Chilli Herb bouquet - display and then eat (with care...)

We've recently created a stunning, edible posy made entirely of chilli's & herbs grown on the estate. The posy (pictured here) contains: Chilli’s – Sage – Bay – Rosemary & Pepperleaf (Drymis).

The posy makes a beautiful table decoration and can then be hung in a kitchen and dried giving a unique, natural source of herbs (and heat!) to enhance your cooking. We will be offering this through the website and selected stockists.

We really think this is something a little different and besides making a nice gift has to be the ultimate in vegetable recycling!

Hairybikers freewheelin' at Tregothnan

Two of the friendliest motorbike riders you could ever meet visited Tregothnan earler in the year and enjoyed a tea sampling with Jonathon Jones our garden director.

Having tried all the teas in the range they continued their Cornish journey to Kevin Viners restaurant and used Tregothnan Earl Grey tea to create a superb dish with locally caught scallops. The BBC2 TV programme sparked a flurry of interest despite appearing in the early evening. We would love to include a link to the BBC iplayer but it has unfortunately been taken down.

Getting high with Tregothnan tea

James Wong the presenter of the popular BBC2 series recently came and filmed on the estate.

Despite a touch of rain & grey Cornish cloud, James was keen to see the tea plantation & use the Pepperleaf we grow. Despite a long day the production crew were successfully revived with pasties, tea and freshly made chocolates.

Look out for his new series in the Autumn.

Probably the UK's largest garden opening...

Following the success of this Springs charity garden weekend, Tregothnan announced that its 2010 event would take place on the 10th & 11th of April. With in excess of £20,000 raised at this years event, next years nominated charity the 'Precious Lives' appeal is hoping to enjoy the same level of support as the 'Seafarers'. For full details of the event and how to book a ticket please click here.

Reevesia -
A very rare tree and the first time in decades that it has flowered at Tregothnan- possibly the only one in UK?

Herbal tea sales take buzz out of coffee

The following article appeared in the Financial Times on July 12 2009 regarding the growth of tea sales:

Tea sales are rising after decades of decline as people abandon pricey cappuccinos and buy more green and herbal teas for their alleged health benefits.

“The decline has stopped,” said William Gorman, chairman of the UK Tea Council, adding that the tea market was expected to grow by 3 per cent this year, with speciality teas likely to boost sales by as much as 25 per cent. “[People] are waking up to the fact that tea is mostly water and antioxidants.”

“There’s no reason to think demand won’t keep on growing,” said Katy Tubb, director of tea buying and blending at Tetley. “The question is whether supply will keep up with that ... We’re not seeing a lot more land planted out for tea.”

Peter Unsworth, chief executive of Tetley, said rising global tea consumption, particularly in Asia, was pushing up global demand. “This is having an impact on the short-term supply-demand balance and is driving up tea prices.”

Mr Unsworth said he was not worried if price increases became permanent since tea was still cheap relative to other drinks.

Jonathan Jones, garden director at Tregothnan Estate, which has launched a range of what it says are the first teas grown in England, said people once again saw good quality tea as an “affordable luxury”. When the Cornwall estate launched its English Estate Teas at the Chelsea Flower Show in May, “our entire week’s stock sold out in the first day”, Mr Jones said.

Rising demand for green and herbal teas is encouraging producers of black tea – the industry term for the commonplace brew – to diversify. Unilever, which buys 12 per cent of the world’s black tea, last year expanded the green tea range in PG tips and launched a range of fruit and herbal teas under the Lipton brand.

Dr Stuart’s, an independent group with £2m in annual sales, said Tesco stocked four lines of its herbal teas in about 700 stores and was considering distributing them in its Tesco Express stores.

Tesco, which confirmed it was expanding distribution of Dr Stuart’s, said overall tea sales were rising by 3 per cent year-on-year, with green tea the fastest-growing.

