Spring Cleaning

Now the snow has melted away, leaving Tatton’s gardens looking fresh and green again, we’ve been continuing with our winter programme.

The glasshouses have had a thorough spring-clean. We have eleven glasshouses to clean each year and make them free of bugs and fungal diseases for our tender plants. A blast with a power-washer is followed with a more traditional method (always best) of a bucket of water and some soap. We also use a traditional round Turk’s Head brush; its long bristles reach into all those tricky corners.

One glasshouse in particular has been getting some special attention. This year we've been delighted to have purchased a Begonia Rex collection from Terry and Shirley Tasker of Southport. Over a number of years, the couple have built up a fabulous collection of these special plants. 151 types of begonias will now be housed in one of Tatton’s glasshouses and open to the public to enjoy from the high season at the end of March.

Amongst these 151 varieties are 21 from the original collection of the Begonia enthusiast, Mac Mcintyre. McIntyre was born in Edinburgh in 1905 and, on his death in 1983, his collection of Begonias was bequeathed to Glasgow Botanic Gardens. Interestingly, he actually lived in Knutsford for a while! It’s great for us to be able to make that direct link with this important Begonia champion and also to be able to reintroduce a Begonia collection to Tatton Park. In the past, these plants were kept in the Fernery; we have some black and white photographs in the archive from c.1891 where you can clearly see Begonias amongst the tree ferns.

We are currently re-flagging the York stone paths in the new Begonia glasshouse and will be putting in the traditional decorative iron staging – crafted by the local Mobberley blacksmith Dave Broadbent. I can’t wait to see it in situ!

Another job this week has been to put forcing bells (clay pots) over the rhubarb in the kitchen gardens. This will keep the ground warm and hopefully bring on some early rhubarb for us this spring.

And finally.. the photo shows us at the annual Gordale Orchid Show on the Wirral on the weekend of 16th and 17th January. We love taking part in this event; it’s a great opportunity for us to display our own fantastic orchid collection, swap some plants, meet old friends and make some new ones.

Bob Buckley
Glasshouse and Kitchen Garden Supervisor