Logan Botanic Garden

[Tim Ingram]

We are aiming to visit Lamberton Nursery, and then Cally Gardens and Logan, next weekend. Where else should we not miss!!

[FrazerHenderson]

I'd recommend -

Gardens: Threave (www.nts.org   http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=7607.0; Glenwhan (www.glenwhangardens.co.uk    http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=7609.0)

Nurseries: Edrom (www.edrom-nurseries.co.uk); Buckland Plants (www.bucklandplants.co.uk); Elizabeth MacGregor at Ellenbank;Bayview Nursery (www.bayviewnursery.co.uk) and Elmlea Plants (www.elmleaplants.co.uk)

It is also worth checking out www.scotlandsgardenroute.co.uk

If you were travelling in the spring I'd have suggested additional gardens such as Craigieburn  (www.craigieburngarden.com)

Good garden visiting

[Graham Catlow]

Edrom - 10/15 minutes from Lamberton heading towards Edinburgh on the A1. Look out for the brown direction signs Edrom is listed. Head towards Coldingham and St. Abbs.

[Tim Ingram]

Many thanks - will try to persuade my wife that we need some more plants! Greatly looking forward to seeing a part of the country I have rarely visited.

[Tim Ingram]

Well we did find a few plants(!) - quite a few from Lamberton and Edrom nurseries and then more from Cally Gardens. Logan Botanic Garden itself was a revelation, even though I had high expectations, and partly this is because of its wonderful isolated position. I have always liked places that are far flung and difficult to get to - for one thing they are quieter and, as with Logan, very distinctive. A few descriptions of Cally Gardens and Logan and the plants we saw follow, plus photos of highlights (there is a little more on the AGS website for those who like philosophical musings!).

Sunday afternoon on this expensive plant buying tour saw us visit Cally Gardens at Gatehouse of Fleet. Michael Wickenden grows an eclectic and very different range of plants, including hardy species of Impatiens, many wild collected perennials and all sorts of oddball species of familiar genera. The collection of plants in the walled garden is extremely extensive and fascinating, even with the proviso that the climate of south-west Scotland differs a little from north-east Kent! I picked up several plants I had had and lost, including the soft-yellow catmint Nepeta govaniana and the native umbel ‘Spignel’ or Meum athamanticum, one of the loveliest foliage plants imaginable. But we are also trying the hardy Impatiens rothii from Ethiopia, a small Mediterranean Dorycnium pentaphyllum and a very un-ajuga looking Ajuga incisa (amongst others I hasten to add!).

The car now being full we travelled to our final destination, Logan Botanic Garden. This is an immensely interesting garden for its very mild, albeit windy(!) climate, with a wonderful collection of Southern Hemisphere plants, and a paradise for lovers of ferns. Here there is an astonishing specimen of Philesia magellanica, the shrubby relative of Lapageria rosea, covered in its waxy pink flared flowers. There must be the finest collection of Blechnum species of any garden, and many fine specimen trees including the Andean Polylepis australis with its beautiful golden peeling bark. Even the small plant we have in our garden is rather good. Other highlights included the vivid violet-blue fruits of Dianella, and the magnificent foliage of huge plants of Tetrapanax, a decided failure with us! To show how mild is the garden, in the wall of the ruined castle grows a plant of one of the shrubby echiums, its old flowerheads standing proud. How amazing this must look when in full flower!
It is a long way but I think we may be back! (Some photos to follow...)

[Tim Ingram]

I must add the Echium because it is always nice when plants do their own thing in the garden!

[TC]

Tim
If you look back in the archives, you will see a series of pictures from Logan taken throughout the seasons.  We visit the garden about 7 times a year from February to October.
Somewhere I have a picture of an Echium in full flower which must have been about 10 feet high.  However, I cannot trace it as yet and the plant succumbed to the severe frosts of last winter

[Maggi Young]

These are Tom's threads on Logan  in the current Forum:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=429.0

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1885.0

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3362.0


...sadly the "Old" forum is currently unavailable.

[Tim Ingram]

Tom and Maggi - thank you so much for directing me to your previous postings and a fascinating diversion into little red tractors and giant earth moving machines (I wish I'd had the latter when a got stuck for hours going through Glasgow at rush hour years ago!). It is really fascinating to see the garden at different times, and in particular when the rhodos are in flower. I know little about these but imagine that Logan has a pretty special collection. It was also interesting to see the Tasmanian glade early on - it has grown up a lot now. I was a little disappointed that it didn't have a wider range of genera (it is dominated by Eucalypts) but there are still some great plants. I am liable to be critical having worked in Tassie in the past and spent many happy hours wandering in the bush. Tom, I wish we had turned up in a Buggati, but there would have been no room for any plants...!

[TC]

We paid our last visit of the year to Logan on a rare sunny day.  "Our" rhodies were inspected and it was pleasing to see that nearly all had survived from last Winter and had set flower buds already.  The only ones looking worse for wear were the Edgeworthii.  A lot of pruning had been done to the mature specimens and new growth could be seen at the lower levels.  Time will tell.
I took a few pictures which set the Autumn season.  The Swallow's nest is right above the entrance to the shop and plant sales.  The adult birds were coming in at head height to feed their young and you had to duck coming in or out the door.  Judging by their size, they should be fully fledged and joining the flocks setting off for South Africa in a couple of weeks