Design or participation

I have mentioned before that we have a large courtyard at work that is slowly being turned into a garden for the staff and students.  It has been an interesting process, not least as it has made me think about what is more important the over-all design of a garden or the participation in making it and being surrounded by green. 

I have been getting more interested in the design and planting of gardens and when they announced that they were allowing the staff to design the garden I thought I would go along. Sadly at the first meeting it became obvious that there was a huge range of ideas and that it was going to be designed by committee.  I am sure anyone reading this knows the importance of having an overall picture of the garden, it even applies to a collection of pots. So the thought of there being no over-all scheme, or person in charge, filled me with dread. Sure enough now the garden is almost finished it is not pretty, some of the planting is not very interesting and I can't help feeling that we missed an opportunity.

But the strangest thing has happened, the group of staff that have given up weekends, hurt their backs, and got their hands dirty building the garden, have had a great time.  People who have not got a garden, have never grown plants have designed raised beds and are looking after them.  There are flowers, a veg patch, and plants that just don't go together. Yet no one, (apart from me) seems to care, in fact they love it. There have been compliments, you can not get a seat at the tables which are used all day and the powers that be want to green more areas.

The plants are happy as well. The tree ferns have thrived,  and the bamboo is going to be a monster. I can't wait to see how big these new culms get, they are so much chunkier than the existing ones as you can see.

I still want to ask if people are looking at the same garden as me, but I have also realised the power of getting involved and having green space around. Does it matter that the garden is not all it could be? Not one bit. Though it pains me to say that, and don't expect me to say that in relation to any other garden. But in this case people seem so pleased to have some green to sit among, and just to have the chance to garden that they don't notice the haphazard nature of the green.

Who knows with time,  I may be able to bash the flowers out of their heads and get them to appreciate the beauty of proper plants.  There are already signs a few a turning towards the more spikie side of gardening. I am pleased to say we get the most comments about the rockery.

The wait is over

Back at the start of March I posted on the return of  the Eremurus stenophyllus planted in the dry bed. The post said that I had yet to get it to flower, but after 3 years the wait is over. This was it last week:

No need to ask why it's also known as the fox tail lily.  The flower stalk sat like this for weeks with the individual flowers not actually opening. I was beginning to wonder if it was one of those that waits until it is totally ready and then everything opens at exactly the same time. Then today the bottom row of flowers finally opened.

Hopefully they will stay open for a few days to allow more to open, giving a more dramatic yellow to the whole flower.  You have to look closely at the moment to notice them, although the flower does look great against the yuccas

It is probably because I have been watering the dry bed this spring that it is flowering.  It seems the rain we normally get has headed over to parts of the USA.  As I feel it is important to get the plants going, I have been watering the bed every now and then.  It seems I really shouldn't have planted it in the dry bed.

Back form the brink

One of the best feelings for me is when plants you thought were on the way out surprise you by making a come back. I have had an agave parrasana in my dry bed for 3 winters now. In 2009/10 the snow damaged it so badly I thought that was it,  but it bravely thought on.  Then this winter with all the snow and cold I thought that surely it wont cope this time.  Come spring when all the rest of plants got going this little agave parrasana just sat there looking very dead.  You can just make it out in this photo, (front row in the middle) looking very sad for itself.

Then out in the garden today doing a bit of spring cleaning and I noticed that not only was it still alive but it was growing more actively than it ever has. Here it is today:

Only three leaves, but each one is better than the last and for the first time it is starting to show why agave parrasana is a plant every agave fan should have.  Another one to add to my hardy agave list, although maybe treat it better than I have.

Tools of the trade

Seeing a post on Danger Gardens blog made me thing about the unusual tools we use in our gardens. Most of us seem to have our favourite tools and they seem to rarely be actual gardening tools.  Top of my list are needle nose tweezers, which are pretty well attached to my hand I use them so much. They are perfect for fishing dead leaves out of crowns, pulling dead leaves off to keep plants looking their best, holding small plants in place while re-potting, to list a few uses. I was put into a total panic the other week when I lost them.  My OH made it perfect clear that I could not use her sewing ones until mine turned up, it seems that there are some sacrifices she is not will to make for my obsession.  Thankfully they turned up and are now back in their proper home.  Here they are with my other main tools 

The small pointed scissors are another as they allow you to get right under plants when taking cuttings and to be far more precise than normal scissors or secateurs. The paint brush has several uses including cleaning crowns and of course for hand pollinating my echeverias. 

I think my tools show how much time I spent on the little details of my plants in pots. So what are the tools you can not live without?

Garden updates and silver linings

I have posted a picture of my echeveria blue prince before. It is a beautiful plant and flowered all summer and well into winter.  It didn't quite make it onto the A list for winter, but made it into the porch.  It breezed through and I was looking forward to seeing it develop this year. 

A couple of months back I re-potted it and everything looked healthy. The pup had grown nicely but I left it on to grow as a clump. Satisfied I put the pot to one side not thinking any more about it while I continued re-potting other plants.  Then disaster,  I spiked myself on an agave and moved my arm too quickly and knocked the pot off.  It was one of those slow motion moments as it fell to the ground landing with  sickening snaps.

