Important - Will's Exotic Garden blog is moving to new site...

To all followers of my blog:

Please read!

I have just moved my blog from blogger and onto wordpress, so that it can be integrated better into my new website (Which can be found at http://www.exoticgarden.com/ All shiny and new, check it out!)

So there will be no more blogs here on blogger domain, they will all be coming from http://www.exoticgarden.com/blog . As I will be blogging over at wordpress you need to stay up to date so all you need to do is add this URL (http://www.exoticgarden.com/blog) to your blog reader as it is not automatic.

For those of you reading this on Blogger – please can you update your feed URL, it’s really easy, just Go to your dashboard reading list and click ‘add’ new blog – and paste in this URL: http://www.exoticgarden.com/blog it’s that easy!!

If you don’t update your feed you won’t see my new blogs – so please update!
Don’t forget to have a look at the new website, it’s totally new and up to date – let me know what you think of it.

The joy of late spring and long evenings...

I adore this time of year, with such long evenings and (occasional) warm nights – well, this is Britain after all! A slow walk around the garden at about 9pm when the garden is lit by the light of the clouds which give off an eerie pinkish glow, that can only be enjoyed at this time of year - it often seems to become lighter for a while before the light eventually fades away by about 10.30pm. The scents in the garden also seem at their strongest, especially at the moment with the many Cordylines in full bloom. During the day they are equally alluring with their billowing heads of tiny creamy white flowers with the sound of countless bees pervading the air.



Towards the back of the house is a vertical waterfall some 3m high by 2m wide that spills down a flint wall into a dark pool below where a few ghost koi can be seen in the shadows. In the picture below you can see the corner of the waterfall with a Dicksonia antarctica to the right. Above is a clump of Polygonum sachalinense or Giant knotweed. This is a massive plant nearly 4m tall. The roots are contained by a very solid flint wall so it cannot escape...



There are so many things coming into flower at the moment that a veritable explosion is taking place in the garden. One in particular I want to show you is Hymenocalis littoralis from Mexico and Guatemala. This delicate beauty is in full flower in a terracotta pot on my doorstep where I can enjoy its delicateness every time I walk past. What a lovely time of year this is...

Flaming or soggy wet June- take your choice...

It has been a mad rush here at the Exotic Garden (www.exoticgarden.com) over the last few weeks getting the garden ready for its official opening on June 21st, though due to popular demand I have opened the garden to a few Private groups already. Last week, we had a group of twenty seven keen gardeners from Switzerland and another group from Birmingham. Today, Norwich Cathedral School is holding an art class in the garden – ducking in and out of the showers. The busy season has now begun with a vengeance!

The thing about this style of gardening is that although it has a back bone of hardy exotics (Palms/bamboos/Hostas etc) to carry it all the way through the winter, the more tender planting cannot be planted out until I am pretty sure the cold knights have finished, around late May to early June here in Norwich, Norfolk.



Much to most visitors’ surprise – I also consider the common house plant Tradescantia fluminensis hardy, surviving the vagaries of an East Anglian winter. In the garden it dies to the ground reappearing in Early April. Tradescantia x andersoniana is very hardy plant now in full bloom with glorious rich-purple flower. Though considered a fairly common plant, it never-the-less gives a good splash of intense colour at this time of year.



Most traditional gardens with herbaceous borders and roses usually reach a peek from May through to early July, and then sadly go over. Tropicals on the other hand, power up to a crescendo from late July, all the way through to October, when most traditional planting has well and truly finished. Although many of the plants are comparatively small when planted out such as Strobilanthes dyerianus (Persian Shield) with its silvery-metallic purplish-pink leaves and Solenostemon (Coleus those who aren’t aware of its name change). With a good dose of blood fish and bone, they soon grow into very bushy plants all joining together by early July.



Another tender perennial I grow in pots during the summer months is Thunbergia gregorii with its intense, day glow orange flowers. Unlike the annual Thunbergia alata, this beauty can be kept from year to year, overwintered at about 5C (40F)



A plant that self-seeded in the garden some years ago is the American Pokeweed, Phytolacca americana, with its deliciously pink flowers followed in late summer by almost black fruit.



