Hidcote Gardens - Rooms with views

Mid September, a time when the garden is starting to wind down and the garden visits for the year are slowing. I couldn't resist saying yes to the All Horts gathering at Hidcote though. It's a garden I've loved for many years. The last time I visited was shortly before I left Garden Organic and moved south, at that time we were lucky enough to go on a staff visit and get a tour from the, then Head Gardener Glyn Jones. Glyn has now left to make a mark on the historic gardens at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-Upon-Avon.

My last visit was roughly 10 years ago, give or take, Hidcote had been a regular on my list of local gardens, one that I had taken Mum & Dad to visit. Sadly I don't think I have any pictures from back then but in my head the gardens were always sun baked and peaceful, my favourite border was always the famous red border, so even though I set out early in the morning in rainy gloom I was feeling optimistic for the forecast.

Lawrence Johnston was the originator of Hidcote, starting in 1907, his mother bought the manor house and he set about turning the surrounding fields into what is now an iconic garden in the Arts & Crafts style. The theme of the "Garden room" is not as new as the glossy magazines would have you believe, Plantsmen of the early 1900's had already started this trend of areas enclosed and themed with exits and entrances leading to wonderful vistas over surrounding countryside.

His influencers, such as Gertrude Jeykell & Alfred Parsons are now bywords for excellence in design. His peers and contemporaries were people such as Norah Lindsay & Vita Sackville West, known for her creation of Sissinghurst. Lawrence Johnston was a quiet man by all accounts far more at home creating his gardens than the life of a 1920's socialite, maybe that's why Hidcotes name is the one people remember rather than his? In the world of botany though this man was a giant! One of the unsung heroes of plant hunting, he went on plant hunting expeditions to Europe, Asia, Africa, China and South America. Each time bringing home a small gem for his gardens. He was also a great sponsor for other people, making it possible for Frank Kingdon Ward to travel in Burma, one of the people responsible for introducing countless Rhododendron species. W. T. Goethe & Edward Augustus Bowles travelled with him. Highly influential in every way, this quiet man bequeathed Hidcote to the National Trust in 1948 when he retired to his garden in France Serre de la Madone.

Back to present day!
Bearing in mind several points...
I haven't seen the garden in around 10 years
I never saw it this late in the season



The approach to the gardens has changed massively from what I remember, there is now a lovely new build (?) cafe and plant sales area. The signage around this area is pretty good I noticed as I rushed to try and catch up with the others. The entrance completely threw me out! Same gateway but now you enter through the entrance of the house itself, which is quite nice. I say this is a new thing but in reality I don't actually remember exactly how it used to be? I think it was through what is now a gift shop, anyway!

The first sight as you enter the garden is of a cute little parterre with an excellent choice as an alternative to box hedging, Euonymus fortunei 'Emerald Gaiety' planted up with summer bedding of Salvias and what I think are Bidens (I could be wrong on this, I was in a hurry) Rocky and I were almost an hour late, traffic, so we scurried to catch the end of the tour being kindly led by Sarah Davis the Assistant Head Gardener. Flying past the enormous Cedar of Lebanon I remembered the last tour I had been on before being surrounded by a fantastic scent of cherry pie! An entire bed of Heliotrope that even on this overcast day was able to envelope you with its mouth watering scent. I caught sight of our group, in the distance, and tried to negotiate the straightest path to them. This as it turned out included naughtily leaping some of the Trusts iron hurdles to gain access to the sacred Red Border where our group of intrepid gardeners were being treated to a private viewing! Quick introductions were made to those members I hadn't met before, hugs for those I had, a few pictures and then on to the plant house.

Talking mainly about the history and much needed restoration of the relatively recent addition (restoration?) of the wooden conservatory called the plant house. Sarah explained how only 10 or so years old it is already needing a lot of work to its wooden supports to keep it in good repair and the decision on how to fund this work is very much in the forefront of everyone's minds. Its such an important aspect to the garden not only in its history but also as a place to house and show some really gorgeous plants in their collection.

From there we moved to the long borders, an area I'm sure had only been recently planted up when I last visited, I wish I had managed to arrive on time. I could've asked more questions! They were just at the point of going from summer splendour into autumnal tumble. Still verdant with jewels of Asters shining through, just a hint of winter structure from the seed heads and exclamation points provided by the carefully manicured hedges.

We moved through to the Kitchen Gardens which had changed beyond all recognition for me, my last visit this area wasn't open to the public. It was an area like most gardens have, a graveyard of old pots, scruffy plants and dead machinery. Now fully in use as a Kitchen garden with a late crop of runner beans handily planted to the side of the path a quick taste test ensued.... they were lovely!

