Garden Visit: Parham Hall, Woodbridge, Suffolk

Details

Written by: Mavis Smith

Hits: 4256

8th September{module Garden Visit: Parham Hall, Woodbridge, Suffolk}

Photos by Chris Davies

This was a garden visit full of surprises, as we progressed through the garden it just got better and better.

At first, parking beside of a large sandstone house, I thought ‘This is strange, where is the grand entrance’.  This was soon explained by our hostess. The property was inherited by Sue and Adam Paul in 1972. Sue explained that less than half of the original Hall remained, the front half having been demolished many years ago. The boundary and foundations of the larger hall were clearly visible after this very hot dry summer, and the previous formal garden was no longer adjacent to the remaining house.

 Sue and Paul’s initial problems were to make the remaining ‘back end’ of the original hall into a respectable house and to redesign the garden area. The reconfigured house was surrounded by extensive lawns, some close cropped, others were wild areas. It was almost parkland with many splendid ancient trees, all looking in good health and with beautiful shapes. Obviously, some have had to be removed and there are now many new plantings to take their place. Around the house there are now borders and a terraced area. A series of island beds have been planted some distance from the house, mainly bergenias, euphorbias and stipa gigantea. A Lutyens bench was surrounded by beautiful pink double cosmos. Many of us vowed to grow more cosmos next year.

We wended our way through the trees and came to a door in a brick wall. Inside, one could immediately appreciate the beautifully planted walled garden. The entire area of around ¾ acre was surrounded by a lovely mellow red brick crinkle crankle wall, apart from one area that was open to a pond.

At the centre was a large medlar with a circular bench around its base. From here paths radiated out to divide the garden into four quadrants. The central path was a covered arch of vines and roses. At right angle to this the paths were lined with apple and pear cordons. One half of the garden consisted of a grassed orchard of apple, plum and pear trees. The other half was devoted to vegetables, soft fruit and flowers for cutting. Many varieties of vegetables are grown including jet-black tomatoes, cape gooseberries and a very attractive row of the brown flowered Amaranthus cruentus. The concave areas of the walls were planted with trained fruit trees – pears, figs, cherries, peaches, kiwi and even a pomegranate.

A range glasshouse along the south wall housed grapevines and a selection of peppers. In the south wall another door led into a frame yard. The frames were mainly empty at this time of the year. A ‘bothy’ backed onto the south wall, where all the tools were still housed, many of them antique and well oiled, there were racks of clay pots, an old soil steriliser and raffia for tying. On the opposite wall was a glasshouse below ground level, reminiscent of a pineapple pit, but now so useful for storing plants needing winter protection.

Yet another entrance in the east wall led to another small walled area planted with herbs around the wall with a formal diamond design central area. One final door led into a converted byre where there was tea, coffee and a wonderful spread of cakes and sandwiches. I had been so interested in the garden that I had forgotten that refreshments were included in the visit!

Mavis Smith

Indoor meeting: Talk by Joe Sharman on 'Variegation'

Details

Written by: Chris Davies

Hits: 4296

13th January 2018

Joe said the organisation of variegated tissues in plant cells can be seen through a microscope. This is where variegation starts from.

It can be caused through environmental conditions, viruses, pattern gene variegation, chimera, of which there are several kinds, and transposons, ( or switching genes).

Joe showed a range of slides of plants illustrating variations on variegation sources and patterns.

Variegation starts in individual cells, at an early stage of cell division, and the same variegation multiplies as that cell divides.

White variegation contains no chlorophyll and these cells are smaller than cream or yellow ones, containing a little chlorophyll, and these are a little smaller than green ones, so that when a white  layer of tissue, overlays a green layer, or a green layer is bordered by a white layer, as in variegated leaves, the leaves may be puckered or twisted.

Each layer of tissue in a leaf may be differently pigmented from the others, and this will show as different shades at the surface. The absence of chlorophyll may also affect the proper shape of the leaf because of the cell size differential.