For about five years I have been growing Lomatia ferruginea, a fabulous plant indigenous to Chile. It is a beautiful shrub or small tree with stiff, fern-like foliage, now in bloom for the first time in the garden and a beautiful sight to behold, with its almost waxy flowers about 1ins across, which look as though they are going to last for many weeks.





I hope you all enjoyed a good rainstorm in the last few days – we certainly needed it. Have a great gardening week ahead and enjoy the long summer evenings. Light until gone 10pm – fabulous!

Planting time for tropical’s...

The third week of May is the time of year I plant up all the non-hardy tropical’s thus turning the garden into a veritable paradise for the rest of the summer. I like to get them all planted up about a month before the official garden opening on June 21st the longest day of the year. Although the garden has a good backbone of hardy planting, it is the more tender planting that brings the garden to life. I have been inundated with people wanting to the visit the garden earlier in the year as many gardens are at their peak from May through June, but this garden is very much geared up to perform when most other gardens are going over. If this summer is a hot one as predicted by the Met Office, everything should get absolutely enormous!
Unfortunately I had to miss the press day at the Chelsea Flower Show this year (I have been going for the last 30 years) as there is so much to do here. I didn’t miss it though as the Bb is so good at covering the venerable show.
I’m having a day out of the garden today as it’s my Birthday and a good excuse to stay clean and write my sadly neglected blog. It is really difficult to keep up with at this time of year, as I usually come into the house in the late evening covered in dirt and I’m just too plain tired to write, but today is different. I’m really pleased that it rained here in Norfolk all morning, which is absolutely wonderful as it has been so dry of late.



All the plants over-wintered in two Polly tunnels and a conservatory are now making their way into the garden and are covering all the paths. I like to walk around the garden mentally arranging them in their new summer positions.
Unfortunately like many gardeners, I lost most of my Cannas that were left in the ground, due to that unexpected permafrost a few months ago. Most of my local suppliers also lost theirs, hence good, virus free plants of a decent size are rather difficult to get hold of. Unfortunately many of the Cannas I’ve seen for sale in Norfolk look decidedly dodgy!

One tall unnamed green one (it gets to about eight feet tall with small orange flowers) has come through in the ground, and is already a foot or more high, whereas my Durban’s and Black Magic completely rotted. Two Cannas that I have in short supply – C. Australia (pictured below) and Mystique have over-wintered well under glass. Unfortunately I lost one of my favourites ‘Cleopatra’ – does anyone know where I could obtain some?



One of the backbones of the summer garden here are the banana Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelli’. I overwintered seventeen of these enormous beast (four of them pictured below) about half of them are now planted and the rest will go in over the next few days.



My collection of Bromeliads won’t stop growing; in fact a wonderful new Neoregelia should be arriving in the next few days from Florida. Some of them like the one pictured below, was a single shoot about four years ago, and as you can see, this 3ft high and wide plant is in a 3lt pot, desperate for reporting.



Below is a small selection of the Bromeliads in their summer home.



I really do hope this is going to be a spanking hot summer – bring on the heat. We deserve one!

I’m back, and full of the joys of spring...

Greetings to all - Isn’t this spring wonderful. It is the best in years and we are at least 2 weeks ahead of the norm. Everything is happening a once here. Outside of my studio window I have a patch of Japanese knotweed (don’t worry – it is contained) that has grown from tiny shoots to seven feet tall in just two weeks! Although the weather has been mild I won’t be planting out the more tender exotics until about the third week of May as the nights are still relatively cool and I don’t want them to catch a dose of swine flu. In saying that though, I have been replacing some of the cacti and succulents that turned to mush during our rather horrid winter. It is certainly not the cold that saw their demise, but rather the moisture that killed them off. The year before a poly tunnel was loosely erected over the main bed. I say loosely as it blew off twice during the winter! This winter it will be erected again! Unfortunately I lost my whole Aonium collection, but luckily there is a wholesale nursery not far from here that has some wonderful specimens which have now been planted out in a south facing position in the xerophytic garden.





After the loss of my second cat, I treated myself to a rather large, pink, Cymbidium with 12 flower stalks, all for thirty quid from a local Dutch importer. I must admit I’m not overly fond of orchids, but this one was so big I just had to buy one.





