Horticulture – Pass it on Blog

I was 17 and desperate for a job. At the time my older brother worked for the local council in the parks department and suggested that I apply for a job there. The council? No thank you, I have more ambition than that? However, in reality, I had no choice.  I submitted my job application and waited to hear back from them. Within two weeks, I started work as a nurseryman working in the council glasshouses, helping to grow plants for the parks and gardens throughout the borough. 

Within a number of days my line manager asked a question that would change and steer my career to this day: “Would you like to go to college and get some qualifications?” I was 17 of course not! I had only left school the previous year and didn’t fancy going back into a classroom. He continued “It would mean you would be at college every Thursday instead of coming to work”. Every Thursday off work? “Yes absolutely” I replied. The following September I embarked on my City & Guilds Amenity Horticulture course at Oaklands College in St Albans.

The Councils glasshouses

At the end of the academic year I passed the course with flying colours but more importantly I had loved every minute of it. Horticulture almost seemed to come naturally to me. Hey, I could make a career of this I thought? At the time no one in the council had ever chosen to progress further than the first year of college but with the council’s agreement I pushed on and three years later I had passed all the exams. With some further management qualifications, I went on to work for some of the country’s largest horticultural maintenance businesses.
Horticulture has given me the opportunity to develop a career that has brought enjoyment and reward as well as professional and personal growth. It is an industry that can offer many successes to those that join its ranks, with its diverse and long term opportunities and the obvious health and wellbeing benefits.
But for myself, my biggest joy has been that it has allowed me to pass on my skills, knowledge and life experience to others who have then gone on to achieve and succeed. Developing the teams and the people around me has been my biggest horticultural success and ensures that the next generation are well equipped to be the future of our industry. It doesn’t matter if you garden for leisure or professionally, do something worthwhile and ‘PASS IT ON’.

Architectural Plants refers to plants with shape and form. This comes naturally to some plants and some need it thrust upon them and that’s where we come in.

Natural Form: 

Sequoidendron giganteum (Giant redwood) has a naturally architectural form and we love them. They require little to no work to keep their statuesque form – clear their lower branches when they’re 15 years or older and that’s it. We all know redwoods for their spongy red bark and massive scale but the foliage is also incredibly tactile. The very Mediterranean Pinus pinea  holds its shape in a similar way.

Thrusting Form: 

We like adding drama to a garden with Trachycarpus wagnerianus . Use the common bread knife to cut the hairy bark away, layer by layer, and reveal the shiny, coppery striped bark beneath. It’s a labour of love but well worth the effort. For the more maverick gardener we recommend burning the stem with a blow torch and rubbing with a wire brush to remove all of the fibrous growth left. Keep the hose handy and prepare for fireworks, it’s horticulture at its wildest.

We are especially good at transforming the common shrub into something particularly beautiful. Remove the lower foliage with secateurs to uncover the hidden structure below. With shears shape the top and level off the bottom. If well-proportioned it should look like an open parachute. Getting the right proportions is essential.

To find out more on the subject visit our website and / or our nursery. We also offer tours and courses or if you want to leave it to the experts we can come and do any of the above for you as part of our Creative Maintenance Service.

Seeds are phenomenal structures which have adapted incredible ways to disperse. One of the of the most eye catching seed pods in the garden at this time of year are the long, drooping blue fingers of Decaisnea insignis. The common name “Dead Man’s Fingers” originates from the supposed similarity of the fruit or ‘fruitlet’ feeling like a cold human finger.

These exotic fruits are in the Lardizabalaceae family, a rather small family of mostly climbers. Decaisnea insignis is native to China, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar with a small population in India. It grows at a range of altitudes and has a respectable hardiness of around -15C. It is a popular ornamental plant. Specimens can be seen in the Chinese Hillside and the west of the Rock Garden.

Now the exciting bit. The unusual seeds intrigued me when peeled open they reveal an odd translucent pulp which is surrounding the small flat black seeds. It reminded me of a jelly snake sweets you would purchase as a child. The pulp is edible although I did not find it particularly inviting to try i did, tasting of melon/ cucumber. The inner seed of the seed pod was also covered in a fascinating mosaic patterning.

