Peak bluebell!

Flynn the dog did not show a great deal of respect for the Te Popo bluebells, alas

The first time I visited Scotland was at exactly the right time to see the bluebells bloom. This was in woodland near Gatehouse of Fleet in the south west. Like many others, I was enchanted by this natural phenomenon.

It is Peak Bluebell here this week. We headed down to see the blue glory at Te Popo Gardens in central Taranaki. While we grow bluebells in relatively large numbers ourselves, we have yet to attain the magnificent expanse they manage in their conditions.

At Te Popo, there are many deciduous trees which creates a woodland cycle. When the leaves fall, they are left to lie. The bare trees let in winter light. It is at the turning of the season when the fresh growth is just starting on the trees that the bluebells flower, creating great swathes of blue carpet beneath. As the trees take on their full summer leafy garb, light conditions will decrease below which suppresses competing weed and grass growth.

Bluebells beneath deciduous trees at Te Popo

In our garden at Tikorangi, our tree cover is such a mix of evergreen and deciduous that our woodland areas tend to be a little dark for most bulbs. When it gets too dark, the bulbs don’t set flower buds and gradually die out. We have to go for the margins and find the balance between necessary light levels and the grass growth that comes as a result. We are less blue carpet and more drifting carpet runner, if you see what I mean.

Bluebells are strong growing bulbs, also given to seeding down, so are better suited to a more natural style of gardening rather than intensively maintained borders. Lorri Ellis at Te Popo uses them extensively with hellebores to good effect. We have both found that spreading them in areas which can then be more or less left to their own devices is most effective. It is the massed, natural look that works.

Bottom left, clockwise: Spanish bluebells in blue, white and pink, allegedly English bluebells, blue lachenalias and grape hyacinths – muscari – which some people mistakenly refer to as bluebells

There is ongoing angst in Britain over the incursions of the stronger growing Spanish bluebell, Hyacinthoides hispanica, dominating and hybridising with their native bluebell H. non scripta. We spent some time discussing the difference. Lorri has a large patch that she understands is the true English bluebell and she has kept it isolated from the rest which are probably mostly Spanish, or Spanglish as I call the hybrids between the two – technically H. x massartiana.

Bluebells and very fragrant jonquil species are both originally from Spain.

One way you can tell what you have, apparently, is by pollen colour. The English ones always have creamy pollen whereas the Spanish ones often have blue pollen. I had noticed the latter. After some random sampling and Mark’s memories of what he refers to as “Grandma’s bluebells” (technically his great grandmother, I think), we came to the conclusion that it is likely that most of what we have here are hybrids. We are none the wiser as to whether Grandma started with English or Spanish ones, but we think that the lilac pink and white ones that were brought in to add variety are all of Spanish origin.
Mostly Te Popo 014 - Copy
Te Popo Gardens are located near Stratford and will be open during the Powerco Taranaki Garden Spectacular from October 31 to November 9

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.

Garden Lore – witches’ broom

Indubitably witches’ broom, not two trees

I came across this fine example of witches’ broom in a roadside tree planting of Prunus Awanui. That particular flowering cherry is known to be vulnerable to witches’ broom. It is the green section coming into dense leaf earlier than the rest of the tree and without flowers. Left to its own devices, over time the witches’ broom will take over the tree and you will no longer see much in the way of spring flowering. If you leave it for a few seasons, it also becomes harder to remove the affected sections without destroying the shape and structure of the tree.

Basically, witches’ broom is a mutation within the tree – possibly similar to an immune disorder in humans – which causes dense, twiggy growth in that section. It does not appear to heal itself and it does not grow out of it the following year. There are multiple causes but no general treatment beyond surgery – removal of all affected parts of the plant. Cherry trees are particularly prone to it, although you won’t find them in the campanulatas or Taiwanese cherries. Generally it is seen in the Japanese cherries and the hybrids. If you spot it now, mark it because it is harder to identify later in the summer when all the branches are in leaf. Spray on paint is handy for this, or a tie. Pruning cherry trees in high summer is recommended to reduce disease getting in.

