National Botanic Garden of Wales

[Maggi Young]

WOW! see this report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7230639.stm

[Martin Baxendale]

Mmmmm. Reading between the lines, it sounds like good news in the short term, but in the longer term they're relying on the NBGW attracting private investment to keep it going. And of course that always works well for public institutions.

Sorry, of course it's excellent news in the short term and I expect Kristina and the rest of the staff will be pretty pleased.

[Maggi Young]

At least there is a relief of the debt burden..... I can think of a few folk who would welcome that!

[Martin Baxendale]

Me too!! I didn't mean to diminish the impact. I'm sure it'll be very welcome. It's just that there always seems a reluctance these days by government (central or local) to give an open ended total commitment to worthy causes. The aid always comes with a big financial 'but'.

For example, the environmental charity Ivi works for (the only local organization doing environmental projects in and around the town) has just issued warnings of possible redundancy to all staff because the maze that is the charitable grant system and local government funding system is just such a haphazard, chaotic gamble and a constant hand-to-mouth existence that they may be insolvent soon. Ivi has funding for her projects, but there's a shortage of 'core funding' for the organisation itself that means even though she has grant money to do her work, she may not be able to carry it out. Madness!

[Maggi Young]

Grant funding is a minefield......sometimes there is money available.... but only for "capital" projects.....when you're looking to pay the staff .... or vice versa when the roof is falling in..... life's a bitch and then you die.

[apothecary]

Thanks for your congratulations etc.  It has been a long haul and we're all very pleased that it finally seems to be over.  I don't have TV so can't comment on what the press have said, but I'll outline what we've been told over the last few weeks (obviously, we've known for a while but weren't allowed to say anything).

The current funding will apparently pay off our rather substantial overdraft for the first time ever and we will also receive £550,000/year for the first 3 years.  The funding is on a rolling contract so, after 2 years, discussions will begin to decide future funding.  The idea is that the funding should be regularly adjusted to match what we require.  In theory, the Welsh Assembly would look very bad if they then chose to withdraw the basic £550,000 after 3 years and the amount of funding should only increase with time.

Carmarthenshire County Council is also in talks over whether is should  write off a loan it made to us and there was also a bit of extra funding being promised from them at one point, but we don't know if that will come through at present.

At any rate, this isn't the heady heights of the £25million offered to Kew each year or the £7-8mill given to Edinburgh, but it will make a huge difference to us for the time being.

We are actually being promised new gardeners, we may receive a decent living wage for the first time ever and they're even installing an organisational structure in the horti dept. (so far we've all been on the same level regardless of whether we mow the lawns or curate a collection because there wasn't the money to differentiate between us).

Money will still be tight, but so many of the ongoing problems can now begin to be solved so that we can progress more easily.

We are all looking forward to what the future holds.

[apothecary]

16. Springwoods
This is the area that prompted me to join this forum.  It's also the hillside apparently responsible for the frost pocket in the Double Walled Garden.
Springwoods is a relatively small patch of woodland which was part of the original estate.  It isn't an entirely natural woodland and some planting has been done in there in the past, including a selection of hazel cultivars and, of course, up to 46 different varieties of snowdrop all planted in small clumps along the edges of some of the paths.  There is also a significant population of G. nivalis in drifts here and there as well as a large quantity of bluebells.  Hence the name 'Springwoods'.

It's quite pleasant in spite of it's small size and it offers a view over the double walled garden. At some point this woodland may be incorporated into the native Welsh habitats project that is currently in the pipeline.  If it does, all cultivated plants will be removed and other traditional woodland plants may be introduced.  At the moment the area is managed at only the most basic level, but one day it might become quite a sophisticated conservation project.

Unfortunately, Springwoods only enables limited access to those with impaired mobility because of the steep hill and winding paths, but there are plans for better access to other wooded areas across the estate in future.

[apothecary]

17. Auricula Theatre

The Auricula Theatre is another volunteer effort, but this one is likely to be only semi-permanent until the area is properly developed.

Two local volunteers who have their own substantial Primula auricula collection built this little theater in a section of the slip gardens.