I am so pleased that all the Musa basjoo (hardy banana) survived such a prolonged cold winter, where they took a sustained -5C (23F) for many days with permafrost setting in – something I haven’t seen in years. The picture was taken about a week ago and now many of the leaves are 6 feet long and growing. These stalwarts of the garden are now 23 years old. Unfortunately the nine year old (from seed) large group of Musa sikkimensis was cut to the ground, though they are now re-growing from the base which is a relief as I thought I had lost them.





My two poll tunnels are now bursting at the seams with plants for the garden which are all being fattened up for the grand planting out ceremony in a few weeks time.
A few weeks ago I mentioned that the great American plant hunter, Dan Hinkley, was coming to the UK. On Monday I had the privilege of meeting him again at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London, where he gave a superb lecture on his amazing garden, Windcliff, in the Pacific North-West, which I had the privilege of seeing in April 2008. In September of this year, the venerable Roy Lancaster will be giving guided tours of Dan’s garden for those that are lucky enough to be there in early autumn.

The loss of yet another cat...

Spring might have sprung but I am feeling rather low after the loss of yet another cat – Lawrence – one of my two Devon Rex boys. It was only the week before when I found that Epen another of my six cats had died in the garden. I am finding it very difficult to do anything at the moment as he used to follow me wherever I went in the garden. For the first few days I tried not to think about him but yesterday the realisation set in. I have had many cats over the years, but he was rather special. I will post about the garden in a day or so when my brain has calmed down.

At last - the long evenings have returned...

A good friend of mine living in Menlo Park California is now an avid follower of my blog and made the comment - how will you ever keep up your blog when spring arrives let alone summer? On those cold days in winter when you have hours to write, with those long dark evenings it seems easy. Now that spring has arrived, all my time has now been taken up with events, friends, the garden, one of my cats dying, visiting my father in his home, selling half his garden to keep him in the home... the list goes on! My determination was to write at least once and hopefully twice a week – I see I haven’t added a new blog since March 20th, hmmmm!


I must mention my cat. I was walking around the garden yesterday enjoying the hot rays of the sun and noticed Epen, one of my six cats, lying across the path, looking as though he was enjoying the sun as well. My first stroke told me otherwise. I couldn’t find a mark on him. My suspicions are that he might have eaten something poisonous as he was about 10 years old and up until the day before was in rude health. I buried him along with about eight other deceased cats at the top of the garden. A sad event indeed...




Last week I was inaugurated as the 180th president of the Norfolk and Norwich Horticultural Society, the second oldest horticultural society after the RHS. I now have a nice shiny chain of office to wear at all events for the next year. Today - Sunday 5th was my first official engagement of my one year stint. The spring show was in the Presidents pavilion at the Royal Norfolk showground, where I was handing out certificates for an awful lot of daffodils! Some of the old boys take the whole thing very seriously indeed as they explained to me how much work goes into raising new hybrids from seed and fighting against the vagaries of a British spring. Of course one chap said that a week later would have been perfect for the best show!




I did manage to get a few hours in the garden this morning on this wonderful spring day. I seem to be permanently clearing the garden of – stuff. A few days ago some of my tallest hedges were lowered by about 8ft to a more comfortable 15ft. This was all cleared up by a friend of mine whilst I did some essential watering in the Polly tuneless. I also managed to pull out of hibernation about 30 Brugmansias for their summer sojourn in the garden.





The Podophyllum delavayi I showed on my last blog are growing fast, so I have included another picture of these marvellous plants for your delectation. Although my garden is geared up for a grand show later in the year, many things are now showing early signs of life. The Tetrapanax papyrifera, (Rice paper plant) is very handsome as its new growth starts to unfurl. In high season the leavers will be up to one meter wide – a stunning plant indeed.



Of course a spectacular show is given at this time of year by Clematis armandii, with its seductive, highly scented flowers. This rampant sprawler is growing over a 30 foot long Victorian iron pergola, and is a gorgeous sight to behold, and walking through is so intoxicating.



In the garden nursery there are many gems starting to appear and one that is just breaking the ground is the variegated knotweed Fallopia japonica Tri-color, a handsome plant that never seems to grow more than a couple of feet tall with me and is certainly not invasive like some of its bigger relatives. In saying that though, I do grow some very large leaved forms surrounded by very thick flint walls, where they have been happily not invading the garden for about 20 years, to about 12ft tall.



