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 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 One

Hello, I'm Amanda, and I'm new at Kew.  To learn more about me and this internship, please refer to the introductory post.  Typically I'll use this space to detail what I learned and accomplished in the garden this week.  This week's post is a much, much longer than I expect future posts will be, because it was the first week and everything is all just so new and interesting.  I'll start at the beginning of the week.

Orientation

The historic School of Horticulture building,
beyond the water garden

I arrived an hour and a half early for orientation.  I puttered around Kew Green until just after 8 a.m., School of Horticulture building, still an hour early.  The interns chatted and got to know each-other for a bit before orientation began.  For most of the interns, English was not their first language.  I was the only student from the United States.
then made my way to the

Kate Dixon gave us some information about health and safety, interacting with visitors, and general expectations.  We went to the constabulary building to get access cards and bike permits.  In many gardens that I've been to, staff either walk or ride a utility vehicle.  At Kew, workers are actually able to bike across the grounds, so they don't spend most of their time walking to and from the kitchen during lunch and tea breaks.  After all, the garden is over 300 acres.

Hardy Display Section

After orientation, each of the interns went to the sections they would be working in.  Daisy, an intern from the UK, and I went to meet with our team leader Shelley Cleave.  Shelley introduced us to the other workers, Martin who is one of Kew's horticulture students, and Simon who is an apprentice.  The next day we would meet India, who is another staff member.

Plants are arranged in Kew's order beds taxonomically
by family name, genus, and even species.  These beds
feature both annual and perennial plants.

Although Shelley was often present to provide information and guidance, she allowed the students to get leadership experience as well.  Although we all spoke English, sometimes I did have difficulty completely understanding everything.  Everyone was very accommodating and patient.  It was especially helpful that Daisy could help decipher some things too.  I needed to be careful that everyone could completely understand me when I spoke as well, so as to avoid confusion.

It was especially interesting that the staff have set times for "tea".  Essentially they're breaks, but many workers do drink tea at tea time.  Workers gather near the kitchen and lockers to sip tea or "a coffee" (not just "coffee") and talk about what they were working on, any interesting horticultural goings-on, and life in general.  Conversations were more often than not about plants.

Daisy and I were really fortunate to be given a diversity of tasks to work on during our first week.  We completed a variety of chores in every part of the areas we were assigned.  These tasks are described by area in the following sections below.  I have to admit, I was relieved that we weren't just weeding one spot for five days.  Maybe there will be a week like that at some point, but I'm glad the first week went the way that it did.

Order Beds

Edging

We maintain a definite border around
the order beds by edging

When Shelley told us that we'd be edging the order beds, I thought that we'd be using a power edger like I'd seen used at the UT Gardens.  I was a bit nervous about being trusted with that type of equipment right of the bat.  Luckily, I was wrong.  Daisy and I used a tool that I was not familiar with, but were also called edgers.  They were like long-handled shears, where the blades were held at an angle.  According to Daisy, many people use them to keep grass from growing into their garden beds at home. 

Martin explained that you should feel the back blade of the edgers laying against the thatch edge of the grass.  Cutting should be easy -- if you feel like you're forcing the blade, you're probably not going with the contour of the border.  I struggled with this at first, but like any repetitive task, you get used to it.

A clean cut edge in the order beds

Edging can be a bit tricky though.  For instance, you may not realize that you've cut too high until cleaning up the edges afterwards.  Simon pointed out that we should avoid cutting down on pieces of mulch or rocks, because this will dull or even break the shears.  Probably the most tedious part of edging is cleaning up all the little grass clippings afterwards.  This wasn't necessary in the order beds because it is such a large area, but we did clean up clippings after edging the rose pergola beds and the grass garden.

Finishing edging doesn't necessarily mean you're done with the task. First, we set aside all the dull tools.  When it's a rainy day, the workers will sharpen all dull tools.  Next, we sprayed a soapy water mixture on the blades.  Then we dried the blades completely so they wouldn't rust.  After that, we added some grease to make sure the two blades stayed lubricated.  Then we put the edgers away in their designated spot in the shed.  It's worth mentioning here that the hardy display tool shed is the cleanest garden shed I've ever seen in my life.