Darren Williams, tea buyer at Fortnum & Mason, said while the retailer’s green and white teas accounted for less than 5 per cent of total tea sales, it was selling twice as much of these teas today as a year ago. Overall, tea sales are up 20 per cent on last year.

To read the full article or to subscribe to the FT - please click here...

Chelsea 2009

Tregothnan enjoyed a very busy show, enjoying an amazing amount of publicity with our Manuka honey. Interest from the media was intense with radio interviews with BBC Radio 2 and 4, all major national newspapers and New Zealand television.

Picasa Web Albums - JonB

Picasa Web Albums - JonB

TREGOTHNAN CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW GARDEN
SHOWCASES AT THE AT THE OXO TOWER RESTAURANT


Not able to get a ticket to Chelsea Flower Show? Then don’t fear, the garden from Tregothnan - home to the UK’s first English tea plantation, will be exclusively showcased on the OXO Tower Restaurant balcony from 23 May until the end of June.

Taking inspiration from newsworthy issues the Tregothnan garden will, over the installation period, focus on three different themes: Bees, Teas and Trees.

23 May – 12 June Bees, the extraordinary ‘hive’
Bees: Such a topical subject and important on so many levels, the health of the honey bee is something we should all be considering. Tregothnan is committed to sustaining and developing crucially important natural habitats for bees, the plight of which is well documented. For this garden installation the Tregothnan team have created massive hives, standing over 6ft tall, specially designed for the Tregothnan Chelsea Flower Show garden by Robert Myers, the Chelsea Gold Medallist.
Honey from the Tregothnan gardens set on the Lizard, Cornwall, England’s most southerly point, has long been prized for its heather flavours, and now Manuka Honey, which is reputed for its anti-bacterial, health and healing properties is also being produced on site form Tregothnan’s own Manuka flowers.

THE REST OF THE STORY about the GARDEN IN THE SKY coming soon...

Something for the Weekend - South African style

Another email from Will who ends up working most of the weekend and is rapidly expanding his plant knowledge...

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Last week was plant fair week and was hot and busy and slightly stressful but this week has seen rain and a definite lowering of the temperature - winter is coming....

Monday 9th March-Friday, I, the students and everyone else they could muster started preparations for the plant fair. It really involved moving plants by hand onto tractors and then riding across the road to the stone cottages, which are Botanical society meeting places and then unloading plants into their groups.

We moved hundreds of plants from shade shrubs to trees, water plants to ericas and all this had to be catalogued as well. The sorting and cataloguing was mostly done by the South African Botanical Society who tended to be older women, they were generally nice but a few were very hard to please when moving the plants around. We also had to unload other gardens plants and help construct the display by one of the horticulturists, Louise.

Come the weekend, we then had to man the display and be generally useful to the public so all the students and I did shifts. I was volunteered by Cherise to do Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon. On Saturday morning the gates opened to quite a large queue of people and the plant fair started. It was certainly busy and we had to guide people from taking the plants away from the display and show them were all the plants were kept. It was interesting but I was glad to have the afternoon off. Sunday was quite different as not a lot of people were there so it was nice and quiet. The only final task we had to do was dismantle the display and return the plants back to were they had came from.

Monday 16th March, we had to finishing taking back the remnants of the plant fair, it was fairly easy but it rained quite heavily and was pretty awful. We had a new student arrive from Germany called Lisa.

Tuesday, I went back to work with Adam. We discussed one of the succulents that I bought from the plant fair a Lithops, but nobody is to sure about its species. Adam also gave me a window plant haworthia truncata, which I potted, as well as some other succulents. I then did some maintenance to the greenhouse like getting rid of dead plants, burying pipes, fixing some drainage and weeding outside pots. We then propagated some Sutra that was dying and Adam was desperately trying to save. It has a lovely flower and makes a nice hanging plant. Weatherwise it was oddly quite cold.

Wednesday, the students and I were taught how to prune orthosiphon lobiatus and syncolostemon obermeyerii which are scented herbacious shrubs. We then potted them up as they were horribly pot bound.

