Week Ten

There's only one more week left in this internship with Kew.  Wow!  That's hard to believe.  This week was a short week because there was a "bank holiday" across the country on Monday.  I spent the weekend touring some really fantastic Hosta collections near Wokingham and visiting with some friends from Tennessee.

Tuesday
Tuesday we were back to work.  As you know, Monday is normally our edging day, and the grass had gotten a bit shaggy.  Shelley decided to have the whole lot of us tackle edging in the order beds and grass garden and get it done that morning.  Our crew was back up to seven people, because we got a new apprentice and Martin returned from paternity leave.

Daisy and I were hard at work digging
Hemerocallis in the peony border

It was a bit rainy that day, and both of our normal volunteers called in because of the poor weather.  We finished by lunch time, and then the skies opened up and began to really "chuck it down".  There just wasn't enough room for all of us to be sharpening tools in the shed that afternoon, so Daisy and I spent the rest of the day working on internship assignments from the School of Horticulture computer lab.

Wednesday
Nearly all of us spent the entire day Wednesday working in the peony beds.  The peony beds are large mixed borders that contain a great deal of Paeonia between the order beds and the woodland garden.  We were doing what Shelley calls a "general tidy", which means we were weeding, deadheading, and removing dead foliage and spent biennials.

Leadership Experience
Shelley used the time to encourage Beth, one of the horticulture students, to get some personnel management experience.  Beth oversaw Daisy and me for a while, which involved explaining the tasks we were needed to do, how to do them, and why they needed to be done.  My understanding was this is a normal part of the students' work experience placement, so they're not only learning how to be horticulturalists, but also leaders in horticulture.  Beth did a great job!

Dealing with Daylilies
While Daisy and I were working under Beth, I overheard Shelley and India discussing the layout of an adjacent bed.  It was interesting to hear them work through the changes they would be making to improve a few spots.  There was one section that had a huge patch of Hemerocallis flava (1998-2335, MAFA).  India and I had recently spent some time removing the dead foliage and pulling the old flower stalks.

Kew staff decided to add some
splashes of color and texture at the
corners of this bed by removing
daylily  and planting Heuchera

Shelley and India decided the area would be more attractive if there were something a bit lower and more evergreen towards the front rather than just daylilies.  Shelley later explained that something perennial and evergreen, like Heuchera, would also help control some of the soil erosion in the bed.  She pointed out the plants that they had decided to remove, gave some guidance on the method, and let us get to it.

As someone who trained in horticulture in Knoxville, Tennessee, I didn't feel that I needed a great deal of oversight on this task.  If there's one thing this Tennessee girl knows how to do, it's digging and dividing Hemerocallis.  The H. 'Stella D'Oro' craze hit our area pretty hard, which made these plants wildly popular in residential and commercial landscapes.

But Shelley wouldn't be doing her job if she just let two interns loose in the garden without more specific direction, so she walked us through the following steps.  First we removed all the old, strappy foliage so that digging would be cleaner and easier.  However, these plants would be planted elsewhere at Kew, so the second flush of new growth needed to be kept intact as much as possible.  Then we had to use our forks to maneuver the plants loose of the soil.  Shelley suggested we work a circle around the plant before digging up so that we wouldn't break the shaft.  We set the plants in a secluded area near the tool shed, then leveled the soil in the beds and swept the paths.

If there's one thing this Tennessee
girl knows how to do, it's digging
and dividing daylilies.  These will
be planted elsewhere at Kew.

Thursday
Daisy and I spent the day continuing to tidy up around the order beds.  There were some plants that had "gone over", which means they were done for the year.  We cut back perennials and pulled up annuals.  There was a large Euphorbia that had completely flopped.  We cut it back to some new basal growth, and it may pluck up a bit before the end of the season. Euphorbia sap is a skin irritant, so Daisy and I wore gloves and handled the trimmed branches with care.

Friday
Tomorrow, the whole cohort of interns is heading to Wakehurst Place for the entire day.  Unfortunately I won't be able to attend.  The date of the trip had to be rescheduled, and I had already gotten nonrefundable or exchangeable train tickets to see the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh that day.  Kate and Shelley made arrangements for me to go last week, but I'm still a little bummed that I'm missing out on seeing Wakehurst with the rest of the group.


Thanks for reading, and check back to read what happens the LAST week of my internship with Kew.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel welcome to leave a comment or send me an email.

To see more photos from this week, be sure to check out the album "Week Ten" on the Plante on Plants Facebook page.  "Likes", shares and comments are appreciated. 

This week's British treat a cup of English breakfast tea and a Hobnob biscuit. You just can't get more English than that...

Believe it or not, this is also the first cup of tea I've had in England.  Consumed reluctantly at the insistence of a coworker, this was actually quite good.  I still prefer coffee though.

All photos were taken by Amanda Plante at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew unless otherwise stated in the caption.

Sources:

• The Plant List website
• The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew website and staff

Week Nine

I was fortunate enough to spend last weekend touring some fantastic gardens in Cornwall and Paris.  I had a really super time, and I'm really looking forward to when I get a spare minute to fill you in on my Garden Guide blog.  Unfortunately, I'm sad to say that I've been having some awful problems with technology that continue to impede my ability to update my blogs.  I thought it would be best to go ahead and share everything from this week, then go back later on next week and give you the scoop on what happened last week.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

Really basic labels in the "Every Child Outdoors"
berry patch at the Knoxville Botanical Gardens

Instead of starting right back to work on Monday, I used some of my free days to spend Monday and Tuesday visiting more gardens.  When I got back to work on Wednesday morning, Kate, Shelley and I were able to make some last minute arrangements for me to visit Wakehurst Place.  I hopped on the mail truck that runs between Kew and Wakehurst and spent the rest of the day in Sussex.  I will write all about that visit in my Garden Guide blog as an appendix to this week's post.

