8 Paulownias

My Paulownias are the plants that everyone asks about and we have 8 of them! Most are cut down to the ground every year and all the growth you see is this seasons!

8days before the opening!

full details at http://www.ngs.org.uk/gardens/find-a-garden/garden.aspx?id=22791

9 days to go! A choice of at least 9 cakes

Cake is a very important part of an NGS opening and we pride ourselves in the tea and cake experience! Usually at any one time there is a choice of at least 9 different cakes! get in there quick before they go!

 

10 Tetrapanax

10 Days to go! and what better plant to celebrate with than Tetrapanax of which there are over 10 in the garden. A must for the jungle garden for its primordial elegance and HUGE (yes that was capitals and bold) leaves. Perfectly hardy and way more exciting in the flesh

11 Banana trees

11 Days to go! 11Banana Trees

Musa basjoo

Ensete maurelii

Musa sikkimensis (in pot) with another and Ensete on the wall 

HUGE Musa sikkimensis (probably about 15ft) with basjoo in the corner and an Ensete

Full details of the opening are at http://www.ngs.org.uk/gardens/find-a-garden/garden.aspx?id=22791

12 Days before the garden opening: 12 things to tempt you in

The NGS garden opening is imminent. Posters are going up and the last tweaks are being made. Rain is good as it is helping make things look even more lush and magnificent!

So to count us down I am going to do lots of different reasons to visit, starting with

12 places to sit

During the opening there will be at least 12 places to sit and eat cake. this is a garden which you can visit and linger...

This is the special Helen Skelton memorial sitting area (as featured in BBC's Instant Gardener)

I'm not big in Austria

It is with sadness that this week I realised that I am not going to be ‘big’ in Austria.

One of the many advantages of being part of NGS is the doors that it opens and the many interesting people you meet. It was one of these random doors that opened last year when I got a call asking if I wanted to offer a garden visit to 30 Austrians who were on a garden visiting cruise in September, hosted by their equivalent of Alan Titchmarsh.

Of course I would host a visit I said (after negotiating a donation to the NGS). After all it was an auspicious year for Austria with them winning the Eurovision song contest and I felt that this would bring me closer to their fabulous representative Conchita Wurst.

So all was set, and last year the ‘fixer’ and Herr Titchmarsh himself came to visit to have a poke around. I wasn’t able to be there so my mother let the Austrian whirlwind in. I don’t know how good her poker face was when they asked her if all was still ok for the group of 60 people to come in May, and where could they park their two coaches? (There had been some crossed wires and it was indeed September and only 30 people, but mother had needed a large gin to steady herself)

 The other surprise was that it was all to be recorded for Austrian TV...this was my chance to make it big in Austria, and perhaps next time I was at the top of one of their mountains skiing the man dressed as Pocahontas serving the rotisserie chickens may give me some frites for free. Perhaps when I saw Conchita she would give me a wave and ask me for gardening tips?

All was set and the date was in the diary. After the dress rehearsal of our Eurovision party in May I now have a large Austrian flag that I was going to fly over the summerhouse and am an expert at making schnitzel. So I was rather sad when they pulled out. The cruise liner has gone bankrupt.

This will not be my year for being big in Austria L

 

 

1 month terrors

The one month terrors before the garden opening have started....there has been needless watering and much discussion of where plant sales will be and who is selling honey. This is what happens when you are an NGS opener. Soon there will be the debates about how much to charge for a cup of tea.

But, when the sun is shining the garden is looking great