Inside the seed

The small flat black seeds

A rather incredible pattern in the inners of the seed pod

Now the question, why did this plant evolve to have these incredible blue fruits and what animal dispersed it? The lure of edible pulp meant it must be an animal of some sort. A bird would be a valid option but red is the normal colour of attraction and plants know this. Many of the birds i looked at (Birds of China; Birds of the Himalaya) were very small and the 7-12 cm long fruit would present a big problem.

Why blue? Blue is rather scare in the plant kingdom, we have some familiar examples in the garden of Mahonia species, Vaccinium, Viburnum and Clerodendron trichotomum var. fargesii with its large red sepals. But it is still a relatively unusual trait to adopt, even more so in tropical parts of the world.

Interestingly when opening the fruit it did split like a banana which had a similar type of reward inside. A deal of dexterity would be required to open the fruit which i had almost failed at when I attempted opening it the first time. Sure enough, after some research it is reported in ‘Dispersal of Plants’ (RBGE Library FCVV) that some tropical trees with blueish fruits – Elaeocarpus, Symplocos fasciculatus & Eugenia acuminatissima have drupes dispersed by bats and monkeys. I then later found a paper on the dietary profile of the Snub nosed Monkey (Rhinopithecus spp.) which confirmed Decaisnea insignis in the diet.

However this still does not explain the need for the blue colour. Monkeys see just like us and don’t require an attractive blue colour to attract them in. Decaisnea insignis has previously been spilt into two distinct species with Decaisnea fargesii having yellow to green fruit.

We may have just not found the true missing link in this Decaisnea insignis partnership or I fear we may have lost this pair forever.

Our Blogger this week is Alexander Herbert from Archery Edge who is based in the USA so Tim Reeves who is in the UK has written the introduction for us just because our gardens in the UK tend to be smaller and crossbows may be unsuitable to use in them.

Alexander Herbert writes If you’re lucky enough to have a garden, then you should make the most of it. There are many things you can do in a garden, from gardening to various different outdoor sports.

One sport that most gardens can accommodate is archery – the sport of using a bow to shoot arrows to hit a target. It’s a very inclusive sport that pretty much anybody can take part in – so keep reading for some tips on how you can play archery in your garden.

Equipment

Archery can be an expensive sport, so it’s best to start out with the bare necessities. Luckily, there are some things you can do yourself to enhance the game.

The first step to having archery fun in your garden is getting the equipment. If you’re a beginner, there’s no point buying expensive equipment – you may not end up liking the sport (unlikely, but still a possibility), or you might want to build up your skills before splashing the cash.

Crossbow + Arrows

The main thing you need is a crossbow. A crossbow can set you back anything from $15 to $2000 – it all depends on the brand, quality, and the specs. If you’re a beginner, it’s best to get a crossbow that’s easy to operate – the lighter the better.

Some of the easiest crossbows to operate are pistol crossbows – they’re generally lightweight and they require a lot less effort to cock, but they tend to be less powerful.

Most crossbows tend to come with arrows, but if not, be sure the arrows you purchase are compatible with your choice of crossbow.

Crossbows are great for people who have disabilities because some of them have self-cocking devices and require less physical strength to use.

Target

Targets tend to be cheaper than crossbows, but can still set you back a few dollars. If you have the time, it may be worth making your own target.

To make your own target, just fill a woven bag with plants or sawdust, tape it together, and paint a bullseye. This can be hung from your fence, or trees – and adjusted to match the height most convenient for you.

If you don’t fancy making your own, you can purchase one from your local archery supplies store, or online. If you’re purchasing one online, it’s best to get a durable target that can withstand the elements.

Getting Started

There are some things you should consider before you get shooting. At the end of the day, crossbows are weapons – and should be treated as such.

Make sure that the area around the target doesn’t have any valuables or animals nearby – you don’t want the target right next to the birdfeeder, as that won’t end well.

It’s probably best to make sure your next-door neighbors aren’t sunbathing in the garden next door too! Consider positioning your target at the end of your garden – especially if it backs up onto private land, woods, or fields.

Now you have the necessities, it’s time to start shooting some arrows!

Remember, stay safe and be aware of your surroundings.

Happy shooting!

Lou Nicholls is Head Gardener at Ulting Wick Garden and a Blogger that has worked in Horticulture for over 20 years. She gives talks around the country on Organic, vegetable growing and Ornamental plants and is a member of the Garden Media Guild and the Professional Gardeners Guild.

