Weekly catch up with garden & propagation

Garden Team

The garden team were joined by Gabi Harkness, horticulturalist at Wisley, who’s helped us in the Gravel Garden. 

With high winds early in the week, we went fishing out some taxodium branches that fell in the ponds which will be added to our dead hedge for habitat. The metasequoias and taxodiums in the Water Garden were planted by Beth and Andrew in the sixties and have been fast growing with their feet close to the water. 

Late summer is a good time to be planting bulbs. We’ve received a bunch to plant in different locations of the garden and add interest throughout the seasons. It’s exciting to make new additions, mentally travelling to the time of year the bulbs will be flowering and thinking about the combination of plants that will go together. This week, we’ve planted tiger lilies, Lilium martagon hansonii, which will bring a touch of yellow in June, in succession with the primroses and hemerocallis.

The rest of the week was spent in the Gravel Garden. We were last working in this area of the garden in mid-july. After two months worth of growth, we’re back weeding the beds and editing self seeders such as verbascum, eryngium and aquilegia. Thinking about the coming months’ picture, and with many species now gone to seed, we’re paying particular attention to deciding which seed heads to retain for winter interest and which need to be deadheaded, either to avoid having them seeding around too much, or because they tend to flop.

The past week has marked a seasonal shift in the garden with colours turning into the golden, rusty and browns. While Amelanchier lamarckii has suddenly changed colour and many seed heads are now creating brown structures through the garden, some late flowering interest is still to be seen. Hylotelephiums (previously known as sedum) are at their peak in the Gravel Garden, my favourite current combination being Hylotelephium ‘Matrona’ in combination with the blue foliage of Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii. 

Propagation Team

Pumpkin harvest! Emily, Sybille and Gabi headed down to the depths of the deepest, furthest stockbeds to gather the principle pieces to the forthcoming PUMPKIN THRONE! This autumnal extravaganza is one not to miss.

Eucomis cuttings have been taken!. A bulbous perennial producing a rosette of long, strap-shaped, dark green leaves, heavily blotched with dark purple-red. The star-shaped, dark red-purple flowers are produced in late summer in cylindrical spikes 15cm high, with a cluster of purple-edged and spotted, dark green bracts at the top.

Kathy and Lelia have dived into potting up our bulb range, starting today with Allium sphaerocephalon. On thin stalks, these plum-shaped wine-purple heads are most effective in late summer, amongst the silver foliage plants. Great for wildlife. Each pot contains five bulbs, and they should be ready to go from the start of November.

Miya and Sean worked through some stock plants of Polemonium reptans 'Virginia White'. Kirsten and Emily have been seed collecting. Tina has been preparing some of our plants ready for the colder, damper months ahead. And Rob has been releasing a variety of plants onto the nursery.

Whilst, Pete, Callum, Debs and Angela have been picking and packing a great flurry of orders we are so thankful for.