Tag: Kew

I started the week thinking I would not manage to tackle the last bed any further than I had already done. It was supposed to rain and – because of the Summer Bank Holiday – the week was only four days long anyway, one of which was team day. My plan was therefore to concentrate…

I had the honour of a private visit to the micropropagation lab, or “microprop” as it is familiarly known. As I had not managed to go on the interns’ tour last month and, since the next one is after I’m gone, my tutor suggested I ask the department if they could see me on my…

A stem of Spiraea canescens I am glad I only decided to tackle this bed now, with a few months of experience, because it is really daunting: Cotoneaster, Rubus and even Spiraea (canescens) seem to have gone really wild and taken over all the available space, growing tall, growing wide, getting one inside the other,…

Today, being Monday, I looked for a soft start, and very conveniently I could refer to a chat I had had with my manager on Friday. A species Crataegus was reverting back to the rootstock, outside our area, and I offered to cut all the suckers. I have already mentioned how suckers from the rootstock may draw…

More goodbyes today as the apprentices left the Arboretum to go under glass (that is what they do in their second year). This trickle of people going away keeps reminding me of my imminent departure and is making me rather sad. Today it was raining, so it was the perfect time to do the preliminary…

… but the story begins with an overgrown Pyracantha that was in the way of grass mowing. That is what I started to tackle, which took me one day and a half, as it turned out it was likely two Pyracantha, very similar but different enough (to be confirmed). And when those two plants were brought back…