The Stakes are High

Birch shoots from Harcourt Arboretum ready to be used for staking

Many of the plants we grow at the Botanic Garden need a bit of support through the growing season. In fact we need to stake over one hundred plants in such a way that they will stand up to the howling winds and lashing rain of a typical english summer. To do this, we begin early and let many of the plants grow up through their supports. This week Clare Kelly shared the secrets of successful staking with two enthusiastic groups as part of our Public Education Programme. 

Botanical Horticulturist Clare Kelly demonstrates the art of staking

Shoots of Birch and Hazel are grown in managed coppice at Harcourt Arboretum and are cut in the winter for use at the garden. Birch shoots are woven into domes over the dormant plants. The results are invariably beautiful. The Hazel is used on the vegetable plots for pea sticks and bean poles.

Staking Euphorbia sikkimensis in the sun!

New Residents

Last night we set up two camera traps having noticed new earthworks in the arboretum! You can imagine how pleased we were when we saw the footage!!

Pruning In and Out of Doors

Spring is on the way! Really! At the Botanic Garden we have been taking advantage of the last remnants of winter to plant several more apple trees in the lower garden. The two specimens of the apple 'Winter King' complete the orchard planting of over forty trees that we began two winters ago.  Last week we were joined by Chris Lanczak, Orchard Manager of Waterperry Gardens, for advice and practical demonstration of pruning fruit trees. Chris emphasises the importance of good pruning in the first few years to build the basic framework of a tree that may well live for a century.

Chris Lanczak showing OBG staff how to prune apples

We have also been pruning in the Arid House. The inflorescence spike of Agave sisalina finally reached the glass at the highest point of the glasshouse giving the team no option but to cut it back before it broke through! It will be interesting to see what it does next.

Pruning Agave with a saw on a very long pole

It is Fairtrade Fortnight at the moment, a perfect opportunity to visit the Palm House and meet the plants that provide us with commodities such as coffee, sugar, pineapples, cotton, cocoa, vanilla, groundnuts, macadamia nuts, bananas, oranges, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, black pepper, papaya.....

Recent volunteer efforts at the Arboretum

The Arboretum’s volunteer programme has begun in earnest after the Christmas and new year break. Last year’s efforts saw a huge area of Rhododendron ponticumcleared, producing a fantastic new view of the bluebell wood. The year’s quota of planting within the wood was also undertaken with a diverse range of native species such as oak, field maple, hazel, spindle, guelder rose, wayfaring tree and crab apple planted. In time this will form an interesting mosaic of tall canopy trees with a mixed ‘shrubby’ understory.

Rhododendron clearance

Bluebell Wood planting

January’s work has been focused in the coppice, with an area of approximately 70m²of hazel cleared. The cleared material has produced stakes and binding rods (also known as Ethering), which will be used for this year’s hedge laying works.

Volunteers coppicing hazel

As always, a huge thanks to our volunteer team for all their hard work and I look forward to seeing you all on the last Wednesday of the month.

Please CLICK HERE for volunteering opportunities at the Harcourt Arboretum or alternatively email karl.ofthouse@obg.ox.ac.uk

Sisal and Snowdrops

Agave sisalina plantation in Java
(Tropenmuseum of KIT, NL)

Our Agave sisalina has become a media star. At the weekend the Oxford Mail produced a short article entitled, 'Garden's Rare Cactus Shrugs Off the Snow'. Protected from the elements in the Arid House, the Agave is flowering for the first, and last time. Agave plants are monocarpic- once they have flowered they die. As you might expect, this once-in-a-lifetime gesture is a dramatic one. The inflorescence spike, or 'mast', can grow to six metres and resembles a giant asparagus spear. This provides a clue to its true identity for, despite an association with arid areas, Agave is not a cactus. It is a member of the large Asparagaceae family and numbers Chlorophytum (the Spider Plant), Yucca and Hosta among its closest relations. Fortunately this Agave, grown commercially for sisal fibre, is not rare. Brazil alone produces over 100,000 tonnes of sisal fibre every year. The inflorescence spike has already achieved an impressive size and may not have enough room to flower, but it already makes one of the more unusual floral displays on offer in wintry Oxford.

Agave sisalina plantation in Oxford

Outside, rare plants are shrugging off the snow. Snowdrops of many different kinds are appearing in different parts of the garden and in the following weeks will be joined by other early flowering spring bulbs such as Eranthis and Narcissus. The most well-known snowdrops are from the species Galanthus nivalis which is native to many parts of Europe but, surprisingly, not to the British Isles. It may have been introduced as late as the 16th Century and 'wild' populations are, in fact, naturalised. In Europe a combination of habitat loss and over-collecting for trade has led to a declining wild population. In Bulgaria it has Critically Endangered status. 

Galanthus nivalis 

Cultivated snowdrops, which are propagated and sold without threatening wild populations, come in over 500 varieties. Some of these can be seen at the Botanic Garden providing a subtle and rather more familiar contrast to the giant in the Arid House.

Willow Weaving with Tom Hare

Tuesday 26th - Thursday 28th February 2013 -  - 10:00am - 4:00pm

We're really excited that one of the first events of our 50th Anniversary year sees Tom Hare coming to the arboretum to run a course on willow weaving. Not only will you get the chance to learn the basics of willow weaving, your handy work will help towards developing an outdoor story telling "magic circle" which will be used for our school groups and visitors alike to come and enjoy.

If you only have one day to spare, that's absolutely fine, otherwise you can book for the full three days and see the structure come to life. The course runs Tuesday 26th - Thursday 28th February, 10am - 4pm. Tickets are £60 per day and I would advise that you book soon as spaces are beginning to run out!

If you require any further details CLICK HERE or call on 01865 343501

Winter Solstice

Galanthus elwesii var. monostictus

The sun has been shining in the garden today, seemingly in celebration of the date. It is the winter solstice and the days will begin to lengthen from this point on. Many plants have had the wisdom to retire beneath the ground for a few months but a few stalwarts are already emerging to sun themselves.

In keeping with our festive tradition, the Christmas tree is showing off its natural decorations, made by our visiting school groups, in the Conservatory. Across the garden you will find many plants that add their own, unique flavour to Christmas celebrations, from cinnamon plants in the Palm House to brussels sprouts on the vegetable plot.