Weeding the Web

Azalea 'Willy' resplendent in pink

Right now our pink azalea has us spellbound with its mass of blossom. It's absolutely smothered, and was last year too. Previous years - OK, but not so much. And I put the change down to sequestered iron. This is the second year I've watered in sequestered iron in early March, and at this rate I'll make sure it gets it next March too.

If you're a bit hazy on what it does, sequestered iron is added to boost acid-loving plants like azaleas and rhododendrons which are susceptible to iron deficiency and which find it difficult to access in soil that isn't acid enough for them. Deficiency can manifest itself in yellow leaves, and poor growth and flowering. To be honest, I hadn't noticed either of the first two, but I now realise just how many flowers it can produce and I think I'd recommend it to anyone who wonders if their azalea could do better. I use Murphy's Sequestrene and water it in, but you can also get granules to sprinkle over the soil.

 

Needless to say, the azalea's name has been lost, if indeed we ever had it. It arrived years ago, a gift of a friend of my mother's who had come to stay. Having done some research, however, and remembering the sense of humour of said woman, I'm pretty confident that it's Azalea 'Willy'. Evergreen, 50-75 cms (around 20-30 ins) after 10 years (this must be at least two decades old, if it's a day), freckles sprinkled in the throat of the blooms and light autumn tints to the leaves. Almost certainly Willy. This being in a refined garden (hah!) I shall, in future, address it as William.

What is particularly satisfying, though, is that I now have a range of smaller Williams. When the TLC began last year, I scraped out the soil from the top of the pot to replace it with new compost, and found that several of the low-lying branches had, where they'd become partially buried (no doing of mine, I'm afraid), put out roots.

 

Gardeners' gold - free plants! I ended up with five. One died over winter, one has stubbornly sat there with a measly four leaves, only recently showing signs of growth after I threatened it with the bin. Three others are doing splendidly, including one that has already left home to adorn my father-in-law's garden.

You really can't get much more satisfying than that, can you?

And do let me know if you think it's not a Willy after all.

 

 

Suggested City Tour for Open Garden Squares weekend

If you haven't yet made up your mind about which gardens to visit over Open Garden Squares weekend, and are dazzled by the choice, I've drawn up a suggested itinerary of gardens near the Barbican. It's got plenty of variety and interest, good views, and starts and ends near Tube stations. (Map.) 

The Barbican Pop-Up Garden

This is handy. It's right there, at the Underground station, accessible on Circle, Metropolitan, and Hammersmith and City lines.  The first community garden on the Underground, created by a partnership between Friends of City Gardens and Transport for London.

It couldn't be exceptionally ambitious, as everything was carried down the station steps in the dead of night last year - 4 tonnes of soil by 30 volunteers. Obviously it had to be a linear garden - basically you're in a windy canyon and Gensler, the international landscape architect practice, made the most of it with strong red verticals, echoed by the planting that includes multi-stemmed trees and climbers, which aim to reproduce the feeling of a wave as you pass in a train on the opposite platforms.

No need to dawdle, as you can't get any closer, unless you're booked on a tour, but if you want to see it, don't leave it too long; it's scheduled to be dismantled at the end of this year.  

If you're visiting on Saturday, head for The Golden Baggers (if you haven't yet got a ticket, you can get one here).

The Golden Baggers

A community food-growing space set up by residents for residents of the Golden Lane Estate and called "Baggers" because they originally grew in one-tonne aggregate bags.

They are now enjoying their successors - beds of Woodblocx, divided into metre squares, acquired with £10,000 from Tesco "Bags of Help" local grant scheme. This naturally gives much scope for square-foot gardening, but you'll find fruit, veg, salads, flowers, a wildlife corner with children in mind, and communal herb garden, and it's been laid out for disabled access. If you think that one square metre isn't a lot, some people actually share a square, but then, there is a waiting list.

If you're visiting on a Sunday, either go straight to Fann Street Wildlife Garden (where you can also buy tickets), or cast your net a little wider and head for...

The Museum of the Order of St John

This cloister garden is planted with medicinal herbs to reflect the work of the Knights Hospitaller. There's plenty going on here, and you could start with a cup of tea from the pop-up café, before meeting beekeepers, taking part in a children's trail, making a soap ball or admiring botanical paintings.  You can also buy tickets here.

All the following gardens are open both days. So now, you can head to...

Fann Street Wildlife Garden

A Site of Importance for Nature Conservation, it has plenty of different habitats, with bee and butterfly friendly gardens, pond and wooded areas. They've recently started a five-year management plan to improve existing biodiversity.

Not far away is...

Beech Gardens, Barbican Estate

This was a somewhat controversial redesign by Nigel Dunnett of what is, essentially a roof garden. It had problems of leakage into the gym below, was renovated, and Barbican residents weren't all in favour of the new look but plenty of gardeners will be.

