Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Gardens massachusetts




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One mother-plant dwarf lotus with several runners. Unique to this Cambodian dwarf lotus is the one mother plant brining up a long stem from the bottom of the pond. From each long stem originating from the mother plant - a small group of lotus leaves and several lotus flowers result in a small floating array. Once such a group of floating lo tus leaves/flowers is completed, the dwarf lotus creates a runner some 50-100 cm long and then creates another floating array of leaves and lotus blossoms.
If you know the strawberry plant-runners, the dwarf lotus look very much the same. Hence most of these lotus leaves have NO direct connection to the mother plant or to the soil at the bottom of the pond, but only thru the runner with the previous lotus flower group floating at the water surface. An interesting anatomy / physiology of a lotus plant.
On the image you clearly see several long and stronger runners from group to group with small arrays of lotus leaves and lotus blossoms in each such lotus array.
Each such mini-arrangement has several leaves around the center and several blossoms. Typically a few blossoms are open at a time. Many tiny small lotus buds ready to blossom.
The following picture shows another dwarf lotus in natural environment in Cambodia.
In album Lotus flower photo - Lotus blossom images - Lotus pond photos

The back to back gardens are a unique feature of the flower show at Tatton Park and they are arranged in groups of four all over the showground, what I like about this is that as I walk around the show I stumble across a square of gardens and keep seeing ones I haven't seen before, also you can get a really good look at them because they're nicely spread out. Out of 27 back to back gardens at the show, five were awarded the coveted gold medal, best in show went to Reaseheath Alumni with '5 a day with hidden play' a garden dedicated to growing and eating plenty of fruit and veg. bees_300x150.jpg 'A garden for bees' (Gold) designed by Ness Botanic Gardens highlights the importance of our buzzy little friends. It's beautiful too and more than dispells the myth that wildlife gardening has to be wild and woolly. 'Butterfly Journey' (Silver-gilt) is another wildlife friendly garden at the show. butterfly_300x150.jpgIt's packed with the sort of plants we could all try to grow more of, to attract native butterfly species into our gardens. I noticed a fair amount of black in the back to back gardens, 'The back to basics garden' uses black to dramatic effect as a backdrop and in the planting with two stunning Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy' and a generous sprinkling of Cosmos astrosanguineus, another garden which features this plant heavily is 'Urban retreat' (Silver) which also uses black as a backdrop but mixes acid greens through the dark flowers and foliage, a great combo. suburban_oasis_300x150.jpg 'Reflection' (Silver) uses colour but it's much more gentle here. The decking and fencing is stained a soft grey and is set off by touches of galvanised metal used as edging and in the form of poles used throughout the garden as a suggestion of a boundary. These double up as plant supports too, this is an idea I might well take away with me... scented_wall_300x150.jpg A garden that addresses a very common problem is 'The scented walled garden' (Silver) and it speaks volumes that I had a good long look at the garden, admired it, made notes, took a photograph and still had not realised that it had been designed with wheelchair users in mind, it proves the point that a garden when well designed can fit a specific brief and be gorgeous too.
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