Glenarn 2008

[TC]

We visited here after Geilston on the 16 May.  Much too late to catch the main flowering but you can't be everywhere at once.  I believe the Cinnabarinum Roylei bush is the same one I saw in about 1975 when the previous owner took me to see it.  It now must be about 7 feet high and is in top condition.  Like all the mature gardens, the plants have grown upwards and into each other making photography difficult.  The digital age makes picture taking even worse.  Wide angle shots with a 21mm lens actually come out as 30mm shots due to the sensor factor of times 1.5 compared with 35mm film.  You cannot stand far enough back to get eveything in.

 I have now taken delivery of a Nikon Supercoolscan 5000ED, so I can now get into my slide collection and put my garden pictures from slides onto the computer.  It will be interesting to see some of my Benmore pictures taken in the late 1960's onwards and compare the plants with the same ones today.

[TC]

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[TC]

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[Lesley Cox]

For a rhodo season that must surely be nearly over, there's still heaps to see in the west of Scotland. Thanks for all these pictures Tom.

[Lvandelft]

Beautiful all these Rhodo's Tom.
Would interest me what's flowering in these gardens in summer.
Otherwise these gardens would be very dull, most time of year?
Don't hesitate to visit there in summer and show more of your beautiful pictures.

[TC]

Glenarn is mainly a Rhodendron and Himalayan garden.  Benmore, Dawyck and Logan are outstations of the Royal Scottish Botanic Gardens.  Dawyck specialises in trees and has other plants such as hostas and plants that can withstand winter temperatures of -10c.  Benmore has a huge selection of Himalayan and Chinese Rhododendrons and also large plantings of Chilean trees and shrubs. The rainfall here is about 100" a year or 250 cms.  Recently there have been new plantings sourced from Japan, Bhutan and Tasmania.  Logan is unique in that it can grow tender plants that would need glasshouse protection in winter any where else in the country.  Apart from their collection of tender Rhododendrons and Camellias, their speciality is plants of the Southern hemisphere.  As far as I know, all the plants grown in the gardens must have been sourced either from seed collections in the wild or from within the gardens.  They do have some areas of "amenity  garden" plantings for  visitors who just want to see a large garden.
We are also fortunate in that the National Trust for Scotland have some beautiful gardens fairly near to us.  Culzean Castle has a huge walled garden with extensive plantings in its herbaceous border and some very choice Rhododendrons and huge trees in their woodland policies.  Brodick Castle, Arduaine, Geilston and Inverewe also belongs to this organisation.
I suppose we are very fortunate here in that most of our interesting gardens were part of huge estates founded mainly in the 1700's.  When plant hunting became the vogue, these owners would subsidise the expeditions and obtain the new introductions mainly in the 1800's.  This explains the size and maturity of the plants in these gardens.
I often feel a fraud as a member of the SRGC as I cannot grow most of the plants talked about in the forum.  The climate here is unsuitable for Alpines as we rarely get frost, so plants try to grow in winter with next to no light and continuous humidity.  We also hardly ever get a day without a stiff breeze which flattens things like tulips. Instead of growing  Dwarf plants I look at imitation Himalayan forests and try to copy them in my back garden which measures  15 metres x 10 metres !
To answer Luit's question, I could show what is in the Summer gardens, but I feel I would be imposing on the goodwill of the forum by getting farther and farther away from the topic of rock garden plants

[Lvandelft]

Tom, my question was mostly because we were once in your area 2 years ago,
after visiting the Aberdeen Show. This was in May and we hope to visit
Scotland again, but then in early summer, when most Rhodo's will be over and temps will be
more over 10 C. instead of below that.
My wife loves visiting castles, which are enough there and I go into the gardens.
I saw there are many Rhodo's in about every castle garden and seeing your
many pictures I was wondering what's growing else in these gardens.
We have been at Culzean Castle, but it was a bit late and my wife got just in time
for the last excursion and I made some pictures in the garden, which was
very beautiful, but it was to early in the year then.
There was one tree flowering there, without a name and I hope you might have seen it
too and maybe know what it is. I never saw it before.
Here some pictures from Culzean and the unknown tree:

Culzean sea       
Culzean shade       
Culzean tree 1               
Culzean tree 2           

[Susan]

Looks like Embothrium coccineum, or Chilean firebush.


Tom,  I just love these trips of yours.  Thank you.

Susan

[TC]

As Susan says, this is an Embothrium.  Nearly all the large gardens in the west of Scotland have one of these.  If you look at my last entry for Logan House, you will see a picture of a huge specimen.
In my postings, I have concentrated on Rhododendron gardens as this is what the subject was, although I sneak some other pictures in..  The Rh. flowering period here is from January to June, and a bit later the further north you go.  However, these gardens usually have herbaceous borders and other flowering shrubs and plants.
We have many more gardens concentrating on garden plants which would be at their best from June to late August.  "Castles" we have in abundance although most are in ruin.  For example, Culzean was built on the ruins of a castle but is now a large house, as is Brodick castle.  Probably the best house and garden in the area is Mount Stuart on the island of Bute in the Firth of Clyde.  The house is internationally famous for its architecture and interiors and the garden is enormous.  It would take all day to walk round it.  One we visited last week was Drumlanrig house.  The house contains priceless works of art  including ones by by Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci and portraits by Reynolds, Raeburn and  Ramsey. The woodland garden is huge.  We walked for 1 1/2 hours and got lost and had to ask directions back to the house and formal garden !
If you are serious about coming over, let me know when and what part of Scotland you wish to see and I could tell you the places to visit.  Ryanair fly into Prestwick from France and Germany on a daily basis.  Talking about Culzean reminded me that I had pictures from here to post

[Lesley Cox]

Tom,  I just love these trips of yours.  Thank you.

Your car or mine Susan?

Luit, there is a very fine specimen in a posting from Tom a couple of days ago, in another garden. Trying to find it in the index but I got side-tracked, to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.

(Modified) Ahhh... so it was Logan House. Thanks Tom.

[Lvandelft]

Thank you Susan, Tom and Lesley for the name of the orange tree.
I must have missed somehow the Logan Garden topic, but I doubt if it would have been
very helpful when seeing the picture of this huge tree there.
The specimen at Culzean was about half dead.
Tom, if ever we come to Scotland again specially for visiting Castles and Gardens,
I will ask you before we come. Cannot wish a better person for such advise!
Two years ago we explored mostly the area around Aberdeen, so I presume next time
your area is a must.

[johnw]

Another marvellous tour Tom.  What incredible Rdgersias too! Thanks so much.

Look forward to seeing some of those slides from the 60's.

johnw