THE FRIENDS OF THE CRUICKSHANK BOTANIC GARDEN Newsletter January 2015 In this issue :- • The Spring programme • Dates for the diary • Garden words and notes • Japanese plants, part 2 • The Herb Series: Wintergreen • Reports of a recent talk: Cluny House Garden • Urgent—treasurer/membership secretary required 1 Friends of the Cruickshank Botanic Garden Programme Spring 2015 Meetings are held on Thursdays in the Biological and Environmental Sciences Building, University of Aberdeen, Tillydrone Avenue at 7.30pm February 12 Gardens at height: exploring and discovering the flora of tropical forests above ground. Vicky Tough, Canopy International March 12 Honey bees - fascinating, important and threatened. John Cooper, Aberdeen District Beekeeper’s Association April 9 Annual General Meeting at 7pm followed by Treboth Botanic Garden Nigel Brown, Curator, Treborth Botanic Garden, Bangor May 9 (Saturday) Plant Sale in the Garden 10.30 - noon. May 14 The living collection (The Noel Pritchard Memorial Lecture) David Rae, Director of Horticulture, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh Soft drinks, wine and nibbles to follow. Note that Tillydrone Road is closed northbound until late February, so you should drive to our usual university car park by turning on to Don Street from Great Northern Road, turn right on to Hayton Road once over the railway bridge then right at the T junction on to Tillydrone Road. Subscriptions 2015 A pink subscription form is enclosed for Friends who pay annual membership (i.e. those who continue to choose not to have a standing order with their bank, or are not life members) The treasurer would appreciate payment as soon as convenient. HOWEVER Could you please consider paying by a Standing Order from your bank. It saves you the bother of cheques and postage and greatly eases the Treasurer’s work. Just ask him for a Standing Order form, which can be posted or E-mailed to you. You can cancel this payment at any time simply by advising your bank. You will find the treasurer’s address on the back page. 2 More dates for the diary The Scottish Rock Garden Club, Aberdeenshire Branch Meetings are usually on Tuesdays at 7.30pm at Rubislaw Church Centre, Fountainhall Road. Guests and visitors will be warmly welcomed. www.srgc.net Sat. February 21 Scottish Rock Garden Club ‘Early Bulb Day’ in the Victoria Hall, Dunblane. Aberdeen SRGC Group are arranging a day trip and Friends are welcome to join them. Kit Strange of RBG Kew will be speaking and there will be displays of bulbs and alpines in flower, with many for sale. Soup, sandwiches and teas are available at the hall. The coach will leave at 7.30am from the Airyhall Library, Springfield Road and return around 6.30pm costing £12 per person. To reserve your place please telephone Ian or Margaret Young Tel: 01224 318617 or e-mail: [email protected] with your name and contact details. February 24 Michael Almond In the mountains of Circassia March 31 Anton Edwards Making a Rock Garden April 28 Ian Alexander The people in our garden May 16 Annual Spring Show in the Duthie Park Victorian Corridor Royal Horticultural Society, Aberdeen Meetings are usually on Tuesdays at 7.30pm in the Girls Brigade Hall, 19a Victoria St. February 3 Jim Henderson Sowing seeds in the greenhouse February 27 Quiz night in the Cloverleaf Hotel, Bucksburn March 3 Rex Findlay Photographing flowers March 21/22 Spring Show in the Winter Gardens, Duthie Park Free admission from 10.30am to 4.30pm on Saturday and 10am to 3.30pm on Sunday. Entries for most classes are open to all and full details can be found on their website: http://sites.google.com/sites/rhsofaberdeen/home Garden opening times October to March, open daily from 9.00 to 16.30 April to September, open daily from 9.00 to 19.00 closed between December 24 and January 6 3 Cruickshank notes, late December 2014 Another year has flown by and as I write these notes in a brief languid interval in the hectic schedule of Christmas and New Year celebrations, days are already lengthening and signs of resurgent growth can be seen. In my garden a witchhazel, Hamamelis mollis ‘Pallida’ has just opened its first flowers, a Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ has been flowering since mid-October and shoots of many different bulbs - iris, snowdrops, narcissus and even some trilliums - are clearly visible. Catkins are well advanced on alder, hazel and birch and it is all too easy to imagine on a mild day that Spring is on the way, though as we know there is still a long way to go. Personally I would vote for a short, sharp winter to help reduce the pest populations - we had significantly more aphids this summer after the mild winter, then followed by the next three seasons in the right order! Having sneaked into