Weekly catch up with garden & propagation

Propagation Team

Rain, wind, or sunshine whatever the weather, the growing team has been cracking on with their jobs this week.

Now that the season’s starting to wind down, it’s the perfect time to take half-hardy cuttings which is exactly what Debs has been up to. These little cuttings will spend the winter tucked up in the prop house, nice and protected, before being potted up in spring ready to bring colour and fragrance to the nursery next year.

Emily and Miya, along with our intern Filip, got stuck into cleaning some seeds earlier this week. Emily had been out with her paper bags collecting them from Beth’s garden. One of the highlights was her Eryngium giganteum (Miss Willmott’s Ghost). With its silvery, spiky heads and tall stems, it really puts on a show from midsummer right through to the first frosts. It dries beautifully, seeds itself around, and looks great in our dry garden alongside Allium sphaerocephalon and Stipa tenuissima.

Eryngium giganteum

Allium sphaerocephalon

Steve, our head of horticulture, came to assess some of the new plants we’re trialing. Fingers crossed we’ll have some exciting things to share with you soon!

Sean and Mel have been picking out a lovely selection of plants for the Helmingham Hall Autumn Plant Fair this weekend. We’ll be there on Sunday, so do come and say hi and have a look at what they’ve chosen.

Meanwhile, Pete and Callum have been busy picking and packing your orders, getting everything ready for our pre-autumn deliveries, which will start going out next week. Hollie’s been refreshing displays and keeping the nursery stocked, while Kathy and Lelia have been cracking on with potting plants into their next stage of growth.

Kirsten’s been giving our miscanthus grasses some attention – they’re looking great. There are so many varieties, from tall ones that can reach 6ft, to compact ones that stay around 2ft. With their changing foliage and feathery flower heads, they add interest for months.

miscanthus

Garden Team

The team were joined by Filip Ihrsen from Norway this week and it's been great learning about his work with the students there, sharing ideas and discussing how we both manage our respective gardens.

On Monday, Ben & Ned felled a dead twisted willow, Salix matsudana 'Tortuosa', on the bank of our first pond. It was sad to see it go, but all the material will be well used in the garden and lots of the branches will make wreath bases for our upcoming courses this winter.

We began the week in the Water Garden weeding and edging shade beds 1 and 2, plus the bank on the edge of the large reservoir. With the warm weather and spells of rain recently, the weeds have grown rapidly and it was good to get these areas back under some control.

Looking closely at the various weed seedlings we were finding, we took the opportunity to do an ident and test our knowledge. Cathy did an amazing job putting the collection together and we enjoyed learning some Latin names for our commonly known weeds.

We ended the week on Beth's steps planting up gaps to improve the display in this border. We gathered a nice range of plants including Muhlenbergia lindheimeri a beautiful airy grass, Sisyrinchium striatum with pale yellow flowers held above iris like leaves, and Matthiola incana 'Pillow Talk' with scented white flowers and rosettes of sliver grey leaves.

Matthiola incana 'Pillow Talk' 

Sisyrinchium striatum