Twitter: @loujnicholls

Website: loujnicholls.blog

To Peat or not to Peat?

I’ll make this short, don’t use Peat!

But why not? When it’s been successfully used for generations why change?

The answers is because you don’t need to, in the past we’ve used it for convenience. It’s lighter than loam and has better moisture retentive capabilities and that’s where its benefits end. However over the last 25 years various companies with an eye to the future, climate change, habitat loss and just generally caring about the environment and sustainability, have developed various Peat free composts that do exactly the same job without long term impact into our Peat wetlands.

Gardeners aren’t the most significant consumers of Peat I’ll grant you but it’s our attitudes that change the world as well as our actions. By rejecting Peat in your compost you are making a small but important stand to companies. It’s our pressure, our buying habits that change how companies work.

I’ve never used Peat in my professional career, I worked for Garden Organic and at that point Peat free was just starting to become an option. Since then the options available to the home gardener are so varied and easily available there is literally no reason to use Peat. You can even buy Vegan compost these days! That’s right Vegan, this is a brilliant example of how for the first time in history consumers are leading manufacturers in what they want to see and use as opposed to the other way round.

Peat wetlands are home to sundews, marsh violets and many species of wild orchids, plants that can’t grow anywhere else. This is an area we really can make a difference to and very quickly, by allowing water to re-flood peat wetlands the damage done by draining it can be quickly reversed.

So take a moment to check the bag of compost you’re thinking of picking up, make sure it says Peat free and know that in your own small way you are helping to save the planet.

I recommend in random order and in no way an indication of preference!

Mark trained in horticulture at the RHS Gardens Wisley and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.  He has been a Head Gardener to a large country estate and Gardens Adviser to the National Trust during which time he studied for and gained a Masters in the Conservation of Historic Gardens and Cultural Landscapes at University of Bath.  He is now working freelance in the design of gardens for private and commercial clients and as a mentor to professional horticulturists. 

Gardening must surely vie for a place as one of the oldest professions in the world.  In the UK there is a deep heritage of gardening, evident today in the many gardens associated with historic houses and country estates.  It is possible, as a visitor to an historic garden or as an owner, to experience and tread the ground upon which the activity of over five centuries of gardening, as far back as the medieval and monastic period, has occurred.

A common thread that weaves through this gardening heritage, is the skill of a gardener.  With a gentle and creative hand, skilled gardeners have built, cultivated and maintained gardens to meet the needs and desires of their owners for centuries.  Whether it was as a show case of the latest gardening taste, to cultivate a collection of rare plants or to reflect the owners own personality.

The gardens at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, now in the ownership of the National Trust for over fifty years, were created together by Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicholson between 1930 and 1962.  They can be said to run through the veins of any gardener for their beauty and application of high horticultural practice.

The Orchard at Sissinghurst

But the gardens at Sissinghurst maintained by professionals were perhaps not the gardens that amateur gardener Vita created.  When Troy Scott-Smith took the role of Head Gardener for Sissinghurst in 2013, he started to question how closely the gardens reflected Vita.  He commissioned research to better understand her original vision and found that the gardens had evolved overtime as a series of small projects undertaken in-house and when finances allowed.

This reminder prompted a project to re-imagine the gardens as if Vita and Harold still owned them.  It has involved the completion of garden projects, such as Delos, a garden of Mediterranean plants inspired by their visit to Greece, which had been abandoned due to the cold aspect of the site and lack of available plants at the time.

Planting of Delos at Sissinghurst October 2019.  Designed by Dan Pearson Studio

Meadows around the Oast houses have been re-introduced, as have over a hundred rose cultivars that Vita had grown in the rose garden.  Most significant was the change that Troy had to instil in his garden team about how to garden at Sissinghurst.  This was to create the sense of a garden with plants that had colonised a ruin rather than one that had plants being cultivated within one.  Allowing rambling roses to billow with apparent freedom over walls, loosening the cutting regime of the box hedges and encouraging seedlings to grow in wall crevices and paving joints.

It had taken fifty years of Trust ownership, more than Harold and Vita’s 30-year tenure and three Head Gardeners for the decision at Sissinghurst to reinstate the gardens as a closer representation of their ownership, the significance of which had sparked their original acquisition for conservation by the Trust.