Thursday I was finally back to work.  While Shelley and Beth mowed in the grass garden, the rest of the crew did a "weed sweep" of the order beds.  Crissy and I started on one end of a row, India and Daisy started on the other end, we met in the middle, and then moved onto another row.  The order beds actually cover quite a large area, so this is actually no small chore.  We all worked on this until afternoon tea.  After that, I had the opportunity to help Crissy place some new plant labels.  Although we only did this for a brief time, I found the activity really interesting.  More information about the process is given below.

How Kew does labels

A brief history
Kew has been labeling their collections since as early as 1773.  Someone connected to Kew at the time wrote that, "It is said that orders have been given to the Head gardener at Kew that instead of placing numbers upon the different plants and flowers in the Garden, they shall be inscribed with their names at full length."  Before then, each plant had a number that corresponded to an entry in a printed plant catalog (Desmond, 340).

Standard plant labels in use at the
University of Tennessee gardens include the
genus, specific epithet, and common name

In the early 1800s, Kew suffered some decades of neglect.  However, it was during this time in the 1820s that the curator, John Smith, began the massive undertaking of relabeling all the plants in the gardens to include their specific names.  Before then, the plant labels only included the genus and catalog numbers, and some of these contained confusing inaccuracies (Desmond, 127-128).

As I've written before, the grass collection was the real apple of Smith's eye, and it seems to have received most of his attention in the great relabeling.  In the 1840s only the grass garden was fully and appropriately labelled (Desmond, 148).  It would be another 14 years before the tree and shrub collections received metal hanging name tags (Desmond, 346).

Finding creative ways to use plant labels to track collections and display information continues to be a consideration for Kew today.  According to the most recent edition of Ray Desmond's History of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the gardens contain "the world's largest documented botanical collection consisting of about 30,000 plant taxa" (Desmond, 333). 

The way that plants are labelled is something that varies across different botanic gardens.  Some that are more concerned with culinary or medicinal properties of plants may include facts about use on the label.  Other institutions that are geared toward educating people on plants that may work for their home landscape will include the common name and symbols that correspond to the growing requirements.  Kew's primary responsibilities are scientific research and conservation, which influences the format of their plant labels.

What does it all mean?
First and foremost, each of these plantings must be labelled with the genus, specific epithet, and family so that horticulturalists, researchers, and visitors know what they are.  Not many of Kew's labels include the common name, but some do.  The label may also include the variety, cultivar, or hybrid name.

We'll use Eucalyptus dalrympleana as an example
of Kew's modern plant labeling system

The top right corner of each label includes the plant's accession number.  The first four digits correspond to the year they were brought to Kew.  Since Kew has only been tracking plant accessions since 1969, the accession numbers of many specimens that are quite old will begin with 1969.  If there was a record of exactly what year an older plant was brought to Kew, it may be reflected in the accession number.

The numerals that follow the hyphen identify when the plant was accessioned in a year.  We'll use one of Kew's Eucalyptus dalrympleana as an example.  The accession number is 1972-6025.  That means this plant was the 6025th plant that was brought to Kew in the year of 1972.

In addition to knowing exactly when a plant was introduced, Kew tracks who collected each plant.  That doesn't mean they track who was the first to collect the species as a whole (although I'd imagine that quite a few of Kew's specimens have that distinction).  Rather, they log who collected the specific plant that is now in the collection.  The initials of the donor are located just below the accession number on the label.  Going back to the Eucalyptus from our example, the donor initials are FRIC.  This stands for the Forest Research Institute of Canberra.

Many, but not all, of the labels will also include where the plant is native to.This information will be located in the bottom right hand corner.  This may be incredibly specific or quite general.  This depends on the native range of the plant.

The herb labels at the ECO Gardens
include the Latin name, common name,
and symbols for the garden uses

Living collections database
Any of the information on the label can be used be used by Kew staff to look up more information about the plant in Kew's living collections database.  The best way to find information about the specific plant is to search using the plant's accession number, although it is possible to look up information using the scientific name, donor initials, or physical location.

The database entry will include more details about how the plant has been managed ("curation"), exactly where it was collected, notes for cultivation, taxonomic notes, and possibly information of scientific interest such as the anatomy, physiology, or ploidy level.  Staff are able to update a database entry so that it reflects the most current information for each plant.  When a plant dies its status is changed from "live specimens" to "dead specimens", but all the information remains on the database.

Adding new labels
Earlier this summer, Crissy submitted a list of all the new plants that had been added to the order beds and the long border.  She received new labels in the section's office mail this week.  She pulled labels for a selection of plants, the we fitted each label with a stand.

Daisy and I had spent a rainy Friday morning the week before pulling these stands out of the cereal beds in the grass garden, removing their labels, and brushing the soil from the stands.  It was nice to see them put to use!

When we finished putting together the labels and stands, Crissy and I placed them out in the gardens.  Some plantings had a temporary label from before they were accessioned.  The genus and species was printed on black paper and taped to a blank plastic label.  Other plantings had white plastic nursery labels that were partially buried under the mulch.

An intern's perspective
Kew has a really broad mission.  Historically, their emphasis has been on the scientific side of horticulture, from collection to economic botany.  Until relatively recently, Kew did not see any need to provide more information to the public.  Sure, visitors were allowed in the garden, but they were rewarded with the experience of being able to see the displays, landscape, conservatories, and specimens rather than with information.

The Eden Project tended to use multiple signs -
including individual plant labels - to communicate
loads of information to visitors

Over the last few decades, Kew's mission has evolved to include public education.  Perhaps it's time for the labeling system to take this into account.  In the future, it would be worthwhile to include at least a common name.  Longwood and Missouri Botanic both do.  But why just play catch-up with other botanic gardens?  Kew is famous for blazing new frontiers.  Perhaps Kew could have a focus group with visitors to ask what further information they'd like to see on the labels in order to better meet their needs.