So why bother?  Who cares if the beds are a little scruffy around the edges?  Scruffy beds are less visually appealing than a nice, neat bed.  Also, edging prevents grass from the lawn from spreading into the beds, creating a weed problem down the line.  Finally, regularly edging maintains the original straight edge, preventing the need to re-do the edge with a power edger annually.

Weeding
Maintaining a clean, weed-free bed is essential for any garden.  Weeds compete with planted material for resources like sun, water, and nutrients.  Weeds can also be vectors for pests and diseases that may infest the other plants in the bed.

When working in any unfamiliar garden, I can be a bit nervous about weeding for the first time.  What if I remove something wrong?  What if I leave the wrong thing behind.  The order beds are arranged taxonomically by plant family, which makes weed identification a bit easier than in traditional garden beds.  For instance, if you're weeding the Rosaceae beds and there's a Leguminaceae growing in the bed, chances are that plant is a weed.  Also, many of the weeds that are a problem for Kew are also a problem in Knoxville, Tennessee.

While most weeds can be tossed in the green waste bin for composting, there are some noxious weeds that should only be destroyed by fire.  These are weeds that, if composted, are likely to survive Kew's composting process and spread throughout the garden when the compost is used.  Weeds like Oxalis and bindweed (either Calystegia sepium or Convolvulus arvensis) need to be incinerated rather than composted.

Planting
Daisy and I had the opportunity to plant a few times this week.  We started by planting some small pots of the herb Rue, also known as Ruta graveolens (1969-50371), among larger bushes in the order beds.  When the older plants are ready to be removed, the specimens that we planted will be large enough to fill in.  That way removing the older plants won't leave an unsightly gap in the bed.


We also planted Dahlia 'David Howard' (2009-440, BUCO) in patches in the long bed that runs along

Aeonium arboreum 'Atropurpureum' is actually
planted with its pot still in the ground for ease
of removal at the end of the growing season

the brick wall and Aeonium arboreum 'Atropurpureum' (1994-2986).  I liked India's description of the Aeonium as, "A Dr. Seuss looking plant."  It has a long stem and succulent, black foliage.  The plants are propagated from last year's specimens in a glass house during the winter.  Then they are planted in the order beds and grown through the summer.  Before the first frost, the plants are removed, new cuttings are taken for next year, and the remains are composted.  This particular type of plant is still contained within the pot when planted.  The pot is firmed in, and the plant is buried another inch or so to make sure the wind doesn't knock it over.  This process makes it easier to remove the plants later in the year, rather than having to dig up all the roots.

When planting, we had to be careful to scrape all the mulch to one side before breaking ground.  This way, once the plant is installed, one only has to push the mulch back into place rather than mulching again or leaving a mixture of soil and mulch.  We did have to be careful not to push the mulch up against the stem, because the mulch can get hot enough to damage the plant.

Watering
Although Daisy did some watering with a hose in the Salvia border, I just lugged around cans to water in everything that we had planted. I filled up at a nearby water box that is level with the turf.  Although a sunken water box system is more attractive and out of the way than a traditional tap, they can be a safety concern for visitors.  We had to make sure the lid covered the hole so that visitors wouldn't trip or fall in.  Shelley informed us that Kew's water box system is actually quite old.  So old, in fact, that if anything breaks, it is very difficult for them to find replacement parts.

Rose Pergola

Mowing
Most visitors who meander through the rose pergola are looking up at the beautiful, fragrant blossoms.  However, if you look down, you will notice three things.  First, there is metal edging between the grass lawn and the concrete path.  Second, you will notice a square bed around each rose.  This prevents turf and weeds from competing with the roses for resources.  Third, you will notice a narrow strip of grass between the edge of the rose bed and the path that has the metal border.  This grass must be mowed, but it is too narrow for the mower that is used on the rest of the turf.  It would also be dangerous to use a traditional mower above the metal edging.

