The Garden House (Devon, England)
The destinations are beginning to blur but looking at the tour guide booklet, I see that we are now in Plymouth. Today, we visited two gardens designed by Keith Wiley. The first is The Garden House , where Wiley worked as Head Gardener for 25 years (from 1978-2003). The 10-acre estate was purchased in the 1940s by former Eton schoolmaster Lionel Fortescue and his wife Katherine. It was formerly home to the vicars of Buckland Monachronum. The Fortescue's renovated the gardens and ran a market garden business and raised cattle. The remains of some of the original buildings in the vicarage still stand in the garden and serve as a romantic backdrop in the Walled Garden - I loved the way they had massed ferns together. Just stunning! Surrounding the walled garden and venturing out away from the house are more naturalistic plantings - Today, the head gardener is Nick Haworth, who was previously head gardener at Greenway , which we visited earlier. Keith Wiley lef...
Your Calla Lily will go all mush on you when it freezes but I bet it survives. I have one close to the house that has survived two winters. Most of the other plants you mentioned has never graced my garden so I have no idea. Good luck with your plants.
ReplyDeleteI know some are more tender than others. Maybe mine is a hardier variety.
DeleteGood luck, Phillip!
ReplyDeleteSupposed to get down to ~ 20 degrees two nights in a row later this week.
Of course, that's not too chilly for Middle Tennessee. We regularly see at least a couple nights in the low teens or single digits each winter.
Checking out Weather Underground, it looks like mid-to-low 20s is about as cold as it gets most winters in Vancouver, WA? Folks on Daves Garden (http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1913/) talk about pineapple sage surviving 10 degree winters in places like North Carolina, so hopefully yours will survive as a perennial!
This is my first full winter here. Like you said, they are supposed to be fairly mild and actually warmer than in Alabama. Of course there are always variations some years.
DeletePhillip, I'm in the same boat as you are this year with a newly planted front and side yard. Fingers crossed that our learning experience isn't too painful!
ReplyDeleteMaybe it will not be!
DeleteYou are so right about making sense of the forecasts, even in general...and with the microclimates, personal experience is about the only reliable predictor.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!
DeleteRe the Polygala, mine reseeded lavishly, so if you lose the plant there may be seedlings. Re: the weather, after trying them all, going to the horse's mouth (NOAA.gov) has proven best.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your tender plants!
Thanks for the tip - I will be looking for seedlings.
DeleteMy honey and I moved from So. CA (San Fernando Valley) to No. CA (Folsom) four months ago. Moving from Zone 10 to 8, we had to bequeath our beloved 12' plumeria and gigantic spider plant to a friend rather than risk losing them up here. I am beginning to redesign our garden and I was shocked to discover yesterday that I have to now protect my rose babies, winter veggies and [existing] citrus trees from frost, while also having to consider plants that can tolerate 100ºs temps during the summer. I'm noting annual sun and shade patterns (NW/SE orientation), and dealing with such poor-quality soil (for now) that is almost impossible to dig, complicated by so many small boulders that the previous owner created dry rock beds from them. Through it all, however, like you, I'm looking at this as an exciting opportunity to grow as a gardener.
ReplyDeleteYou now have a new reader. You are a talented gardener; your previous garden was to die for. I'm looking forward to following you as you bring your garden to life.
Thank you Sharon! And good luck with your new garden. I would think that moving from such a temperate zone to a colder one would take some getting used to.
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