At this point our lovely guide took her leave and we headed for the cafe. I wont bore you with the details of what I ate but it was lots and it was lovely. We chatted and caught up with one another then headed over to Kiftsgate, this is where it gets funny...

We posed for our usual "All Horts" picture, as ever ably taken by Gerald, by the gates. We even looked at the signs with opening times and admission prices before ambling through the gates and up the long driveway. We perused the plant sales area and enthused over the Salvias when a deep baying ensued.

Release the hounds!

Hush puppy!

Introducing the resident Basset hound!

Somehow each and every one of us had failed to notice the massive signs at the entrance saying CLOSED ...oops!

Rocky singing the rusty gate song... F sharp?

So having failed in our mission we beat a hasty retreat back to the cafe at Hidcote to renew ourselves, chat a bit more, then myself and a few intrepid others went back to revisit areas of the garden we had missed on our whistle stop tour.

On reflection, the elements that make Hidcote, Hidcote are all there, no matter the season. The thought that was put into its vistas, the quiet areas, even the wonderful paving that changes throughout the garden to reflect the theme. Hidcote is undergoing some major renovations, replanting, but the ethos that Lawrence Johnston built the garden to is evident at every turn. 

"Plant only the best forms of any plant"

The Orchard revisited (Repost from 2013)

Originally posted on our Landshare Blog and several other places, heres a look at the Orchard Amy and myself planted way back when! I was SO proud of everyones efforts and all the years of preparation that brought us to this point, I still am and im sure the Orchard is now producing twice this amount 3 years on....

Bumper Apple Harvest

Posted on November 1, 2013 

This September we had the biggest harvest of Apples from our new Orchard to date. The Apples & other fruit trees have been planted over the course of 3 years, the last trees being planted in the spring of 2012.
They grow on a very testing site, exposed to the wind and on heavy clay soil. The fruit trees have had a tough start, but a little bit of tender care and the damp summer of 2012 meant they got their roots in properly, and are now starting to perform as they should. Undeniably it’s been a good year for fruit all round, even our small Vegetable garden Orchard has produced fruit and these trees were only planted in the spring of this year.
One of our volunteers has taken on responsibility for the large Orchard almost entirely and over the course of winter 2012 – 2013 he would come down to see me and tell me about how the pruning was coming along, retie any trees that had come loose, repair rabbit guards etc.

Apple blossom in spring

In the spring he mowed, keeping the grass low improved the air circulation around the trees and took out competition for moisture and nutrients. The spring show of blossom, although later than normal was incredible. There is nothing more beautiful than standing surrounded by fruit trees in full flower. The scent on a still day can make your mouth water!
Finally in mid August, our volunteer, Peter started coming back from the Orchard laden with boxes of Apples. At first it was a trickle, then a veritable flood of Apples. Once the kitchen had their fill and they had made Apple pie, Apple crumble, Apple juice and of course offering up our Apples au natural, we started to offer them for sale in our shop …. And still the Apples kept coming! It was beginning to feel a bit like a scene from the Magicians Nephew with crates of Apples stacked waist high and Peter warning me there was more to come, much more.

Some of the young trees laden with fruit.

At this point we had to get inventive as we had way more fruit than we could ever deal with so we contacted a local business, Biddenden Vineyards and consulted with a lovely chap called Julien, who offered us the solution of juicing our Apples. So a date was set for collection and a collaboration of the Rangers team and the Veg garden saw a bright Thursday morning in late September, and an army of Volunteers set off for the orchard with our hastily assembled Apple crates. Less than 2 hours later with big smiles the Orchard had been virtually picked clean.

A happy team of volunteers

We had estimated having about ½ a ton, we had underestimated, on final weight we had just under a ton of fabulous Apples. These were sent off for pressing and within 3 days we had our very own bottles of Apple juice. This means we can carry on enjoying the fruits of our labour, if you’ll excuse the pun, right into next year. Well, I say that, that’s if there’s any left as we’re selling it in our shop, and by all reports it flying out the door!

Me, and a lot of fruit juice!

Finally a quick note about the storm the other night, there were some casualties, relatively minor ones compared to how bad things could have been. A few small trees have gone down in the garden and wider estate, causing very little collateral damage. The worst thing to happen to the Vegetable garden was that we lost both sets of the south ends of the polytunnel doors, the wind had, despite our best efforts, ripped the locks off the doors, snapped the reams of baling twine we had wrapped around the handles for extra security, pulled the anchor points clean out of the ground and then proceed to thrash the doors back and forth till they cried mercy. Thankfully it appears that’s the worst it did and it shouldn’t take too long to replace them with something bigger, better and more resilient.