I gingerly picked it up not wanting to see the damage and found I had snapped off or broken all the leaves on one side of the main rosette. So much for my idea of having it as one of my prized plants this year. You can imagine how annoyed I was, not helped by the throbbing you get when you get a particularly nasty agave spiking.

Of course I knew the plant would recover, the main thing was to decide what to do; take the pup off and grow that as my main plant,  or wait and see what happens.  In the end I went for wait and a couple of months later there are lots of new pups growing from the damaged stem.

I am still upset to have spoilt the plant,  but on the bright side I now a few spares (did I say I was cutting down on propagation this year?) and I get to decide what look I want for the pot.  Currently I am thinking of taking the top off the damaged stem and the cluster of three pups and leaving everything else to form a big clump. It may not look great this year but should look spectacular next year. As long as I can avoid dropping it again that is!

As I am on the subject of recovering after damage I thought I would also give an update on the two other plants.  The aloe striatula is growing at an amazing rate, here is the picture I posted a little over a month ago:

And here today,  I am probably going to have to thin out the clump to allow them space to grow.

 

There is no doubt that the spring we have had in the UK allowed it to recover like this.  Just in case you are wondering about the rubber snake in the bottom right, it was a joke present from a neighbour, who thought my arid landscape needed some matching fauna. I had heard that cats are scared of snakes and have left them on there to deter them from using it as a litter tray, and amazingly it actually seems to work!

The aloe striatula x aristrata pups are also growing, although at a slower pace.

I would love for one of the pups to stay variegated,  but sadly most have already reverted to green with the new leaves.

The other plants that are offsetting like mad are the sempervivums.  This one produced 12 pups when I planted it last year so I guess it is no surprise that each of the pups has now produced 6 - 8 pups of their own.  It was a mass of tentacles stretching out around the bowl, so I spent some time to tidy it up.

The original plant is starting to flower as you can see.  I don't think I will have a problem with gaps when they die afterwards, given how many plants there are now.  I have quite a few sempervivums coming into flower, sempervivum lively bug is another.

It is very symmetrical in the way it is flowering,  with one central spire and 5 at almost exactly equal points around it. These little flower spikes will be appearing all around the garden in the pots and dry bed for the rest of the summer. Not the most dramatic of flowers but they look great sticking up between the other plants. Maybe this will be the year I get around to doing the sempervivum picture I have been planning.

A kew fix.

Popped along to Kew for a quick visit with some friends and to check how the agave flower was coming along.  It has already gone through the roof and wont be long before the flowers open.

They have taken the pane of glass out so it can continue growing, it will soon be visible from outside the greenhouse as well as in.  The plant is going to leave a huge gap once the flower finishes but I am sure they will find something to take its place. 

Most of the aloes have finished flowering but one or two were just starting.  I love the flowers when they are at this stage.  They seem more dramatic than when they start to open and separate into the individual flowers.

The bromeliad log was was doing well.

 

In the Palm House the jade vine had mainly finished flowering,  but the fruit is still there.

Hardly anyone seems to notice it hanging there and I imagine even less know exactly how rare it is.  Apparently it has only been managed anywhere in the world about 4 times before so it is a huge event.  We were talking about it and a few people looked up to see what all the fuss was about and seemed very underwhelmed.

They have a whole series of metal sculptures there at the moment, some better than others, these are some of the good ones

 

I'll end with my personal favourite.  It reminds me of some one, but I can't think who.

Are blondes more fun?

Many succulents are covered in a powder or bloom, in some cases it is thick enough to change the colour of the plant to pale blue or white. Often these are the more sort after varieties and it I find that the plants visitors ask about are the white/blue ones. Here are a few of my white echeverias:

I get the most requests for echeveria john catlin (back right above) which is a very pale blue / white and has probably the heaviest bloom. 

Personally while this is one of the palest varieties it can be a bit scruffy and I prefer echeveria cante (top and bottom left in the first photo).

It is a more delicate plant and has good pink tinge to the edge of the leaves.  It also has the most amazing flowers of any echeveria and I have shown this photo before.

It is not just the echeverias who dress up,  the agaves like to get in on the act as well.  One of the best is agave ovatifolia and as is becoming more common someone has taken a particularly white plant and tissue cultured it to sell under the name ovatifolia 'frosty blue'. 

With some of these named varieties it is marginal if there is any difference, but if you want the best colour many people feel it is worth going for this variety to ensure you get what you want. Another good named variety is agave mitis var albidor:

It is not as white as the frosty blue, but it is more obviously different from the normal form of agave mitis. Out of all the named forms of agaves  this is one I would highly recommend. Sadly as it is still rare in the UK, and you never know how the variation will effect hardiness, I over winter this one in a cold frame. Thankfully the bloom does not seem to wash off in rain, not that we have had any so far this year.

I have mentioned before  that you have to watch people around these plants as they have a tendency to touch. There is probably a look of panic on my face when those little hands reach out to touch. Apparently it is not polite to slap guests hands away from your plants. So at least in the plant world  blondes seem to get more attention.