Don't get me wrong.  I don't think Kew should remove the accession numbers, donor initials, or any of the information that's currently on the labels.  I just think it would be a good idea to add a bit of information that is educates the visitors, since they don't have access to the living collections database.  But that's just my opinion.

Thanks for reading, and check back to read what happens next week in my internship with Kew.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel welcome to leave a comment or send me an email.

To see more photos from this week, be sure to check out the album "Week Nine" on the Plante on Plants Facebook page.  "Likes", shares and comments are appreciated. 

This week's British treat was a bona fide Cornish scone from the Eden Project Core cafe.  The scone was bigger than a man's fist and it had fresh, local sticky clotted cream and jam that had whole chunks of strawberry.  This was the mother of all scones!

The Eden Project even uses heiroglyphics for their visitors who may not be English savvy

All photos were taken by Amanda Plante at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew unless otherwise stated in the caption.

Sources:

• Desmond, Ray.  (2007).  The History of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (2nd Edition).  London: Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 
• The Plant List website
• The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew website and staff

Week Seven

Although we did a wealth of different activities this week, I'm going to hone in on our work this Friday in Kew's aquatics garden.  Now that the internship is more than halfway over (where has the time gone?), I wanted to make sure that I wrote about this interesting spot just in case we don't have the chance to work in there again this summer.  Although I mentioned a bit about this in my second week's post, I think it would be worthwhile to go into a bit more detail about this section of the gardens.

All about the aquatics garden

A quick history

Water lily surrounded by duckweed (Lemna)

Although Kew has had aquatic displays in and surrounding man-made, in-ground lakes and ponds since the beginning, it wasn't until the directorship of Sir William Hooker that tanks were constructed to display hardy aquatic plants (Desmond, 148).  A somewhat small tank was installed near the northern side of the herbaceous beds in 1841, and was used for that purpose until at least 1873.  In 1879, Sir William's son and successor Sir Joseph Hooker replaced the tank with a larger brick tank that spanned 80 feet (Desmond, 211).

The improved tank was replaced in 1909 by a large central tank flanked by two rectangular tanks to the sides and four smaller ones on the corners (Desmond, 351).  According to some material that Shelley gave us earlier in the internship, the "new" aquatic garden was originally known as "White City" because it was made of bright, new concrete.  Needless to say, the appearance is quite different today.

Aquatics garden prior to weeding

White City had only cost £600 to build.  When the surrounding pavement was relaid in 2002, the improvements cost £5,000.  That's more than eight times the cost of the original construction!  This design is still in use today, although the central tank was raised up to give more depth for larger lilies in 1935 (Desmond, 353).

Much of the original plumbing is still in use, which means that its prone to leaks and breaks.  Five weeks ago, Shelley discovered that a pipe no longer filled one of the long tanks with water.  She immediately shut the tap off (because the water had to be going somewhere) and called maintenance.  The problem with fixing this system, as is true with all of Kew's irrigation, is that it is difficult finding the parts for such old plumbing.

Keeping it clean
Weeding is an important part of any garden maintenance plan.  For some reason, before I started at Kew I figured that water gardens would require less weeding than traditional beds.  Boy, was I wrong.  Duckweed (Lemna) and blanket weed need to be removed regularly to keep the desirable plants from being overcrowded and to ensure the surface of the water remains a dark, reflective surface.

Daisy demonstrates how to remove
blanketweed algae with a rake

Kew tries to prevent blanket weed algae from forming by dyeing the water blue.  The idea is that this type of algae forms below the water surface.  If the water is darkened, this reduces the amount of sunlight the plants receive, which should reduce growth.  The practice is effective in combination with regular weeding.  Algae can be removed by scooping it out of the tank with a rake or by simply harvesting it by hand.  Usually blanket weed will come up in a huge, continuous mass.  It actually resembles a blanket, which is why it's called blanket weed.

Duckweed is a whole different problem altogether.  It's brought into the tanks on the feet of aquatic birds (thus the common name "duckweed"), plant containers, and even tools.  The water dyeing trick doesn't work on Lemna because it naturally grows along the surface of the water.  That's why making the water dark doesn't slow growth.  Unlike blanket weed, duckweed doesn't stay in one big mass when you try to remove it.  Although it may look like a big, unbroken sheet from above, it's actually a collection of thousands upon thousands of itty bitty plants.  Try to scoop it out with a rake and you'll see all the pieces scatter away.  That's why we use nets to remove Lemna, but even then it's just impossible to get it all.

Bugging out
In addition to weeding, we also do pest control.  Although the water lilies were relatively healthy last time we worked in this area, they've developed a pest problem since then.  The water lily leaf beetle lays its eggs on the foliage.  When the eggs hatch, small black larvae emerge and begin chomping voraciously on the leaves.  They cut tunnels through the pads, which stress the plants out and look very unattractive.  It also doesn't help that the adults feed on the plants too.

Damage caused by water lily beetle larvae

There's not much that we can do to control the pests beyond simply spraying the eggs, larvae, and adults off of the plants with a water hose.  However, removing aquatic pests on aquatic plants with a spray of water into a tank of water isn't super effective.  Most of what we do is remove the damaged foliage so that the plants look cleaner and some of the pests are removed with the green waste.

This is nothing new
The information packet Shelley gave us for the aquatic garden contained a page from the Kew Guild Journal from 1909 to 1910.  The author was describing the new plans for the aquatic garden, and wrote about Sir Joseph Hooker's older garden.  "The old tank in the herbaceous ground, of which some of our readers will remain very muddy memories appertaining to its annual clean out, has been cleared away."  Although Daisy and I are only at Kew for a short time, it feels really special to share this murky experience with gardeners across Kew's past and into the future.