Finally I am going to leave you with picture of a rather attractive Heuchera hybrid. Unfortunately the writing on the label has completely faded; hence I have gone over to using a pencil instead!

Fun in the sun...

Gardens on the east coast of England are often dogged by sea mists, but, if the forecast can be believed - I should be able to have some fun in the sun over the next few days, although it is still rather chilly in the shade. Before fun commences though, I must let you know what I have been doing on those all too chilly days of late winter!







Anyone for pots – seed trays or used hosepipe? At last, after several years of only being able to gain access to part of my nursery, I have had a grand clean out. The nursery is attached to the garden, where I grow many of the more tender plants for the garden in two 8x20ft Polly-tunnels. Amazingly enough this is only one of two piles of non compostable detritus! The worst part of the grand tidy-up was removing all the pernicious brambles that had slowly covered everything in the last few years.



When the weather is chilly outside, it is usually deliciously warm in the heated tunnel, particularly when the sun shines. It is easy to forget how much strength the sun has at this time of year, especially if I forget to open the doors by 11am it can often be 30C plus, and even hotter in the propagating frames! Which reminds me - I must cover the roof in shade netting in a few weeks time, otherwise the temperatures become absolutely ridiculous!








Nestling up one corner is one of my resent acquisitions, a Bromeliad I recently obtained from Florida called Aechmea ‘Harvey’s Pride’, a beautiful plant nearly three feet across. You can’t really see many other Broms in the picture, but I now have over fifty different species and hybrid Bromeliads, which will all go out into the garden from early to mid May depending on the weather.







Here at the Exotic Garden, plants are on the move and one I particularly like is pushing its way out of the soil - Podophyllum delavayi - a stunning woodlander I obtained last spring from Linda Cochran's stunning garden on Bainbridge Island near Seattle in Washington. The amazing mottled leaves will get up to about six inches across on one foot stems. The flowers which appear in high summer are maroon and have a very odd metallic scent!







The garden isn’t open to the public until Sunday June 21st (summer solstice) so there are several months left to get the garden in order for its grand opening. It’s a bit like tidying up your house for guests – during the winter months things are left everywhere with plastic bags blowing around the garden and many other unsightly things that will be spirited away before June. Why wait until June you might be thinking? The thing about exotics is that many of the plants such as Cannas and Gingers will only be a foot or so high by then but very quickly grow to staggering heights, powering up to a crescendo in August through to October. Very exiting indeed
Thinking of summer, I will leave you with a picture looking through the garden, taken in August last year. Let’s hope this summer is a really hot one – I do hope so...

Schefflera macrophylla with chair

Last Tuesday I was giving a series of lectures for the ‘English Gardening School’ at the venerable Chelsea Physic Garden in London. Looking through their brochure of forthcoming events and courses, I noticed that - world renowned plantsman and explorer Dan Hinkley, is giving a lecture on Friday 27th from 2- 3.15pm about his fabulous garden ‘Windcliff’ on Bainbridge Island overlooking Puget Sound in Washington State USA. http://www.englishgardeningschool.co.uk A lecture not to miss.

There will also be a Dan Hinkley day at Crûg Farm plants in Wales from 10am to 3.30pm on Saturday 18th April. Tickets for this event can be purchased from the Crûg Farm website http://www.crug-farm.co.uk/events-5.aspx

I was lucky enough to see his remarkable garden on a lecture tour I was doing myself through the US Pacific coast States last year. This was at the invitation of The Pacific Northwest Branch of the Mediterranean Garden Society. One of the delights of such tours is meeting gardeners and their gardens and Dan’s was no exception.

For those who don’t know him, especially on this side of the Atlantic - Daniel Hinkley is an American plantsman, garden writer, horticulturalist, nurseryman, raconteur and general nice guy. He is best known for establishing Heronswood, in Kington Washington, and for collecting, propagating, and naming varieties of plants new to the North American nursery trade on his many plant hunting trips to the far flung regions of the world. He also likes playing the piano!

