Amulree, Urban Jungle, and Melissa 'n' Keith visit 29/05/10

[miggs]

well how did everyone get on i only managed to get to amulree but the wallet did get hammered lol

Bit gutted that i didnt get to keith & melissa's garden as heard a lot about it from simon

[Mick C]

Hi Miggs - sorry I did not get to speak to you today, there were a couple of people I did not recognise and you must have been one of them. My fault. It was nice to meet Brian and also see some old faces from here & other forums.

We went on to Urban Jungle before going to Melissa & Keith's, the weather remained pretty rubbish but this did not dampen the day at all. Many thanks to M & K for allowing us to wander around their fantastic garden and eat all their cakes The garden has suffered a fair amount of damage this winter, but it is still the most impressive place that I have seen for exotic plants by a country mile, and the plans for replacement & future extensions have never faltered. They seem completely undaunted by it all.

Today I bought from Amulree (not been before)

Colocasias - Black Magic, Fontanasii, Mojito, plus another one I forget.
Cannas - Wyoming & a stripey one.
Ferns - Athyrium otophorum var okanum, Matteuccia struthiopteris, an unknown but particularly gorgeous Blechnum, and another one that I forget the name of.


At Urban Jungle:

Fremontodendron 'California Glory' (see Andrew, I said you'd talked me into it )
Colocasia Ruffles
Kniphofia cautlescens & northiae
somthing else, it will come to me.....

Freebie from Dave B - Trachycarpus tesan seedlings/juvenile plants - thanks Dave

I have forgotten one or two; also many thanks to Simon (Amulree) and Liz (UJ) for the discounts.

[marie06]

Sorry to Linden and Simba for not making it yesterday. The ABS and 'Serv' light came on in my car about 5 miles after leaving home, so I turned round and went back. I wasn't sure what was wrong, and didn't want to chance dodgy brakes, especially as so much rain was forcast.

I hope you all had a great day, despite the rain.

[Dave Brown]

Sorry about the time it has taken to put this up, been a mega busy weekend

Got caught up in the Haven Holiday Park at Elvenden arrivals, so arrived at Amulree very late. Met with the others, mainly GOTE and UKEG members and had the BBQ. I went for mainly replacement soft furnishings rather than big hardy stuff.

Came away with
Canna Bonfire
Canna General Eisenhower
Hedychium greenii
Colocasia Black Magic
Colocasia Black Beauty
Colocasia Fontanesii
and Ensete ventricosum (green)..... although labelled "Red Banana Ensete Maurelii" I joked with Simon about the mislabelling. He said he had searched high and low for Ensete ventricosum (green) and was lucky to find it at all Anyone wanting a well grown Ensete ventricosum (green) or sometimes reffered to as red stripe, not normally available commercially, Amulree has them.

Was the last to leave Amulree, then realised my resent SAT NAV map upgrade had corrupted the UJ entry, so ended up searching the map and pointing to where I thought it was Fortunately, I was within 1/2 mile and recognised the area.

Bumped into Will Giles in Urban Jungle car park (not litterally) and had a good catch up chinwag. He looks in on here and congratulated us on the level of information the site contains.

Again, soft furnishings with
Canna edulis
Ricunus
Hemerocallis Golden Zebra (Daylily)

They have a plant wall there which would be brilliant for those small walled urban gardens. It is a wooden frame with horizontal slats and a semi impervious membrane making pouches. The pouches are planted up giving a living wall Melissa took a couple of pics of the group there. Perhaps you can post one Mel

Then onto Melissa and Keith's for a tour of the garden, Tea, cakes, and later an indoor BBQ as weather was not too kind. As Mick has said there have been some losses but the treeferns are exploding into growth as usual.

Despite the weather very good day. Thanks to Simon, Liz and Melissa 'n' Keith for their hospitality

more Pics to follow

[Rick1965]

Glad you guys enjoyed your visit to Amulree, Simon is a nice guy always willing to give advice about the plants he has in stock. Here's hoping for a hot summer folks.

[Rick1965]

The living wall sounds a great idea Dave, I may look into the idea for the future.
Great photos of the garden you guys visited, I love the look of the fern with its petticoat. Thanks for posting them. Regards Rick.

[Melissa]

Glad you enjoyed your visit Dave

Here's a pic of the wall, it looks great. Pity the weather wasn't better.

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Thanks Mick C, what lovely compliments.

Melissa

[Brian]

Hi all sorry i didn't introduce myself but i really didn't know who was from what club i did meet Mick C and Dave Brown and i did pick up some nice plants from Amulree including a P/Vivax bamboo ,Colocasia esculenta , a couple of dark leafed cannas (don't know there name) and i managed to make my wife forget about all of that by buying a purple leaved plant for her Strobilanthes dyeranus (Persian Shield)

Unfortunately i had to shoot of early so i didn't go to U/J or Melissa and Keith's which i am gutted about (not missing U/J i can go there any time) i think i will have to pm Melissa and Keith in the summer to see if i could come over one weekend

[tenchy]

looks good

can someone add names to the faces as its nice to see who we chat too!

[keith]

Brian, PM either Melissa or myself if you want to visit. This applies to anyone who is in the area and wants to see the garden.

Keith.

[miggs]

cheers keith i will check with the wife and be in touch

[Brian]

Again thank you Keith i will be in touch