Weeding the Web

Garden holiday tours with HF Holidays

If Boxwood Garden Tours mentioned earlier this month seemed too much, then one company that you might not have thought of for gardens is HF Holidays who, as well as their well known guided walking tours, offer fifteen different garden tours.

[NB: This post was written in 2010. Most of the following tours are still run by HF Holidays, but the links change from year to year. So, click on HF Holiday link above for a list of current garden tours.]

Three-night trips to Hampton Court and Tatton Park Flower Shows include visits to other gardens in the area and cost £319. Other tours encompass most areas including Cornwall, the Cotswolds, Sussex and Scotland.

HF Holidays, in business since 1913, pride themselves on friendly, easy-going hols for all: singles, friends and families. Their garden tours include a mix of public and private gardens and are led by experts.

One expert you might recognise is writer and broadcaster Christine Walkden. She’ll be leading the Welsh Border Tour in May, and the Devon Garden Tour in June. I'll be posting more about Christine in the next couple of weeks.

The RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch 2010

At this time of year garden planning involves a lot of staring out of the window.

While you’re doing that, why not count a few feathered guests for the RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch which takes place next weekend on 30-31 January? For just one hour, you could be one of the half million people who contribute to our knowledge of garden birds each year. Or you could join one of the Garden Bird Watch events which will take place this weekend.

They also provide a helpful recording sheet, which includes pictures for easy identification. If you register early you get 10% discount on birdseed and feeders.

Exotic flowers in turquoise vases: the trend for 2010

Gardeners aren’t known for slavishly following fashion, but I thought you might enjoy knowing that the trendy colour for this year is…turquoise.

Of course, this presents a slight problem to the flower industry. When you think about it, not too many petals parade in bright blue-green. Blues tend to head towards purple territory and greens acidulate towards yellow. Still the Flowers and Plants Association (FPA) has risen to the challenge.

Glass sculptures add structure

Speaking of structure in the Winter Garden, one “eye-catcher” that definitely caught my eye at the Hampton Court Flower Show a couple of years ago was Garden Glass by brother-and-sister team Sarah and Dominic Hayhoe. Available either in tall panels or as individual leaves, the glass adds a touch of warmth and colour, even with the weak light of January behind it, not to mention making quite a splash against the recent snow!

Boxwood Tours: garden holidays for the totally immersed

Holidays: anyone really organised is leafing through brochures as we speak. I’m not good at this. Usually I’m on the phone, trying to book a room about two hours before we leave.

Boxwood Tours were quick off the mark with their brochure this year. And if I had the money, they would be top of my list for a garden holiday. Even their brochure is a delight, dotted with picturesque illustrations. With only four short holidays available in the year, they offer total garden immersion, with a packed itinerary led by experienced horticulturalists and in which you meet garden owners and head gardeners of the properties you visit. This year they are visiting: Gardens of the Languedoc, the Kingdom of Dyfed (their cheapest, at £1398 for five days), Venice and the Veneto and the Green Heart of Ireland.

The Garden Museum's secret blogs

I’ve got a soft spot for the Garden Museum, Lambeth, even though, to date, I’ve found it disappointing. As a museum to visit, I feel it doesn’t quite deliver, as I wrote in my review of the Beth Chatto exhibition for Landscape Juice. However, they are branching out media-wise. The museum has taken on their first ever intern, Matthew Collins, and he’s bravely baring his soul on the Garden Museum Gardener’s blog. It’s a place, he feels, “to admit the extent to which I feel under-experienced, under-studied and a little out of my depth.” He keeps asking himself, “Are they sure they chose the right candidate?” Well, not a lot of people are going to find out if the museum doesn’t advertise his blog better.

Preserving the Poinsettia

Christmas doesn’t last as long as it used to. In my house, we stubbornly cling on to the twelve festive days and decorations don’t descend until 6th January. Which means that we are several days behind most people in wondering what to do with the poinsettia. In the right conditions, it should stay red for some weeks to come. By accident, we once had one that was still bright red in April, and from reading these poinsettia tips from Lelia Scott Kelly, a Horticultural Specialist at the Mississippi State University Extension Service, I now know it was because it stood on a moderately mild windowsill. If it’s crossed your mind to try to keep your poinsettia for next year, then she also gives instructions on what to do during the coming months. If you want a challenge this could be for you, but, I warn you, there’s an awful lot of temperature-watching, light-excluding and clock-watching involved. And just bear in mind that Lelia’s in Miss’ippi, which might affect your decision to follow her instruction to plant out in May…