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...