STRANDS - Pitlochry to Vancouver
by Sandy Leven

Pilochry is the flower capital of Scotland at the moment thank to the success of its entries in successive Britain in Bloom competitions.






After several months of planning, hard work and thinking our special summer events programme 'SRGC at the Explorers Garden' is now a reality. There are several intertwining strands to our programme and beyond it.






Every day from now till October our photographic exhibition will have pride of place in the Douglas Pavilion in the middle of this wonderful new woodland garden. All summer long visitors to Pitlochry visit the theatre and I expect most of them visit the Explorers Garden. The SRGC photographic exhibition will change each month, as we feature the works a different SRGC photographer. First in line is a beautiful selection of shots of Spring Bulbs taken by Ian Young, all framed in white wood. Next will bt European Alpine taken by Fred Hunt. The pictures will be changed on Sunday May 14th.



The theatre design team are making us a nice big banner to welcome visitors at the entrance.




At the top are Primulas whitei and a red Meconopsis, which I would like to think is sherriffii but is more likely to be a red napaulensis.



Beneath these sits George Forrest. His left half features prominently on this banner. We see the daisy in his hat but his poor dog has been cut off at the left ear. He looks as if he is about to hit a wee squirrel with his stick but the squirrel has been saved at the last minute as its JPEG did not blow up well enough for the banner , so the squirrel has been removed.



Beneath George Forrest is a white Meconopsis napaulensis, a nice spotted Nomocharis mairei .



At the bottom sits a spike of Primula flaccida which I still think of as P. nutans.



All these flowers grow well in Scotland and especially at Pitlochry. I associate all of the with the late Alf Evans and his Peat Garden book. It is wonderful to have our name associated with such great Asian introductions. All summer long our club name will be waving out at Pilochry's visitors.
Even if they can't be bothered walking up to the garden, the SRGC will still grab people's attention. The main display bed in front of the Pitlochry Tourist Office will be planted up with bedding plants with he SRGC emblem, Dryas octopetala. At the moment it is panted with Narcissus tete a tete.



If you are driving on the A9 North, stop in Pitlochry and visit the theatre for a morning coffee, lunch or afternoon tea in the restaurant overlooking the River. You should spot Mergansers and if you are lucky an Osprey might come fishing while you are there. Take time to visit the garden, whose manager Julia Corden is a member of the SRGC Council. Julia does most o the work in the garden and she has to organise everything.
On the second Sunday of each month from now till October the SRGC is sponsoring practical demonstrations in the Explorers garden. The first of these will be on Asiatic Primulas and is to be given by John Mattingly of Cluny Gardens at Aberfeldy. On May 14th Ian Young will talk on Fish Box Troughs, a subject on which he is the master. If you have never been to a trough day get yourself booked in for a superb day.



Pitlochry can tell lots of people about our club and about the plants which we all love to grow. We hope to reach a wider audience of Gardeners and People in general than those who at present are tempted to our shows. Several groups have decided to make a visit to the Explorers garden one of their summer visits. Check that your group is coming as well.
On the subject of shows, we are about to have the 4th of the season. Blackpool, Stirling in Dunblane and Hexam have been and Edinburgh is almost here. The cold, snowy season has meant that the plants seen at each show has been different and that must be a good thing. At the shows we have the chance to see plants which we don't grow but which others grow to perfection. In this category I place Dionysias. They make wonderful domes of colour in spring for those who cultivate them and I appreciate all the effort which is put in to achieve these perfect hemispheres. I want to than k everyone who exhibits at our shows and the show secretaries and helpers who work extremely hard to ensure the success of the whole event. I must have travelled 500 miles, as The Proclaimers sing that they would to see the shows so far. I wonder how many trees I need to plants or these journeys to become 'Carbon neutral'. If I plant rock garden plants, I could easily justify my purchases so far this year. Isn't it great when you can ind
ulge and justify yourself at the same time?





In the garden spring flowers are popping up but the weather is still pretty wintry. On the weekend before the Stirling show we had more snow than we have seen for many years. It was not Buffalo, New York but it kept most cars off the streets. Snow cover reveals the shapes I the garden, the hidden quality which when the flowers are booming is hidden. Shape and structure are important, otherwise all you have is a collection of plants. I have always tried to keep one part of the garden hidden from the next and as you walk around each new area unfolds. It is much easer now that shrubs have grown taller. The big shrubs give more shelter from strong winds but in time can encroach on smaller more precious plants. I regularly see plants and say to myself 'Where is that in my garden?. I did find out that by putting a 3ft x2ft concrete slab over Colchicum luteum, it died. David Mowle on the other hand showed pictures of bulbs which ere forced to grow laterally by expanding conifers. It was amazing how far out the flowe
r stems did grow. I did not find out if the bulbs moved sideways in the ground.
Another strand manifested itself in the recent RHS journal, 'The Garden'. In the April 2006 edition I read that The RHS has appointed Jill Cherry as Director of gardens and Estates. She has been Director of the vanDusen Botanic Garden in Vancouver, Canada. We visited the vanDusen last summer and it is a wonderful garden. It is packed with interesting shrubs and flowers.



There is a bust of David Douglas in the garden placed there by the David Douglas Society. Douglas came from Scone near Perth.



In the UK we tend to think that gardening started and belongs here. The vanDusen shows how wrong we are. The public spaces and gardens in the USA and Canada which I have seen do not seem to have their funding limited. If you go to British Columbia, do not be in too much of a hurry to get to Victoria Island's Butchart Garden. We did not get there and I have to seen it but it is well publicised an looks terrific.





Before leaving Vancouver put a visit to the vanDusen Botanic Garden and to the university of British Columbia's Botanic Garden at the top o your list of must do things. You will not be disappointed.





Incidentally, at the UBC BG they were promoting 'Fish Box Troughs' a la SRGC. Remember you don't have to go to Canada to learn about these, just go to Pitlochry to hear Ian Young.

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