News

Statistics collected at RHS Wisley over the last nine months show that in July and the first half of August 2022 there were just 3mm of rain in 46 days. The drought broke on 16 August then came 33.5mm of rain on 25 August. This followed a dry April to July with only 41 per cent of usual rainfall. Total rainfall in September was 93.6mm of which 59mm fell in four days from 5 to 8 September and 44.6mm fell on 23 October (the average for a whole month in summer). The highest temperature was 38.6 °C on 19 July, a new record for Wisley. The lowest temperature was –8.1 °C on 15 and 16 December: the winter was the coldest recorded since 2010.

Many MPG members have an affinity with Greece because of its rich flora so it’s fun to see a local low-key sample of the traditional thing children and adults do on this day, Kathara Deftera (“Clean Monday” – the first day of the Eastern Orthodox version of Lent), though it has nothing to do with plants. This little girl was doing her best to get her kite high on Stoupa beach in the western Mani today. Families celebrate with delicious fasting foods. The significance of kite flying is its association with ascension of the soul, flying into the skies and getting closer to God.

Mona Abboud’s garden in north London, home to many unusual plants from Mediterranean climates and New Zealand and also the National Collection of Corokia, has been enlarged with the purchase of an overgrown derelict patch of land next door. Work started on it a year ago and it will open for visits in May. It retains some mature trees, an oak, a magnolia, a Ginkgo biloba and a fig tree. The house and garden will one day belong to Perennial, the charity which supports horticulturists, so Mona will build a propagation greenhouse. She is creating a raised exotic border and a prairie area. Felled wood has been used to delineate paths. Large amounts have been chipped to go towards compost.

We are grateful for the kind contribution from Peter Watts’ family to MPG to support a full bursary. Melvyn Jope was instrumental in helping in the distribution of Peter’s extensive plant collection and books from his comprehensive library. Peter’s family were supportive of the suggestion that part of the proceeds of sale of books should go to the MPG bursary fund to honour Peter’s memory. Peter was a keen and very knowledgeable horticulturist with a special interest in, among other plants cyclamen and bulbous plants. He was well known as the person that found Crocus wattiorum in its natural environment in Tahtali Dagi Turkey. The picture is a pale yellow form of Sternbergia lutea from his collection.

This Christmas arrangement was created by Lindsay Blyth using plants from all over the world which she grows in her Andalusian garden. Before you read on, how many different plants can you  see are represented here? Well… The pale orange pencil-like sticks of Euphorbia tirucalli towards the bottom of the image combine with the brighter orange Nandina domestica berries and one of Lindsay’s favourites, Kniphofia rooperi, to give a warm festive feeling. Seed heads are from an aloe. There are a couple of bits of grey Echeveria, lots of nasturtium leaves, and a few autumn leaves of persimmons (Diospyros kaki) and flame vine (Pyrostegia venusta).