Lou – Senior Vegetable Gardener

Organic Veg the No-Dig way (repost from 2013)

Originally written for the Landshare Blog way back in 2013, this was subsequently reposted in several locations and the information included went on to make up part of the talks I give to groups about growing vegetables Organically and using the No-Dig method. I thought you all may like to see what we did there.

Apologies for the quality of the pics!

Our no-dig veg garden 6 months in...

Posted on July 12, 2013

An unusual year

So, halfway through the year, ok a little over but close and how is our No Dig system progressing? Some of you who visited us in previous years will hopefully be pleasantly surprised at how we’ve changed. We started converting our field over to 4ft wide beds at the end of last year and putting in place a system of composting and mulching them. This is how things looked in 2012…

The beds being converted over…

and in 2013…

Our team spent a lot of time getting the beds converted, and there is still more work to do, but so far we really are seeing the benefits. Working in this method allows you to grow veg in a more consistent and easier to manage way. There are some crops that at present we are not attempting, such as potatoes, carrots and parsnips. We will grow these again in the future once we have built up a decent soil depth but we are having some enormous successes with other crops such as Kohl rabi, Onions and Leeks.

Kohl rabi ‘Azur Star’

Onion ‘Bedforshire Champion’

Leek ‘Northern Lights’

We also converted our tunnels over to the No Dig system last year, the soil had become exceedingly depleted and had no structure to it at all. We had started to find that even our Tomatoes were struggling to produce decent vines, so copious amounts of manure were added. Its worth bearing in mind when trying this yourself, that not all crops love a high Nitrogen soil and that it can sometimes cause a chemical imbalance, locking up certain nutrients like Magnesium. In a covered environment this can be easily dealt with but when growing organically its best to avoid overfeeding plants in the first place. We planned our crop rotation very carefully to avoid problems and we are getting great results despite the cold start to the year. Below is a picture taken in late July 2011 showing how stressed our Tomatoes were.

and now….

We are proud to be harvesting from them already and the difference in growth is phenomenal!

We also are providing our onsite restaurant with delicious organically grown Cucumbers, and this year we are growing 4 different types. In the cutest cucumber contest its a close run race between Iznik F1 and Passander F1, producing a perfect Cucumber for your lunch box! Or for something a little more substantial you might want to try Louisa F1 or Camilla F1.

‘Iznik F1’

‘Louisa F1’

We have been having an enormously abundant year for fruit as well. In late April I despaired that the weather would improve and by late May I had almost given up, but it hasn’t done our fruit any harm whatsoever. We have produced over 30 kilos of Gooseberries alone, all to be cooked up into yummy desserts by our Restaurant. Not to mention all the Strawberries, Redcurrants, Blackcurrants and soon to be available from our Farmers Market stall, Raspberries! Below is a picture of our Loganberries and in the distance the North Downs.

One thing gardeners may want to keep an eye out for at this time of year is Gooseberry Sawfly. Able to decimate your plants in a day, they don’t just eat your Gooseberries they will go for your Red & White currants too! Organically you have very few options open to you as they must be dealt with quickly. The best and easiest option is to lay a old sheet under your bush and shake/flick the leaves till the horrible little blighters fall to the ground. When you think you’ve cleared one area move the sheet to the next and repeat process. Here’s the grim bit, once your plants are clean of the larvae and your sheet is covered in them you can then deal with the pest in an appropriate manner. How you choose to do this is up to you, but I suggest you don’t release them back to freedom. I would normally expect them a tad earlier in the year but it appears our unseasonable weather has knocked them out of kilter too.
I could include a Thousand more beautiful pictures of our lovely Veg. Garden as each one tells its own story but I run the risk of revealing my inner Nerd. Why not come and join us instead? See for yourself this unique venture into vegetable gardening and admire the best view in Kent …. well unless you climb to the top of the Tower that is.
Louise – Senior Vegetable Gardener

Disclaimer: Things will have changed a lot since this was written, so if you visit now do not expect to see things described above. Fruit varieties & placement may have changed as i believe bed layouts have also.

Two go mad in Cambridge Botanical Gardens

Cambridge Botanical Gardens

On a chilly but mostly sunny morning in March I set off Cambridge bound to see a lovely mate who I got to know through Twitter and honestly I'm so thankful I did! On this somewhat random occasion we'd chatted earlier in the week with a vague plan to meet up but no set idea of where we would end up, some of the best plans work this way I've found.

