Crathes Garden blog #13: Dreams and practicalities

Repetition is inevitably part of gardening; some of it welcome, some not so much. Every year at Crathes we anticipate the lovely blossoms of April and May and the cottage garden abundance of the June Border. The brevity of some favourites only adds to their charm and I make no apologies for repeating my favourites.

Caring for a garden like Crathes involves many repetitive jobs: washing plant pots, clearing leaves, weeding thale cress and ground elder to name just a few. But as gardeners well know, there is much more to a garden than the hard grind; growing things is a magical business. Will the plant behave? Will the cosmos show their fragile beauty, or will they wilt or get eaten by the rabbit? How is it that a mighty oak can grow from one little acorn? What would the gardener (or forester) who planted out the giant sequoias about 160 years ago think of their present glory? Whilst the garden demands a lot of hard work, the essential nub is of creativity and dreams. Gardening dreams may range from a simple window box to a grand designed landscape, but where would we be without them?

The month of May at Crathes this year is mostly about practicalities, although a few dreams are evident. The pandemic is to blame for the proliferation of weeds (see ‘Seven years’ weeding’) and so weeding is high up on the priority list. Then again, some people like weeding; there is the satisfaction of a job well done. The Double Herbaceous Border, the June Border and the Blue and Pink Border all need to be netted to support the flowers through the summer. However, before netting they need to be weeded; after that, it is hoped that the perennial plants will stifle the weeds with their luxuriant growth. Once the nets are in place, the thale cress in the camel garden awaits the weeders!

The Amaranthus caudatus plants that Joanna (our propagator) grew from seed have just been moved from the glasshouse to the broadspan to harden off. I first became aware of amaranth on a rather special holiday when we just happened to be in Williamsburg on 4 July. As part of our privileged garden tour, we visited the Governor’s garden and there I recall reference to amaranth as an important vegetable of the 18th-century American garden. This fact lay dormant in my brain until I saw the ornamental plants that have been grown at Crathes during the last two years. Dramatic they certainly are, and the cultivar name of ‘Dreadlocks’ is entirely appropriate, but I am undecided as to whether or not I like them.

A book I received for Christmas – Around the World in 80 Plants – tells me more. [1] Amaranth was a staple food of the Aztec and Inca people, grown for its leaf (which can be eaten like spinach) and its fruit (which is a grain sometimes used for making dough). The conquering Spanish did not approve of the dough being used in pagan ceremonies and they banned the cultivation of amaranth. Nowadays, our precarious global dependence on wheat, rice and maize makes the highly nutritious amaranth grain a potentially important alternative. I am so struck by this information that I have ordered some amaranth seeds and have some germinating in my daughter’s greenhouse. I will probably eat them as baby leaf since I am currently without a garden. The Victorians named amaranth ‘love lies bleeding’; it was said to signify unrequited love. At Crathes we have two cultivars this year – the greener-leafed ones are Amaranthus caudatus ‘Coral Fountain’.

We also have another plant growing from seed that I find interesting: Carpobrotus edulis, the sour fig or ice plant. I think I have a pot of this, but maybe mine is not edulis – so I’d better not eat it should it ever fruit. It hails from South Africa where its former name (hottentot-fig) has colonial and racist associations. This plant likes the warmth and thrives in sandy places. It is not a problem in North-East Scotland, but in mild coastal areas of Britain it’s invasive and listed as such.

Steve, once an engineer in the oil industry, has been designing a strong, light, aluminium framework to help with accessing the glasshouses for contract maintenance. Aluminium welding is a skill that has to be outsourced to a local contractor.

The glasshouses get too hot in summer and Emily has been painting the glass with whitewash to provide a little shade. The long-handled roller will do the job without too much trouble.

Outside, there is a large space left in the Golden Garden where the tall conifer fell in Storm Arwen. James [the head gardener] has chosen the Nootka cypress (Xanthocyparis nootkatensis ‘Golden Cascade’) as its replacement. Nootka Island is off the west side of Vancouver Island in Canada. It will be some years before the cypress fills the space and so rudbeckias have been planted meantime. After planting they need watering and there seems to be little hope of a timely rainfall; drought is another practicality for James to worry about. Heriot-Watt University and the University of Edinburgh are currently researching the effect of drought on the people of Scotland as it is expected to be a growing problem.

Any major changes at Crathes have to be considered with care – the garden’s particular atmosphere must be retained and some of its designs are sacrosanct. The Evolution Garden had never had a settled design, so there was plenty of scope there for dreams and creativity without causing any upset (provided the budget was respected). The plants are now beginning to fill out and the tree ferns have survived this mild winter; even some of the bananas have survived. The Japanese Yezo willow (Salix nakamurana var. yezoalpina) is covered in catkins and looks very much at home behind the yellow Iris bucharica. Beyond, I see cardiocrinums are coming through to make a summer spectacle. A lovely Magnolia liliiflora ‘Nigra’ has been planted between the Evolution Garden and the June Border.