h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi, Wilfrid

Just now I'm filling in some shady borders (hills above Huddersfield, moist acid clay) with ferns. Mainly the common ones from the garden centres (Dryopteris, Blechnum etc), but I've also put in a tree-fern (Dicksonia antarctica) which seems to be doing ok. Have you tried any others, and do you know of any specialist nurseries in the UK?

Seth, a real plantsman's question!

For definite, I'd go for the Royal Fern Osmunda regalis. Likes wet acid shade.I grow it in a site that's only dampish, and it doesn't attain full size (six feet and more) but it's spectacular nontheless. Beyond that, the Adiantums are acid lovers but I've no experience of them.

I'll dig out my RHS plant guide tomorrow for nursery references (worth getting if you don't have a copy!!)

Seth,

If you're in 'Cleckhuddersfax', try J & D Marston at Driffield (tel 01377 254487) who do nothing BUT ferns. Open week-end afternoons until mid-September (according to RHS Plant Finder 1997-98 so best check)

Wilfrid, would the Royal Fern like my septic tank soakaway?
I've staggered half a dozen oak saplings and a horse chestnut (reached 5' this year )on either side of it but it's still very wet.

My dear Tefkat,

What an extraordinary question !

Your posting is however quite a difficult one to answer, and hinges on some rather delicate soil chemistry. Please forgive the intrusion, but I have taken the liberty of nosing around your user-space for no better reason than to find out where you live ! . Unfortunately, it has not helped me a great deal as I think you are close to the boundary between the carboniferous limestone (alkaline soils) and the Millstone Grit (acid soils). Osmunda regalis has a definite requirement for acid soils, and the dividing line runs roughly Haltwhistle, Newbrough, Wall, Gt Whittington. North and West of this line - no chance I'm afraid; South and East, possibly.

Am I close?

Also it would be useful to know what, in addition to the Horse Chestnut seems to grow most happily in the immediate vicinity - especially any little squidgy things you may be able to identify - like liverworts or (hopefully not) sewage fungus !!

Wilfrid

Oddly enough Wilfrid I used to live North of that line and had beautiful acid sandy soil. None of my friends in that area seem to have alkaline soils either.
I'm South and East - acid clay

Most happy in the immediate vicinity? Well, there's a broad band of dock all the way down the line of the soakaway

An Escallonia Langleyensis and a snakebark maple are at the top end, with a Bears Britches (Acanthus Spinosus) fairly near, and the alder keeps putting up shoots in the general area (oddly enough ).
Haven't noticed any liverworts.
What is sewage fungus?

:: makes mental embarassed note that in Northumberland 'Carboniferous Limestone Series', is mainly something called 'Fell Sandstone'. Curses ! Foiled yet again by obscure local detail ! ::

The Royal Fern will probably be perfectly happy there, Tefkat, though ideally it would prefer a bit of shade. I'd also be tempted to try the Swamp Cypress (Taxodium something-or-other) simply because breathing through your knees sounds like quite a neat trick

I'm becoming intrigued by your choice of planting : there is a pattern of avoiding the obvious choices in preference for inobtrusive plants that will quietly get on with life. I was going to suggest heaving out the docks and mass planting Astilbes, but I'm beginning to suspect that maybe this isn't for you. Ferns are I think ; look at Matteuccia struthiopteris (Ostrich Fern) and Onoclea sensibilis (Sensitive Fern) too.

Wilfrid

I didn't PLANT the dock Wilfrid. Just too lazy to get on top of it.

You really do know an awful lot don't you!

Thanks for mentioning the astilbes - I have three languishing in pots (waiting for me to eradicate the ground elder in the bed I removed them from) - would they compete with the dock?

I'll have to try to find those ferns. There isn't much of my garden that isn't shady

We have a fern that keeps appearing spontaneously in various spots. It grows wild all over our area. Any idea what it might be?

I don't know so much, Tefkat ; but I do have quite a few books !!

As for your wild fern, there are many candidates most of which seem very difficult to tell apart. I have very similar conditions to your's and I think I once came to the conclusion that the native invader I get (and welcome) is the Giant Forest Fern (Dryopteris goldiana) but that's barely more than a wild guess.

I concerned that you seem a bit with the conditions you have. What ideally would you like to be able to make of it ?

It's just that I fought with clay for 18 years in London and then had 10 years of wonderful sandy soil up here (in the first garden that belonged exclusively to me ).
Clay is such a bind - especially when trying to dig out ground elder

This one's mainly a woodland garden. I try to encourage the native plants, for the wildlife, but am fighting a losing battle against ground elder, bindweed, nettles, giant hogweed, dock and sycamore so I really need to plant "thugs".