Pete had given me several options to choose from, there were many NGS gardens open nearby but given the chance and having never been there before I opted for the Botanic Gardens.

I've never even been into Cambridge that I remember, I might've when I was younger visited with my parents given how close it is to where I grew up and their propensity to drag us kids round market towns, Abbeys, old churches & suchlike but I honestly can't remember it. So we set off to find the town centre with a promise of the best cake ever & incredible plants.... I wasn't let down on both counts.
One word to the wise though regarding parking, don't!
There is a Park & Ride system operating and I was honestly shocked at how much we were charged for Sunday parking in a multi storey, yes it was convenient but if you can id still advise using the Park & Ride. Its less than a quarter of the cost of parking in the centre, moving on!

Cambridge itself is wonderfully photogenic, giving someone like me so many reasons to be a complete tourist. Apparently I wasn't the only one as even this early in the year it was incredibly difficult to get a completely clear shot. It was at this point I realised that even my usual foolishness had excelled itself and id neglected to charge my camera battery and although it had been reading over half a charge I was rapidly losing power, oops!

So after a few shots of the lanes and other amazing sights I stopped and saved the charge for the plants!

And so we reached the gardens, after an amazing long lunch with the most gorgeous cakes and a hysterical moment involving a waiter and a Tart...you had to be there.


I totally love Botanical Gardens, there's just something about growing a plant in the conditions closest to its natural environment that can be achieved, that challenge, and having all of the scientific information laid out before you that just gets me. Maybe it comes back to my time volunteering in Birmingham Botanical Gardens all those years ago, when I first started out? Maybe its the scientific element? I'm honestly not sure. I know I do love a good label though!

At the entrance I took the opportunity to buy "The Guide". This lays out in a colourful compact form the purposes of the Garden, its history and the plantings included. It will keep me happy to read this on many evenings to come.

View from West walk across the lake towards Henslow Walk

We started meandering around the grounds, Pete being familiar, was my guide for the most beautiful views. Promising me "Trees with knees" we made our way up West walk and then onto Main walk.
There are some lovely well labelled spring pants as you move through what are mostly shrub borders up the West Walk.

Cardamine pentaphyllos syn. Dentaria pentaphyllos (five-leaflet bitter-cress or showy toothwort)

Corylopsis spicata  (winter hazel)

 As you reach Main walk there is an area given over to Redwoods

Metasequoia glyptostroboides (Dawn Redwood) the living fossil

This rather unremarkable looking tree (above) is actually one, alongside the Wollemi pine, of the most exciting botanical discoveries of the last century.

Thought to be extinct and only known from fossil records right up till 1941, the name Metasequoia literally means "like a Sequoia" referring to its leaf shape. Professor T. Kan from the Dept. Of Forestry noticed it near a road in Mou-tao-chi, Szechuan province of China. The locals called it a 'Water fir' and it was incorporated into a shrine. Suffice to say this was botanically speaking a missing link and much excitement was caused worldwide by its discovery!

If you'd like to understand more about this trees history and botanical importance I found this amazing PDF produced by Arnoldia arboretum.Arnoldia arboretum.harvard.edu - Metasequoia (Dawn redwood)

So when you see one of these enormous trees bear in mind that it can only be max. of 80 years old as it was totally unknown to the western world prior to that and  seeds were only collected in 1947.
This tree though at Cambridge is extra special in the fact it was the first grown in England, being only a metre and a half tall in 1952.

Opposite it is the Sequoiadendron  giganteum (Sierra Redwood) I know both these trees as we had them at Hole Park and that's where my appreciation of trees started. The bark of this tree is just lovely! Soft, spongy, its a cuddly tree! Yep, I know this sounds a bit mad but if you ever see one try it!
The first time I saw this tree was on a family holiday, we were at the Gardens of Heligan, traversing the depths of the Jungle with Echium pininana towering above us...

(I totally fell in love with those too, bought one, was warned it wouldn't survive in Birmingham. With the arrogance of the newly qualified, I totally ignored that and planted it out to see it get swamped by 2 Ft of snow that winter! It had grown to 6 Ft with a trunk the thickness of my arm, every morning for a week I went out and checked it but the damage was done. It rebranched, giving me 4 flower spikes that reached about 9-10ft. Not too shabby and made my neighbours ask questions! I digress though!)

