Arboretum team blog

I have just returned from a trip to Australia and Singapore visiting some of the botanic gardens in those countries. With the weather being so unseasonably cold in the UK this month, I thought you might enjoy seeing a bit of sun in some other gardens! If you visit these countries yourselves you will also be able to see what there is to look forward to botanically. 

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney & the Domain

The  Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney & the Domain covers 30 hectares (74 acres) and is in the heart of the city, close to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, with the central business district towering above its eastern side.    

The Fernery, Sydney Botanic Gardens

The Fernery is a wonderful area, with a great display of ferns growing under a metal framed shade house. With glimpses through the roof of towering buildings showing just how close it is to the city. I liked the easy to follow signage and inclusion of walking times.

Sign post with indication of walking times 

The Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount Tomah

There are two other gardens attached the the Botanic garden. Mount Annan south west of Sydney and Mount Tomah in the Blue mountains. I only had time to visit one of these so decided to visit Mount Tomah, At 1000 metres above sea level, and in the Blue mountains, this cool climate garden is able to grow plants that are not suited to Sydney's climate. Most succulents enjoy high daytime temperatures, but like cool evenings, so do well here, as do many other trees and shrubs needing cooler conditions. Great plants and great views into the Blue mountains.

Left: The Blue mountains seen from Mount Tomah, and right: Succulent gardens at Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens 

Kings Park and Botanic Garden

Kings Park and Botanic Garden with a total area of just over 400 hectares (988 acres), is in Perth, WA.  Like Sydney, it is close to the city and provides wonderful views of the Swan river and the Darling range. The Banksia Garden was a favorite of mine, as I had seen a lot of these on my travels in Australia.

Kings Park mosaic

 Almost two thirds of the park (267 hectares) are natural bushland with 319 native species growing there and a great raised boardwalk taking you through some parts of the park.

Image left: Baobab with views across the Swan river, and right: Raised walkway through bushland, Kings Park

Singapore Botanic Gardens

Finally to Singapore Botanic Gardens, which is under the new directorship of Dr Nigel Taylor, the ex-Curator of Kew Gardens. The original botanical garden established in 1822 by Sir Stamford Raffles was short lived and closed after his death in 1829. It re-opened at its present site in 1859.

Image left: Singapore Botanic Gardens main entrance and right: A water feature in the orchid garden 

This is a truly tropical garden, with amazing orchids and huge trees, like the Kapok below covered with ferns. It has 6 hectares of original rain forest with 314 species of ferns, climbers, shrubs and trees, some over 40 metres tall towering above the forest floor. Again, it has a raised walkway to make passage through the gardens easier.

Strangler fig in Singapore rain forest

Big Kapok tree with buttresses and birds nest ferns

There is also an amazing new garden being built in Singapore called the Gardens by the Bay. We were given a sneak preview prior to the official opening in June. It boasts two iconic conservatories: the Flower Dome with it's cool Mediterranean climate and the Cloud Forest, with a 35 metre waterfall and over 130.000 plants. The Supertrees Grove towers 50 metres high and certainly has an impact.  There are also lots of  themed gardens.             

Image left: View showing new glasshouses and supertrees, and right: The Chinese garden, Gardens by the Bay 

All great gardens and well worth a visit if you're ever passing through this part of the world.

- Tony -

Magnolias put on a spectacular show and draw you in from far away. They are magnificent flowering trees and shrubs that are native to South East Asia, Himalaya and from North America to Brazil.  They really stand out at a time of year when they have little competition.

Kew has over 250 magnolias across the Gardens. Many large trees dating back to the early 1900s. Most are grouped together in the main Arboretum, but they can be found close to the Main Gate, Victoria Gate and close by the Broad Walk. Fingers crossed, without any frost they should last a little while yet. 

On sunny spring days these spectacular magnolias are a wonderful sight, with their large flowers which stand out and draw you in from a long way off.

Magnolia sprengeri 'Diva' is a medium sized tree but can grow to over 10 m, with large fragrant pink flowers. The cultivar 'Diva' derives from a tree in Caerhays, Cornwall which came from the only Wilson seedling of this typical variety to survive. 

Magnolia stellata is a variety of Magnolia kobus  it is slow growing and makes a medium sized shrub with fragrant starry shaped white flowers. A rare species in the wild, restricted to a small area in western Tokai, Japan. There are many excellent cultivars and crosses with M. stellata, like the deep pink flowers Magnolia quinquepeta x stellata 'Jane' above.

         
Magnolia cylindrica (above) is a rare large flowered large shrub, with wonderful pink flowers really standing out on their naked branches normally in April.

Magnolia 'Kewensis' (above) with it's striped underside to the flowers, one of the best clones of Magnolia salicifolia, originating at Kew.

These are just a few of the many magnolias at Kew Gardens. Magnolias are easy to grow, tolerant of most soil types, although they prefer good drainage they will also do well in clay soils. Magnolias grow to all sizes, so can even be grown in the smallest garden or patio.e.g. Magnolia stellata. They should ideally be sheltered from frost, which tends to catch the early ones out most years, damaging the flowers.