Such theatres were apparently a common feature of large estates like this in the 18th century so we hope this is reviving another connection with William Paxton.

Auriculas are displayed here in early spring (I don't think they've gone in quite yet), in clay pots lined up on the shelves to make viewing them far easier than in a garden setting.  During the rest of the year the volunteers responsible, Pat and Robin, display a variety of species from other genera such as Hedera and Ilex amongst others.

Around the theatre Pat and Robin have planted a small parterre with box hedging to be in keeping with tradition.

[apothecary]

18. Double Walled Garden

Oh excitement.  Finally a major garden feature to tell you about.  I've already covered the history of the double walled garden as we know it, so this will be about what we're doing in there today.

First of all, it's worth me pointing out that when archeologists went into the walled garden in the early days of the NBGW they found virtually nothing.  The walls had fallen almost to the ground in many places and the central area was just a patch of scrub that had been used to graze cattle for 40 yrs.  Apart from evidence of two glasshouses and the central dipping pool and cross paths, we have no idea what the original garden would have been like.  We don't know the path layout or what crops were grown.  Many would have seen this as a disadvantage, but I think the NBGW grasped at this opportunity in a way that isn't often seen.  Unusually, we have not restored the walled garden and instead, the planting inside is entirely modern and original.  I personally believe it to be one of the best walled gardens in the country, and I say that from a totally impartial perspective of course.

So, briefly we have:

The original walls restored using traditional lime mortar
The main cross paths and dipping pool restored (It is possible to see the stones of the original ground level about 2-3 feet below the water level in the dipping pool today)
The remains of the Peach House still to be dealt with
The new Tropical House - I'll get to that later
The Colour Corridors which line the main paths that divide the Walled Garden into 4 quadrants
The 4 quadrants each with their own theme
The beds lining the walls around the outer edges of the Walled Garden
A big hole in the wall left for the blasted pear tree that I believe I mentioned before

I will explain most of these in turn, but right now I'm off to get a cup of tea.

[apothecary]

First of all, let me post a rather poor diagram of the walled garden below to make orientation easier.  And then I'll go through the parts in turn.

A. These are the 'slip gardens', the narrow spaces between the walls around 3 sides of the walled garden.  Originally likely to have been used for fruit trees, these are not currently developed.  At the moment the spaces are used for temporary/semi-permanent features like the Auricula Theatre and the occasional sculpture trail, but it is hoped that we can do something really exciting with this space one day.

It's very difficult to decide what to do here.  There have been so many ideas for themes (time-line of plant evolution; colour wheel of plants; plants collected by different explorers etc etc) and also for design (glass the whole thing in; create a shady woodland walk secret garden style; erect a walkway along the top of the wall allowing a birds eye view of the inner walled garden etc etc) that it's hard to know where to start. 

Ideally it should link strongly with the themes  of the inner walled garden which I'll tell you about in a bit.

B. Old Peach House. 
I went into the history of this before so I will only go so far as to say that this bit is in dire need of TLC.  So far the funding hasn't been available and it would be a huge project to deal with this in a sensitive manner.  The structure is currently very unstable and again, we don't know what to do with it.  It's tempting to follow convention and restore this house, but it's easier said than done.  Evidence shows that the building was probably updated and renovated several times during it's prime, so what to restore it to?  Another glasshouse, particularly one restored to an original design, is also likely to be pretty unsustainable.  One of the most interesting features of the remains of this house is the heating system - but if we restored that we'd find ourselves burning an unforgivable amount of coal.  It's funny how many outside the garden think doing this would be a good idea.  It would seem there are many arguments against restoration but, with these beautiful arches and fascinating brickwork, what should be done?

[apothecary]

C. Kitchen Garden

This is the only quadrant of the walled garden that celebrates the original use of the space and it's also a bit of an anomaly to the rest of the themes.

The area is landscaped with traditional red brick criss-crossing paths in a geometric layout.  It feels very intimate and friendly and I personally like the way you are forced to walk a bit further round corners etc to make your way around although we find that children (and a surprising number of grown adults) just shortcut across the flowerbeds.

