March 9, 2008
I could write a book about failures and they certainly are ongoing! My most recent failure is Magnolia 'Star Wars'. This is almost dead. It is a grafted plant, planted last year and constantly affected by a leaf cutter of some sort. I have never seen the insect responsible, but it can strip the leaves overnight. No insecticide has protected this plant - I have tried everything that is still legal! It is now dying back with just a couple of small leaves, I reckon it will be dead in about a month - a great shame as it is described as one of the best small garden Magnolias. Ironically all the other Magnolias in the garden are unaffected by this miserable leaf cutter. I bought a collection of Tricyrtis species and a number of varieties mostly from Farmyard Nurseries, Llandysyll. Most were planted on the side. They grew very well last year (2003), however this year they have made no growth, I suspect the slugs/snails have eaten them totally. There is now no sign of any of the plants (well over £40 worth!) to be seen (August 2004). This raises a dilemma - if i want Tricyrtis to grow on the side I will have to put slug killer from when growth first starts in February/March! I treat my patch of Hostas in this way but I have resolved not to do this elsewhere in the garden. The conclusion is simple, Tricyrtis will always fail in this garden, not because of the soil, but because of our Molluscan friends! I suppose the moral of the above examples is only plant what is suitable for your garden! This seems a simplistic statement, but the above only showed their unsuitability when they were tried - i could not have guessed or expected these problems beforehand. However some of my failures have arisen from attempting to grow "montane" type plants in Llanystumdwy - they simply will not grow. I had a wonderful colony of Mecanopsis x Sheldonii, a plant to die for - it didn't die where I lived in Backbarrow in the Lake District (much colder winters, much wetter) - it prospered producing those incredible blue Himalayan poppy flowers. In Llanystumdwy, it lasted a couple of seasons before passing away. Anthopogon Rhododendrons, Rhododendron ludlowii, Celmisias, Cassiopes, Cassiope wardii, Phyllodoces, some Vacciniums, barely hang on or promptly die. Alpine plants are a waste of time grown generally in the garden. Now if I had a garden in Blaenau Ffestiniog (1000+feet high) these plants would come into their own. Llanystumdwy summers are too warm and the dry periods too long. Human nature being what it is, always dreams of what we cannot have and we always seem stupid enough to try these things even though failure is a certainty! - bit like life really!! More like a disaster really, upsetting to see a plant dying for no apparent reason and I am referring to Daphniphyllum aff. teijsmannii BSWJ3805. Perfectly healthy with perfect leaves suddenly a week ago the leaves looked slightly yellow and by today 8th September 2004 the leaves look dead!! Why?
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