EDP article for Saturday 31^st July

It doesn’t seem like a year since the garden was last opened for the (NGS) National Garden Scheme – where has the year gone? This Sunday August 1^st the garden gates will be flung open again for visitors raising monies for this august charity. It is always one of the highlights of the year here at the Exotic Garden and being August is usually warm and sunny for such an occasion. Using my rather rust memory, I thought the garden had been opening for about 18 years, but a quick phone call to NGS headquarters revealed that this is in fact the 21^st year, so I think I can safely say that the garden has come of age, raising thousands of pounds for charity for over two decades! The garden has changed dramatically over the years and is now very firmly fixed on the map as one of the most well known gardens in Norwich.

Despite having had the coldest winter in recent years the garden is look very sumptuous. Most the tender perennials and annuals were planted out in the third week of May, only to be thwarted again by another cold snap setting the garden back several weeks. Luckily the last months clement weather has redeemed the garden with relatively warm days and balmy nights giving it a chance to catch up, and now it is ahead as growth has been phenomenal this month – in fact I’m always amazed at the speed plants can grow if the conditions are right!

Three years ago a new long raised bed edged in flint was added to the garden near the entrance and  planted up in the Victorian style with mostly tender bedding, including a mixture of Coleus, Cannas, Dahlias, Iresine, purple bananas and more recently – ornamental sweet potatoes – relatives of the popular edible sweet potato.  Several varieties have become available to gardeners in recent years adding a new dimension to summer bedding. They thrive in hot sunny weather and are now growing really well as lots of organic matter was added at planting time along with the obligatory blood-fish- and bone for good measure. Known botanically as Ipomoea batatas, these ground cover plants are actually sweet potatoes selected for their vivid and attractive leaves. Planted about 45cms (18ins) apart, they soon grow together forming mats of dense foliage with outstanding colour. ‘Blackie’ is a favourite of mine with large, deep purple to black leaves, while ‘Black Heart’ is another dark form with virtually black, heart shaped leaves. A great foil for such dark foliage is a delightful form named ‘Marguerite’ which has bright heart-shaped, chartreuse lime-green foliage which seems to glow in the evening light. Tricolor (this is the correct spelling) is more diminutive, with small, sharply pointed leaves which are deliciously multicoloured with green, pink, and white foliage – this form is less vigorous than the others, though never-the-less attractive. There are several forms available here in the UK such as ‘Sweet Caroline Light Green’ and ‘Sweet Caroline Purple’ which make great additions to the summer border. I recently purchased a new form I hadn’t seen before from Urban Jungle in Costessey called ‘Sweet Caroline Bronze’, a wonderful sweet potato with rather alluring pale brown foliage – I really do like this one!

Iresine herbstii also make excellent foliage plants with dazzling leaves that rapidly grow into large plants as the summer progresses, with some growing up to 1.2m (4ft) tall by October. Also known as Beefsteak plant and Blood leaf, they form upright, bushy, short lived perennials, used as annuals in this county as are the ornamental sweet potatoes. The leaves are strikingly variegated, and on mature plants can be up to 8cm (3ins) long. I have planted two different cultivars which grow into each other; ‘Aureoreticulata’ which has mid-green leaves with striking, prominent yellow veining and ‘Brilliantissima’, with rich, vivid magenta leaves, making a stunning combination.

Towering above these is large clump of Canna ‘Australia’. This difficult to find Canna has the darkest burgundy-black foliage with a satin-like sheen, rising to 1.2 -1.6m (4-5ft) tall, topped with a magnificent display of large, shocking red flowers. Unfortunately it is rarely offered as it is one of the more difficult cannas to over-winter. Where most cannas happily slumber as  tubers, ‘Australia’ requires mollycoddling, as it doesn’t like to go dormant, preferring to be kept in full foliage at around 5C (41F). I find this well worth the effort though for such a wonderful display, with the added bonus of flowering early – in fact this one flowered for me at Christmas time!