The recently mown pillar around Rosa
'Kew Rambler' (2012-363, BERO)

Kew maintains this grass with an old fashioned cylinder push mower.  I have never used one of these before, and I was excited to have the opportunity.  Daisy and I took turns mowing around each rose.  She mowed one side of the pergola, and I mowed the other side.  We simply mowed around the edges of each bed.  We would mow short, brisk movements clockwise around the bed, then counterclockwise to ensure all the grass was cut.  Even at the highest setting, the cylinder mower cuts grass a bit shorter than the rest of the lawn, so if you look close you may be able to see the line.  When we finished, Shelley showed us how to clean the blades with a water hose.

After this experience, I would absolutely recommend a cylinder push mower for anyone who has a small lawn.  The one at Kew was made of really lightweight plastic, so it was easy to push.  The bag was easy to remove and replace when emptying clippings.  My only complaint would be that the mower always seems to cut the grass, so when moving between pedestals or returning to the shed, one must make sure that the front wheels don't come in contact with the lawn or you'll leave a trail of slightly shorter grass behind you.

Training
The climbing roses had been growing vigorously this season, and some vines were hanging into the pathway and surrounding turf.  Shelley and India told us that visitor safety was our first concern, and that we needed to tie back dangerous branches so that nobody would walk into a limb and get caught or scratched.  However, it wasn't as simple as just tying branches with twine.

Trained vines of Rosa 'Treasure Trove' (1995-97,
RODA) around a pillar of  the rose pergola. 
Note how the older growth is vertical, while
the young growth is wrapped around the pillar.

Up until relatively recently, the roses on the pergola had been trained to grow straight up their pillars.  As a result, most of the new, vigorous growth was up on top of the pergola rather than around and on top of the pillars.  Kew addressed this problem by training the vines to wrap around the pillars.  Vines on one side of the path are trained to grow clockwise around their pillars, and the vines on the other side grow counter clockwise.  This practice increases the amount of stem within the sight of the visitors.  Flower buds and new growth come out of nodes on the stem, so this improves the view from within the pergola to include many more flowers.

Typically, the hardy display team trains their climbing roses around October.  However, at that time of year many of the stems may be woody and break.  Right now, the stems are green and pliable.  This is why Daisy and I were instructed to tie back vines so they would grow in the right direction, and would be easier to manipulate by the team later in the year.

Although it was tough to get the knack of things at first, this was a relatively easy (although very prickly) chore once we got the hang of it.  Daisy and I found that it was easy to get totally consumed in what we were doing.  It was like trying to solve a puzzle.  This task easily took most of our work hours this week to complete.  Some of the earlier pillars look a little scruffy, but Shelley thinks that the next time she has us train roses we'll do a lot better.

Pruning and Deadheading
Once the pillars were mowed and the vines were trained, Shelley set us out to collect the three D's of rose maintenance, which are any parts of the plants that are dead, damaged, or diseased. There weren't many dead or damaged vines, but there was quite a lot of deadheading to do.  That is, removing the dead flowers so that the plant will put more energy into another wave of blooms rather than forming fruit (rose hips) and setting seeds.  Deadheading also beautifies the rose pergola by removing all the brown, so that visitors only see vigorous green and pink or white blooms.

The rose pergola Tuesday morning.  We "finished"
on the pergola by the end of the day Thursday.

Most of the roses were relatively disease free by Knoxville standards, especially considering the fact that Kew doesn't spray the roses on the pergola.  Sure, there was an occasional touch of black spot or a smidgen of powdery mildew, but for the most part the most diseased plants were leaps and bounds healthier than the healthiest (untreated) roses back home.  There were a couple exceptions that looked especially rough.  Daisy and I noticed that the two most sickly vines were near each-other on the path and much newer than the other climbers.  We wondered if perhaps there was something with the environment rather than the plants themselves that was causing the problem, but I completely forgot to ask anyone.

Grass Garden

Edging

'A Sower' in Kew's grass garden

First thing on Friday morning, Shelley, India, Martin, Simon, Daisy and I went to the grass garden to edge the beds.  This would have taken ages for one person to complete, but with everyone working together we were done by morning tea.  This reminded me of what Wendy from "Every Child Outdoors" in Knoxville used to say, "Many hands make light work."  I've always preferred to work alone or in small groups, but this was definitely a situation where I was glad there were many hands.

