PUSHING THE BORDERS

Despite a horrendously cold and rainy forecast, we had a very pleasant morning in the grounds of this lovely Grade II listed garden and the weather held fine. There are some magnificent plants and trees here and some exciting planting still going on, especially with new plantings of young species rhododendrons which will look amazing in years to come.
It was good to see Charlie and Liz there again and thanks to them for supplying me with some great plants.






































I bought quite a few plants. I know this Abutilon has been mentioned before and I didn’t know if I liked it or not … until I saw it in the flesh!






I know Ficus Silver Lyre (bottom left) has been mentioned on the forum before and it really appealed to me but nowhere in the UK seemed to have it in stock at the time. It now seems to be quite widely available.

Looks like a fab place!

Is the abutilon the cv 'Red Tiger'?
The Ficus 'Silver Lyre' is believed to be a form of Ficus afghanistanica, rather than F. carica. I have it planted in my rubble bed and, in there, it is vigorous. I would try to grow it in poor stony soil, assuming you have such, otherwise I suspect it would grow lanky and out of character.

Yes Paul, Red Tiger. Unusually for me (don't laugh!), I thought it a little OTT on pics I had seen of it but when I saw it today both the boss and myself fell for it straight away.

My soil would be far too rich for the fig. It will go into a gravelly pot. I've got Ice Crystal which does very well confined to a pot of impoverished soil.

Hodnet Hall is lovely. It can get very frosty up here so I was surprised to see the Beschorneria, which is clearly a few years old, has done so well.

Good to see you martin, we are still winding our way home, pleased to say weather was OK for both days and way better than forecast,

I have abutilon red tiger but held off propping it until I saw how it went through a winter - it's a toughy!

Is this what Polypodiums look like when they grow up? (if not what is it please!?)

Hodnet_0010 by charliepridham, on Flickr

Hodnet_0008 by charliepridham, on Flickr

Podophyllum? Polypodium is a fern. I think it’s pleianthum??

Thats the one! I have only ever seen rafts of "Spotty Dotty" at plant sales never seen them in the ground quite impressive I can sort of see why people have been buying them now!!