Spring is such an exciting time and every day there's something new to see in the garden. But there was extra excitement for me this past week as this town mouse went to the Sussex countryside on a day trip to Gravetye Manor.
Why was I there? Well, the occasion was a talk from award winning garden designer Jo Thompson about her latest book 'The New Romantic Garden'. This was followed by a delicious lunch* and a stroll around the gardens where thousands of tulips, euphorbia, forget-me-nots and fern-leaved Sweet Cicely gave that spring sparkle to the borders in the Flower Garden.
I'm rather envious as my own stalwarts of spring, the hefty amount of tulips planted in previous years, have more or less vanished. There's a reason for this as I was to learn. Allegedly the tulips that can be bought in bulk from the nursery or garden centre are not as robust or dependable as those ordered from specialist bulb suppliers. No prizes for guessing where my bulbs were from.
Or it could have been that mine just rotted as a result of torrential rain last year.
So there's my lesson. Now I know that if I want to keep the best ones, they should be lifted, dried and stored. I'm wondering if I can be bothered. And some species of tulip are more perennial than others as we learned from Tom Coward who, let's face it, knows.
Tom has been the head gardener at Gravetye for the past fifteen years and imparted much wisdom to us about managing the gardens and, especially, tulips. We were told that 5,000 tulips had been planted in just three days last November (no, they don't have a vast team of gardeners) and that the best time to plant the bulbs is November or December. (I sort of knew that, but not why.)
But notably, (pay attention please), if the bulbs are planted when the weather is still mild, the bulbs get warm and rot. (Note to self: don't store the bulbs indoors! And don't be tempted to plant while the weather is still relatively pleasant. And, yes, it's okay to plant the bulbs in January, they'll just flower later.)
Tom also mentioned Anna Pavord's book, 'The Tulip', as a jolly good read on the subject; my copy was retrieved from the bookshelf forthwith.
Another surprising revelation came when Tom showed us a small pot of tulips that he had grown from saved seed. Wow. Big respect. This is definitely one for the extremely patient gardener as the seeds take four years to grow. Impressive ... but not something I'll be trying any day soon. Although, as Tom pointed out, if you do this every year, after the first four years you'll have new tulips every year.
To round off the tour, Tom took us up to the famous, and very large, oval walled kitchen garden. Built by Robinson on a slope to catch all available light, the symbiotic relationship between the kitchen and this garden continues. Menus are planned to make use of what's growing there. Obviously there's not much that can be harvested at this time of year but an edible posy of wild garlic was included with our meal.
In the garden long rows of beans are fleeced against pheasants, flowers for the house are starting to grow, herbs spill over the path edges under step over apples and broad beans and winter veg stood ready for harvest; it all looked very pretty. And, just outside the garden gates, who wouldn't want a hut like this to work from?
So, after this and to end the day, we were left to wander through the rest of the gardens, admiring blossom and camassia in the Orchard. This would have been the perfect end to a perfect day ... if we hadn't got stuck in traffic for two hours in the heat behind a road traffic accident. Ah well, you can't have it all.
Let me leave you with this lovely view walking down from the kitchen garden in Gravetye.
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| William Robinson's spirit lives on .... |
* 'lunch' doesn't convey the fabulous meal we had; tasty, beautiful and locally sourced fine dining with delicious wine would be a better, if more wordy, description.
