Weekly catch up with garden and propagation

This week in the Garden

with Malin

With only two weeks to our grand symposium we have been working hard to get the garden ready to host 500 people! We also want our outreach projects to be at their best for this, and so we went over to Chattowood for a monthly maintenance session. We were happy to see how great the plantings were looking considering the weather, especially in comparison to the areas of the estate that have lawn. The lawn was looking extremely dry and yellow but our sand plantings were offering so much structure, texture and colour.

The best doers over there were Salvia ‘Blue Spire’, and Oenothera lindheimeri - both covered in flowers. Lavender, santolina and cistus are all providing lovely mounds and grasses like Stipa gigantea, Stipa tenuissima and calamagrostis tie the plantings together. The cardoons, Cynara cardunculus, had lost a bit of its bright purple colour but was still rising tall and giving nice structure in the beds.

The hot and dry weather creates a hard crust on the sand which makes it harder for weeds to germinate, this doesn’t mean it’s weed free but pulling them out of the sand is an easy job. We also deadheaded some of the lavenders that had finished flowering, it looks neat to cut them back to tighter mounds. We look forward to seeing some of you at the symposium and hope that you come over to see these plantings at Chattowood!

This week in propagation

with Rob

It's getting hot in here, so take off all your membrane! Well, that's one of the jobs we've been up to this week down in the growing department. It was just one of those tasks we couldn't wait until winter for, so out with the old and in with the new. It gave us an opportunity to check on hygiene in those hidden places, and assess any areas where drainage could be improved. The team were all superb, but a special mention to Olly, who at only 16 has the insight and skill of someone who's been working a horticultural estate for 50 years! Well done, mate!

When Olly wasn't in the polytunnel, he was over with Greg in the shade tunnels, checking the health of our stock shade plants. Both guys have been working closely with Richard, who has been incredible leading stockbed operations this summer.

I wandered into the seed tunnel at one point to find an excited Emily, who was very pleased with the progress of the Eryngium venustum babies. Known as Mexican sea holly, this handsome species has narrow, evergreen spiny foliage. Creamy-white flowers on branching stems add to its arid look. We have a gorgeous one in our Scree Garden enjoying the full sun and a well drained soil. Hit 'notify me' on the website to get hold of one of these when they're further along in their growing journey.

Emily, Emma and Jess headed over to the Reservoir Garden, seed hunting. Collecting treasures such as Scabiosa columbaria subsp. ochroleuca, Glycyrrhiza yunnanensis, Ligusticum lucidum. The team also propagated the very cool Woodwardia prolifera, pinning those little plantlets and now we wait for the magic! Em also found some time to prick out a host of Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii, a real favourite here at Beth Chatto's.

Em also ran two cuttings classes - just one of the brilliant classes we host here at Beth's. Em's classes allow you to get hands-on, learning propagation the Beth Chatto way, of that cuttings, bulb-chipping and more! Check the website if this is of interest.

In other news, Annie has created some stunning display benches over on the nursery, where we have a few more gorgeous iris for sale too, including, 'Langport Storm', with its cloudy, grey-lilac colouring, and red-orange, storm-sun patch. A beauty!