In the centre of this quadrant is a cosy square nook of oak garden chairs surrounded by a bay hedge and a small selection of culinary herbs - it's the favourite spot of nearby gardeners for their tea breaks.

Malcolm, who looks after this section, tries to manage it as organically as possible.  He's even had quite a bit of success growing his veg biodynamically although he has yet to develop a series of controlled trials to verify his experiences.

This kitchen garden aims to produce a great variety in the smallest space possible.  The idea is to inspire visitors with things they can do in their own small gardens and allotments so there is a lot of focus on things like step-over apples that produce high yield with a minimum of space.

Malcolm also tries to include a whole range of heritage varieties each year and a couple of years ago I think he achieved a crop of around 25 different varieties of lettuce.

Amongst his regulars are the lettuces, brassicas, beans, onions, potatoes, currants, raspberries, chards, artichokes, asparagus, carrots, parsnips, courgettes etc etc.

A portion of the produce goes to the NBGW restaurant (whatever they can fit into their menu), the rest becomes a perk of the gardeners.  There is also a range of cut flowers grown along the front of the Peach House wall each year and these, along with sweetpeas from the hazel arches in the centre, are used by volunteers for decoration around the site.

As I mentioned, this lovely area is a bit of an anomaly at the moment so at some point it may be moved to a larger space elsewhere.

Some pics below of the kitchen garden.  The bearded chap in one is Ivor Stokes who was Director of Horticulture at the beginning and now works for the NBGW on a consultancy basis occasionally.

The giant onions were brought in and grown according to a tried and tested method by a volunteer veggy show fanatic.

The children are part of an annual scheme which allows children to propagate veg at school and bring them to the gardens to plant in the schools plots next to the Peach House.  They also erect an incredible array of scarecrows made from recylced materials which are then entered into a competition.

[Maggi Young]

I always suspected that those growers of giant veggies featherbedded their plants... now I see it is true!Great onions, what?

[apothecary]

I always suspected that those growers of giant veggies featherbedded their plants... now I see it is true! Great onions, what?

Yes, amazing onions, but do they actually taste of anything when they get that big?

Apologies for not having written for a while.  Life has been somewhat hectic the last couple of weeks, but now I shall proceed with a description of the sections marked 'D, E & F' on the map above.

These are the three quadrants that comprise our angiosperm (flowering plants) order beds.  Unlike traditional botanic gardens that categorise their plants according to the Linnaean system, our order beds are based on the latest studies using genetic fingerprinting to determine the relationships between plants.  Most of the info our beds have been based on comes from Professor Dianne Edwards of Cardiff University who was, until recently, one of our trustees and who still involves herself quite a lot in the scientific aspects of the NBGW.

So, a brief lesson in angiosperm phylogeny for anyone who isn’t familiar with the way plants are now being classified (a helpful tree diagram is available at http://www.mobot.org/mobot/research/apweb/welcome.html - click on the 'TREES' link at the top):

All angiosperms are thought to have evolved from a small group of basal angiosperms known as the ANITA group because it includes the:
Amborella, Nymphaeales, Illiciales, Trimeniaceae, and Austrobaileya, the earliest living flowering plants although I have a feeling some of these groups may since have been removed.

Descended from these we have the monocotyledons (plants with one seed leaf) and dicotyledons (plants with two seed leaves).  The Dicots can then be further divided into the Asterids and the Rosids as the two largest groups although, in all of this, there will undoubtedly be anomalies.

I would describe some of the differences between Asterids and Rosids but the facts seem to elude me.  I can only say that the Asterids do of course include the massive Asteraceae family as well as many other common ornamental groups of herbaceous perennials/ smaller shrubs.  In contrast, The Rosids include much more in the way of trees (birch, walnut, fruit trees of all kinds etc), the obvious Rosaceae and such families as the peas (Fabaceae, Papilionaceae or whatever they’ve decided to name them this week)

That is all I can say with certainty, the facts keep changing as more studies are done and although it fascinates me, I just can’t keep up with the jargon.

