Tag: plants

You know what I was writing the other day about the media breeding hysteria in the public about plant pests and diseases? I was going to write about horse-chestnut today (Aesculus hippocastanum) and I found this article in Gardens Illustrated, which by the way is supposed to be an interview with Kew’s botanists, about the…

I get a bit miffed when the media get hold of a piece of news and make such a fuss about it and breed hysteria just to sell more. As it was with fungus Chalara fraxinea, which causes ash dieback, earlier in the year. Now ask anyone about plants and they will know practically nothing about…

Was finalising the stockcheck of bed 435-03 today, which is Spirea central. This is one of the tidier beds, with plants well within their own boundaries for the great part. But a couple of the labels on the Spireas got mixed up, so I had to undertake a bit of investigative work. Internet at the…

I have spent the last two days dealing with a massive plant of Prunus laurocerasus I had my eyes on since shortly after I started on the South Canal beds. Bed 437-02, as it is known to the Kew-initiated, had two massive prostrate species of Prunus: laurocerasus and laurocerasus var. salicifolia. We had tackled the P.…

It seems that most horticultural traineeships/apprenticeships are applied to in January for an August start. That means that July in the final month for the participants in the schemes and today three of our trainees have gone. I will miss them, we had a good time together! Other than that, today too I’ve been working…

I have seen so much of it this week: Oxalis corniculata var. repens (looks like it is mushrooming all over the place and setting seeds within a few days!) that I have had what I call a “genius idea”: what if we made use of it as ground cover? It is hardly visible, because it’s purple on…