Hello Mike

[ideasguy]

Welcome to the Ideas Genie Community forum Mike! I hope you will help me get the dialog going.

I thought I was the only "late bird" in the gardening world. I get emails from some UK members with time stamps VERY early in the morning (seems like not long after Ive gone to bed!!!)

I tend to do my best work late at night, early in the morning when its really peaceful. I used to play a bit of (Irish) music, and music is also at its best in those hours. Now its slowed down a bit -  its classif FM that keeps me mellow.
Also, due to the time difference, I stay up to try and give an early response to emails from our US friends.

But... it seems your are also late on the go!

So, to help introduce you here to the other members.. I hope you dont mind me quoting the last paragraph from one of your emails:

Begin Quote:
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Oh, well - another 0130 morning; but at least I have today finished the construction of my greenhouse, and am ready to move some of my plants in there.  Incidentally, I have a particular interest in tropical plants - hedychium, roscoea, protea, passiflora, heliconia, clivia etc - so I may well be out on a limb in this respect with other users of IG, but this may put me in a stronger position to contribute info and photos of more unusual plants.
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End Quote

Now the introduction has been made, would you like to tell us more about your interest in the tropical plants, Mike?

I think you will find some members with similar interest!

[mikesanders]

Hello, everyone - George has asked me to introduce myself and let others know what I am up to.  Well, I have taken early retirement, and having lived in a house for 32 years and not done much to the acre of garden, I thought that now was the time to get interested.  So, the main project is to re-design the garden - we are fortunate in having several "ready-made" different environmental areas including a large pond and a bog garden.  We face south (in Surrey) and the garden is terraced, so there are also some ready-made dry-stone wall rockeries. separating areas of lawn.

The first plan has been to install a greenhouse - I opted for the Belmont 14ft by 8ft with a partition inside.  This is almost complete and I hope to start serious plant movements into there over this weekend.  My wife and I have prepared some herbaceous borders around one of the lawns to give some colour and greater interest - therefore perennials will be an important part of the growing - at present particularly helleborus, astrantia, peonies and tree peonies.

Then there's the interest in plants which will flourish in the waterlogged bog garden, which is shaded (perhaps too shaded!) by an old rhododendron tree, which I think will have to be pruned back to give more light to the plants beneath.

My particular interest is selected tropical plants - for example, hedychium and roscoea and other gingers, heliconium, clivia; but my success from seed has not been too good except the hedychiums which seem to be flourishing.

As I am starting from scratch, I want to combine the gardening with developing computer coverage of the garden - hence my interest in IG.

Well, I thinks that's enough to introduce myself - if anyone is interested in tropicals, then please get in touch

[no ideas man]

Hi Mike wellcome
                         re the rhodi you said was casting shade i had the same problem so i cut it back to leave just a stump i then put a table top on the stump so the grand kids would have somewhere to write anyway after 5/6 weeks the stump started to sprout again from the base and when i finally cut it down altogether it was standing at 15ft and still growing, tough old things these rhodis

Happy Gardening

Harry

[mikesanders]

Thanks for the comment, Harry.  We have lived with this rhododendron since we moved into the house over 30 years ago, and I am anxious not too lose it through too severe pruning.  Your advice has given me some assurance - can anyone else give some experiences/advice on the cutting back of old well-established rhododendron trees so as not to cause them to give up the ghost.

Mike Sanders

[ideasguy]

I have the perfect example Mike.
My nephew's wife didnt like the plants in their garden, and hired a chainsaw, and whacked the lot!

Now, it was his grandads house, and I have a few photos of it in its prime. One of those plants was a gorgeous deciduous azalea.
Have you any idea how long it takes those things to grow!! Ive taken photos of some 80 year old specimens, ranging between 3 to 6ft in height and spread. They are PRECIOUS and spectacular when in bloom!

Anyway, one of the other casualties was a large Rhododendron. Lopped to almost ground level.

I have a really funny photo of the chainsaw lady and the Rhodo in the next season.
A stump? NO!!! It resprouted and looked really healthy. No flowers year one, but I bet it will this year.

Conclusion? They are pretty much indestructible.

Revisit this thread. I'll post the photo.

[Pixydish]

Well, likely I'm too late to respond reasonably to your concern about the rhododendron, but here goes anyway. I live in the 'land of rhodies' here in the Pacific NOrthwest. They are native plants, some of them, that grow wild in the forests. I have lots of very old rhododendrons on my property that had been sorely neglected for probably 30 years before I moved in, so I had to rejuvenate them.

It's true you can whack these things down to the ground and they will resprout and give you blooms probably the second yea, but this produces a very tight, shrubby plant that is severely compromised in my opinion. I prefer what I call 'pruning from the inside out' with large, overgrown Rhododendrons. They can tend to be busy and shrubby, a look I am not fond of for this plant. So here's what I do: after flowering, I actually climb inside the rhododendron, or sit on the ground inside the plant and study the structure of the limbs. Then I start pruning from the inside to open up the structure of the tree so that light and air can get through. These lovely shrubs can end up looking a bit like a large deciduous azalea when pruned in this fashion. So in this way you can save the height of the tree and still get plenty of light coming through the limbs. It is very lovely.
Another thing I've seen done in this area with particularly large rhodies is to limb them up and then underplant with bulbs and perennials. In this way you get a crown that flowers and you get an open structure of the limbs from below, leaving plenty of room for pretty ferns, etc. underneath.
I hope this idea is timely for you.

[mikesanders]

Hello,  Pixydish - I am sorry that I have only just caught up with your Forum Post - I have been so busy getting the IG database up and running, that I've not had the time to check the forum! (Don't tell George that!)  Anyway, this evening, I have been looking at the postings, and your comment about rhododendrons is very timely and very useful.  I will certainly follow your advice and see if I can maintain the structure of the plant, whilst allowing sun and air to enter into the bog-garden below.

The bog garden is another garden project - the planting and development of an area of the garden which is walled and collects run-off from the hills to the north - a wonderful natural sub-environment.  But, how many garden projects can one complete in a year !!??

Mike Sanders

[Pixydish]

HI there Mike,
Takes me awhile, but I do get around to checking posts eventually.
How many projects can one complete in a year? I am still trying to work that one out myself. I put in a very large pond last year, mostly by myself. This year I am working on a boggy area next to it and want to add a deck to overlook the deep end. I still have concrete walls to finish from the year before, and I have a very large front area that I finally have a plan for landscaping if I can only find the time and  $$.

An excellent book for your wet area is Beth Chatto's 'The Damp Garden'. Of course, anything by Beth Chatto is good. But she has in that book a comprehensive list of plants that do well in consistently wet soil.

In the U.S., the use of the term 'bog garden' is supposed to refer to a wet area with very acidic, nutrient poor, peat based soil. That's the kind I am wanting to put in, along with an area that is really just a 'damp' garden. I want to grow carnivorous plants, many of which are native to the U.S.  I currently have them in pots, but the ground awaits.