Ventnor Botanic Gardens

A couple of weeks ago to Ventnor Botanic Gardens, now devolved to a not for profit company from the council. Lots of volunteers. One effect of which is that we now have to pay – but hardly a lot for the amount of garden that you get. A place, which as a result of some quirk of of its under-cliff & south-facing location, is able to support plants from places which are rather warmer by nature.

Increasing focus on plants which like it hot and dry. Lots of stuff from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Mexico. Enough variety for one to be very impressed by the very variety of large plants; the invisible hand of evolution has been very busy. Why are there so many different sorts of large plants, seemingly a lot more sorts than there are of large animals, which last can only amount to a few thousands? E. O Wilson (see 6th June), is not helpful, only telling me that there are a lot more sorts of animals of all sizes than there are plants of all sizes, a rather different matter altogether.

Lots of echium pininana (curiously, also known as giant viper's bugloss) which clearly like the site as they are seeding all over the place. Rather spectacular; well liked by some small bumble bees; very large plant for a biennial. I dare say it could be considered invasive in places such as this where they thrive, but management have settled for the soft option of allowing it to be an ornament rather than a pest.

A good showing of agave, possibly agave deserti, a rather handsomer plant than the other candidate agave americana; in any event a plant of which I am fond and always seek it out in places such as Wisley, where there are some particularly fine specimens in the dry end of their large new glass house. Maybe they are not so handsome when gowing in the wild.

Hottest hot house I recall being in. 90F and it took my breath away a bit. Pleasantly amateurish affair with lots of mouldering debris built into the display. Centre piece a lilly pond with giant water lillys – the things about four feet across and with raised edges – so big that they look as if a small person might safely sit in one of them.

Hop yard looked a touch half hearted, but maybe hops are only just getting underway at this time of year. Maybe eight rows, with serious poles and wires, but only four with plants, two small and two big. Maybe the latter were a bit older.

Two cafés, one upstairs for drinks and cake, one downstairs for drinks, cake, sandwiches and light lunches. All very artily presented by an executive chef no less, service a little slow. Bit heavy on the dressing on the salads. In particular, some brown stuff which came out of a yellow plastic bottle and which was delivered by squeezing: lots of restaurants these days seem to use it on lots of dishes, more or less making it the third millennium version of brown sauce. (On which subject, reading the label, I found that the brown in brown sauce was a cunning combination of dates and molasses, displacing most of the tomatoes in the otherwise rather similar tomato sauce. Both contain lots of sugar in one form or another).

The whole place was pleasantly relaxed, not taking itself quite as seriously as a place like Wisley. A real pleasure garden as much as a botanic garden. So a good long visit to their bricks followed by a rather quicker visit to their clicks at http://www.botanic.co.uk/, the name of which suggests that they must have been fairly quick off the blocks.