Staff

At the end of January the Arboretum’s Senior Arborist (Tim Palmer) resigned to take up the position of Head Gardener at Balliol College with particular responsibility for Holywell Manor. Recruitment for his replacement took place but unfortunately none of the applicants who were interviewed were suitable. The Arboretum is thus without two of its three arborists making tree work impossible. The Conservation Arborist (Guy Horwood), is due to return to work during June following a remarkable recovery from a serious injury sustained when he fell from a tree in March. He has been told that he may resume climbing by the end of the year. This is extremely good news. New members of Staff have been recruited to work in the Ticket Office at the Botanic Garden and Arboretum though sadly two have already resigned and need to be replaced. Interviews have been carried out for the two trainee positions at the Garden and two of the candidates have accepted the posts. They will start work in August.

Construction Work

Plans to erect banners on the High Street lamp posts are reaching fruition with both planning approval and advertising consent given. The Garden is very grateful to the Minor Works programme and the Divisional Contingency fund for their support of this project. The Curator has begun working with Holmes Wood to realise the creation of a strategy to deliver clearer signage at the Garden and Arboretum. The Garden is very grateful to Oxford University Estates Directorate (OUED) for their support with this strategy.

The construction of the Arboretum Car Park received a set back when a number of objections from local residents and the Environment Agency resulted in OUED withdrawing the planning application until the objections have been taken into account. The hydrology of the area is now being investigated to ensure that this laying of permeable paths will not exacerbate the possibility of flooding in the Village. An ecological survey is also being carried out. The funding for this project is in place and the Garden is very grateful to the members of the Friends and OUED for their support. In the mean time the condition of the car park has continued to deteriorate. Elsewhere in the Arboretum the all-weather wheelchair path has been redressed.

Plans for a publically accessible composting area in Rose Lane have been drawn up by OUED. This will not only permit the Garden to educate visitors about the production of garden compost but it will also facilitate more efficient handling and quicker manufacture of compost since the operation is currently split between two parts of the Garden resulting in double handling of materials. The City Council planning officers have given their initial feedback. OUED is now obtaining budget quotations for this work so that funding bodies can be approached formally. In the meantime compost production continues with the regular routine of shredding, turning, shredding and turning.

The Hardy Collection

The major changes in the Hardy Collection have been connected with the expansion of the vegetable beds. The first stage involved the removal of the rose cultivars (beautiful flowers on ugly plants) that will be replaced by specimens in the family beds. The next stage was the lifting of turf and definition of the border shapes prior to the double digging of the new beds including the incorporation of well-rotted farmyard manure. When the bearded irises finish flowering in June they will be moved to the bed that formerly housed the collection of golden leaved plants. These two former iris borders will then be merged and dug and then become the fourth part of the crop rotation. The three beds that have been planted and sown with vegetables are already producing food whilst receiving a great deal of interest from visitors.

The next major change will be the definition of the Merton-vista double mixed borders that have successfully attracted very generous funding from both the Finnis Scott Foundation and the Monument Trust. The Garden Curator and the Museums and Collections Officer in the Development Office (Amy Sewell) must be congratulated on their winning of these two major donations. Staff from the Hardy Section have spent several days at Great Dixter working alongside Fergus Garret, learning about the maintenance of mixed borders in preparation for the creation of these borders.

The Big Herbaceous Border, redesigned in 2007 by the Hardy Collection Curator (Tom Price), has received much attention and looks even better this year than it did in Year one. Tulips were used to provide early colour and the plantings along the front have been increased. The border was looking magnificent on the Whitsun Bank Holiday when the Garden hosted the Lord Mayor’s picnic.

The Bog Garden was cleared of water soldier before Easter. Unfortunately the winter protection could not be removed from the Gunnera manicata growing on the island because of some very aggressive bees who have taken up residence under the gunnera. The bed that formerly housed the contorted willow has been planted up and the plants are growing away well. Some of the plants in the Autumn Border have been divided, or removed and replaced.

Within the Walled Garden the double Lamiales Bed has been planted up with new woody accessions that will improve the winter structure of the Garden as well as widening the representation of this recalcitrant order that still refuses to reveal its phylogenetic relationships.

The mixed weather through the Winter resulted in the flowering of the Hamamelis mollis, Viburnum farreri, Ribes laurifolium and various sarcococcas being extended into the early Spring. The damp Spring then resulted in a long flowering season for the bulbs with Muscari, Scilla, Puschkinia and Narcissus particularly good. On the South African border the bright yellow Moraea spathulata flowered better than ever.