An intern's perspective
I think everyone enjoys working in the aquatic garden at this time of year.  When it's hot, humid, and sunny outside, this is a very cool activity.  Chasing after the Lemna is always a bit disappointing for me, because I really do want to get all of it out.  But that's impossible for reasons already stated.  The important thing is that the gardens look much better at the end of the day than they did at the beginning.

What else did we do this week?

We skipped edging the order beds on Monday, because the grass simply hadn't grown.  London's been in the grip of a drought since I arrived in June, and I guess the grass just couldn't handle it anymore.  This week much of the grass when from a dry green to a crunchy brown.  So there was no point in edging because nothing had grown.

Aquatics garden after weeding

Our crew spent a day and a half cutting and cleaning up the long grass along the boundary wall between the order beds and Kew Road.  This was intensely interesting, but I think I'm going to save what I was going to write about it for next week's post.  I don't want to overwhelm folks with too much information, and I'd also like a bit more time to observe how this difference affects the wildlife in our area.

Hitching my wagon to her star
Friday afternoon, Daisy was struck with a brilliant idea.  We've both been a bit distressed that we haven't been able to see much of the gardens, even though we've been working here for seven whole weeks.  It's hard to work up enough stamina for a romp through the 300+ acre property after a hard day of manual labor.

But Friday, Daisy proposed a fine solution.  Instead of walking through the gardens, she suggested that we hop on the Kew Explorer tram.  The tour guide was clear and informative, we saw loads of new things, and had a fun time!  I'd recommend the journey as a good way to start a visit to Kew.  It's only 40 minutes long, you get an idea of where everything is and of what you want to see.

Thanks for reading, and check back to read what happens next week in my internship with Kew.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel welcome to leave a comment or send me an email.

To see more photos from this week, be sure to check out the album "Week Seven" on the Plante on Plants Facebook page.  "Likes", shares and comments are appreciated. 

This week's British treat is India's homemade white chocolate and pistachio cake.  Moist, smooth, and flavorful.  That girl knows how to bake!

 

India's tasty and delicious white chocolate pistachio cake.  Oh so good!

A nice, cool way to spend a Friday!  Photo by Daisy.

Sources:

• Desmond, Ray.  (2007).  The History of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (2nd Edition).  London: Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.  177-179, 345-346.
• The Plant List website
• The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew website and staff

 

Week Six

As of Thursday, I have officially been an intern at Kew for one full month.  July completely flew by!  I can't believe that Daisy and I are at the halfway point of our internship.

I can't believe I've been in England
for a full month already!  Time flies.

If you've been following this blog, then you've read that we've been doing a great deal of deadheading all over our section, including in the order beds, birch border, DNA spiral, and secluded garden.  Weeks of deadheading has promoted new flushes of flowers in some specimens.  Others are still preparing for another show later in the fall.

All this deadheading and cutting back has changed the appearance of these spots pretty dramatically.  I walked through the order beds and tried to capture images in the same spot as some from my first week.  The colors and feel have changed quite a bit!  Scroll to the bottom of this post to see what I mean.

What did I do this week?

Monday was edging day, followed by weeding and deadheading. 

I spent the entire day Tuesday deadheading Sisyrinchium striatum around the DNA spiral next to the Jodrell Laboratory.  That's an activity where I really wish I'd taken "before" and "after" photos, because the difference is pretty dramatic.  I had mixed feelings about the task because the Sisyrinchium had really interesting seed heads, but they really did look quite messy.

A week or two ago I spent a whole day deadheading the Sisyrinchium in the secluded garden too.  I've decided that this is a fiddly plant, and those who want to grow it in their home landscapes should either have enough time to tidy it, or they should be happy to let it behave as it would naturally.

To read more about how Kew handles
pruner maintenance, check
out the Thrifty Gardener

Thursday was spent maintaining the rose pillars.  I would write more about that, but I went into a great deal of detail about this activity in the first week's post.  However, India did show Daisy and I how to disassemble, clean, lubricate, sharpen, and assemble our secateurs (bypass hand pruners).  I've been in horticulture since 2006, and somehow never learned how to do this.  What a handy thing to know!  I've dedicated a whole post titled "Hand Pruner Maintenance 101" in the Thrifty Gardener to this activity.  If you want to learn how to do it, I'd recommend having a read.

Friday morning Daisy and I took turns mowing around the rose pillars with the cylinder push mower.  I also detailed this activity the first week.

On irrigation

Drought tolerant?

Quite a few "drought tolerant" plants, like Salvia, Rudbeckia, and some grasses, have been struggling over the past few weeks.  Although these species are very water wise choices in dry areas, these particular specimens have been acting a bit wimpy in London's droughty weather.  The reason for this is that these plants have been spoiled by the rainy English climate.  The normally frequent rain has caused them to develop shallow root systems.  Now that the top of the soil is dry, these plants are flagging.

Normally many Salvia are pretty drought
tolerant.  The ones at Kew have been spoiled
by the normally rainy climate.

We have been trying to water deeply so the roots will grow down, but the whole area has needed a lot of TLC.  Martin, one of the diploma students, has been spearheading the watering brigade.  If you walked through the order beds at any point last week, you probably saw Martin lugging hoses, setting up sprinklers, and making adjustments.

Shelley and the water box

Although our activities this week were somewhat routine, Shelley was working on something really interesting.  There's a water box at the corner by the lavender beds that was prone to flooding and had filled up with silt and gravel.  While I was deadheading at the birch border, she kept me updated on what she was doing to make repairs.