the Cruickshank Garden from a neighbouring garden I was working in, I will start my tour in the Rock Garden, where the absence of leaves on the deciduous trees gives a curiously light and airy feel despite the lowness of the sun. The overall mildness this autumn has encouraged some plants to continue flowering and others to produce an unseasonal flurry of bloom. There are groups of pink Schizostylis coccinea, a South African iris relative and much hardier than normally claimed, a Daphne retusa – normally spring flowering - is covered in fragrant flowers, a group of yellow primulae clearly think it is Spring and the evergreen shrub Viburnum tinus is covered with clusters of small pinky-white blooms. The area in the northwest corner of the Rock Garden has been largely cleared providing a fine opportunity for replanting and I look to the delights that will hopefully flourish there. The three dawn redwoods, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, in the bed at the south east corner of the Rock Garden are showing off their pleasing twisted trunks and general elegance, whilst beneath them the marbled leaves of Cyclamen hederifolium merit attention. Next year’s fat flower buds are clearly visible on the rhododendrons in the shady southern border, promising a fine show in late Spring. The catkins on the Californian evergreen Garrya elliptica, just to the right of the gateway through the wall at the bottom of the Rock Garden, are a good 15cm. long, whilst against the wall on the other side of the gate Mahonia x media ‘Charity’ has already finished flowering, leaving long spikes of developing seeds. Further along this wall, the Killarney strawberry tree, Arbutus unedo - a native of the Mediterranean and south west Ireland, is covered with small white bells to be followed by (not very) strawberry-like red fruits. So mild had the Autumn been when I visited the garden, that the spectacular South African shrub, Melianthus major, with its large silver-grey pinnate leaves has actually produced spikes of dark crimson flower buds, though whether they will open fully is doubtful. The formerly splendid Chilean fire bush, Embothrium coccineum, near the summer house still looks mysteriously ill - fingers crossed for its recovery! This is a magnificent sight when covered with its profuse scarlet flowers and can flourish as far inland as Kildrummy garden but not, unfortunately, despite a fair few 4 attempts, at Craigievar. In the bed at the east end of the Sunken Garden the splendid winter-flowering and very fragrant Daphne bholua, is already scenting the air. This is a lovely, evergreen shrub flourishing in town in a reasonably sheltered and sunny spot. Specimens I planted at Craigievar have twice succumbed in severe winters, but there is a deciduous and reputedly very hardy form, D. bholua var. glacialis ‘Gurkha’ which offers me hope. The hedges round the Rose Garden look straight out of a textbook, beautifully trim and shapely, tapering gently from base to apex whilst the charms of the species rich ‘ancient’ hedgerow, which runs from the weeping elm to the pond, are altogether more rugged, if no less effective. All in all, it is a time to enjoy the shapes, structures and architecture of gardens as much as the individual plants and to plan exciting innovations for the coming year, while enjoying the illusion of control that the close season brings. David Atkinson Schizostylis coccinea, ‘Viscountess Byng’ Scraperboard drawing by Hazel Carnegie 5 Words from the Garden—Japanese Plants Part 2 Carrying on from my last article in the July issue I decided to do further research on Japanese gardens. It was quite amazing to discover that the whole concept of the traditional Japanese moss garden was developed over a number of centuries. Every plant and artefact chosen has its own spiritual aspect and each different element leads to the whole. Water: Japanese gardens always have a pond or stream, or use white sand in a dry rock garden to represent flowing water. One arrangement is that it should flow from the East, home of the Green Dragon to the West, home of the White Tiger, to ensure good fortune. Another is for water to flow from the North which represents water to the South representing fire, so that the two opposites are balanced as in Ying and Yang and thus good luck. Rocks and Sand: In older Japanese Gardens, particularly those designed in the Heian period [794-1185] we see sophisticated use of rock and sand. Vertical rocks represent Mount Horai, legendary home of the eight immortals. Flat stones represent the earth and can be in the design of a beach, flowing water or clouds. Manicured lawns and moss gardens add to the overall effect to encourage contemplation. Garden Bridges: These gradually became popular in later years.