Frost, sunburn, chemical effects and access to specific mineral nutrients can also cause superficial variegation. This will alter in new leaves when those conditions change and wouldn’t be passed on to seeds, or remain in cuttings.

Viruses in cells can cause a range of variegation, some of which is considered decorative. This is subjective. The existence of a virus can be proved if it transmits to another plant.

Pattern gene variegation is controlled by chromosomes in the cell nucleus. This is a source of silver variegation, when the layers of the leaves become separated, and is most often seen in shade-loving plants.

Red and purple colours come from anthrocyanins, when present in the cells. These colours are not linked to the chlorophyll variegation, so are selected separately by nurserymen.

A chimera is composed of more than one form of DNA, Joe compared this to cancer in humans, but in plants it is not necessarily life-threatening. This does not necessarily cause variegation in plants. 

Variegation from complete layers of cells is more stable than when the variegation has started from wedges of colours, as in stems.

Examples of sectorial chimeras were Euonymous and Acer negundo ‘ Flamingo’. This creates an unstable chimera, in which reversion to green is likely, and will grow at the expense of the variegated tissues.

Monocotyledons plants produce their variegation from a linear row of cells, which, as they divide to lengthen the leaf will maintain the variegation that each started with.

Transposons are genes which can be ‘ switched’ on or off, and will cause one of two colours at any one time. They are capable of switching during the cell’s lifetime. He showed a plant with finely speckled all over variegation as an example.

Another example was a dahlia with some petals entirely white whilst the others were entirely red, due to a gene switch in relevant petals when they were composed of only one cell. 

 Joe explained what seeds of different variegations were capable of.

Transposons always produce seedlings with transposons.

A seed from a variegated plant will be capable of producing a  seedling of the colour carried by it. Seeds carrying no chlorophyll- producing capacity may grow an embryonic root, but not a viable plant.

Joe said that in Britain and in Japan, variegated forms of wild plants could always be found.

 This was our longest talk ever 2hr 10min.

Chris Davies

Indoor Meeting: Talk by Jim Payne 'Celebrating Winter'

Details

Written by: Chris Davies

Hits: 3832

9th December 2017

Jim noted that this was a small specialist nursery of 20 years standing and their catalogue was only available on their internet web “shop”, or as plants in the RHS Plantfinder.

They grew 1200 to 1500 plant varieties, including roses, and were specialists in flowering crab-apples and dogwoods.

Unusually but very usefully, Tim showed a diagram of the Earth’s movement around the Sun, showing it’s inclination, and clearly demonstrating the way sunlight falls on Earth through the seasons, because Earth’s axis is tilted towards the North Star, so tilts away and towards the Sun according to the section of it’s orbit. The angle alters the concentration of light falling on any part of the planet, giving long shadows in Winter.

Photosynthesis slows when there is less light, so leaf contents are partially reabsorbed by the plant, allowing other pigments to show through, creating the autumn tints.

Gardeners may take advantage of the leaf fall to assess the shape of trees and shrubs, with regard to pruning and training.

Jim considered four aspects of plants for the garden:- Fruit and wildlife, Bark, Flowers, and Evergreens.

He listed the qualities of a number of Crab apples, noting their attraction for Fieldfare and other birds, moving on to describe the relationship of a number of seeds to the bird species gardeners might expect to see.

Several varieties of trees, including Betula, Prunus and Acer species were recommended for their Winter bark, then Winter- flowering shrubs, finishing with the evergreen ones, a number of which were highly scented, such as Sarcococca and Chimonanthus praecox.

Jim then continued to describe the flowers of late Winter, moving into Spring, depending on the weather, including Helleborus, the small Irises, such as reticulata and its varieties, and Hepaticas.

He recommended a visit to Cambridge Botanic Gardens in Winter.

Finally, a list of Winter gardening jobs was described, with some information and reminders about our changing climate.

( See the full write-up in the next Newsletter.)

Chris Davies.