Photo of a different water box than the one that
Shelley was working on, but you get the idea

First, she scooped out all of the soil and gravel from inside the box, until she hit the cement bottom.  Next, she replaced all of the rubber gasket fittings in each of the connectors and caps.  When she attached a hose to water the DNA spiral, the hose was very loose on the attachment.  She determined that larger gauge hoses won't fit correctly on that heading for some reason.  She switched to a smaller gauge hose, and it seemed to fit okay.  She let the drip irrigation run overnight, and the next morning there was only four or five inches of standing water in the water box.

It was really interesting to watch this trouble shooting process!  Like I've mentioned before, the irrigation system at Kew is really quite old.  As one of the premier gardens in the world, Kew has been on the forefront of cutting edge technology in horticulture.  As a result, it seems like they get these elaborate systems before the industry has had the time to work all the bugs out.  Once something like an irrigation system is in place, they can do small scale improvements, but a total overhaul isn't really feasible.

Thanks for reading, and check back to read what happens next week in my internship with Kew.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel welcome to leave a comment or send me an email.

To see more photos from this week, be sure to check out the album "Week Six" on the Plante on Plants Facebook page.  "Likes", shares and comments are appreciated. 

This week's British treat is the warm and tasty bakewell tart, served with berries and vanilla ice cream.  Mmm...

 

Last week of June

First week of August

Last week of June

First week of August

Week Five

Believe it or not, I've already been at Kew for five weeks!  This internship is almost halfway finished.  And yet there are still plenty of new activities to keep busy with.  We were a bit all over the place, with edging and weeding in the order beds, deadheading, weeding, and watering in the secluded garden, weeding in the grass garden, and deadheading the Salvia border, so there isn't one area that really stands out for a profile this week.

The tender, whip-like new growth of Wisteria
needs to be pruned back at this time of year

Although we did work on some routine maintenance, Daisy and I had the opportunity to prune some monstrous Wisteria vines that grow along the brick wall between the order beds and the rock garden.  

Wisteria, way up

Cutting up

According to Crissy, Kew prunes their wisteria vines twice a year.  They do a hard prune in the winter where they cut new growth back to an older branch.  The new growth usually has two or three buds left that will sprout into the vigorous branches when the weather warms up.

Kew also does a softer prune in the middle of summer, which is what Daisy, Beth, Martin, Simon and I were working on this week.  In the summer prune, we remove the fresh, whip-like growth and cut the new vines back to five or six buds (about 15 cm).  This cut improves the appearance of the vine without giving the wall a scalped appearance, improves the chances of a second flush of blooms, and also prevents it from engulfing surrounding plantings.

One vine has already set a new flower bud!

In addition to being very vigorous, the wisteria are also quite old (1966-69201, NOTC).  The one that Simon and I worked on was planted in 1966!  All three of the plants that were being pruned were actually growing over the edge of the brick wall into specimens of other climbers on the opposite side.  There were two ladders available, so we broke into two smaller groups to try to contain the vines. 

Before climbing the ladders, we needed to clear some space.  Also, why use a ladder to cut a section that's within arm's reach?  After we pruned back all the vigorous, whippy new growth that we could reach, it was easier to find a suitable spot to prop the ladder.

Safety first

Martin and I were paired together to ensure
the work done on the ladder was done safely

Health and safety is a huge concern for Kew.  The first hour of the first day of the internship, the internship coordinator walked us through a great deal of health and safety rules, guidelines and forms.  We all needed to sign some additional paperwork before being allowed to use the ladders, and the staff members walked us through how to use the ladders safely.

We made sure that our ladders were securely placed against the wall and the footing was sturdy.  There was always someone with a firm grip on the ladder below to spot the person who was working on the wisteria, and we switched regularly to keep alert.  One hand had to be kept on the ladder at all times, which made pruning a bit more difficult.  Anyway, we finished pruning three vines without any incidents.

A personnel matter

Our leader Shelley was on annual leave for the past two weeks, leaving staff members Crissy and India in charge.  Shelley's management style has always been really open and inclusive, and she is great at communication.  The Friday before she left, she gathered all the staff, students, interns and the apprentice together to make sure we all were on the same page about what needed to be done while she was gone.  However, she's not the type to micromanage from vacation, so there was some flexibility in how India and Crissy chose to execute the work.

Simon shows us the scale of
the wall and how much the new growth
extends into the Salvia border

They did a really great job coordinating everyone -- including the volunteers -- and I think we got everything done.  For instance, right after Shelley left, a "heat wave" hit London.  India and Crissy coped with this by making sure we did work in the sunny, open areas (like the grass garden and order beds) early in the day, and saved chores in the shady areas (like the secluded garden, Salvia border, and birch border) for the afternoon.  You could definitely tell they put thought into how to balance practicality with getting the work done.

Goodbye Simon!

This week was a bit bittersweet for members of our little crew.  Our apprentice Simon is graduating from Kew, and moving on to bigger and better things.  From day one of our internship, Simon has been a friendly and capable presence in the order beds.  He's always been there to help out, whether it's by lending a hand to finish a task or to lighten the mood with a funny story.  It will certainly be weird to go through the next six weeks without him working alongside us.  We wish him the best in finding the job of his dreams.  Good luck Simon!

Familiar Faces for Friday Fun

Friday was a real treat for me, because a group of students from the University of Tennessee plant sciences department stopped by for a tour of Kew.  I took the morning off to wander the grounds with the participants in the Glorious Gardens of England mini-term.  It was so nice to hear a southern twang after five weeks in London!  They were kind enough to let me tag along on some tours of other fabulous gardens in southern England, which is why this week's post is a bit delayed.  I hope that they're having a great time exploring the north this week.

Thanks for reading, and check back to read what happens next week in my internship with Kew.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel welcome to leave a comment or send me an email.

To see more photos from this week, be sure to check out the album "Week Five" on the Plante on Plants Facebook page.  "Likes", shares and comments are appreciated. 