... I had noticed this enormous tree towering above everything surrounding it and excitedly pointed it out to my dad, who up until then had been the tree authority of the family. "Dad! I think that's a Giant Redwood!" He looks up, squints, shades his eyes with his hand and says with confidence "No, its probably a Scotts Pine, you don't get Redwoods in this country". This conversation continued in this theme all through the bottom of the valley. I know my dad and to get him to acquiesce to ANYTHING you have to build a good reasoned argument and then prove it.
Incidentally this is the tree...
Heligans Redwood
So we climbed the slope of the valley up to the base of the tree, my bull headedness and my dads intractable nature, fully set to both be right, to see the name plate.... My dad to his credit took it with grace. Shock, surprise then delight crossing his face. A pivotal moment in the parent/child relationship, I'm not saying he always defers to me now but he at least listens a lot more.

Then at Hole park we had a specimen only 70-80 years old, enormous! The Sequoiadendron has many common names which does cause confusion, Wellingtonia, Giant Redwood, Sierra Redwood and sometimes Giant Sequoia. They're ALL the same tree.

Perhaps the most famous one though is General Sherman the largest of its type and estimated to be over 3000 years old.

Here's a link to some great facts from Kew...Sequoiadendron giganteum - giant redwood
There's also the "Drive through" Tree, the Chandalier Tree. A redwood you can drive through. I found this cool Youtube video this guy took of him doing it... I apologise if I start over using the word cool at this point, if you watch the video you will understand why. Its just some Random guy who is driving around selling cars but actually he does a good job of documenting the surrounding area and the tree itself.... Pretty cool!
The vid is around 10 mins long and the tree itself starts at about 7 mins in but watch the whole thing if you have time.... Its totally cool...
Chandalier Tree video
On the pic below you can see a few holes a woodpecker has drilled into the bark, this bark is also a perfect substrate to wire epiphytic Orchids up to.

Sequoiadendron giganteum

Sequoiadendron giganteum

We started heading down Main walk, past the "trees with knees" which it turns out are members of the  Taxodioideae family (as is the Metasequoia) which is a sub family of Cupressaceae which has 7 sub families. Towards the rock garden which is located just beside the Glasshouses, approached via Henslow walk.

Paeonia clusii, found only on the islands of Crete and Rhodes (ssp. rhodia)

 

Cherry trees in flower on the main lawn

Cherry trees in flower on the main lawn

Given the opportunity I will always head straight for the Glasshouses in any given garden, these are my "Glittery Fish". The place where the exotic, tropical, spectacular, often rare collections are kept. The Glasshouses themselves are wonderful creations built in 1860 and having undergone massive restoration works in the last five years.
They consist of a main corridor that connects 6 different environments and a 7th separate area the is dedicated to the plants that grew prior to flowers becoming a method of propagation.

On entering the corridor we were greeted by a gorgeous Strelitzia reginae, native of South Africa but has successfully naturalised in many parts of the world that offer a similar climate. Interesting fact, they produce no windblown pollen, great news for those of you that suffer from hayfever, and are reputed to be pollinated almost exclusively by Sunbirds. First introduced to Europe in 1773 at Kew, a search reveals there is a hybrid called Strelitzia kewensis (S. reginae and S. augusta) but the name is unresolved and very little information on it is available online. There is also a dwarf form available which is far more suited to a domestic situation.

Strelitzia reginae syn. parviflora (Bird of paradise)

 The first room in the Glasshouse which is called "Continents apart" houses the South African & Australasian collection.

Gasteria flower, commonly mistaken for Aloes are from the same family and look very similar

Aloe plicatilis (Fan Aloe) only tree-aloe native to Fynbos habitats

 

polygala fruticosa (butterfly or sweet pea bush)

 This native (above) of South Africa has literally driven me mad, this plant alone has taught me to ALWAYS take a picture of the label! Ive only ever seen it 3 times previously. Once in Barcelonas Botanical gardens, once at Sissinghurst and once in a cafe in Rhodes (absolutely gorgeous cafe stuffed with beautiful plants!). The 2 times I saw it with the label at Barcelona & Sissinghurst I thought to myself "i'll remember that".... didnt'..... with the one at Sissinghurst I cockily thought "well i'll always be able to come and see it if I forget"... moved to a new job.... Lesson now thoroughly learnt!
I also learnt another fact checking lesson on this trip which I won't forget in a hurry but i'll get to that in a moment...

calothamnus rupestris (mouse ears or cliff/granite net-bush) Myrtacea family endemic to S.W. of Western Australia

 

Callistemon spp. possibly citrinus or viminalis, no label available (Bottlebrush)

kennedia rubicunda (dusky coral pea) is as its common name suggests a member of the Fabeacea family, climber.

Aloe ferox (Cape aloe)

Aloe ferox (Cape aloe)

Cordyline stricta flowers, syn. Dracena stricta.

