Erythroniums

I love these spring bulbs with their delicate reflexed flowers on relatively tall stems above, depending on the species and cultivar, mottled leaves giving the North American species the common name of trout lilies.  These are woodland plants in the wild, but open woodland, with deep moist soils and abundant light in the spring, but offering protection from harsh, baking conditions in the summer and autumn.

They thrive in conditions like this...

Erythronium revolutum 'Johnsonii Group'

...where they can create dense carpets in time.

They're not just pink.  Consider the yellow E. tuolumnense, usually available as the cultivar 'Kondo'...

...or the white flowered Erythronium californicum 'White Beauty'...

...or the pinkish yellow shades of the E. californicum x tuolumnense hybrid 'Joanna'/

They're even a good nectar source, as witnessed by this Brimstone butterfly feeding an early spring.

Versatile plants, they deserve a place in any garden that can offer the open woodland like conditions they need to thrive.

Daffodils and the Narcissus Fly

I have a problem with daffodils, Narcissus species and varieties.  The problem is this, Merodon equestris, the narcissus fly:

I carefully buy and plant daffodils in good soil in autumn and next season they come up beautifully, delighting Maria.  The following year they're sparse, with few flowers.  By season 3 they're gone.  And the culprit is on the wing again.

Despite appearences they're hoverflies, not bees, though they mimic bees as protection against predators. And it's not the adults that are the problem but the larvae.  Eggs are laid at the base of the plants, they hatch, and the white larvae burrow down to the bulbs where they proceed to eat out the hearts, including the newly forming flower buds for next year.  The result is that the bulbs come blind in the next season and then dwindle.  

It's not just daffs they go for.  Other bulbs in the Amaryllis family, including snowdrops, Galanthus, can also be affected.  In fact I've given up trying to grow them except as disposable seasonal displays.  I'd love to build a collection of the smaller Narcissus and a population of snowdrops but it's just money wasted.  I use no pesticides in the garden so I've got no means of control other than natural predators - and, if they're around, they're not doing a good job.  I'll have to dock their wages!

The Derwydd daffodil

It's been described as the 'ugliest daffodil in the world'.  I'll admit, with it's twisted doubling and heavy greening on a yellow base, the Derwydd daffodil, Narcissus obvallaris 'Thomas' Virescent', would win no prizes on the showbench. But it has it's own interest.

A sport from the Tenby daffodil, which may or may not be endemic to the UK (opinions differ), it and similar green and yellow doubles have been known in South Wales since at least the 12th Century but it's only in recent years that this example has been available in cultivation outside the Gower area. Lets hope it thrives at The Garden House.

Yucca stripping for pleasure and profit

I stripped my Yucca yesterday.  It's a big Yucca gloriosa 'Variegata' that I've grown for nearly twenty five years.  Normally, when they flower, the old growing point splits into two or more branches which then grow on the produce the next set of flower spikes.  They also sucker from the rootstock and the end result can be a dense thicket of - admittedly attractive - yellow edged rosettes.  In a small garden that way nightmares lie.

So every flowering I've ruthlessly eliminated the suckers and the end result has been a multi branched small tree that currently stands about 9ft / 2.70m tall.

Here's how it looked on Sunday morning:

As the apical rosettes grow the older leaves die off, leaving an untidy mess.  In theory they're naturally shed by the plant.  That might be true in hotter climates but here in damp cool Plymouth they cling on.  Which brings me to the stripping.

It's pretty simple really.  All you need is stout gloves and a sharp knife.  Oh, and eye protection.  The spikes on the end of the leaves are sharp.  Most of the oldest leaves come cleanly away from the branches with a sharp tug.  For the newer ones you may need to cut them away close to the trunks.  With a specimen like mine you'll also need to delve between the branches to get right into the heart of the plant. Hence the gloves and eye protection.  But the end result is very satisfying.

Though it does leave a lot of waste.  Too tough to compost easily and too spongy to shred at home it's now in the garden waste bin, ready for April's collection.

As well as opening up the branching structure that makes such it an enticing plant  it also lightens the load on the branches.  When (not if) the south-westerly gales blow through the plant Yucca is far more secure against windrock.

RIP Abutilon 'Waltz'

You will be sadly missed.  

Occupying a sunny corner of my south facing rear garden this lax, half hardy wall shrub was rarely out of flower during the warmer months and even managed the odd bloom during the winter.  

Sadly, the weight of flower and foliage proved too much for the supporting structure and a winter gale tore it out and I sadly had to dispose of the corpse.

It lasted over ten years and I've certainly had my money's worth but nothing ever stays the same in any garden,  Ah well, the hard part now wil be to find a suitable replacement.  Perhaps a passion flower or even the orange flowered sibling Abutilon 'Tango'.

Musa basjoo - the 'hardy' banana

I'm seeing new growth on my bananas.  New leaves are emerging.  This is the 'hardy' banana, Musa basjoo, from the foothills of the Himalayas.  I grow it unprotected in my Plymouth garden, accepting that, if we have a really bad winter, I'll lose the tall pseudostems to ground level.  Fortunately, we haven't had one of those for a few years and the pseudostems have grown tall.  Tall enough that, perhaps, one or more may even flower - and then die.  They leave offsets - but these take time to grow from the rootstock.  So, hopefully they won't all flower at once...

...and continue to provide these sort of displays in my small rear garden.

The Magnolias are blooming again

There are few more magnificent sights than a tree magnolia in full bloom, laden with spring blossom.  My own 'Raspberry Ice' still has a day or two to go but The Garden House season has started already,

Most magnificent of all is Magnolia cambellii, a spectacle of pink flowered abundance.

Technically it's not on The Garden House's property, but just beyond the stream that marks the northern boundary, but, in the spirit of the borrowed landscape, it does form a magnificent backdrop to the garage and garden buildings it sits behind.

M.cambellii, originally from the Himalayas, is well established in many a South West garden, enjoying the mild, moist maritime climate of the region.  A number of varieties can be found in cultivation.  All are desirable - if you have the room.  These are large trees and often don't flower for ten or more years after planting.

Such is the case with M.c. 'Betty Jessel', a deep pink flowered form that was looking magnificent in the spring sunshine when I photographed it last Friday.

It still has a few years to go to develop the full crown and profusion of massive flowers but even this comparatively young specimen is an impressive sight in the upper garden.

In the Arboretum another of the early flowering magnolias is unfurling its bloosom.  M. 'Kim Kunso', a hybrid between between M. veitchii 'Peter Veitch' and M. soulangeana 'Lennei', is built on a far smaller scale but the large flowers are nearly as impressive.

It's only the start of the season, with plenty more Magnolia species and varieties to come.  Not bad for one of the most ancient lineages of flowering plants, 90 million years or more old, during the later era of the dinosaurs, and still performing magnificently today.

Snowdrop of the Day - Week 7

For the final week of the 2024 snowdrop season at The Garden House we showed the following snowdeops that were in flower during the period from the 23rd to the 29th of February.  Due to relatively mild winter the season has been a little shorter and more condensed than in previous years but I still managed to feature 48 winter flowering snowdrops and cover a good selection from the collection.  Enjoy.

Galanthus 'Das Gelb von Ei'

Galanthus elwesii 'Morgana'

Galanthus gracilis 'Andrea's Fault'

Galanthus lagodechianus

Galanthus nivalis 'Walrus'

Galanthus plicatus 'Primrose Warburg'

And, to round out the season and provide an opening to the new season Galanthus reginae-olgae.  This can flower as early as October with us, the first of many to come over the 2024-25 winter.