No Chelsea Flower Show This Year?
Electric Purple
<h4>You're browser does not support iFrames - here is an exerpt of the content</h4> <a href="http://www.exoticgarden.com/blog/the-garden/picture-free-april/">Click here to read the article in full</a> <p>I’ve been waiting for a week for my ever problematic computer to be fixed. The internal back up drive (for my pictures) has a problem and one of my memory chips has failed and now the xxxxxx thing won’t boot up. In the autumn the motherboard had to be replaced on my one year old computer – hmmmm! Because of this, I can’t access my pictures, so rather than wait for it to be repaired – again – I am using my laptop but unfortunately can’t upload any pictures as the new card reader doesn’t work hence this blog will be picture free this time – please bear with me and use your imagination…</p> <p>My 10 year old clump of Musa sikimensis seems to be utterly dead with the root base rotted well into the ground. I will give the rather large clump at least another month to see if there is life hidden well below ground before removing it completely. The now, rather elderly clumps of Musa basjoo have lost about 40% of their stems to frost damage this winter, though I’m hoping these will reshoot like mad from the ground (it is known as the root hardy banana after all). I will give them a good dose of fish, blood and bone to help them on their way.</p> <p>I was talking yesterday to plantsman extraordinaire Paul Spracklin, who owns a fabulous garden on the Essex Riviera which has one of the best cacti and succulent collections in East Anglia, with some (now diseased) Agaves over 40 years old. He reckons he has lost about 50% of his large collection this winter and he now has a large skip full of rotting carcases to show for all his hard work over the years! Amazingly though, he is quite sanguine about the situation and is happy to chalk up such a great loss to a steep learning curve as to what will and won’t survive a long cold spell.</p> <p>My large clumps of Bilbergia variegata have been dug up and composted along with many other once glorious exotics. I too have lost about 50% of my cacti and succulent collection, though three good sized Agave filifera have come through without a mark on them and all of the tall<em> Trichocereus</em> <a title="species" href="http://gardenersvoice.com/category/species/">species</a> have amazingly survived the freezing conditions well. Much to my surprise some of the Aoniums have survived the big freeze. I will post some pictures of the destruction on my next blog – providing I can access my photographs.</p> <p>I have been clearing the garden for several weeks now and it’s a back breaking job removing all the debris, though it has to be done to make way for all the wonderful exotics that will have new <a title="planting" href="http://gardenersvoice.com/category/planting/">planting</a> homes. I’m giving myself a break today as there is so much to remove and I’m not getting any younger. Despite the garden looking as though a bomb has gone off, I reckon that by the time the garden is open again in mid-June, it will (hopefully) look as though the hard winter never existed!</p> <p>At this time of year I generously sprinkle blood fish and bone around most of the plants to boost spring growth although the volcanic ash in the air might add some nitrogen! In my greenhouses the plants being propagated to go out in late May are all doing really well and should be big and bulbous by planting time for a fabulous display in high summer.</p> <p>I am still only about a third of the way through <a title="cutting" href="http://gardenersvoice.com/category/cutting/">cutting</a> all the hedges in the garden of which many are at least 15ft high with several hundred meters to cut – another humongous job to do. While I do all of this, my cats bask in the spring sun or play with leaves blowing around in the wind only responding to the sound of their food bowls being rattled. I do love the spring…</p> <div style="display: none">VN:F [1.6.3_896]</div><div class="ratingblock"><div class="ratingblock "><div class="ratingheader ">Rate this Article</div><div class="ratingstars "><div id="article_rater_37106" class="ratepost gdsr-soft gdsr-size-24"><div class="starsbar gdsr-size-24"><div class="gdouter gdheight"><div id="gdr_vote_a37106" style="width: 0px;" class="gdinner gdheight"></div><div id="gdr_stars_a37106" class="gdsr_rating_as"><a id="gdsrX37106X5X0XaXarticle_rater_37106Xarticle_loader_37106X10X24" title="5 / 5" class="s5" rel="nofollow"></a><a id="gdsrX37106X4X0XaXarticle_rater_37106Xarticle_loader_37106X10X24" title="4 / 5" class="s4" rel="nofollow"></a><a id="gdsrX37106X3X0XaXarticle_rater_37106Xarticle_loader_37106X10X24" title="3 / 5" class="s3" rel="nofollow"></a><a id="gdsrX37106X2X0XaXarticle_rater_37106Xarticle_loader_37106X10X24" title="2 / 5" class="s2" rel="nofollow"></a><a id="gdsrX37106X1X0XaXarticle_rater_37106Xarticle_loader_37106X10X24" title="1 / 5" class="s1" rel="nofollow"></a></div></div></div></div><div id="article_loader_37106" style="display: none; width: 120px; " class="ratingloader article"><div class="loader flower " style="height: 24px"><div class="loaderinner" style="padding-top: 2px">please wait...</div></div></div></div><div class="ratingtext "><div id="gdr_text_a37106">Rating: 0.0/<strong>5</strong> (0 votes cast)</div></div></div></div>