Over the last year I have looked, countless times at Crûg Farm plants website, lusting after a plant rare to cultivation - Schefflera macrophylla was one that particularly stood out. Originally identified as S. Petelotii, this is a spectacular species which Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones discovered in the Fan Xi Pan area of northern Vietnam, where this most architectural of the species can reach 7 meters tall with large paddle-shaped leaflets combining to form one meter wide leaves on slender purple petioles (leaf stem). On emerging the entire new growth is smothered in a ginger indumentum. This stunning plant has taken -11C unprotected at Crûg Farm.

Well - with a description like that, I surcame to the power of the plant, and bought one from their website on Thursday afternoon. On Friday morning a huge box was knocking on my door, containing a beautiful Schefflera macrophylla (Picture above) - Warning -This is a plant that you will not, find at your local garden centre!

I wrote the above before, seeing Dan Hinkley, Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones, on Carol Klein’s Friday night gardening program – I must have been having one of those Deja vous moments!

I love a windy day, but this is ridiculous...

I love a windy day, but this is ridiculous...

It always seems to be windy at the end of the gardening season, then again just before the new one begins. I have two standard bay trees in large terracotta pots and for the second time this winter they have been blown over, shattering the pots into many pieces – I am going to leave them broken until this rather breezy weather dies down. I will then re-plant them in new pots and look forward to them being smashed again this autumn.

I have three roof windows in my tree house which you cannot see in the picture – guess what! They all blew out yesterday. In the afternoon it started to rain and I didn’t want the inside getting soaking wet, so I went up there, wind lashing around me, trying to cover the gaping holes with plastic sheeting and drawing pins. Within minutes my fingers were so cold I could hardly push the pins in. Looking out of the window this morning, I see the damn sheets have blown off!
My back is a lot better, but still rather stiff. Thanks Victoria for suggesting your Harley Street cyropracter – I went to a local one last Thursday, who pummelled, twisted and cracked all my joints then jumped up and down on my back. Needles to say, I felt a lot worse for the next 24 hours, though it is easing now. It’s just the wrong time of year to take it easy in the garden as was suggested.

Unfortunately my xerophytic garden took a beating this winter with a few of my favourite Agaves turning to mush. I spent an afternoon with a very sharp knife cutting all the outer leaves off some of the larger ones to find that the central core of tightly packed leaves were still OK. At least this wind will dry out all the rotten bits. Last winter I covered the whole area with a loose poly-tunnel arrangement and lost nothing – not even my collection of Aoniums. Seeing as the Met Office hadn’t predicted a particularly cold winter I decided not to cover my spiky friends. Then we have the coldest winter for 18 years! The desert garden looks rather forlorn now, so I will have to replace some of the specimens with new ones from my local spiky thing dispenser - Amulree Exotics. Unfortunately I will also have to replace all my Aoniums as well! I think the make-shift Polly-tunnel will go back up again in the autumn, even if a winter heat wave is predicted!

I have just had my garden website updated. It now has a selection of the articles I wrote for my column in The Eastern Daily Press. I have also added a short video of the garden made last September – www.exoticgarden.com – enjoy.

As its back to chilly weather for the next few days here in good old Blighty (slang for Britain) and as most gardens including mine, look rather dishevelled at this time of year, I though you might like to see a picture of one of the borders at the Exotic Garden in high summer . Just imagine it’s a deliciously warm day with the intoxicating sent of Brugmansia pervading the air, while sipping a glass of wine. Mmmm! The purple bananas are Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelli’ and across the front is part of my ever expanding collection of Bromeliads.

I have to admit, when I look out of the widow, I wonder how I’m going to get it all together before the first garden open day in June. To non-gardeners that might seem a long way off, but with all of the other trials and tribulations of life to cope with and one acre of garden to maintain, it always seems like an uphill struggle. Never-the-less it always gets done in the end, as though it had always been that way.

I’m having a day or two away from the garden as my back has been excruciatingly painful, especially after clearing so much heavy, wet, garden detritus. In my head I am still in my twenties and find it so easy to overdo lifting heavy objects. Last April, about two days before leaving for a one month lecture tour of the West coast of the United States - I pulled my back while potting up some very lightweight plants. I remember almost crawling off the plane on arrival – sitting for long periods is not good for back pain! In fact sitting at the computer doesn’t help much either, but never mind, it will clear up in a few days – I hope!