The construction uses the same membrane as the Highline in New York, and incorporates volcanic material to lighten the load. The trees are strategically planted over pillars beneath, which take the extra weight. The prairie planting (which, as you might know, rarely does it for me) is low maintenance, low load and is planned to provide bursts of colour throughout the season.

If you haven't had a break yet, the café at the Museum of London is a good stop-off.

Further down the road is one of my favourite spots in London...

Postman's Park

If you're given to sentimentality, then all you have to do is read the Doulton plaques detailing acts of heroism by ordinary people to have tears welling up. It was much used by postal workers from the old Post Office nearby - hence its name.

After a sniffle, turn left onto Cheapside for...

Eversheds Vegetable Garden

This is great fun, maintained by two women who work in the building. You pass a green roof created with sedum matting to find a sheltered corner of raised beds, stuffed with veg and patio fruit, including apple, orange, lime and pomelo trees.

The aim is for unusual plants, and you'll find a jet-black raspberry, saskatoon, edible fuchsia and, this season's novelty veg, Egg and Chips (Thompson and Morgan's aubergine/potato graft).

Where to from here? Well, now might be the time to jump ship on the gardens. The lovely Guildhall Art Gallery is nearby and, if you haven't been, I'd highly recommend it. (Free admission.) Alternatively, head for the river. On the way, you could pop in to...

Cleary Garden

With two terraces and a small lawn, it has vines and aromatic plants to evoke wines from the Loire region, and because in 2007 it became the Loire Valley Wines Legacy Garden.

However, don't dawdle, because you're heading for a big-bang finish with...

Nomura International plc

A huge sixth-floor terrace with a panorama of the Thames.

Started much in the same way as Eversheds, by a worker in the building, its potential was spotted by Management and it now offers formal gardens with water features, hedges, shrubs and lawns professionally maintained. A kitchen garden of 12 beds is looked after by volunteers, supplies the building's chefs, and its surpluses are sold to staff for charity.

And personally I'd finish there. Cannon Street tube on the Circle and District lines is nearby. Though, if you're still up for more walking, you could cross the Thames to Southwark or the Tate and sink gratefully into a seat at one of their cafés.

Have you found a good route around the Open Garden Squares Weekend? Do comment below and let us know.

You might also like How to Get the Most out of Open Garden Squares Weekend.

How to get the most out of London's Open Garden Squares Weekend

This weekend, London sees its nineteenth Open Garden Squares Weekend. But with over two hundred open spaces to visit, here are suggestions on how to avoid being found prostrate with exhaustion in the bushes.

Nomura International plc, terrace garden, open for Open Garden Squares, is a sixth-floor terrace the size of eight tennis courts.

The Open Garden Squares Weekend has come a long way since 1998 when it began by concentrating on the famous squares of London. These are still an important element - grand addresses like Eaton Square, Cleveland Square and Stanley Crescent welcome us hoi polloi through their normally locked gates. Some put on something of a show, with guided tours and talks, children's activities, musical performances and homemade cream teas on offer.

Around the city, though, a huge banquet of over 200 green spaces offers itself—allotments, roof gardens, community gardens, pop-up gardens. No one in their right mind can visit more than a fraction of them during the weekend.

How to get the best out of Open Garden Squares

The Eversheds secret root-top veg garden.

Tempting as it is to run around like a headless chicken, driving yourself to cover “just one more” until your feet give up in protest and your partner threatens to catch a taxi and leave you (believe me, I've been there), it actually works much better if you plan ahead.

Pick an area

This is actually a great way to get to know a part of London that is unfamiliar, as gardens are often within only a few minutes' walk of each other. Notting Hill is a good area for this, but make sure you go on Sunday when most of its gardens are open, or the Barbican. Or you could choose a self-guided tour from the Open Garden Squares website, which  take you round Kensington and Belgravia, among other places.

Pick a theme

Their website also has a Garden Selector with suggested themes such as gardens that are new this year, those with music or beehives (I can tell you now there are none with music and beehives). Alternatively, you can visit the Press page on the OSG website and use the search facility for a particular interest. “Forest garden” will bring up four, including the Alara Permaculture Forest Garden, which harvested over 750kg of fresh food in 2014 and has beehives, chickens and an anaerobic digester.

Beech Gardens on the Barbican Estate, with gardens designed by Nigel Dunnett.

Pick a mode of transport

Cycling: If you don't fancy walking between gardens, then three group cycle rides are taking place (no need to book) or three self-guided rides can be downloaded from the website.

By Bus: This takes a bit more application, but by visiting the Press page again, you can search for the number of a bus route to bring up a list of gardens which mention it as one of their approach options. If you run out of gardens on that route, pick a dissecting number and start following that.

Check garden details

Fassett Square retains its Victorian layout and was the inspiration for Albert Square in EastEnders.