And so room one completed, sufficient "ooh's" & "aah's" given we returned to the "Corridor of Delights!"... Ok thats not its official name but it should be.
First to catch our eye was this delightful and delicate climber from the Canary islands, such an unusual colour.
Then very quickly my eye was drawn to what at first glance looked like a giant Ageratum! (it wasnt of course!) Standing as tall as me, so not that tall, just over 5ft and festooned with fluffy lilac powder puffs the size of my hand. The leaves are covered in a soft down too. We scrambled round underneath for the label, it was a Eupatorium! Ive grown Eupatorium purpurea in my own garden before its lovely and completely hardy but this Mexican export is something special, Eupatorium atrorubens.
Strangely though there was very little information available on this plant online, so a quick search on this plant came up with an entirely different name for it, Bartlettina sordida, not quite so pleasant a name. Apparently though this is the current classification according to the internet. Its considered an invasive weed in Australia & New zealand, this makes me wonder if this was the plant my mum described as a large Ageratum when she returned from Aus. after visiting relatives?
Ive left it labelled below as Cambridge Bot. Gardens has labelled it although there were a few occasions whilst looking around I did wonder how often they checked their own labelling as I came across a few that seemed a bit ...odd?

Canarina canariensis (Canary Island bellflower or Bicácaro)

Canarina canariensis (Canary Island bellflower or Bicácaro )

Eupatorium atrorubens (thoroughwort/purple torch/blue mist flower)

Eupatorium atrorubens (thoroughwort/purple torch/blue mist flower)

 Into room two, this is described as being the Oceanic Islands, so includes a lot of plants from the Canary Islands. Below is Echium hierrense, this rare Echium species is found growing only on the Canary Island of El Hierro.
This plant beautifully demonstrates what I was saying in my previous blog, I can find no common name for it due to its rarity. You may have noticed that on all my pics ive been including the common name/s in brackets, some have 2 or 3, most confusing! Common names are fun but they are just nicknames not real names...Ok soapbox moment over!

Echium hierrense (no common name known)

 Below is a totally lovely Euphorbia but sadly we couldnt find its label, a real shame. The Euphorbia family is MASSIVE! I remember from my Taxonomy course at Oxford being shown 2 books one was basically a pamphlet that was the Ginko family, the other was a tombe of magnificent proportions. Easily 4 inches thick, this was all of the known Euphorbias!
So, I thought I'd be clever and Google search "Euphorbia Canary Islands", I'll cut the suspense, the answer was no. The Euphorbia canariensis is what most people would think of as a cactus or succulent type plant. There is a possibility that its Euphorbia balsamifera but I'm loathe to say this for definite.

Then back to the "Corridor of Delights" for a Calistemon, this one below is the one you see most commonly grown in the UK and my Dad had one growing as a standard for several years near Durham till the wind snapped it and in a fit of pique he threw it on the compost without taking cuttings. I shall say no more on this matter....

Calistemon citrinus var. splendens (Crimson Bottlebrush)

Into room 3, this is the Mountains environment. Previously known as the Alpine house, includes many of the beautiful little specimens you would expect but also held a few surprises for me. 

Saxifraga sempervivum (no common name)

Particularly a Pleione, a type of Orchid reffered to as the Peacock Orchid. I'm not sure why I always think of Orchids as growing in hot, humid jungles. A lot do but equally we have several species in the UK which grow predominantly in grasslands and one almost mythical species with the romantic name of the Ghost Orchid, Dendrophylax lindenii .
Heres a link to the site otherwise I'll wind up going completely off topic again...
Ghost orchid project

Back on track, I checked up on the name given for this Pleione ('Vesuvius') sadly it seems its not entirely correct. I even went so far as to ask Twitter and had a few Orchid experts respond. Apparently its very prone to crossing so although it may have been acquired as one variety it seems its not but also im unable to pin down what it is exactly but a rose by any other name... or Orchid...etc.
Pleione Vesuvius is a cross made by Ian Butterfield and was registered in 1978 (Pleione bulbocodioides x Pleione x confusa) but this is not Vesuvius.
Plieones natural habitats are the foothills of mountain ranges in as varied places as the Himalayas, India, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and China.

Pleione 'not Vesuvius'  (Peacock Orchid.)

 

§ Rhododendron rarum (no common name) Papaya New Guinea

 

Primula x pubescens 'Verity's violet' (Garden auricula)

Whenever I see the Corydalis shanginii subsp. ainii, below, my head insists on singing the theme tune to the 'Banana splits' (showing my age!). This is a tuberous plant from Kazakhstan, there is very little online information on this plant so I'm afraid thats all I can tell you.

