Alpine and the fluffy white stuff

 I have now reached the alpine department this time of year is the slow season so we have been tending to the display house as well as the rest of the plants that make up the collections.  Each morning we go into display and tidy the plants and remove any that have gone over and replace them with ones that are coming on.  When you replace a plant it must be properly plunged into the sand of display so just the lip of the pot is showing this insulates the plants as well as making the display look nice.  After the display is looking pristine then it is time to care to the plants that are currently not on display.  A lot of work goes into keeping the plants looking at their best so they are ready to be put on display.  Sunday going into Monday we got snow yes snow which accumulated to a couple of inches.  The garden looked so gorgeous.  So Monday morning was spent removing snow which reminded me a lot of home!  The garden staff was clearing paths to get it ready for the garden visitors.

Irish Adventure

 I met my parents in Ireland for a nice weekend out. My parents had a hire car so we were able to explore freely.  We spent our time in Killarney, Ireland home of the Killarney National Park.  The park was so impressive the scenery and the waterfall you see below.  Inside the park is the Muckross house which contained a garden and an impressive house.  The grounds had a lovely rock and knot garden which I really enjoyed.  One day we took a trek to the cliffs of Moher.  It was one of the most impressive sites I have ever seen.  On our way back from the cliffs we wanted to explore the Dingle peninsula we ended up in a mountain road called the Connor Pass which was a one lane road up through the mountains with rock faces on your left and a guard rail protecting you from the immense drop off to your right.  We had such a lovely time exploring Ireland and I can't wait to go back and see more! 

Butterflies in the Glasshouse

Today was the kick off of the butterflies in the glasshouse.  I went early to check it out before the crowds formed but it was really busy.  The puparium was out so guests could see emerging butterflies but unfortunately not much was happening when I looked at it.  The butterflies were a little sluggish because it was a little cold in the tropical house but they still flying around.  It was quite the sight to see some very gorgeous butterflies.  Don't know what more to say so here are some of the pictures of the butterflies.  Enjoy!

Winter Fruit Pruning

This week was spent with the fruit department once again and our task was to work on pruning the over 1,000 apple trees in the orchard. Though we did not get anywhere near done pruning all of them we got a good start.  The week started out with a tutorial on training young apple trees and then moved on to learning how to prune bush apple trees.  We looked at an example of a bush apple tree that had never been pruned.  It was quite the site to see a mess to say the least but interestingly the apple still produces fruit though it may be smaller, lower quality, and harder to harvest.  Monday and Tuesday were spent on the bush trees it involved a lot of ladder work which was a bit tricky.  It took ages to prune some of the large bush trees which are quite old some of the top branches are out of reach for fruit picking even with a ladder and needed to be cut back.  Most mornings were spent discussing pruning while we waited for it to get light enough out that we could see what we were pruning.  Wednesday we got the tutorial on spindal tree pruning which is how most commercial apples are grown.  Thursday we got to look at other trained fruit like grapes and berries.  The week was a blast and the pruning could be relaxing at times but quite stressful when you got to a tough tree.  I learned a lot about fruit pruning and can't wait to go home and try it out on my trees!

Polesden Lacey

 Today I took the train to Dorking a town not to far away and visited a national trust property Polesden Lacey.  After a short can ride I arrived at the trust property.  The place was packed with people quite the popular place.  I toured the gardens looking at the formal plantings around the house, the rose garden, as well as the vegetable and fruit display.  The house itself was a massive structure with a view to die for.  That view was my favorite part of the garden off the house the land took a quick slope down ending in a large hedge which you could easily see over to the adjacent countryside which was breath taking.  The pictures are below you could see the sheep grazing on the green pastures as the foggy haze settled on the towering trees.  On the way there when I exited the train station in the car park I noticed the infamous car boot sales I have heard about.  Rather than what we do in the us invite people to come and look at all the junk we don't want in our garage "garage sale"  they pack their cars and head to a car park to sell their wares.  They pack their trunks "boots" with all their stuff and head to a populated car park.  It was quite the site to see.  It was a fun day out and saw some interesting horticultural things as well as some cool cultural things.