Artist, filmmaker, and gardener Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, England, needs some crowd-sourcing love. If it’s one of those places you dream of one day visiting, you might want to consider helping to secure its future by donating what you can by the end of this month. I’ve always wanted to experience sweeps of sea kale, Crambe maritima, growing in shingle at Prospect Cottage in the shadow of nuclear reactors. (What romantic visions I conjure!) Tilda Swinton is one of a group of artists lending their support to the Art Fund campaign: “My excitement about this vision for Prospect Cottage lies in its projected future as an open, inclusive and encouraging machine for the inspiration and practical working lives of those who might come and share in its special qualities, qualities that, as a young artist, I was lucky enough to benefit from alongside Derek and so many of our friends and fellow travellers.”
A few more odds and ends from my garden, some hopefully less fleeting than others:
Hoping it’s less fleeting than tulips, the latest banksia acquisition, the Red Lantern B. caleyi. A dwarf version of Banksia ashbyi seemingly flourished for a year in a container then precipitously died. Banksia repens in the front garden must be going on two years now, and next time I squeeze in amongst the agaves I’ll grab a photo. And if it blooms, you can believe I’ll draw blood to get a photo!Pale, pale pink of Veltheimia bracteata, the bowl moved into the bathroom. Seems to be a wide variation in the shade of pink, running from hot to pale. The original bulb has offset to this extent over ten years.More bathroom beauties — eastern light, always on the cool side so flowers last. These ‘Gavota’ and other varieties were grown in bowls outdoors, where curious raccoons routinely dig them up out of the pots. Charming! Yes, a bunch of tulips is easily bought, but chilling these in the fridge, planting them up, and cutting precious individual stems salvaged from raccoon predations somehow keeps it real…for me anyway.The funnel of pitcher plants is easy to move, trialing different locations. Sarracenia ‘Tarnok’ has a few buds. What looks like a tillandsia lower right is a small piece of Puya laxa, the surviving remnant of an impenetrable barbed thicket. I won’t be planting it in the ground again. And that’s Agave pygmaea ‘Dragon Toes’ — definitely not a pygmy here at over 3′ across.
I hope the new Banksia makes it! I’ve been annoyed to find that my Veltheimia have produced foliage but no flowers again this year, at least not yet. I suspect that their neighbors may be crowding them out and, if this season also ends without flowers, I may follow your example and put the bulbs in pots.
Hopefully the campaign to save Derek Jarman’s charming cottage and garden will be successful. Your Veltheimia are pretty. Mine are just starting to send out new leaves. Hoping for flowers.
I was just reading about Banksia dieback (from Phytophthora cinnamomi) and wondering if that is what is slowly killing my victoriae. OTOH, prionotes is still growing like a weed.
Everything looks wonderful. I donated to the Jarman campaign a few weeks back…they have some great rewards for relatively modest donations…Dragon Toes…must be extremely variable. Mine looked like it would be crested for a bit, then returned to a more conventional shape, but has remained small.
I hope the new Banksia makes it! I’ve been annoyed to find that my Veltheimia have produced foliage but no flowers again this year, at least not yet. I suspect that their neighbors may be crowding them out and, if this season also ends without flowers, I may follow your example and put the bulbs in pots.
That funnel of pitcher plants looks great! (Note to self…)
Hopefully the campaign to save Derek Jarman’s charming cottage and garden will be successful. Your Veltheimia are pretty. Mine are just starting to send out new leaves. Hoping for flowers.
I was just reading about Banksia dieback (from Phytophthora cinnamomi) and wondering if that is what is slowly killing my victoriae. OTOH, prionotes is still growing like a weed.
Everything looks wonderful. I donated to the Jarman campaign a few weeks back…they have some great rewards for relatively modest donations…Dragon Toes…must be extremely variable. Mine looked like it would be crested for a bit, then returned to a more conventional shape, but has remained small.