Close by is a clump of Colocasia esculenta ‘fontanesii’, which is enjoying the summer heat at around 1m (3.3ins) tall, with shiny purple-black stems topped with equally shiny, large heart-shaped pointed leaves up to 30cm (1ft) long, though I know American readers can grow much bigger plants than this. Underneath is planted a drift of the common spider plant Chlorophytum comosum, which I grow from pups taken from parent plants in late winter, that soon grow on to be handsome plants in their own right. All these plants grouped together produce a veritable, almost psychedelic explosion of colour to greet visitors to the garden.

Colocasias are a must for the exotic effect, though many people find them difficult to grow in this country as they do love heat and require rich soil with plenty of added organic matter to perform at their best. I have tried several new introductions to the UK this year that have rather spectacular foliage, and one that I obtained earlier this year from Amulree Exotics http://www.turn-it-tropical.co.uk/ looks almost unreal. Colocasia ‘Mojito’ is its name, (pronounced Mo-he-toe) a sport of C. ‘Burgundy Stem’ via C. ‘Black Marble’, discovered at Agristarts nurseries in Florida. Named after the popular Cuban mixed drink, the amazing leaves are medium green with dark purple flecks looking as though ink has been splashed at random all over them giving a very jazzy effect. Although it grows to about 90cm (3ft) in Florida, mine are only 30cm (1ft) tall but no less attractive for that.

What every you do this weekend, have a good one…

These were waiting for me when I got home…

…along with balloons and my very own ticker tape parade – bless my tribe – they’ve seen me through every get up and were still there to blow the champagne corks when it came to an end!

This cake was made by one of my parents – I am in awe of their talents and intend to copy this for all my friends!

Once the champagne bubbles have faded I intend to spend the rest of the summer in the garden – the weeds are gathering momentum and it feels already as though the season is slipping away from me. I cant believe I’m excited about raking and hoeing but there it is! the only thing that looks lush in the border at the moment is this Yarrow ‘Summer Berries’ and even that is in the wrong place and needs moving next year…

But the best thing about breaking up for the summer, the very bestest and loveliest most smashing thing of all is… no more dashing off before breakfast to commute and leaving these two lovelies in bed; and a whole summer of ‘Jesse and Woody’ fabness ahead – double hoorahs all round!

YEEHAAH!!!

I do enjoy high summer – warm evenings and balmy days, though last week’s winds played havoc with the garden. Two coach parties of enthusiastic gardeners visited the Exotic Garden on Thursday last week to be greeted by pots and containers lying on the ground. Many of the visitors propped them up only to fall over again, so in the end it was easier and safer for the plants to lie on their sides until the winds died away. The visitors were totally unabashed by this, knowing that you have to go with the flow when the wind blows at this time of year. High wind desiccates plants far quicker than hot weather, in fact the creeper Crimson glory vine -Vitis coignetiae – which covers most of the front of the house here at the Exotic Garden looked in a sorry state for 48 hours as the winds howled through leaving the foliage looking rather forlorn and drooping, though a good watering reinvigorated the foliage which sprung back to life by the weekend.

As I look out of my studio window which overlooks the xerophytic garden, I am saddened to see that despite the coldest winter for over 30 years, my large old Horse chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum has been ravaged by the horse chestnut leaf miner cameraria ohridella. I was hoping that such a hard winter would put an end to, or at least severely cut back this pernicious pest. Mine and most other trees in the neighbourhood are absolutely devastated as miniscule caterpillars feed on the tissue between the upper and lower surfaces of the leaf, producing ‘mines’. These are tunnels through the leaf where the tissue has been eaten; causing the foliage to look shrivelled with leaves turning a crispy pale brown and withered – a very sad thing to see in high summer. This tiny (non-native) moth was first seen in Macedonia in the 1970s, though it may have originated in Asia. It was first noticed in the UK in 2002 and has now spread like wildfire across England. I have noticed over the last few years that the leaves are becoming smaller year-on-year as are the conkers. I fear that these wonderful trees will become a thing of the past in years to come as they may become more susceptible to lethal diseases, as Dutch elm disease did in the second half of the 20th century. Some Conker trees are resistant to the moth and luckily I have two pink flowered Horse Chestnut Aesculus x carnea which are completely unaffected by the moth.