I was still quite a bit slower than the others, but I did work a lot faster and better (I think) than when we had been edging the order beds on Monday.  I could have gone faster, but I didn't want to be sloppy or make a mistake.  Hopefully I'll catch up soon.

Weeding
When we finished edging, we worked on weeding around the cereal crops.  This was somewhat trickier than weeding in the order beds, because many of these weeds were seedlings from the cereals that had been grown there the year before.  Usually the weeds didn't look too similar to the cereals.  The weeds were also usually smaller than the desirable plants and were growing out of the planting pattern. There were one or two instances where it was a bit tricky, but we managed to make it through without pulling any of the wrong plants.

Friday Afternoon

After lunch on Friday, the interns got together to learn how to use the library, do a quick tour of a portion of the garden, and learn how to use the computer system.  The library was amazing.  I think I will be spending a lot of time there outside of work.  There were so many books, and they were all about horticulture.  Some of the books are incredibly old.  Rare and historic collections are stored in a separate area that we didn't go to.  The temperature is maintained at a certain level to make the environment less hospitable to pests and to prevent decay.

The relatively newly planted Queen's Garden

Kate took the scenic route back to the School of Horticulture.  We saw Kew Palace, where King George III stayed with his wife during his bouts of "madness".  Outside the palace was the newly planted Queen's Garden.  I would have never guessed that most of the plants had only been in the ground for a few months.  Kate told us that before this year's growing season, all the old soil had been removed and replaced with fresh soil.  Herbs and flowers (historically for "posies") were started in the greenhouses (or as they say at Kew, "glasshouses") so they would be large and vigorous when planted.  Essentially, this area gives the illusion of being a very old garden.  Although the space and design is old, the garden itself is young.

Back at the school, Kate made sure that our computer logins were working, and that Kew's living collections database was available on our desktops.  This program will be really helpful for our Plant of the Week assignments.  If you enter an accession number, genus, area of the garden, or collector's name, the information for that specific plant is pulled up.  You can even search for dead specimens and read what went wrong (i.e. Was it stolen? Diseased? etc.).  Really neat stuff.

After that, I had an hour to explore the gardens and decide on what plant I would profile this week.  I hoped to spotlight plants from each area of the garden or that had historical significance rather than focus on only plants from my area.  However, I still hadn't made it beyond the Alpine House.  I really didn't wander all that far before selecting a plant and interviewing some staff.  The size of this garden is so daunting that I'm glad we have three months to explore it.  If given a day, I don't think that I'd really see much.

Thanks for reading!  Check back in seven days to read about my second week at Kew.

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

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

Order beds are in the foreground, rose pergola to the right, and the Temple of Aeolus in the trees behind.

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

Sources:

• Fiskars website
• Husqvarna website
• Mow Direct website
• The Plant List website
• The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew website and staff
• The Royal Horticultural Society website

Amanda's British treat of this week is chocolate Digestives biscuits.  Yum!

Introduction

Hello!  I'm Amanda, and I'm new at Kew.  This summer I'm working on an internship with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the hardy display section.  This includes features like the order ("plant family") beds and grass garden. I'll be learning what techniques the hardy display team uses to maintain the beds at a standard of excellence, while respecting the history and mission of the site. 

This blog was created as a way to both share my experiences at Kew and to fulfill a weekly internship requirement.  At the end of each work week, I'll share what tasks we worked on that week, and how and why we did them.  I am one of seven interns, and the only intern from the United States.  This summer's group is really diverse, including people from Brazil, Italy, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

My internship experience was funded in a large part by the Botanical Research Institute of Texas' Ian Leese Fellowship in Horticulture.  Without their financial assistance, this trip would not have been possible.  I'd also like to thank the University of Tennessee Gardens, the Knoxville Botanical Garden & Arboretum, and "Every Child Outdoors" Knoxville for donating t-shirts for me to work in.  Finally, I'd like to thank you for joining me on this adventure by following my blog!

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

Visitors enter the Elizabeth Gate to begin their journey into the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew