Weekly catchup with garden and propagation

This week in the Garden

with Scott

We had a fantastic response to Cathy's post last week, where she describes how and why we manage the entire garden without any irrigation, not just the Gravel Garden. I wanted to follow this up talking about some of the plants that are doing well, especially in the extremes of the Reservoir Garden, where the soil is currently baked rock hard, and there is minimal shade. Bare in mind that we haven't recorded any rainfall on site now for nine weeks. Here are just a few plants, there are many more!

Hylotelephium 'Matrona' has stood up really well to the conditions. It has beautiful dusky mauve heads held above succulent stems and leaves. Formly sedum, all of the varietys in the garden are thriving.

Both grasses Stipa gigantea and Calamagrostis × acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' are loving the conditions and looking great backlit against the morning sun.

The stipa forms a nice open spray with tall flower heads that gently dance in the breeze. In contrast the biscuit colour calamagrostis stems stand tall, neatly upright acting as a foil for other plants.

The shruby Bupleurum fruticosum is doing well, holding up many bright yellow heads on slightly glaucous stems.

Native to South Africa, agapanthus are built for these types of conditions. Here Agapanthus 'Dawn Star' shines out in an almost neon blue with lush green foliage, unhindered by the drought.

Lastly one of the best performing plants these past weeks has been Cephalaria balansae. With hundreds of pale yellow, scabious-like heads held on wiry tall stems, it's a pollinator magnet and has truly been a top performer all summer.

Managing this space is a challenge we accept because it's teaching us so much about what is possible without any irrigation and just how precious a resource water is.

Elsewhere, Cathy and I were joined by Jamie who is studying horticulture at Suffolk Rural. We cleared the end path of the memorial garden, making it a more welcoming route for visitors and creating habitat piles from a fallen birch. We are continuing to work throughout the rest of the garden, pruning, cutting back and collecting the bark of Eucalyptus dalrympleana which sheds in big strips at this time of year.

This week in propagation

with Pete

 

With Rob off on his honeymoon, I once again get the enormous privilege of catching up with the propagation team, finding out all the interesting and exciting jobs the team have been up to this week.

 

Emily has been as busy as ever, starting the week with her fascinating dried flowers course. The participants had the chance to explore the world of dried flowers, from harvesting plant material for drying, creating a dried flower arrangement, to growing annual seeds. This is just one of the many educational courses Emily runs throughout the year.

 

Tina has been out in the glorious sunshine cutting back Nepeta 'Chettle Blue'. This maintenance will encourage a 2nd round of flowering this year.

 

 

Surrounded by bees and butterflies, Kirsten and Debs have also been lending their expert eyes to plant maintenance, checking the health of Verbena 'Little One', a smaller, but just as beautiful form of Verbena bonariensis, ideal for small, sunny areas, especially planters and containers.

 

Our interns Greg and Jamie have been cleaning and pricking out trillium seeds which were collected from our Woodland Garden and sewn fresh. Trilliums are an on-going yearly job, taking four to five years from seed collection to becoming plants ready for sale, so it's really exciting to see these seeds begin their journey and we're very grateful to Greg and Jamie for starting them on their way.

 

 

Another super little plant being propagated this week was Limonium bellidifolium. A beautiful little sea lavender with evergreen foliage, perfect for rock gardens.

 

 

Felix, Ollie and Greg braved the summer sun to replace some old weed membrane on the stand off area, making room for even more plants being released from the growing tunnels.

 

 

Keeping a close eye on the heatwave, the pick and pack team have been carefully preparing your online orders for dispatch. Ensuring the plants reach their new homes in tip top condition.

 

 

On top of the propagation jobs, the whole team has chipped in to help move plants around the site, from growing to stand off to nursery. A tough job in the heat, but everyone clubbed together in true Beth Chatto spirit to get the task done!

 

All the best,

Pete