On the bright side, witches’ broom mutations are what have given us many of the dwarf conifers so they are not all bad.

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.

Pink bluebells

Pink Hyacinthoides almost certainly hispanica – I picked them because the light conditions were not good enough for the row multiplying in the old vegtable garden to be photographed

“Besides all this and spotted by awful white rocks and holed limestone rocks like a great fungus, there was the pink bluebell glade. Miss Anna Rose often remarked to him upon the prolific beauty of the pink bluebells which some aunt of hers had planted here. And he always refrained from expressing his absolute preference for the blue bluebells. Only the very young prefer pink bluebells to blue. Equally, they prefer pink primroses to yellow.”

Molly Keane Treasure Hunt (1952)

Garden lore: Friday 26 September

Who doesn’t love lavender? Even I, with my oft-repeated concern about the over-use of edging plants and how that can render any garden depressingly suburban, have to admit that there is something romantic about a sea of lavender. Or a long expanse thereof. But this is not lavender – it is in fact nepeta, or catmint, in early summer.

The problem with lavender is that it is a Mediterranean plant. It needs full sun, brilliant drainage, prefers it not too fertile and needs trimming correctly or it may die. In fact it may die anyway if your conditions are less than ideal. Rich dairy farming conditions with plenty of rainfall are invariably less than ideal. It is also a woody plant so needs to be propagated from cutting which makes it more expensive to buy.

Nepeta, on the other hand, is a lot more forgiving and will take sun or semi shade and still flower. It is not fussy about soil type. Being a clumping perennial which multiplies readily, even the novice gardener will be able to work out how to divide it and spread it. When it has finished flowering, you can just hack it back to a low carpet. Of course it is not lavender. But if you can’t do lavender, it is a viable alternative and the expanse of blue railway tracks into the merry yonder is just as charming visually. There are a number of different nepetas but it appears that many of the garden selections originate from N. fasssenii.

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.

Established espalier

Most of the drawings and photographs I have seen of espaliered fruit trees are at the initial stage, showing how to start. So when I saw established examples of espalier in England, I photographed them.
1. The freestanding horizontal espalier. You can see clearly the advantages of a two dimensional plant. Good air movement will reduce disease. It is easy to tend the plant and the fruit all receives equal sunlight. You can also see that the supports are heavy duty. This is not an exercise to be done with a few bamboo stakes and stockinette ties.
2. The cube requires some heavy duty framing but is quite stylish, even if I was worried by the top branch that was trained back on itself. Using a frame which gently rusts as it ages will make it less visually intrusive than the tanalised pine we often favour in this country. It is the plant shape you want to emphasise, not the support structure. This design allows good air movement through the centre of the tree.
3.The diamond row was visually the strongest in terms of pattern. I raised my eyebrows at the potential rubbing of bark where branches cross. Stem damage can let disease into the plant and a rule of thumb in all gardening is to avoid crossed branches. Presumably in an intensively maintained espalier, you are replacing the branches regularly with fresh growth so there is a bit of leeway if this is the look you want.
4. There is little doubt that your fan-shaped espalier will look better if you clad the fibrolite garage in old brick veneer and casually pose a stylish, vintage, terracotta forcing pot in front. The advantage of espaliering against a wall is the increase in heat for marginal crops. We don’t need to do it for apples and pears in this climate but I can see that it could work well for figs and some of the stone fruit.
5. I have mentioned trendy stepovers before – the training of an espaliered fruit at knee level. This is a dry climate technique and where rains are light and misty. Our torrential downpours will cause rain splash and spread disease faster than you can blink. We need maximum air movement and to be above the splash line in our humid climate. That said, you can see disease in this example. I have yet to see one which remains at step-over height all growing season.
6. These table and chairs are obviously not yet established. I offer them as an idea without comment, secure in the knowledge that regular readers will know exactly what my personal opinion is likely to be. However, for those who like a little novelty in their garden, here be they. I even recorded some instructions for you.

First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.