For cat lovers, I have added a picture of one of my Devon Rex brothers (Lawrence) sitting on a log under an ’Indian Bean Tree’ Liriodendron tulipifera. For those who don’t know - this is a great tree for pollarding rather than letting it grow into a house sized specimen. Like the Foxglove or Empress Tree Paulownia tomentosa - if cut to the ground each year, the leaves will be much larger, anything up to 30cm 1ft wide.

Now I must prepare for a series of lectures I am doing next week for The English Gardening School at The Chelsea Physic Garden in London – I do hope this gnawing feeling like toothache in my lower back feels better by then.

Today, it is a pleasant, almost balmy 14C, with a milky late winter sun. What a pleasure it is to work in the garden after such a desperately long and dreary winter. Many of the more tender perennials are covered with the leaves and old stems from the plants themselves, left, in not so attractive piles over the crowns, which, have hopefully been protecting the roots and young shoots from the dreaded permafrost that set in a few weeks ago. I have not dared to look underneath to see if they are still alive. The urge to remove all the garden detritus is overpowering - I must resist this for a few more weeks yet. I have to repeat to myself, ‘it is still only February', though in my mind I am at least a month ahead of this.

When the weather has been freezing, I have spent many a pleasurable day in one of my poly tunnels; at least it feels like spring in there! The seed pods on one of my favourite gingers Hedychium wardii (pictured above) have been a joy to behold through the dark days of winter as the seed pods have slowly split open to reveal such lusciously beautiful fruits. These, have now been removed and the soft red flesh washed off to reveal the plump, glossy seeds within. Some fifty or so have now been planted in a half pan tray and are nestling inside a warm propagator, alongside countless Coleus and Tradesacantia cuttings. Having never grown fresh ginger seeds before, I have no idea how long they will take to germinate, so I am full of anticipation for the first green shoot to appear.

The Musa basjoo clumps are looking rather forlorn with their shroud of dead leaves which I must also resist the urge to remove for at least another month. Although the power of the sun is getting stronger by the day, March can be very cold as winter clings tenaciously to the garden.

As for the cats – despite the higher temperatures, they still prefer to prop themselves up against the radiators in the house, or curl up in piles in my airing cupboard.

This reminds me - I must put some wire mesh over the front of my poly tunnel door as the cats love to curl up on the seed trays in the propagator – they have no interest in plants, just heat!

Will's Exotic Garden

www.exoticgarden.com

I have dragged myself into the blogosphere, screaming and shouting. Do I really want to write a blog - will anyone read it? I hope at least one or two avid gardeners will pass a glance at my ranting and ravings. Seeing that I seem to spend so much time at my computer, rather than in the garden (especially this winter) I may as well write a little more! For those who have never heard of me, or my garden, it is approximately one acre in size, on a south facing slope in Norwich, Norfolk, in East Anglia – that is the bit that sticks out on the east coast of England. My speciality is growing exotic plants in supposedly chilly Norfolk.

The garden definitely has its own micro-climate as it is surrounded by tall trees and shrubs on the North, East and West sides, thus protecting the garden from most of the prevailing westerly’s and frigid easterly’s when they appear. When the weather is cold, I like to sit in my rather large tree house, way up in an old Oak tree which overlooks the garden and across the valley to the south.

I have been growing the root hardy banana Musa basjoo for twenty two years without a loss, and the clumps are now rather big, with ten or more beefy trunks in each group. Four years ago, I decided to throw caution to the wind and stopped wrapping them - a huge task involving wooden builder’s pallets and dozens of straw bales. Then what happens? We have a really cold winter. I cut through one of the smaller stems that had rotted down a couple of feet to find a green centre, so, theoretically, the large trunks should be fine, though I will not find out until April, when hopefully they should start to come back to life as the weather gets warmer. Late winteMy beautiful gingers on the other hand – I’m not so sure about. I cautiously stuck a finger into some Hedychium gardnerianum tubers up to the first knuckle – hmmm...

I also have a xerophytic garden (plants that dislike water) where unfortunately several succulents and some Agaves have turned to pulp, though many of the larger ones seem to be fine, again time will tell which have really survived such a long, damp, winter. I was really disappointed that unlike the rest of the British Isles, we had at the most one centimetre of snow for half a day.Hopefully in the next few days I will be able to get back out into the garden, when it is not quite so soggy – I will know it is time when my six cats decide to un-glue themselves from the radiators in my house!