Rebuilding a nursery - Copton Ash

[Tim Ingram]

Lesley - sorry I should have replied much earlier; the wood is tanalised ca. 4 x 2 in which we saved from an old commercial dutch light greenhouse we used to rent next door, and which I had recovered with Visqueen on a wooden framework. We have a lot of this wood and intend to make frames with it just as you suggest. We also saved quite a few of the dutch lights that hadn't broken and I have been using these to provide winter cover for raised beds. The glass will need refitting into new frames next year.

The nursery now is being put under winter wraps, and a concerted effort being put into weeding and clearing, especially areas with hellebores and snowdrops, and some of the wilder parts of the garden which have been left for too long. In between seed sowing gives some relief and the pots go into a mouse-proof frame on the shady side of a greenhouse. Next year should see many more plants becoming available, and steady inroads into replanting some of the overgrown parts of the garden after the exertions of 2013! (Anyone in the Maidstone area on Friday 6th Dec. who would like to hear about the Czech Rock gardens, which are such an inspiration, would be very welcome at the Mid-Kent AGS meeting at Bearsted at 8.00pm).

[ichristie]

progress is looking good and I am sure you have finished the raised bed cover just in time very heavy monsoon rain here most of the week  even had an early morning frost now getting dark by 5pm as well,  cheers Ian the Christie kind

[Tim Ingram]

Ian - we have certainly had some heavy rains down here too! There have still been enough warm and dry days to get on with renovating a fine Prattens greenhouse that we built some 30 plus years ago. It is made of red cedar so mostly in good condition except for where water holds. The idea is to putty all of the glass to prevent drips and give it a good coat of water repellant and wood preservative to keep it going another 30 years. This is a propagation house and not quite the cutting edge of the new alpine house at Edinburgh Botanics which John Richards describes on his AGS Diary - but there is something about a good wooden greenhouse that really appeals.

[astragalus]

Tim, I do admire your raised bed and trough covers.  I would be afraid to use glass here because we have so much wind and even things that are nailed down have become flying objects at times.  I had a lovely trough cover once which was eventually found in the field where it had blown and was smashed to smithereens.  My trough covers are plastic and were devised by a friend in NARGS.  They're not put up yet but will try and remember to photograph them when they are.

[Tim Ingram]

Anne - this is a picture of our sand bed in the front garden with the winter cover half erected over it. Once fully constructed it becomes quite strong and rigid. We have had some strong winds this autumn but, because this is open sided and  well screwed down, so far it hasn't blown away! I've used this from November to March for three or four years now and it sort of takes the place of snow cover which we very rarely get for any length of time between winter rains.

[Tim Ingram]

Alpines have the great advantage of being small plants so many can be contained in small polytunnels like these. The central area is due for a new set of glass frames next spring, in time for potting up cuttings and seedlings as the weather warms. If we are able to find enthusiastic new part time help in the nursery and garden, further polytunnels and propagation glass will be in the pipeline, but much depends on a growing interest in alpines for the garden in the south-east and in the development of out local alpine groups (but with a broader interest than just alpines).

[Tim Ingram]

We have been lifting and potting snowdrops over the past few days as their 'noses' are becoming visible in the garden. Some clumps are quite congested and the usual technique is to gently separate them under water so that the roots are damaged as little as possible. New plantings are made with the smaller bulbs and good sized ones potted up - some like a form of elwesii that came from Kath Dryden, have huge bulbs and increase only slowly; others like elwesii 'Ransom's Dwarf' (a handsome plant) have multiplied very freely; yet others, the small late flowering nivalis 'Virescens', have the tiniest of bulbs but are good to keep for their historical interest if nothing else (newer virescent forms are much more striking!). Fingers crossed for a good February free of too much snow...

[ichristie]

Hello, hope you escaped the storm last night we had a severe gale with lots of snow still white around today and really cold. I have potted some snowdrops recently as well and have a G. nivalis x G. plicatus which came from Brechin it is late flowering I named it Kath Dryden can send you a bulb or two for interest. cheers Ian

[Tim Ingram]

Ian - we missed the worst of the gales here fortunately. I would greatly appreciate bulbs of a snowdrop named for such a fine gardener and plantswoman! In her 2003 Manavalin's list Kath describes the snowdrop I have as: G. elwesii var. monosticus ? - she sold it at first as G. caucasicus 'late form', and finishes off by saying (like many poor nursery growers) 'I shall probably be corrected in due time.' Whatever, it is a fine plant with particularly good glaucous foliage and elegant flowers.

[Maggi Young]

Isn't it heart warming that there are so many folks spread around the world, who have such affection and respect for the feisty Mrs Dryden - what a loss her death was to the world of plants.
We so miss our happy phone chats when we were stuck at opposite ends of the country  - Ian C. was fortunate to make much more frequent visits to Kath.  She is still sorely missed.

[Leena]

the usual technique is to gently separate them under water so that the roots are damaged as little as possible.

This was interesting bit of information I hadn't thought of. 

[Tim Ingram]

Leena - this is a (much too congested) clump of 'Lady Beatrix Stanley' which eventually I have got round to dividing! After freezing my fingers the first time I did this I now use tepid water and it is quite a pleasant exercise, though takes time.

[Leena]

Very informative photos.
It also shows how new bulbs grow on top of the old ones, which I have been observing with my G.nivalis. Sometimes new bulbs come almost on top of the ground. Then again I dug up early autumn nameless G.elwesii clump, and those bulbs were very deep in the soil (20cm or something like that), and I don't think I had planted them so deep so they must have gone there themselves. They had also not multiplied very much, and I was thinking could it be because they were in so deep?

[Maggi Young]

I would suspect more that the  G. elwesii  just do not multiply so fast, Leena. If they had moved themselves down quite deep then they want to be down there and I would replant at that depth.

[Leena]

If they had moved themselves down quite deep then they want to be down there and I would replant at that depth.

I tried to replant them deep.  I had read somewhere that G.elwesii is sometimes in very deep in the nature, and also the new planting site was drier (the snow melts earlier in the drier slope and so I get snowdrops free of snow and flowering earlier than in my woodland bed  ), so I thought that there is more moisture deeper.