Corydalis shanginii subsp. ainii (no common name)

Corydalis shanginii subsp. ainii (no common name)

 

Tulipa humilis var. pulchella 'Albocaerulea Oculata' (No common name)

 

Tulipa acuminata (Horned tulip) of Garden origin first recorded in 1700's

  

cyclamen persicum (No common name) parent to the Florists Cyclamen, native to Turkey

 

cyclamen persicum (No common name) parent to the Florists Cyclamen, native to Turkey

Corydalis solida  syn. C. halleri, C. transsylvanica (solid-rooted fumewort)

 It may be worth pointing out at this juncture that Latin names are not infallible as you will sometimes see (as above) the qualifier 'Syn.' after the Latin name. This means that the plant has for one reason or another been known at some point under another name. This plant Corydalis solida was first named way back in 1753 by Linneaus who called it Fumaria bulbosa 'Solida' . It was then reclassified in 1771 as Fumaria solida by Philip Miller.
To further confuse and blind us with science it was reclassified in 1811 to the Corydalis genus where it has remained since by   Joseph Philippe de Clairville
Its worth understanding though that these name changes are not for fun and have a basis in science and furthering our knowledge and understanding of the plants origin and lineage. Each time a name is changed its because some new discovery has been made about it. These revisions eventually lead back further in time to the common ancestor and help us understand not only how a species evolves but also how our world has evolved.

Saxifraga 'South down star'

 Above 'of garden origin' Saxifraga

iscod blog

iscod blog

Saxifraga federici-augusti ssp. grisebachii 'Wisley'		Pollen
Saxifraga 'Cecilia'		Seedling

Melasphaerula ramosa (no common name)

Melasphaerula ramosa (no common name)

This lovely little member of the Iridacea family has given me a bit of a headache in some ways. Melasphaerula ramosa it seems has many synonyms and very little information online other than it is native to Namibia & Cape province. It is also the only Species in the Genus Melasphaerula but confusingly, for me anyway, it seems to be quite variable in its flowers appearance? This may require a bit more looking into for me to understand...

Synonymy

• Gladiolus ramosus L. , Sp. Pl .: 37 (1753).
• Phalangium ramosum (L.) Burm.f. , Fl. Indica, Prodr. Fl. Cap .: 3 (1768).
• Gladiolus gramineus Lf , Suppl. Pl .: 95 (1782).
• Diasia graminifolia DC. , Bull. Soc. Philom. Paris 3: 151 (1803).
• Diasia iridifolia DC., Bull. Soc. Philom. Paris 3: 151 (1803).
• Melasphaerula graminea (Lf) Ker Gawl. , Bot. Mag. 17: t. 615 (1803).
• Melasphaerula intermediate Sweet , Hort. Brit .: 399 (1826).
• Parviflora Melasphaerula Lodd. , Bot. Cab. 15: t. 1444 (1829).
• Melasphaerula iridifolia Sweet, Hort. Brit., Ed. 2: 502 (1830).
• Diasia intermediate Heynh. , Nom. Bot. Hort .: 261 (1840).
• Diasia parviflora (Lodd.) Steud. ,. Notes Bot., Ed. 2, 1:. 501 (1840)

 

veltheimia bracteata (Forest lily/ Sand lily/Red hot poker - not to be confused with Kniphofia) South Africa

 veltheimia bracteata is an interesting example of how common names can get in the way, one of its common names is Red hot poker. This, I suspect for most of you would conjure up images of Kiphofia's, yes?
Totally unrelated, sorry.
It is one of two distinct plants in this Genus, the other, capensis refers to the Western Cape Province of South Africa where it is endemic. Whereas Veltheimia bracteata is native to the south-eastern Cape Provinces of South Africa. The two can interbreed though if grown together.

The incredibly rare Fritillary below is a threatened species from the Greek Islands
fritillaria tuntasia

fritillaria tuntasia (no common name)

fritillaria tuntasia (no common name)

Just judging by how many pictures I took at this stage I'm guessing you've realised I'm quite partial to the odd alpine plant, yep ok I admit it.
Unfortunately, for me, this was the point on my tour that my camera battery gave up the ghost! Trust me I was kicking myself, especially when I saw what was coming next... but thankfully I had my trusty phone with me and although it was running low as id used it as a Sat. Nav. earlier in the day (seriously, how did we survive before the invention of smart phones? I will never be one of these people who shun technology, my only problem is keeping up with it!) it saved my bacon....again!