Once you've decided on your likely gardens, don't forget to:

• make sure that your first garden sells tickets, if you haven’t already bought them.
• cross-reference with the list of gardens selling plants (you might want to visit those last),
• check out which are serving food and drink (some will be using food they've grown)
• check which have toilets (plan to be comfortable).

If it all seems rather exhausting and you fancy someone else taking the strain, there are still places free on guided walks on Saturday and Sunday. But be quick; they're filling up fast.

Or why not pick a garden with lots going on, arrive early, and settle down to enjoy? Canary Wharf Parks and Gardens has a full programme across the weekend including a talk on Roald Dahl The Gardener, a panel discussion on Capability Brown, and a walking tour exploring the botanical background of the London Docks.

Whatever you do, now's the time to start planning.

Tickets are available in advance from the Open Garden Squares website, £12 (guidebooks will be handed out when you present your e-ticket), or over the weekend from any of the gardens selling tickets (£14 – but remember to check the first garden on your list has this facility).

For Your Eyes Only - Rosa Persica grows on me

Why would you give space to a plant that you dislike? Which is what I did last year when Thompson and Morgan sent me Rose of the Year, For Your Eyes Only.

For Your Eyes Only, Rose of the Year 2015, bred by Chris Warner

Well, there’s a clue there—one of the reasons was that it was free. It also filled a space. The third was that, given its accolade, I thought I really ought to be more open-minded and give it a go. I did, for a moment, offer it to Husband for his father’s garden, but he didn’t want it either.

It’s certainly a rose that elicits strong feeling. “Frankly dreadful” was the uncompromising opinion of one rose-seller I spoke to. I’m not sure if it was the colour he objected to but, visiting The Master’s House* recently in the Temple Inns of Court, I spotted it in the borders. “It’s a bit more salmon-coloured than I expected,” said head gardener Bob McMeekin. “I’m not sure it’ll stay.”

Well, I can tell you now, it’s staying in mine.

Thirty-two years in the breeding

For Your Eyes Only has quite a history. Plant breeding is a waiting game, but it’s a patient man who takes 32 years to reach a goal.

For Your Eyes Only, in abundance, at RHS Hampton Court 2014

The original Rosa Persica was discovered in Iran and for many years botanists queried whether it even was a rose. The answer turned out to be yes, only one that had adapted to growing in the desert. From the mid-70s Harkness Roses were offering Persica hybrids and for interesting detail on the story up to this point, see Breeding with Hulthemia Persica (Rosa Persica) by Jack Harkness**.  It was then they offered plant material to breeders around the world to try to further the research more quickly.

The potential colour markings were what excited breeders, and Chris Warner went on crusade. “The holy grail,” he told me at Hampton Court Flower Show in 2014, when the award was announced, “is a bright red blotch. Out of 1000 seedlings you might get two or three with a blotch.”

Chris gives the impression of a man with equanimity. It’s just as well as one can only guess at the long run of frustration, raised hopes and disappointments. Through the years, he bred hybrids that proved unhealthy, that didn’t produce good offspring. One proved promising. The only (and major) problem was that its blotch was the same colour as the flower. That was bred with others. And finally, thirty-two years after he started, he had a rose that, as he described with some pride, requires only 60% sun, mixes with all other plants, is insect friendly, disease resistant, and repeat flowering.

Phil Harkness presenting Chris Warner with the Rose of the Year crystal vase at Hampton Court Flower Show 2014.

For Your Eyes Only - my garden test

I planted it in spring 2015. It flowered a little last summer. This year it’s got going. And you know what? This year I’ve changed my mind.

Plenty of buds coming.

OK, close up, it’s not yet my favourite—I personally don’t think the flowers will ever be described as elegant—but the bush is a lovely shape, being compact and something of a dome; it’s a neat plant that’s just the right size for the front to middle of a border, its leaves are glossy, it looks healthy, the flowers have a gentle scent (though it’s hard to get down to them on the bush to find that out) and it is flowering its little heart out.

Even its colour is growing on me, though, because it’s so changeable – there is a salmon tinge, especially in aging flowers, but the buds begins as a clearer pink. Not only does the colour change with the opening of the flowers, but they seem to take on different pinks depending on the light. The buds themselves very prettily unfurl, in a sort of spiral, and there’s been a good mix of buds and flowers in all stages on the bush at all times.

The half-open buds are its most photogenic moment, by my reckoning.

This is definitely a big plus. It should repeat flower all summer and it’s making a valuable addition to the border.

All in all, I’m glad I persevered with it (and glad that Chris Warner persevered too) and wouldn’t be at all surprised if it becomes quite a pet over the years.

*The Master’s House garden will be open as part of the The Open Garden Squares Weekend, 18-19^th June.

** The article is worth looking at for Jack Harkness's observations on the clues the Rosa Persica gave as to how it gets fertilised.