So, our order beds aim to represent something of every plant family from each of these groups that we can possibly grow in South-West Wales.
The story begins in the centre of the DWG where a series of slate tanks circle the dipping pool.  These contain Waterlilies, the closest living relatives of the earliest ever flowering plants.  The idea is then to walk from the slate tanks out towards the corners of the DWG so that you, in effect, walk through the evolutionary tree of flowering plants.

The first quadrant (‘D’) is the monocot quarter, but some of the anomalous groups are displayed here too.  As you walk from the slate tanks through this quadrant you are greeted first by a small collection of plants belonging to the ANITA group mentioned earlier.  Star Anise is one of these plants, but I can’t remember the others. 

From here, the left bed contains the Laurales (ancient smelly plants evolved to be pollinated by flies and other insects such as Laurus, Aristolochia, Houttouniya, Asarum etc).  On the right is a bed containing the Magnoliids, a collection I don’t quite understand because it is diverse enough to include all Magnolias, but also Arisaemas, Arums and Dracunculus.  It’s an interesting collection and the absolute favourite of Martin, the gardener in charge of the monocot section who has something of an Arisaema fetish (but then, who doesn’t?).

All the following beds are part of the monocot collection proper and develop from the Cordyline and Yucca bed towards the centre, all the way out to the economic grass bed and Banana bed at the far end.  It is interesting to note that the grasses are so recent and that, in spite of their all pervading presence today, they apparently didn’t actually exist at the time of the dinosaurs.

So that’s the monocot quarter.  I’ve added some pics below and I’ll do the same for the other two soon.

1.  Waterlilies in the slate tanks.
2.  Camassias & Hyacinths under a Cordyline in one of the earlier (more central) beds.
3.  A visitor enjoying the Alliaceae & co bed in front and the Liliaceae & co bed behind.
4.  The banana (Musa basjoo) and canna bed in year two or three.  The bananas reach the height of the top of the wall now and this summer they actually flowered.  Our Strelitzia does well here too.
5.  The bananas dress up warm for the winter.  Here they're just getting ready to celebrate St. Davids day.  Unfortunately, there isn't time to dress them up like this anymore.

[Martin Baxendale]

Nice to hear from you again, Kristina. Although I'm getting flashbacks to A-level biology lessons. I'm half expecting your next post to start with "Baxendale! Stop staring out of the window! What's an asterid?!! No, not an asteroid you idiot!! Detention!"

Fascinating stuff though. Keep it coming.

[apothecary]

Right, well pay attention now and stop staring out of the window Baxendale!  I have some more pics for you.

Unfortunately, our catalogue appears to be almost completely devoid of photos specifically of the Rosids quarter, possibly because the dicot half of the garden is only a couple of years old and what with so many Rosids being trees, it'll be a few years before much of it is worth looking at.  There again, I dread to think what they're going to do when the Rosid forest begins to reach any kind of size.  There can't be that many walled gardens sporting a whole bed of walnut and birch trees.

Anyway, the same theme applies to the Rosids as did to the monocots, but I'm not so familiar with it yet because it's so young.  We start again in the centre with the waterlilies.  Then as we move outwards we pass beds containing, amongst other things, Ranunculaceae and Hamamelidaceae; followed by a huge section of Papilionaceae spanning two beds and several million years I imagine; a couple of mid sections for the Brassicaceae and Betulaceae (but at opposite sides of the evolutionary tree); and at the very far corner (a mere 60 million years old or something?) we have families including the Rosaceae and the Urticaceae (an interesting combination I thought: I didn't realise that species of plant bent upon mortally wounding their caring gardeners were so closely related).

Because I have only one pic of the Rosid section I've also included an aerial shot of the whole DWG from last summer with the new tropical house installed.  To orientate, the tropic house quadrant contains the monocots, the red pathed section above is the kitchen garden.  The other side contains the dicots with Asterids above and Rosids below.

The second pic shows the still quite young Rosids quarter.  In the foreground a part of the ornamental 'colour corridors' is visible.  In the quadrant itself, the nearest bed contains Begonias and gourds, the bed behind that shows some of the Papilionaceae (brooms and lupins mainly).