It’s no secret that the BEEB have decided to run a Gardener of the Year ‘winner of winners’ competition this year, (billed Gardener of the Decade…) as it’s the 10th anniversary of the programme. It was mentioned in the Tatton Show TV coverage and there’s a mention of it by the producer, Louise Hampden, on the Garder’s World blog.

So I’m breaking no confidences by telling you that I received my programme information pack by special delivery on Saturday at the unseemly time of 7.30am – yes we were in bed – OH drew the short straw and got up. He doesn’t look as scary as I do first thing in the morning. As with last year’s programme there will be some unspecified challenges, probably some form of ident/quiz and a design component. I have a week to respond to the design project and another week to brush up what I know, or once knew and have forgotten, before heading to the Eden project to face the cameras once gain. I’m afraid it will be December before you find out how I got on – I’ll have to keep schtum for three months.

I had two days off work before Eden and one of them was today. Naturally, I went off on a research trip. It would be nice to go to Kew, but I can’t fit it in, so I went to see a nursery I’ve long planned to visit – Bluebell Arboretum and Nursery in Derbyshire – and came back via Sheffield Botanic Gardens. I’m delighted to say I can recommend both. Bluebell Arboretum (not to be confused with Bluebell Cottage Gardens, of course!) is something of a horticultural treasure (for those poor souls like me who find rare tree taxonomy interesting, that is). The chap who gave me the introductory talk didn’t give his name but he was the founder and still managed to sound enthusiastic after 17 years of toil on their windy, wet, clayey fields. I clocked up idents for two of the trees in my garden – a varigated oak and an upright red beech – and spotted these two beauties too – neither are done justice in these pictures:

Salix fargesii – fantastic red stems and buds

Betula albosinensis ‘Chinese Garden’ – beautiful pink bark.

I treated myself to a Davidia involucrata and three Cornus alba ‘Kessilringii’ and headed up the M1 to Sheffield, where I promptly got very lost indeed. No offence meant, but on the map Sheffield doesn’t look big enough to get lost in for nearly an hour, but truly it is… Anyway, the visit was short, but worth it. Sheffield has had the ambition and drive to renovate and reopen in 2002 a gorgeous botanic park, with some really interesting planting, especially in the rock garden area, and glasshouses with excellent displays from all over the world. I mostly took very dull ident pictures for my reference, but how about this for a tree? It’s like a blue waterfall.

Cupressus cashmeriana.

September 1, 2008  
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