What else do you grow?

Twenty years ago, my mother gave me the following advice.

'If you can grow Rhododendrons, you grow Rhododendrons.'

Best advice on gardening I ever had.

I try not to overdo it, but I do have quite a few ! The only big hybrid I have is 'Pink Pearl'. A little tender but I have a very sheltered dipping corner that it can fill. Otherwise I go for choice mediums and dwarfs (typicals : 'Titian Beauty', 'Bluebird', 'Saint Tudy') and I have a particular fondness for the deciduous azaleas.

I'm still building up my current garden and haven't done much at all with the front but here goes :

Focal points are the tree fern, Dicksonia antarctica, and Magnolias (stellata and some liliifolia mongrel). 'Standard' acid lovering shrubs such as various Camellias and Pieris, Enkianthus campanulatus, and Kalmia latifolia.

Miscellaneous others include Viburnums (bodnantense 'Dawn', davidii, carlocephalum), Arbutus unedo var. compacta (glorious at the moment with both this year's flower and last year's fruit) and the species rose R. glauca,

Lower down it's lots of ferns, hellebores, odd heather carpets here and there, Gentians, Ajuga reptans 'Bergundy Glow' stands of Meconopsis (betonifolia and x sheldonii; cambrica is a weed that I don't ever quite eradicate) and for bulbs; lots of tete-a-tete narcissi among the ferns plus stands of blue, white and purple tulips.

There are quite a few others but that should give you a flavour of both my preferences, and what grows well here.


But first, Tefkat, please save yourself a lot of anguish and consider treating yourself to some glyphosate. You are in desperate need of a clean slate for that patch of your's.

We seem to have similar tastes, up to a point.
I love rhododendrons and keep intending to plant some, despite their unpalatability to the native wildlife, but there are so many other plants...
I'd like some really big ones to fill in the gaps in my tree curtain, so the farmer can't see me sunbathing.
I forgot - I have two so far, and I did put in a couple of azaleas, but one died - too exposed, I think.
I had several Pieris in my two previous northern gardens. They never really increased in size cos the new growth kept getting frosted, but they were lovely.
I've got V. bodnatense 'Dawn' and davidii but I've never heard of carlocephalum. What's it like?
The rabbits debarked my rosa glauca. The wind blew down an old rhus so I stuck in some emergency cuttings and urgently needed a chickenwire cage for them. The R. glauca had been in for a couple of years and looked big enough to survive on its own so I nicked its protection
A. reptans is so useful isn't it!
I find the various geraniums are good too. We have as many different shades as we can find.
I keep trying to increase my stocks of M. cambrica, with no success (I particularly like the orange ones). They don't seem to do as well as the betonicifolia. What is x sheldonii?
I love poppies of all descriptions. They were among the first things I ever grew - the garden I grew up in was horribly neglected and some Shirley Poppies, Clarkia and Larkspur appeared in the 'lawn' one year so I collected the seed and caught the gardening bug.
I have no annual poppies in this garden (They don't seem to like it) but I have three different varieties of Oriental Poppy which breed to give some very nice ones

I think it may yet come down to glyphosate. The whole garden is badly affected but I thought I'd try to sort out one bed at a time I finally gave up and covered it with an old carpet last year - we'll see...

Better go - there's a kid moaning that I'm hogging the computer

Viburnum x carlcephalum makes a rounded bush of 12 feet or so and carries large globular heads of very fragrant white flowers in spring. It often gives a bonus of good autumn colour, and may be a good candidate for your 'modesty screen'.

Our experiences of Meconopsis are quite different and I am intrigued to know why. For me M. cambrica self seeds everywhere, though I only get the lemon-yellow not the orange. On the other hand, I find I have to be very careful with M. betonicifolia or I lose it. It's in a part of the garden where the soils a little drier and thinner than elsewhere and perhaps that's the main problem. Also, it cannot be propagated by division, unlike M. x sheldonii, another good blue this time with downturned flowers. I find this one quite a bit easier.

I understand your frustration with clay: the Thames Valley clays can be absolutely dreadful to cultivate. Our acid Pennine clays are very different though and can be quite easy to maintain if they are properly prepared at the outset. Now this admittedly is very heavy spadework, I still have the callusses from turning over my current plot four years ago. But then you could get someone else to do it. Do the scouts still do bob-a-job week?