Magnolias at Wakehurst

When I am older I am going to have a Magnolia in my garden, a great big one.  Ok probably not a big one, but there will be a Magnolia of some description in my garden.  My dream of having a whole collection of them is maybe a tad unrealistic.

My next door neighbour has a sizeable one that is currently in full bloom and is an absolute picture.  It does come with slight drawbacks though; it insists on dropping its petals all over the lawn causing it to look like there is a permanent wedding going on out there and in leaf it casts half the garden into shadow.  Not helpful for planting.  However I love it, although I am not entirely sure why.  Maybe it is the unusually huge size of the flowers or the way one variety grows its flowers right on the end of the branches like someone has got up there and taped them on.  They somehow don’t look entirely natural and maybe that’s their charm.  My absolute favourite has ridiculously frilly blooms that remind me of London cheesecakes and shredded paper, completely over the top but very pretty.

A great place for seeing a whole bunch of varieties is Wakehurst Place Gardens in West Sussex.  This time of year visitors just can’t resist whipping out there fancy digital SLR cameras to shoot them from every angle, why I don’t know.  Do they go home and relive the memories??  Who knows.  Shamefully I joined them this year and I even skipped over the grass through the daffodil bulbs for some up close and personal shots, naughty me.  

The spring bulb pot:

Every year without fail the mother does a couple of big pots of spring bulbs.  Bulbs have a strict set of criteria to fit before selection:

1.  They have to be early flowerers- Im allowed to provide a supporting role in the selection process but have never managed to get anything flowering later than April through.

2.  Hardness- Apparently the key to a good bulb is giving it a firm squeeze and finding it hard… you’ve really got to get the bags down for a feel; she is like a squirrel with nuts that woman.

3.  Colour- To a certain extent.  Lets not go mad here; she doesn’t go in with Farrow and Ball paint chips, colour scheme planned out with mood boards.  So the colours look a little clashy! It’ll be fine.  I have yet to find that when spring rolls round we are presented with a disaster. 

The planting of this pot is an autumn tradition.  It has to be a sunny dry day- she is not an all weathers gardener!  The bulbs are popped in in order of required depth height in layers up the pot.  Now her motto here is more is more, don’t scrimp on the planting, stuff in as many as you can.  Topped off with a couple of Polyanthus. I despise Polyanthus.

Come spring there is an explosion of green, the Polyanthus die off (finally) and there is a succession of colour and variety.  Or there should be.  Timings have slightly gone awry this Spring.  The Polyanthus will not die

and all the bulbs have burst out at once, Tulips are elbowing themselves some space in the greenery, Anenomes have managed to push through to float around on top and theres Grape Hyacinths and crocus in the main mix.  Its a complete bun fight, a riot of colour and is by far the most interesting thing currently in the garden.  The mother has produced a winner again. 

Overwintering Fuchsias Part 1:

When the obsession with fuchsias started, was I enticed by the sturdy stems of the commonal garden, hardy, red and purple, no fuss, no frills varieties? Of course not. Nope I like the frilly, multi-coloured pathetic ones, or non-hardy as they like to be known. With winter approaching that first year came the realisation at the amount of time invested into raising my initial brood of two inch plants into sizeable established ones. I didn’t fancy the idea of losing them all over the winter and going back to square one so I set about coming up with a plan to get them through the colder months.

Ideally, one would tuck their fuchsias into the greenhouse where they would happily avoid the frosts. A common theme on this blog will no doubt be the lack of a greenhouse, but god I’d love one. My granddad had two the greedy bugger. Not requiring light during the dormant months, you can store them inside a garage. Yes we have a garage, and no there is absolutely no way my fuchsias were kicking the car out.

So I give you the igloo. No its not pretty but it works and luckily as we don’t spend much time outside from November onwards this little monstrosity is allowed to sit in the corner and quietly go about its work. Constructed entirely from bubble wrap and fleece it prevents the soil in the pots freezing and killing off the roots. Having cut the stems back and removed all leaves and green material I place the pots on a layer of bubble wrap placed directly on the patio; this prevents cold seeping up from the ground. Then depending on how much time I have on my hands and how long I want to spend out in the cold/wet I wrap bubble wrap individually round each pot. Fleece is spread over the whole lot and then covered by a final layer of bubble wrap. Now admittedly I do live quite far south in the UK and my garden is particularly sheltered, but the first year I employed the igloo I didn’t lose a single fuchsia, not one. I did however lose one of four kept in situ in a large pot and which is just shrouded in fleece. 

So im calling my homespun solution a success. I didn’t enjoy hopping about in the dark securing edges with bricks but I think its worth it. This year, I will admit the igloo looking pretty tatty but Its been so mild an igloo has actually been unnecessary. My routine of regularly tucking in the edges has gone a bit by the by hence the disheveled state, but theres life in them stems yet so its all good. God knows what the neighbours think I'm up to. 

  

Hellebores: A Spring Cut Flower?

I love a good Hellebore, although they always take me by surprise popping up well before im expecting them.  A purple flowered one is always an early shower in the designated ‘spring bed’ and at the bottom of the garden we have a sizeable clump of a green flowered variety. The mother tells me its quite rare as garden centers don’t tend to stock it as people aren’t keen on green.  I can see why, its a bit of a boring looking shrub but up close the intense green of the flowers is actually quite impressive.

For me though, the Hellebores selling point as an early flowerer is also its downfall.  At this time of year if im actually at home during daylight hours the only times I venture into the garden are a quick nip round to the bin or grabbing the rat for bedtime.  Im definitely not on my hands and knees in the undergrowth turning up the flowers.  Why do they insist on hanging facing the ground?!  Who can see the surprisingly interesting centres down there I ask myself, especially the one that evidently didn’t like it where it was and snuck under the fence to live with us (lucky me), currently wedged in a hedge.

So the answer; cut them off and bring them indoors.  Doesn’t work, tried it.  Put a few stems in a vase and you get a serious case of wilt.  Apparently, according to a tv programme the mother saw a few weeks back you have to cut them right behind the flower heads and float them face up in a bowl water lily style.  Works a treat and makes a very attractive centerpiece to the ol’ table.  Makes me want more but at £13 pound a pop In my local garden centre I never manage to bring myself to invest.  Lets hope a few more sneak in from elsewhere…  

How I got the gardening bug...

In my second year of uni I suddenly missed green.  Stuck in a city centre flat with not so much as a weed in the tarmac covered back yard I had a sudden compulsion to grow something.  A potted spring bulb came back with me the next time I visited home.  A year later and hidden in my uni room was my own personal garden consisting of about 18 fuchsia plants, watered in a washing up bowl so I didn’t alert my housemates to my slightly unusual hobby.  Eventually they were spotted and assumed to be herbs for my culinary needs, because apparently its fine if its edible, less so when all it does is flower.  When my departure at end of the year was delayed by a flat battery one of my shockingly funny housemates told the RAC man I was growing weed in my room.

Back home and reunited with an actual garden I will be sharing my trials and tribulations attempting to coax stuff to grow here in this little space Iv created.  I do this from a position of limited experience; success with stocks and tomatoes but defeated by the humble cucumber.  My one real area of expertise, my obsession if you will, are my fuchsias and the 50 odd (yes I know thats an obscene number!) plants currently in my collection will no doubt be making regular appearances.