This week's British treat are chocolate Hobnob biscuits.  Yummy on their own, and transcendent when dunked in coffee.

Myself and professors Brad Collett and Garry Menendez from the University of Tennessee's Master's in Landscape Architecture and Department of Plant Sciences.  They brought a group of 17 students from various backgrounds to explore Kew and the Glorious Gardens of England.  Glad to catch up with some familiar faces after five weeks abroad!

Week Four

Kew displays plants taxonomically
by family in the order beds

There's been some interest from readers over the past few weeks in learning more about the weekly edging we do in our area of Kew's hardy display section.  Although I did give a very brief explanation in the first week's post, this week I'm going to give more detail about where we're edging, how this task is done, and my thoughts on this type of work.

This is a great week to write about edging, because we really did quite a lot of it.  Nearly all day Monday was spent edging the order beds and around the water garden, and I know that Simon, an apprentice, went on the edge the secluded garden, grass garden, and around the peony beds.  It's a good thing Simon really enjoys edging!

All about edging in my section

A quick history of the order beds
Kew's order beds (or "plant family" beds) were established under William Hooker's directorship.  Before that time, the space was one of the gardens used to grow produce for the Royal Family.  However, in 1846 a new kitchen garden was planted at Frogmore, and the Royal Family agreed to allow Hooker to use the space for other pursuits.

Lamiaceae, or the mint family, takes up
multiple plots of Kew's order beds

Like many other areas at Kew, the order beds were laid out taxonomically by family.  Originally they were organized by Jussieu's natural classification system (Desmond, 152).  In 1869, the collections were reorganized by the Genera plantarum which was created by, then director, Joseph Hooker and his colleague George Bentham (Desmond, 226, 348). 

Today, the order beds may be in for another reorganization.  Kew's Jodrell laboratory and other prominent botanical and horticultural institutions have been unlocking the secrets of plant's DNA.  Their discoveries have called into question current plant classification systems (Desmond, 318-319).  It looks like genetic fingerprinting will lead the way to new a method of taxonomic organization. 

Although the order beds are a riot of color in the summer, the display is more for education than aesthetics.  Visitors can walk through the garden and compare the similarities and differences between plants within the same family.  For instance, although "Love-in-a-Mist" or Nigella damascena and Anenome both look very different in flower and foliage, they're both in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae.

Google satellite image of Kew's order
beds.  I figure that we edge
around 6 miles every week!

The order beds are arranged in 104 plots.  Although from within the garden they seem like normal, rectangular plots, they're actually parallelograms that are laid out at a slight angle.  Visitors may be able to note this unique arrangement by standing at one end of the garden and looking down the grass main pathway.  May I suggest a view from the gardener statute looking toward the Jodrell lab?  The mound of the Temple of Aeolus gives another nice view, but it would be best in the winter when the trees between the temple and the order beds are dormant. 

One feature of the order beds that visitors may appreciate but not necessarily notice are the crisp, clean borders between the beds and the grass paths.  This distinction is achieved by edging.

What is edging anyway?
Edging is the process where grass or some other plant is cut at the edge of a garden bed border or path.  There are two motivations for frequent edging.  First of all, it keeps grass from growing into garden beds and onto pathways.  For gardeners in the southeast U.S. who are constantly battling to keep their bermuda (Cynodon dactylon) or Zoysia lawns out of their gardens, you know that once one sprig of grass crosses the border the whole bed is compromised.  Second, crisp, clean edges really do look nice.

Cool tools
Kew's hardy display section generally uses two tools for edging -- edging shears and half-moon edgers.  However, a spade can be a good substitute for a half-moon depending on the type of job.  Edging shears are best for edging along a straight line with an uneven drop.  For instance, we use edging shears to cut along the borders of garden beds and where metal edging meets concrete paths.  Half-moon edgers are used to cut borders that are nearly even, such as along an inlaid brick pathway.

We use edging shears for most
of the edging in the order beds

Before coming to Kew, I was only familiar with the sort of edging we do in Knoxville.  We usually give our borders a fresh edge with a power edger once or twice a year (depending), put down a good layer of mulch, and weed out encroaching grass as necessary. 

Edging the order beds
Every Monday, the whole crew and two volunteers edge all of the order beds and around the rose pergola.  We don't edge around the beds in the northeast quadrant of this area, because they are currently being used as a vegetable garden for a chef's television program.

By my very rough approximations, I figure that every week we edge somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,200 feet.  That's nearly 2 miles!  About 8,700 feet are around the order beds (when you subtract the vegetable quadrant), and the remaining 1,500 feet are the beds around the rose pillars.  Every two or three weeks the crew also edges along the paths within the order beds, which are an additional 1,250 feet.  I didn't calculate the other areas we edge (like the border around the, the peony beds, grass garden, water garden, or secluded garden), but they do take a fair bit of time as well.

India demonstrates how we edge
the order beds every week

The normal Monday routine usually takes seven staff members and two volunteers about three hours to complete.  That's taking into account the fact that the volunteers start a bit later and finish a bit later.  So that's 21 man hours.  Phew!

Visitor reactions
Although I've only been at Kew for a short while, I have noticed some visitor's funny reactions to edging.  The most prominent memory would have to be from a school tour two weeks ago.  A large class of middle-school age students were walking through the order beds when I heard a shrill squeal behind me.  One girl was very distressed by what I was doing to the grass.  She called out to her teacher, "Look at what she's doing!  She's killing that plant!"  It's actually more like giving it a haircut.

One of the other members of our crew noticed that visitors from southeast Asia are especially intrigued by this chore.  I have to say that these visitors do stop and photograph us edging more frequently than those from anywhere else.  Another staff member recalled a time when a visitor from the U.S. stopped her and said, "Now, I know that there is a power tool that does the same thing."

