Tag Archives: jungle planting

I’ve got a triffid

02 Friday Oct 2009

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I’ve been given a triffid.

It’s about 9ft tall and it’s rather scarily making a bid to burst out of its (14″ or so) pot.

So, it’s a Hedychium gardnerianum, aka ginger lily or Kahlili ginger. Now, not to brag or anything but I’ve seen these in the wild in the Caribbean, but never attempted to look after one myself. Luckily, after much internet research I’ve discovered that they’re quite robust even in a British climate: in fact they have been described as ‘quite invasive’ when given good drainage and a southerly bit of the UK. You can even leave them outside all winter with a thick mulch and a cover over to keep the rain off (as with so many things, it’s the winter wet that gets ’em, not the cold).

I’m quite hopeful of success in my free-draining sand, but just in case I’m splitting it in three (it desperately needs it, after all) and putting one bit in the (frost-free) greenhouse and another bit in my dining room, much to poor non-gardening husband’s despair.

Only question now is, how to split it. Whaddya reckon – breadknife? Bandsaw? Chainsaw?!

(PS: you are seeing far more of my garden than I usually allow onto these pages in the above photos, mainly because this is a plant that resolutely defies my usual refuge in the macro lens. The reason there is straw all over my lawn, in case you were wondering, is because that’s where the guineapigs live).

Collateral damage

20 Tuesday Jan 2009

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Oh dear.

A quick tour of my so-called jungle garden (i.e. the place I so optimistically planted up with climate change anticipation plants last summer) reveals I didn’t exactly get out of the recent cold snap scot free.

This is (or was) a purple cordyline. I was rather fond of it as it made a snazzy contrast with the libertias and hostas, to say nothing of a canna behind it, and gave me the pleasant illusion that I was quite good at putting plants together. I thought they were meant to be bone hardy, too.

The remains of a Melianthus major that was just getting into its stride last autumn…


…and my poor Astelia chathamica ‘Silver Spear’, lately of Chelsea 2008, which also looks to be less hardy than you would think.
Some of these might – just – come back, though I’m not sure they’ll ever be quite the same again. Now, here’s a quandary. do I press on and insist on a jungly area at the bottom of my garden anyway? (I’ll have my banana-mad eight-year-old daughter to answer to if I don’t). Do I resort to drought-tolerant Mediterranean plants only to have them washed away and drowned in a sea of mud every winter? Or do I plant a sea of English flowers and water them every five minutes all summer, also risking the customary deluge turning to a desert-like scorcher and the whole lot frazzling to a crisp as soon as I turn my back?
You know, this gardening lark isn’t as straightforward as it looks.

The Wisley glasshouse

15 Friday Jun 2007

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One of the great privileges I have with my garden writers’ hat on is that I get to go to sneak previews – and last night I went along to the unveiling of the new glasshouse at RHS Wisley, which opens to the public for the first time today.

Since I’m such a regular visitor to Wisley, I’ve been watching this amazing structure going up gradually over the years, and went along to another press bash in February to see it as the planting went in – well, then it was almost entirely under water after a winter of torrential rain, and we were all taking bets on whether it would be ready in time to open.

We needn’t have worried. It’s quite amazing what they’ve done in the four months since then: it still looks very “new”, and the planting outside (designed by Tom Stuart-Smith) is just in so will take some to show what it’s made of: but inside it is breathtaking. It’s going to be wonderful watching it grow over the months and years to come.


Here it is: a little stark, perhaps, until the exterior landscaping develops, but a remarkable structure nonetheless. It was designed in Holland, and doubles-up as a water collection system.


At the centre is a magnificent waterfall – you walk behind it as you pass from the temperate side into the tropical. The rock is artificial, and hides a “root zone” exhibit underneath.


There were orchids in the palm trees: I wasn’t quite sure if they were there for our benefit, or if they’re going to stay! They looked fantastic, anyway.


And then there were the plants… these Philodendron leaves were up to two feet long and that soft, velvety texture was so utterly gorgeous. And this is just a baby plant…


Outside in Cleve West’s teaching garden, there were loads of great ideas – I’m going to nick this fantastic birch-log path for the jungle area around my pond.

Mystery tree

25 Wednesday Apr 2007

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I found a tree at the bottom of the garden I had no idea I had the other day.

This is all part of my little project to clear the overgrown mess around my garden pond and make it into an intentionally overgrown jungle area, so I’ve been removing a big old forsythia and a massive clump of Kerria japonica (both great shrubs but only if you like that particular shade of brassy yellow… I don’t).

Having done that I realised there was a multi-stemmed something-or-other there and since I don’t get rid of things I can’t identify I’ve been watching it with interest as it leafed up and formed flower buds.

Well now it’s flowering – and looks just like a honeysuckle. Except that it’s about 20ft high… and the flowers are about half the size of a climbing honeysuckle – here’s a pic:

Pretty, isn’t it? I’ve been emailing the Cambridge University Botanic Gardens, which has a national collection of honeysuckle (Lonicera), and good old Wisley, both of whom have asked me to send them a sample. So I’ll chop off a bit today and post it. I think either way, it’s such a pretty thing it’s staying (even though it’s not very jungly) – how lovely, just like getting a present!

Cornwall #1 – The Lost Gardens of Heligan

18 Wednesday Apr 2007

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I’m just back from a little break in Cornwall, where gardening is a religion. The result is some of the most beautiful gardens in Britain, and I had a fantastic week sampling some of the best.

Top of the list for me was the Lost Gardens of Heligan, a valley a little way inland from the coast at the fishing town of Mevagissey, “discovered” by entrepreneur Tim Smit who put his considerable talents into making it happen and then ensuring everyone knew about it. The best thing about him is that it’s not just hot air – the projects he gets involved with are genuinely worthwhile and something to get really excited about.

The Lost Gardens are no exception. This is a truly magical place that has such atmosphere: you can do the technical gardening thing in the extraordinary, and beautiful, walled vegetable garden, or wander gently through the northern gardens or along the valley bottom and lose yourself watching tadpoles wriggling in the shallows of the necklace of pools that runs along it. Or you can marvel – and I really mean marvel – at the jewel in the crown, the fabulous jungle ravine where tree ferns jostle each other among Californian redwoods and unbelievably massive rhododendrons. If you haven’t been yet – you’re really missing something. It’ll change the way you think about gardens forever.

The flower garden was spangled with ranunculus for cutting while we were there – and just look at those glasshouses.

We were lucky enough to catch the rhododendrons in full flower. I’m not usually that keen on them – but this was a breathtaking sight.

… and here’s a single flower close-up. Amazing colour.

Rhododendrons were also a feature of the jungle garden – this one is a single plant, 75 feet across, and over 100 years old.

Gunneras were just unfurling their prehistoric leaves just below the rhododendron pool.

And here’s a view down that fantastic jungle ravine.

You can’t talk about Heligan without mentioning tree ferns. This was the garden that made them fashionable: and these are among the first tree ferns ever imported into the country, at the beginning of last century.

And last but not least – the beautiful natural mud sculptures by Cornish artist Sue Hill, seemingly carved from the earth, and just adding to the fantasy feel of the place. For me this just sums up Heligan: natural, as old as the hills, and so, so beautiful.