While we are on the subject of pests – have you noticed the number of small beetles on any flowers in your garden that are yellow? It is a small black beetle with a metallic brassy or blue-green sheen. It is in fact the common pollen beetle – Meligethes aeneus and is harmless on garden flowers, though it can make the flowers look rather unsightly. From spring to autumn it is very common; feeding in a very wide variety of flowers, especially yellow species, from spring to late autumn, and may descend in huge numbers on yellow items of clothing, washing hung out to dry and even yellow cars! They are most widespread in areas where oilseed rape is grown as it is here in Norfolk and are attracted by the colour yellow in all its shades. I have noticed them en-mass crawling all over my Hemerocallis ‘Burning Daylight’. This can be the bane of flower arrangers using yellow flowers, but as they are also attracted to light, placing affected flowers in a dark shed with a bright light source may lure them away from the blooms. Mostly, the beetles do little harm although occasionally they may nibble on unopened flower buds.

The garden itself is looking fantastic at the moment with much now in full bloom and of course the warm weather and mild nights mean that everything in the garden is growing at record speed especially with the large amounts of blood fish and bone that was liberally spread around most of the plants in the garden earlier in the year. One plant that is particularly eye-catching at the moment is the Giant Mallow – Hibiscus moscheutos growing in a container near the front of the house. This flowering gem is a deciduous, perennial shrub, though it is often grown here as an annual. It is originally native to swampy areas from Massachusetts to Florida and westward to Alabama in North America. The ‘Southern Belle’ strains have the largest flowers in the Malvaceae family and what a size they are with blooms reaching up to 20cm (8ins) across on plants 1.2m (4ft) plus tall. This whopper of a flowering plant comes in a variety of colours from pink to white, red, rose and bicolour making it a veritable showstopper!

Most of the tender perennials and annuals are now almost up to full size and growing to perfection. When they are planted out in late May, the gaps between them always seem huge making you want to plant them closer together, but after six weeks or so they start to form a patchwork carpet of colour to titillate the eye and put a smile on your face – high summer in all its glory is here…

May your weekend be full of BBQ’s, good friends, sunny weather, and frosty beverages… and may it feel a whole lot like this…

Here are some lovely images I’ve made for you… from our house and gardens, to yours. Happy weekend everyone!

Summer is also for dinners al fresco... so I’m getting everything I need for some glorious evenings spend in the garden.

And maybe a pretty vintage cloth and some cut roses from the garden, of course!

Well, I’m going to get back to preparing my menu for tonight’s dinner. Chicken Teriyaki bowls with broccoli and mushrooms. And of course, flan! What will you be making for dinner tonight?

Flan recipes here for those of you who asked

Latitude is in its 5th year.  It is not a giant pullulating festival like Glastonbury.  Rather a pocket-sized,  tidied up version.  Less crazy, more culture with a C.  The point about it is the setting.  Mature oaks, gnarled, stalk about the yellow grass.  Woods with light and sound trails, paths sweeping through the bracken.   And in the middle a lake, rush fringed  with a stage jutting out into the water.  Gondoliers punting punters in punts and giant paper water-lilies fix it.  The line-up is tip-top from the Ballet Black to Florence in the Machine.

The weather we have just recently – some serious rain followed by sunshine has washed the summer haze away and made views bigger and colours sharper.  This weekend has been the opening of a box of chocolates, colourwise.  A visual feasting.  Starting with the pink rinsed sheep of Latitude and  the hats and clothes.