Thursday, again pruning and potting up syncolostemon obermeyerii. We then just did pruning of plants like tetradinia reparia and salvia africana-lutea. After lunch we were shown how to scarify Strelitzia seeds with sulphuric acid by one of the horts called Pakhamani. It was very interesting as they were testing how long the seeds go in the acid for, and hopefully I should some of the results before I leave.

Friday, I did the Kiosk duty again just gathering cut flowers, there are some nice ones in bloom like mimetes chrysanthus, aerva leucura, some of the Plectranthus and of course the ericas. Then for the afternoon we made preparations for the Biodiversity expo next week.

This weekend I am off to Cape Town again - hope Cornwall is having a good spring.

Regards

Will Pelton

Kirstenbosch gold & monster plants

In Will's latest posting he get to grips with an Agapanthus monster, looks at how plants respond after a fire and finally gets paid for all his hardwork
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This week has been busy as usual and the last weekend I went to a meeting about the Wollemi Pine. It was extremely interesting but there was worry about when to plant the tree. Unfortunately the feeling at the moment is that the tree is too small and worth too much to risk planting it.

Monday, I worked with Adam in the greenhouse, removing plants from the hardening off bench to the flower beds out side. Plants that are interesting and have perhaps commercial potential in the future are Arctotis, Gazanias, Ursinias and Leonotis "Kirstenbosch gold". Then I tackled an Agapanthus "monster" as described on the label. It was a hybrid and had got very much out of control destroying the seed tray it had once be in and rooting straight into the floor of the greenhouse! I eventually cleared it and salvaged what Adam needed.

On Tuesday, I watered all the plants in the greenhouse apart from the succulents and then went with Graham Duncan "the bulb man" to try and burn some bulbs. The purpose of this exercise was to burn Fynbos vegetation on top of the bulbs soil and so simulate conditions after a fire and cause the bulbs too flower. In 10 weeks we will know if it has worked. We then looked around the bulb house at all the different types of South African bulbs and what was flowering. I carried on with Adam, weeded the greenhouse with Keith who limped due to the fact he was shot in the foot in a ‘shoot-out’ a couple of years ago.

Wednesday, I worked with students and Stella again. We’re still propagating protea family plants like Mimetes cucullatus and Leucospermum cordifolium. Again under Stellas iron handed management we did manage to achieve a lot. Thursday, with other students I worked with Trevor. This time we collected many types of Pelargoniums and learned to propogate them, it was quite tough as some are extremely small and fiddly whilst others are large and bulky. Some of the Pelargoniums I propagated were P.greytonense, P.fruticosum and P.ponduriforme. As we didn't finish all the cuttings some of the students carried onto Friday as well.

Friday, we worked on my house garden, as every Friday at the end of the month is pay day and enjoyably a short day, so we worked on Cherises stock beds which my garden is part of. We had to do some serious clearing as it was a bit over grown but it didn't take too long to clear up and make it look decent. I hope everything is fantastic in the UK, it is definitely starting to get colder here but not that cold. As we are heading for a big thunderstorm soon so I will have to get my waterproofs out.
Regards Will

A friend called Stella

Another week and another posting from Will who finds thats its not all sunshine in the southern hemisphere and finally gets acquainted with 'Stella'.
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Hope all is well and the sky isn't too grey and cloudy and that it is sunny. The Wollemi pine from Tregothnan is finally going to be planted at the Arden public gardens near Kirstenbosch. This contains a collection of Gondwanan trees so the Wollemi will be right at home.

Monday, I again carried on with Adam Harrower. I finally finished cleaning the outside flower beds of his greenhouse and weeded inside. I also potted a variegated form of a plant that hasn't been sold as variegated before. Adam found it in a carpark and maybe it will be used commercialy one day.

Tuesday, I helped Adam sort out some of the plants he has been growing, mostly variegated types which he is trying to stabilise but also some more Angolan plants.

