We’ve had all kinds of weather thrown at us in the last two weeks- including several severe frosts. The frosts have seen off most of our Dahlias but we’ve nothing to complain about as some of the plants have been producing flowers continuously for five months. Dahlias are well known for being susceptible to the first frosts, but some of the Dahlias in our garden are made of sterner stuff. These are the species tree Dahlias, which have not only survived the frosts but, in the warm spell of the last few days, have shown vigorous new growth. We have three types of tree dahlias in the garden- Imperialis, Tenuicaulis and Excelsa. All are well over 6 feet in height and the Excelsa and the Tenuicaulis have been flowering for months now. The Imperialis, which is the largest, hasn’t flowered as yet and is unlikely to- in fact it has only flowered outside in this garden once- and that was after the exceptionally hot summer of 2006, when it came into flower on December 6th. Unfortunately it seems that not all species Dahlias are frost resistant- the smaller varieties, such as Coccinea have succumbed, just like the hybrids.
Posts Tagged ‘winter’
Monday, November 1st, 2010
The Frost Resistant Dahlia
Monday, September 13th, 2010
Surprising Survivors Part 10- The Fascist Pineapple
This plant is a bromeliad, a member of the pineapple family. Most bromeliads come from tropical rainforests and are epiphytic, which means that they grow on the branches of trees. But this bromeliad comes from the coastal forests of Chile and unusually grows in soil like most other plants. Its Latin name is Fascicularia, which means “growing together in bundles” and it is the very same word from which the Italian “Fascisti” derives, which means “a group bound tightly together”. According to the RHS at Wisley it can’t be grown outside in the UK, but we’ve been growing them outside for years and when I went out to take this photo today I noticed that we have about 70 clumps, which must be upwards of 350 plants in all. At this time of year the leaves start to turn a brilliant crimson and the rosette in the centre opens into a pale-blue flower. The trick to survival, as with so many exotics is good drainage. Last winter the hard frost burnt the leaves quite badly and they looked rather unsighly for much of the spring, but they have pulled through nicely.
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
Surprising Survivors Part 7 – The Indestructible Rice Paper Plant
The Rice Paper Plant (Tetrapanax Papyrifer Rex) is one of the best looking plants in my garden, with its massive pinnate leaves. I first saw it at Crug Farm, near Anglesea and bought one immediately. I was warned that it was tender, so I planted it in a sheltered corner below the house, where it has thrived ever since and has grown into a small tree. Encouraged by this success I planted several more, risking them in more exposed positions, but this was a mistake as the winters of the the last two years have seen them off. Well, almost seen them off, because what has happened is that I have lost the main plant, but lots of suckers have emerged in their place, creating a small forest where the original plant had been. Strangely, the suckers do not seem to appear until the main plant has perished. The new plants do not seem to be as vulnerable to cold as the parent, so the Rice Paper Plant is turning out to be pretty well indestructible.
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
Surprising Survivors Part 5- Yucca Rostrata
We gave these Yuccas a protective covering of polythene last winter, which probably saved them by keeping them dry, rather than from keeping off the cold, as their biggest enemy is the wet. Their beauty come from their lovely stems and I think they look well as centre-pieces in the gravel garden. In the past their spot has been taken by the Cycads, which became very bedraggled after a few winters in the cold and damp and by the purple Ensette murilliis, which have to be brought in for the winter.
Friday, August 13th, 2010
Surprising Survivors Part 3 – Lobelia Tupa
Christopher Lloyd admired the splendid tall red stems of the Lobelia Tupa. But he regretted that because the winters were so cold at Great Dixter, which is 7 miles from the Sussex coast, he couldn’t grow them there. This has always been a source of satisfaction to me, because they thrive in Grange. After last winter’s extreme cold I was convinced they would be gonners, but to my great relief they have emerged as strongly as before, splendidly exotic; just as Christopher Lloyd would have liked them.
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
Plums
Margaret picked 26 lbs of plums today from one tree. The crop this year has been better than ever, not just of plums, but of most fruit. Why is this? My guess is that it is the combination of these circumstances:
1. A hard preceding winter, which allows the tree to be dormant and kills off pests and diseases
2. Mild conditions during blossom time, so that the blossom isn’t damaged by frost
3. Abundant summer rainfall, so that the fruit can swell and the tree isn’t put under stress by drought.
There’s a drawback to the summer rain, in that we have lost a lot of fruit to mould, but overall the conditions have been good, even though there hasn’t been much sun
Monday, August 9th, 2010
Surprising Survivors Part 2- Passion Flower
This Passion Flower climbs up the stone wall of the gazebo in the gravel garden. It was cut right back by the exceptional frosts of last winter and I didn’t expect to see it again. The flowers are so exotic that it seemed just plain daft to expect it to survive several weeks of sub-zero temperatures. The plant showed no sign of life until June this year and then, just like the Aloe (see July 6th), it sprang into life and is now in full flower. Even more remarkably a nearby Protea, which is supposed to be a glasshouse plant, has also sprung into life.
Sunday, August 8th, 2010
Surprising Survivors Part 1- Dahlia Imperialis
“Cold! If the thermometer had been an inch longer we’d all have frozen to death” (Mark Twain)
It felt like that last winter in our garden, with night after night at minus 10 C. Dahlias aren’t supposed to survive cold like that. Although we lift the dahlias in our display beds we leave the dahlias in the borders in the ground over the winter. In a normal winter in Grange, when we get about 30 mild frosts the dahlias will survive because a frosty night is usually followed by a sunny day which prevents the ground from freezing solid. But last winter the frost stayed there all day and the ground did freeze. Even so, about half of the dahlias which we had left in the ground came through- the most surprising of which is this Dahlia Imperialis, which has already reached 4 feet in height and is on its way to reaching its full height of 10 feet.