Thorpeness

Following on with coastal colours.  Saturday morning started in Thorpeness.  The seaside , the English seaside, this is where Kathleen Hale came for summer holidays,  she of Orlando the Marmalade Cat fame.  You can practically see him swishing his tail.   To go to Thorpeness is a  step back into the past.  1930s architecture and the imagined clink of the vicar’s tea-service.  The Country Club is for tennis and bingo and there is a large man-made Mere. All manner of inland boating in clinker built boats with rollocks and oars.  Meanwhile the surging North Sea is eating the place up.  Fast.  A cliff just along from the green house has recently been swallowed.

We are in the land of golf courses and after Thorpeness a giant golf ball lowers on the horizon.  It is the wierdest of the wierd humming buildings that make up the Sizewell nuclear reactor. Aft of this, a campsite and the Sizewell Beach Refreshment cafe, thronging with campers and their dogs.  Beyond,   a very empty place.  A few brown sails are threading across the purple sea and an angry viper curls up and throws its head at us.  The gorgeous skin with diamond patterning could have been on Friday’s catwalk at the Festival.

The  shingle is a garden.  Derek Jarman’s garden repeated infinitely.  Plants are low and tumbled.  Glaucous cabbagey outbreaks amongst the pebbles.  Spikey blue eryngiums are in flower.   Metallic blue and mobbed by cabbage whites.

The marshes then take over: rushes and whispering long grass,  the bitterns live here but they are very shy and hide deep and furtive in the reed beds.  Duck-boards have been built through the watery terrain and after the drag on progress from sand and stones, we march like travellers in an airport on a moving conveyor.  Conveyed to heathland of black earth and heather plants in flower.  Splashes of purple as far as the eye can see.

This purple place is called Dunwich Heath and gives on to a field of ruins.  Dunwich was a mighty monastic town.  A hub of seafaring and commerce.  The North Sea has long gobbled it all up.  The East of England is being steadily consumed by the brine.

A low and beautiful land that is slipping away bit by bit.  Meanwhile the flatness brings incredible skies, clouds that mesmerise and a light that dazzles.

By the evening, the heat has been soaked up by the wheat fields and blue green stems and heads have sunned themselves to gold.  Read the season in the colour of the crop.

wheat

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Beverly, at How Sweet the Sound is celebrating another “Pink Saturday”, and I’m joining in. I love playing with shades of pink… How about you, what’s your favorite color?

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

And don’t forget to come back on Monday for another

“SHOW OFF YOUR COTTAGE MONDAY”!

Alpine or border Campanulas come in many species and varieties.

Campanula lactiflora ‘Loddon Anna’ above was grown from seed distributed free to members by the RHS. It grows four feet tall and has many very attractive open bell shaped flowers. The flowers are arranged on a stem in a loose cone shape but with each of about 60 flower about an inch wide the effect is light and flowing. This species is commonly called the Milky bell flower and is a lilac colour.

Growing Campanula.

• Most Campanulas bloom in June and July, but some varieties continue all summer.
• Plant seeds or seedlings in May, though they can be sown in August and protected during the winter.
• Most Campanula plants tolerate full sun but like some moisture in the soil. The smaller varieties grow in walls and rockeries.
• Thompson Morgan have a fine seed collection.
• There is a white Campanula persicifolia alba

Hints and Tips about the Campanula Family

• Plants are generally perennial other than the annual Campanula macrostyla and ramosissima.
• The small hairbell or harebell are sometimes called the Bluebells of Scotland
• The scent is very mild during the day.
• There is a National Plant Collection at Burton Agnes Hall in Driffield.
• Smaller campanulas are ideal for rockeries, borders and pots

Dwarf Campanula by Graham Nichols
See also Campanula for the rockery here or Alpine campanulas.
Wikipedia lists 473 species.
Images of Campanula carpatica a compact campanula covered for a long season in summer with masses of blue, upright, bell flowers.