Wednesday, spent the day propagating with one of the propagators called Stella. She can be a little bit intimidating but we learnt and got a lot done. We were mainly propagating plants from the Proteaceae family.

Thursday, it was pretty much the same as Wednesday apart from it rained! The rain was actually quite a relief as it cooled everything down, but trying to get the cuttings made me pretty soaked.

Friday, the students and I had the uneasy task of mulching the stock beds. The stock beds are on a quite steep hill and the compost was at the bottom, luckily it wasn't too hot but it was still very tiring. Then we did our 3rd ID test on some plants from lots of families, and finally we did the next weeks ID walk which is mainly trees from the Fabaceae family but also Polygalas which are confusingly similar too Acacias. This weekend I will get some sleep and hopefully visit the beach at a place called Simons Town near Cape Point.


Regards Will Pelton

(Angolan) Guns and Roses

We've had another email from Will in South Africa - we think he's keeping us so well informed we're letting him post in future, direct to the blog....
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I hope the snow and bad weather has finally cleared up and spring is on the way. Everything here is very good if a little hot per usual.

Monday, I finally met and started work with Adam Harrower, he had recently been on a trip to Angola which is botanically almost unknown. I helped him out with sorting things out and visited the Herbarium. I then helped him with his Greenhouse as it has been left for quite awhile and needed a spring cleaning.

Tuesday, I was with Adam again and he showed me the pictures from his trip which were extraordinary, lots of war wreckage mixed with beautiful wildlife. I then carried on cleaning his Greenhouse and collecting some seeds.

On Wednesday, I worked with the students propagating, Enock one of the propagators walked us around so we could take cuttings of plants like Mimetes Fimbriifolius, Leucospermum Cordifolium, Leucospermum Reflexum and lots of the Proteaceae family. We then propagated them and did some potting up.

On Thursday, we did the same thing but with a different man named Johan and we did more semi-wood shrubs like Orphium Serratus and Hermizygia Canescens. We then took cuttings, propagated them & placed them in the misting room.

Finally on Friday, I helped my house mate Karen who is a scholar from University Redo with the kiosk, the kiosk being a collection of plants which are flowering at the moment. It was hot work but looked pretty good afterwards. We then did the second ID test on Ericas and did the walk around the garden for the next test.

Best wishes

Will

Winter in the Garden

From Cornish Snow to South African Sunshine

After a week when the estate experienced the heaviest snowfall in twenty years and staff struggled to get to work, we had an email from Will Pelton one of our horticulture students who is on a gap year and currently working in South Africa for 6 months:

I hope the snow hasn't hindered you too badly this week, today in Cape Town the temperature was 35c! so I am not particularly missing the uk.

Monday, I started work at the seed bank at Kirstenbosch which collects native plant seeds, cleans them and then half are sent to a seed bank in Pretoria and Half to the Kew millenium seed bank in Wakehurst. So I cleaned some rare Leucodendron seeds and hopefully they will end up back in the UK in Wakehurst.

Tuesday, Some of the seed bank workers, myself and a Brazilian volunteer went on a expedition to Cape Point where the Atlantic and Indian ocean meet. It offered fanatastic views and we found what we think was a Ruschia promontorii which is endangered. Hopefully these seeds are viable and will be cleaned and sent to England.

Wednesday, the students and I started propagation using Plectranthus plants. It was very careful work and time consuming but we propagated a large amount.

Thursday, we carried on propagation doing other plants from the garden particularly semi-wood plants like shrubs. This again was difficult due to the irregular shapes but I think Trevor the manager of it was pleased.

Friday, me and the students weeded and watered the stock beds again until midday under a scorching sun of about 35oc. We then proceeded after lunch to do the plant ID test which I was a little unsure about but hopefully the results aren't too bad. The rest of the afternoon was spent finding out the Ericas we needed to study for the next test.

This weekend I am finally going to central Cape Town to see the waterfront and do a bit of sightseeing. I hope the weather gets better and the garden doesn't suffer too badly.

Best Wishes

Will