So my last pic of the Mountain display was of this beauty below.

Moraea loubseri  (no common name)

On to the next environment that has been so carefully laid out by the people at Cambridge, this is what killed me about my battery dying, a particular love of mine. The Tropical Rainforest enviroment. We were greeted by a huge variety of Passiflora species, Orchids, Ficus and Thunbergia. Vines criss crossing the ceiling, the humidity which I adore but my hair hates. I was like a kid in a sweet shop!
Bear with me, we're on the home strech here people!
I turn the corner and let out a squeal, unnerving a lovely couple nearby, you see I'd recently come across a must see plant for my bucket list. I say recent, 5 years or so is recent, right?

Before me lay the beautiful, wonderful Strongylodon macrobotrys, otherwise known as the Jade vine. Id recently read a peice at Liverpools Croxteth Hall flowering vine that apparently hadn't flowered for 40 years!
Liverpool news watch rare plant flowers
The article doesnt say why it hadn't flowered for so long? Maybe cultural conditions weren't right? Its a native of the Phillipines so maybe they werent able to replicate the conditions needed until now or maybe its just been so supremely happy growing there it didnt feel the need to try to reproduce until now?
Even at Kew though they struggled to get a flowering plant to produce viable seed until 1995, Pete my guide offered up a little gem of information on this one. In its native habitat bats would be key to pollination. Obviously in England this option isnt readily available but apparently rats are capable of successfully replicating this system. Hand pollination though is the more normal method of producing viable seed, Chrissie Prychid at Kew used hand pollination to get the jade vine in the Palm House to make pods for the first time in over thirty years.
There are several of these marvellously otherworldly plants in the UK, Kew, Cambridge and Eden as well as Croxteth Hall's and I'm sure there are more, as yet unknown to me .

Strongylodon macrobotrys (Jade vine)

Strongylodon macrobotrys (Jade vine)

Strongylodon macrobotrys (Jade vine)

Strongylodon macrobotrys (Jade vine)

There were absolutely masses more interesting and worthwhile plants worth talking about but I fear I may have talked quite enough already! So I shall leave you with a last two amazing ones. Hopefully this will inspire you to visit yourselves!
Also in the Tropical Rainforest enviroment was this gem, Clerodendrum thomsoniae

Clerodendrum thomsoniae  (Bleeding Heart Vine or
Glory Bower)

Clerodendrum thomsoniae, native to tropical west Africa from Cameroon west to Senegal. The sweetest thing perhaps about this plant was it was named at the request of Rev. William Cooper Thomson (1829-22 March 1878), a missionary and physician in Nigeria, in honor of his late first wife. It was a popular during the 1800's under the name "beauty bush" but the knowledge of how to grow it successfully was for some reason lost, so it became seen as a "difficult" plant. In reality its needs are actually simple, its root system needs to be submerged in water for a good proportion of the year and it needs good light.

and finally, my ultimate lesson for the day!
Below is Petrea volubilis syn. Petrea kahautiana, Petrea arborea, Petrea aspera or common names are Queen's Wreath, Purple Wreath, Sandpaper Vine, Bluebird Vine.
and my lesson was... Never, ever tweet without fact checking first! I was very lucky that the correction was extremely gently worded and I was very grateful for it.
To be fair I normally do fact check but on this occasion I blythely went with the label at the base of the plant which if I'd stopped for even a second and thought about I may have realised was a little off! The label confidently announced the plant was a member of the Legume family (its clearly not). When I first started learning nomenclature this family was still being referred to as Papilionaceae(ie: like a butterfly) this then changed to Leguminosae (ie: like a pea) it now, to my knowledge has changed to Fabaceae as they have found through DNA testing that it is a Monophyletic group.... wait....I'm going off track again!
Heres a link that explains it better than I do
Fabaceae

So, back on track, Petrea volubilis is native to South America's lush tropical rain forests but can cope with a few cultural stresses. Making it a popular shrub in a more domestic situation. I dont think I've ever encountered a plant with more synonyms!
36, that I counted!
Its also been introduced very successfully to parts of Western Africa.

Petrea volubilis (Queens wreath)

Petrea volubilis (Queens wreath)

Petrea volubilis (Queens wreath)

Petrea volubilis (Queens wreath)

I havent covered the remaining rooms in the Glasshouse or even touched on the grounds themselves either historically or planting wise, maybe I'll come back to that at a later date?
If you are curious though yourselves Cambridge have a rather lovely website thats full of information and for the user works really well.
Cambridge Botanical Gardens
I would highly reccomend a visit though!