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.
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
Thursday, 30 April 2009
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...
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...
Friday, 20 March 2009
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
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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
Friday, 13 March 2009
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
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
Friday, 20 February 2009
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
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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
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