The Glasshouse Collection

At the beginning of the period covered by this report the Victoria water lily pond received its biennial clean out. The Victoria cruziana and Euryale ferox seed has germinated and the plants are now growing away rapidly in the pond. (Spare plants were donated to the University of Bristol Botanic Garden.) After a number of year’s absence Nymphaea x daubenyana has returned to the pond. This hybrid first arose in Oxford in the 19th century and is named in honour of Professor Daubeny who financed the construction of the glasshouse tank. This house is a very good “growing house” but particularly spectacular this spring have been the aforementioned Strongylodon and
Tacca integrifolia.

The annual programme of predator introduction has begun to control the glasshouse plants’ pests. There are thus many bags hanging from the branches of trees and shrubs under glass. In the Conservatory the summer display of tomato and basil varieties has begun.

The collection of carnivorous plants, that acquired its own house in 2006, has been flowering very heavily this spring with Darlingtonia californica, Heliamphora nutans, Sarracenia elata, Pinguicula moranensis and Utricularia reniformis particularly noteworthy.

The Alpine House is coming towards the end of its performance period but it has been spectacular this Spring with the following all flowering very well; Arum creticum, A. cyrenaicum, A. purpureospathum, Arisaema sikokianum, Lachenalia reflexa, Bellevalia pycnantha, Pulsatilla albana and Calochortus tolmiei. These are not just popular with the paying visitors but also with the Director who could often be seen raiding the Alpine House for blooms to pull apart during tutorials. He was also responsible for the de-flowering of several orchids including Eria javanica, Coelogyne orvalis, Dendrobium fimbriatum and Vanda denisoniana all in the interest of education!

The winter cleaning of the Lower Corridor resulted in many plants flowering very successfully of which the following were the most noteworthy. Bauhinia galpinii with its butterfly-like leaves named after the Bauhin brothers; Callistemon viminalis with its red bottle-brush inflorescences; Barnadesia eryophylla with its red tubular inflorescences, a rare example of a bird pollinated member of the Asteraceae; Strelitzia reginae pollinated also by birds – Nectarina afra; Brunfelsia australis and Clivia montana. The latter was particularly useful for teaching with its big, unambiguous flowers. In the Palm House the coffee flowered but the blooms lasted less time than a single espresso.

The Harcourt Arboretum

The restoration and development of Palmer’s Leys continues. Deer fencing, stock fencing and parkland railing have been installed. As reported previously the first 10-acre tranche of Palmer’s Leys was sown with a mixture of seeds harvested from Pylon Meadow augmented with seeds of bird’s foot trefoil, common sorrel, cowslip, field scabious, lady’s bedstraw, lesser knapweed, oxeye daisy, ragged robin, ribwort plantain, self heal, tufted vetch, yarrow and yellow rattle. Germination has been good and the success is being measured by an undergraduate (Paul Wilkinson, St Catherine’s) this spring and all summer. By the end of the year we shall have data for the newly sown area, the unimproved sward in Palmer’s Leys and Pylon Meadow. A second undergraduate (Emma Bush, Hertford) is investigating Pylon Meadow in more detail to discover the best sampling method for a meadow of this size and age.

Trees are not only dangerous places to work; they can also be hazards to visitors and so the regular inspection of these trees is vital. The Arboretum has more than a dozen thick files of inspections for every tree going back many years. The inspection of trees can now include ultra sound scans. When a scanner was tested in April the Araucaria araucana in the first tree bay was found to be dangerously compromised at its base. It was felled immediately and the bottom of the trunk was 50% air. Tree inspections are a vital component of the Safety Management Strategy and it is hoped that during 2009-10 the Garden will be able to purchase an assessment system that takes some of the subjectivity out of the process.

The Arboretum has been as floriferous as the Botanic Garden and Glasshouses. The bluebells put on their customary breath-taking display. The rhododendrons were good but they were matched by many other species including Drimys winteri (a real survivor species at 115 million years old), Cercis siliquastrum (the only hardy cauliflorous species), Corokia cotoneaster (that has been in more families than Italy has had post-war governments), Halesia carolina (the acceptable face of snowdrops) and Pieris formosa (with its diagnostic pairs of awns on the anthers). All of these were mercilessly pulled apart during teaching at the Arboretum.

The Arboretum was the grateful recipient of 82 native Sorbus trees from the National Botanic Garden of Wales. These will be planted in Palmer’s Leys.

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