There are also the summer/autumn flowering evergreen magnolias, like M. grandiflora, with large creamy white fragrant flowers set against their glossy green leathery leaves. Magnolias are such a wonderful genus of showy flowering plants dating back millions of years.

- Tony -

There are already many colourful and wonderfully scented flowering shrubs and bulbs in this early part of spring.

Apart from brightening up our days, most of the early bulbs are a great source of nectar and pollen for bees and other insects - even the occasional, very early overwintering butterfly which bright sunny days can sometimes trick into thinking it's warmer than it really is. A red admiral butterfly was spotted in the Arboretum this year on the 27 January!  Queen bumble bees rely on  the early flowering shrubs and bulbs to feed themselves and the first of their broods.

Here are some of the highlights:

Some of the earliest flowering are the aconites, snowdrops, and some species of crocus. Here C. tommasinianus are soon to be followed by lots of daffodils and bluebells in May.

The vibrant colours of just two of the many witch hazel cultivars.

The elegant and impressive long tassles of the male form of Garrya elpitica 'James Roof' '.

Fragrant shrub, Sweet box and Viburnum x bodnantense, brighten the coldest early spring days.

These are some of the many Hellebore seedlings raised from seed at Kew. The variety in their size and colour is amazing.
 

Apart from flowers, you can't beat a crisp spring morning sunrise.

- Tony -
 

Find out more

• Keep up to date with what's looking good in the Gardens with our bulbs map and find out more about the plants that are bringing spring colour to the Gardens

Looking after the Holly Walk

The Holly Walk at Kew has the largest number of mature holly cultivars in the world but in recent years some of the older specimens have started to go into decline. The main walk was given a bit of a makeover a few years ago, pruning some of the plants in an attempt to increase their vigour, decompacting the ground around them and giving them all a feed and mulch. This has already made a big difference but there were still gaps where we had lost a few trees over the years.

Visiting a holly nursery

Tony Kirkham (Head of the Arboretum), Susyn Andrews (a consultant horticulturist and taxonomist) and myself, Tony Hall, took a trip out to Highfield Hollies, a holly nursery in Hampshire, to choose some new plants for Kew's Holly Walk. We had a walk around the nursery, which has a very novel plant labelling system using recycled plastic bottles.

Several cultivars of interesting hollies were selected. We chose about a dozen new and interesting plants and labeled them up for collection, to be transplanted to Holly Walk at Kew a few days later

Trees on the move

The following week the Arboretum team headed off down to Highfield Hollies to collect the plants, which the team lifted from the nursery field.

Getting them back to the van was a tricky operation, having to negotiate a steep slippery slope! 

 The trees lined out next to their new home, ready for planting. 

With the planting mostly done, we still have a few more trees to select at a later date to complete the Holly Walk revamp. But meanwhile these young new plants take us a step closer to completing our planned improvements.

Newly planted trees. Just in time!

- Tony -

This has been a great year for berries. Wandering down Kew's historic Holly Walk at this festive time of year, you can see some of the amazing variety of colours in both berries and leaves, as well as some of Kew's attractive ivies.
 

British natives: the common holly, Ilex aquifolium, and the ivy, Hedera helix. 

Folklore

There is so much mythology and folklore associated with holly, from Christian links with Jesus and the crown of thorns in which the berries represent drops of blood, to stories of the Holly King in Celtic mythology. One of my favorites is that hollies were left uncut in old hedgerows, not only because it is supposed to be bad luck to cut down a holly tree, but also beacuse it stops witches running along the tops of hedges, as they were of course well known to do!

The holly hedge and dumplings behind the Palm House

There are many hollies around the garden, including the holly hedge and dumplings, planted in 1906, and those around the rose garden behind the Palm House. There is also an ivy hedge surrounding the Palm House. 

The hollies...

But it is along Holly Walk that we find most of the mature hollies laid out in 1874. Many of these trees are over 130 years old and are part of the largest collection of mature hollies in Europe. The majority of the hollies along Holly Walk are cultivars of the common holly, Ilex aquifolium and Ilex x altacerensis. Like the ones in the pictures below, they show a great variety of berry colour and leaf shape, and not all are spikey.
  

 
Image left: Ilex ' Frucu Luteo' Image right: Ilex x altacerensis 'Gold King'

... and the ivies

There are also some great looking ivies and again most of the more showy ones are cultivars:

  
Left: Hedera  colchica 'Dentata Variegata'; Right: Hedera helix 'Pennsylvanica'

But we can't forget...

Even though the title of this blog is titled 'The holly and the ivy', when it comes to festive plants you must not forget mistletoe. Not a common plant at Kew, but another one most people associate with Christmas.  
 

 
Mistletoe, Viscum alba 

Look out for my next blog in the new year, when the Arboretum team will be replanting many new hollies along Holly Walk, filling in gaps where we have lost trees the past, and adding more and different cultivars to keep this historic avenue growing for future generations.

- Tony -

Find out more

• Common holly (Ilex aquifolium)
• Mistletoe (Viscum album)
• Watch the slideshow about the history of Christmas plants
• Browse the image gallery of Christmas plants