An intern's perspective 
I must admit, there are times (usually right before morning tea on Monday) that I wonder why we do this chore.  I mean, the grass just grows back again, and in seven days it looks like we hadn't even done anything.  But all I need to do is look up from my shears and back to where we've already worked, and I can't help but feel some pride and accomplishment.

The gardens really do look much better afterwards, and as one of the finest botanic gardens in the world, Kew does need to look smart.  I've also got to say that spending some time edging saves lots of time with weeding.  We don't edge regularly in Knoxville, and I know what a pain it is wrestling bermuda grass out of a garden bed.

Aside from edging...

In addition to a whole lot of edging, we also worked in the secluded garden.  The whole crew and a group of four volunteers spent Tuesday weeding, deadheading, watering, edging, and generally doing a thorough job of tidying up.  Chrissy, India, Daisy and I went back to this area on Wednesday, where the team I was in scooped loads of duckweed (Lemna) out of the stream and Daisy's team worked on tidying up the bamboo garden.  We also weeded, watered, and deadheaded the birch border that is next to the grass garden and tidied up roses on the pergola.

Thursday and Friday afternoons we had a special treat.  The artists for Kew the Music did sound checks the last hour or so of work, so I got to hear Elvis Costello warm up with some nice songs and Bjorn Again cover sections of ABBA's "SOS" and "Mamma Mia".  

Thanks for reading, and check back to hear about my second month as an intern at Kew.  Four weeks down, seven weeks to go!

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel welcome to leave a comment or send me an email.

To see more photos from this week, be sure to check out the album "Week Four" on the Plante on Plants Facebook page.  "Likes", shares and comments are appreciated. 

This week's British treat of the week is treacle tart. Mmm mmm!

 

View of the order beds from the Temple of Aeolus

View of the order beds and the Temple of Aeolus from the School of Horticulture building

All photos were taken by Amanda Plante at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew unless otherwise stated in the caption.

Sources:

• Desmond, Ray.  (2007).  The History of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (2nd Edition).  London: Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.  177-179, 345-346.
• The Plant List website
• The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew website and staff

 

Week Three

Much of this post will be about Kew's grass garden,
since that is where we spent most of our
time this week.  Photo by Daisy.

You know the routine
 
Although there were a few interesting diversions this week (more on that later), I think Daisy and I have started to settle into our section's normal routine.  Monday was spent edging and weeding the order beds, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent weeding the grass garden, and Thursday was spent deadheading and training at the rose pergola.

Getting to know the grass garden

We did spend two full days and part of one morning working in the grass garden this week, so I figure it's appropriate to go into a bit more depth on that subject. I'll provide a very brief history of the grass garden at Kew, share this week's experience with grass verification, write a bit about the main weed problems, and conclude with what it feels like to weed one of these areas.

A quick history
Ornamental grasses have been cultivated at Kew nearly since its foundation.  The botanic gardens were founded in 1759, and the earliest accounts for a grass garden on the site were in the 1760's (Desmond, 39).  The circular grass beds were not included on a 1763 map of the gardens (Desmond, 56 - 57), so they must have been established later in that decade.

John Smith, Kew's first curator (served 1841 to 1864), seemed to have a special interest in the grass collection.  In 1828, on his own initiative, Smith reorganized and verified the species within the grass garden (Desmond, 127 and 343).  Smith must have researched the history of the garden before this great undertaking, since Ray Desmond cites Smith's 1880 Records of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew when pinpointing the date the grass garden was established (Desmond, 39 and 142).

Many visitors still miss the grass garden during
their visits.  In 2006, Kew added a path from the
Princess of Wales Conservatory (structure to the right)
and Cambridge Cottage (not photographed)
to increase traffic through the grass garden.

Smith either installed or updated the beds with the old circular design in mind.  He arranged the grasses in a large bed with four concentric circles and placed the tallest grasses in the center of the beds to create an eye catching display (Desmond, 129 and 148).  The grass garden was located relatively close (slightly northeast) to its present location (Desmond, 150-151, 173 and 336).  Considering the Kew is over 300 acres in size and many of the collections, such as the arboretum, have moved considerable distances over the site during the past 250 years, the movement of the grass collection from the 1820's to today is really not that far.

The grass collection was first moved in 1963, and again in 1982 to the space where it presently resides (Desmond, 354 - 355).  In the 1990's, Kew remodeled and revitalized several garden areas, including the grass the grass garden.  In 1997 circular beds were added, and in 1999 a lawn wheel of British native grasses was installed (Desmond, 310 and 358).  Despite all of the work done in this garden, it was still overlooked by visitors.  That is why in 2006, Kew added a path through the grass garden that would connect the Princess of Wales Conservatory and Cambridge Cottage.  The hope was that this would increase traffic in this area.

Historically, grasses at Kew have been organized in
concentric circles.  In the late 20th century, grasses
were organized in thin, rectangular beds. Between
2007 and 2011, Shelley Cleave's team expanded the
beds to add depth and dimension, as seen above.

According to Shelley Cleave, Kew's main curator of the current grass garden, the new grass collection had been laid out systematically in relatively thin strips, somewhat similar to the order beds.  Although this type of design makes a handy reference garden for botanists and horticulture students, it isn't that aesthetically pleasing for the public. Under Shelley's direction, the beds were expanded in size to add some depth and layers.  Like Smith, Shelley planted larger specimens in the center of the beds and the smallest grasses toward the edges.  This expansion happened between 2007 and 2011. 

Today the grass gardens are a riot of movement, sound, texture and color. The landscape is pleasing, educational, compelling for visitors, and botanists and horticulture students are still able to use this area as a reference garden.

