the nepetas are showing nice new mounds at the base of the plant, in which case we cut back all the older stems right back to the ground. Others tend to have a second generation of flower buds and new leaves further down on the stems that have already flowered - these get cut in half to not remove those new shoots waiting to flower.
We have been deadheading and tidying up irises and bergenias, both look a lot better with their brown leaves removed. Star of the show in the Gravel Garden this week has been the giant fennel, Ferula communis and the Mount Etna broom, Genista aetnensis, both beautifully yellow standing out against blue skies.
In the Water Garden a big clump of veronicastrum and thalictrum had gotten very tall and flopped, so we went in with pea sticks to prop them up; some were cut in half and will flower again. Staking is a tricky task, we want it to be invisible, and the key is to get there before the plant flops - easy in theory but not always in reality when there are jobs to be done all over the garden! We’ll write ourselves a reminder and try and get to this bed earlier next year!
This week in propagation
This week, I had the great pleasure of catching up with the propagation team to see what exciting and interesting jobs they've all been up to.
The potting team have been flat out again this week! PJ, Priya and intern Josh have been busy potting on a wonderful array of plants.
Digitalis purpurea, Acaena inermis, and Acanthus mollis, to name but a few, are all finding their way to the growing tunnels.
Mattie has been helping Emily with drying heads of Achillea filipendulina 'Gold Plate' for her upcoming dry flower course, another very exciting event for the diary!
Emily has also been doing her weekly rounds collecting seeds for propagation. One to note is Pseudolarix amabilis, grown from seeds collected in Beth's garden.
Debbie and intern Caroline have been expertly preparing cuttings from Helichrysum italicum 'Dartington' and Teucrium x lucidrys. It's always tremendously exciting to see the plants at the very beginning of their journey.
Kirsten and Mel have been busy applying natural pest control to help keep the uninvited critters at bay in the prop house - a very important job that apparently requires dancing and a song to get the best results.
Angela has teamed up with Kirsten to help move plants from our stand-off area over to the nursery. Strong and healthy plants ready for sale!
The picking and packing team has been diligently shipping out all your online orders with the utmost care. We hope you enjoy your wonderful new plants!
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