14th October 2014

Department: Formal

Weather: Drizzly to quite wet. Not as bad as yesterday though.

We did a tree inspection again this morning. Me & Enrique cleared the Aco drains at the bottom of the Mixed Borders on the Top Terrace, as we pre-empted the excessive water that was streaming down the slopes, and didn't want it to get blocked up and have to fish around arms depth to unblock it. Then I cut down any past Agapanthus sp. and Stipa gigantea heads.

Dahlia 'David Howard' still looking good.

After we took out all the dahlias in the Mixed Border. Although these were still looking good, Enrico felt it was necessary to do it to keep in time with the schedule of things that needed to be done this season, especially as the Top Terrace bedding was behind, with the weather making the soil just too wet to work on.

Then we had a walk with Matthew Pottage who talked about the Plant Collections & Champion Trees (77 in total) that Wisley has, e.g. the Chamaecyperis lawsoniana 'Lutea' trees on the Conifer Lawn are about 100 years old. The national plant collections that Wisley have at the moment are:

Crocus
Epimedium
Heathers - Calluna, Erica and Daboecia
Rheum (culinary rhubarb)
Ribes rubrum (culinary redcurrant)
Ribes uva-crispa (culinary gooseberry)

He also gave us an overview of the wider thinking & planting of the garden, and a bit of history & context behind them.

After, I helped Alex with the Country Garden, which was initially designed by Penelope Hobhouse.

Country Garden, first thing in the morning.

This included taking some Cosmos bipinnatus out that had passed over, cutting back some Aster koreana, Lychnis coronaria and stalks of Crambe cordifolia. 

One of the beds that I cleaned up.