Renovation pruning of the weeping pear in the white garden Sissinghurst.

This doesn’t suggest that maintenance of the gardens during the intervening years had been wrong, as they were maintained to an exception standard of presentation.  It does highlight the role that research has in making informed decisions about a garden, the responsibility of any owner to carefully manage change and evidences the art and creativity of gardening in historic gardens.

To learn more about gardening in historic gardens or to find a gardener with experience of and training in historic gardens you might like to contact the following:

Garden Masterclasses – https://www.gardenmasterclass.org

Learning from the Experts – https://www.learningwithexperts.com/experts/dr-audrey-gerber

Professional Gardeners Guild traineeship – https://www.pgg.org.uk/the-professional-gardeners-guild-traineeship/

Historic and Botanic Garden Bursary Scheme – https://hbgtp.org.uk

Further Reading:

Gardens and Landscapes in Historic Garden Conservation Edited by Dr Marion Harney Published by Wiley-Blackwell 2014

Rooted in History: A Garden Conservation Manual Published by National Trust

Volunteering:

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/work-in-our-gardens

All plants have stories. The Botanics over its 350 years has managed to create many, from intrepid tales of plant hunters to discovering plants new to science. Some you hear these stories during walk rounds as a student, others across the canteen table, uncovered in the library and latterly the internet with increasing ease. 

One of the rather unassuming plants newly planted by the monkey puzzles is Berberis empetrifolia. If you haven’t heard of it you are not missing much to be perfectly honest. Phenotypically it is distinctly lacking ornamental prowess to catch the eye. It’s low growing, prostrate habit shows a tough life of having to live in the subalpine to alpine areas in the rocky Andes. However, when you dig a little deeper you unveil a rather interesting story.

A recently planted wild collected specimen of Berberis empetrifolia

B. empetrifolia is often overshadowed by its distant cousin. Berberis darwinii. Which was found by Charles Darwin in 1835 during ‘the voyage of the Beagle’ and subsequently named after him by Joseph Hooker (Icones plantarum 7, 1844). The two species are naturally found in Chile although geographically separated. Therefore a possible hybrid could only be formed in artificial environment. Some say the two have crossed paths in some localities but this is not agreed upon. 

Berberis x stenophylla is the resulting hybrid of the two species B. darwinii and B. empetrifolia. After some digging into how the hybrid happen, the story got even more interesting. In this case a nursery owned by Messrs Fisher & Holmes of Handsworth near Sheffield in the 1860’s, it was Messrs who introduced B. empetrifolia into the trade in 1827 (International dendrological society, no date). His son found the hybrid 30+ years later in the garden.

They are rather “boring” species individually however, these two species have been hybridized to form a very ornamental, popular plant which can be easily grown, interpreted and of significance to the botanic garden.

Hi all

Well what a year it has been so far especially for all the poor gardeners and horticulturalists out there!  I think we only had 2 completely dry days down here in South Devon since September last year until well in to Spring!! Apart from a brief respite over Christmas it was one hooligan storm after another. Now its dry this is where mulching your borders can pay dividends.

The main tasks in the Spring are pruning and mulching. I love mulching and encourage the team to be enthused about helping to spread tons of what I call ‘black gold’ over the recently cleared beds. I like a depth of at least 10cm and spread over any leaf debris is even better. The earth worms etc will work their magic and over time draw the organic matter down into the soil and feed the roots of the plants, create good bacteria and also aid drainage. If you mulch your beds regularly you will end up with wonderfully crumbly moist soil and will cut down massively on your watering during these drier months. Very important though to mulch over wet soil to lock in the moisture – which was not a problem this Spring!! Also mulch through November to late February depending whereabouts in the country you are before the new shoots appear. Your labours will be massively rewarded by lovely strong plants with good root structures and not a weed in sight!!

It is important to use weed free compost that has been heated to at least 80 degrees centigrade to kill off all the weed seeds otherwise you will just introduce weeds back into the soil which will compete for nutrients and water. Local councils usually make great mulch in this way by constantly turning massive windrows of the stuff but if you do  make your own (which is a great thing to do) even if you turn it it won’t build up enough heat to kill off the weed seeds but still great to spread around established and newly planted trees and hedges where it is easier to control the weeds.

Happy mulching