Botanizing

After a certain period of time, Kew's
hort team in the grass garden sends
samples to be verified by the herbarium

Although Friday morning was damp and dreary, we were in for a real treat.  Because many of the specimens in the grass garden had been installed twenty or more years ago, they needed to be verified with Kew's herbarium. Essentially that means that a botanist needs to look at these plants to verify that they are the same as the label and living collection database reflects.  There are far too many plants in the grass garden to verify all at once, so Shelley and the herbarium have been going through the collection alphabetically, a handful of plants at a time.

Friday morning, Shelley showed us the steps on the horticulture side of verifying some grasses.  First, she went on Kew's live collection database and printed off the information for the four plants to be verified.

A wing of Kew's herbarium

Next we went outside to collect materials from each specimen.  If the botanists in the herbarium aren't provided with enough information, they can only partially verify a plant.  That is why Shelley collected the roots, stem, and inflorescence of each species.  If possible, she would include newly opening and fully open flowers and seed heads.

Then, the plant material and an information sheet for each plant was placed in a sealed plastic bag.  Martin, a horticulture student in the group, was charged with delivering the samples to the herbarium.  Really interesting!

Wicked weeds
Weeding the grass garden was much more intensive than it had been the week before.  Last week we were mostly focused on improving curb appeal by removing weeds that were visible to visitors.  This week, Shelley gave Daisy, Simon and me small sections within different beds to weed intensively.  Shelley encouraged us to be very thorough when weeding each section, and I did my best to remove as much of each weed as possible.

View within the grass garden prior to weeding

The two main problems -- couch grass (Elymus repens) and wild garlic (Allium ursinum) -- need to be completely and carefully removed.  If even the smallest stolon, rhizome or bulblet remain in the soil, then the weed problem will persist.  If these weeds are pulled normally without consideration for the pieces that are left behind, then there may be a dozen or so that sprout from what that one weed left in the soil.

The grass garden is pretty large, and the mulch isn't as thick as it is in the order beds, which makes it more difficult to completely remove entire weeds.  Add into the mix the fact that we're supposed to make every effort to preserve that thin layer of mulch without exposing any soil, and you can see why this took all day Tuesday and Wednesday to do.

An intern's perspective from within

View within the grass garden after weeding

Weeding the grass garden is a lot like swimming in a deep pool.  You can't just walk in -- you have to dive in with your arms out in front to protect your face from grasping, razor sharp foliage.  You can't wade through the sections of the bed.  Rather, you must stroke ahead to make way and kick legs to prevent trampling or tripping.

Weeding on your hands and knees is like swimming under waves of Miscanthus.  You pray the wind doesn't rise lest you become tossed under the whipping fronds.  On the freshly weeded, brown, soft mulch floor, the temptation to lay down gets stronger as the work drags on.  Thankfully, Simon throws a life saver ("Tea time!") long before there is any danger of drowning in the grassy sea.

Staff Picnic

Tuesday afternoon was a real treat -- Kew had a staff cookout!  Although I hadn't really met anyone (besides interns) in the horticulture department outside my section, I was able to get an idea of how many horticulturalists there are at Kew in last week's meeting.  The barbeque on Tuesday was even more boggling because it included all the people who make the gardens run -- not just horticulture staff.  It's really amazing just how many people actually work at Kew.

There wasn't as much mingling between departments as one might expect, but there was a little.  The hort people tended to stick together, the Joddrell folks were in another group, etc.  One employee in the foundation did something really brilliant to get the horticulture people talking and comfortable -- she asked a plant question.  Simple, but effective.

She described a plant she had noticed ("It's like a stick with a hard raspberry on it").  There was silence at first, then one person asked for more information. ("It didn't have any leaves or flowers at the time").  A low murmuring started, and then the questions started flowing ("There was no label."  "It was near the Director's garden." "I saw it last week.").  Other horticulturalists who work in the area were tracked down.  Apparently one person walked back there to try to find exactly what she was talking about.  The next morning at work before the Hardy Display section meeting, everyone was all atwitter.  One person had even dreamed about the plant, and woke up in the middle of the night knowing exactly what it was.

Genius.  I need to keep that in my pocket as an ice breaker at the next horticulture conference I attend.

The British treat of the week is scone with clotted cream and jam (or jam and clotted cream).  Sooo decadent. 

The procedure for applying spreads to the scone differ depending on where you are in the United Kingdom.  In some regions, the jam must be spread before the cream, whereas others are vice-versa.  I tried both, and they're both really rich and delicious.  Here's my two cents.  If you want your scone to absorb some flavor from the jam, apply the jam before the clotted cream.  If you don't want a soggy scone, then apply the clotted cream before the jam.  However you choose to prepare this tasty treat, plan on taking a nice, leisurely stroll afterwards to ease your guilt after having such a heavy dessert.

Enjoying a decadent scone with clotted cream and jam at Kew's cafe by the Victoria Gate

As promised, here are a couple photos of Kew's water boxes and my section's tool shed.  More photos can be viewed in the "Week Three" photo album on my facebook page.

As per one reader's request, here are some photos of our section's tool shed.  Every tool is clean and in its place.  The floors are also clean.  Absolutely the tidiest tool shed I've ever set foot in.  And it is ALWAYS this clean.

As per one reader's request, here are some photos of Kew's irrigation system.  The system is very old, and it can be difficult to replace broken parts.  Water box in the Queen's Garden.  This is absolutely not the state that most boxes are in. I just couldn't get the water boxes in the order beds open for a photo.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel welcome to leave a comment or send me an email.

To see more photos from this week, be sure to check out the album "Week Three" on the Plante on Plants Facebook page.  "Likes", shares and comments are appreciated.

All photos were taken by Amanda Plante at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew unless otherwise stated in the caption.


Sources:

• Desmond, Ray.  (2007).  The History of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (2nd Edition).  London: Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.  177-179, 345-346.
• The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew website and staff
• The Royal Horticultural Society website